Google sheet: とんがり帽子のアトリエ Vocabulary Sheet Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
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Ooh, starting with a slightly stylized font for extra practice. The final boss for WaniKani users!
I may or may not have spent 5 minutes desperately looking up a kanji I had never seen before at the bottom of the first page until I realized that it’s just a stylized 求…
First time seeing someone saying お前さん, that’s a bit funny
By the way big thanks to whoever is contributing to filling the vocab sheet I’ve done it a bit myself for Chapter 1 but not so much after, but super happy to seeing filled out anyway!
Impressions for volume one + speculation about what's to come
The art style is really amazing, it’s always a super important part of a manga for me. There are some extremely popular series that I can’t get into just because I don’t like the art, like 進撃の巨大 (Attack on Titan) for instance. Even Frieren is a bit too bland and derivative in the way it’s drawn for my tastes, although it has its moments. On the other hand I can forgive a lot if I find the art style interesting (staring at my deluxe Akira edition right now).
Here there is so much creativity on display, those whimsical landscapes have so many details. I know that I would have read and re-read and re-re-read those books as a teenager just to lose myself in the world.
The character design is pretty great too, a lot of manga/anime suffers from a serious case of sameface where you can only differentiate characters through clothes and hairdos but here even minor characters have very distinctive features and don’t feel generic.
I enjoy the lore too, as I mentioned all the way in the first week I hoped that it would be revealed that 魔法使い are just regular people who know something others don’t, and I’m very happy that it turned out that way. Coko for the time being seems very dazzled by this new world of magic that opened up to her, but surely eventually she’ll realized how messed up and unfair it all is?
The basic plot in and of itself is probably the weakest part of it so far. It’s ok but it’s also not too special. Very Harry Potter-esque (derogatory). I did enjoy the arc with Coko using her tailoring skills to solve the apprentice test, that was a nice touch. It felt logical and deserved and I didn’t see it coming from a mile away.
The dragon cliffhanger felt a bit random, I wonder if it’s going to pay off in an interesting way or if it’s just here for shock value in order to have people buy the next volume. That’s certainly raising the stakes! Very interested to see the girls having to work together to solve this issue however, it could lead to some good character development. Unless Agathe decides to try and feed Coko to the dragon directly, I presume.
K-dog is by far the most interesting character so far I think, I’m really curious to learn about his true intentions. I don’t think he’s going to be revealed to be an evil mastermind but he certainly has ulterior motives for everything he does.
To me, the style feels like a cross between manga and bande dessinée, especially the landscapes and backgrounds, as well as the paneling, which makes it feel very different from the usual fare.
I agree, I like how the author modulates the way characters are drawn depending on the situation to draw from more European-style comics and still sometimes go full chibi kawaii animu. It makes the drawings very expressive.
The only issue with the art for me (as we’ve discussed in the past weeks) is that the action is a bit hard to follow at times and it doesn’t always flow super well from cell to cell (although this week I didn’t have much trouble following the chase sequence and ensuing teleportation shenanigans).
I loved how the brush buddy came along for the shopping trip. Though I noticed you can’t see it after they go through the portal. Did it not come along, or is it hiding?
I also noticed another thing which may be nothing. It’s not identical, but the eye symbol on the masked visor looks quite similar to the connector of Quifley’s glasses.
Oh I see, you’re supposed to go under it. I was thinking, that’s a bit awkward to climb over that root at the bottom of the stairs…
Overall impressions
I was just waiting for a totally different drama to unfold at Ki*^ur#'3 Atelier, this chapter totally surprised me. I’m left wondering if the masked magician is really a desperate person with good intentions caught on the wrong side of current magic rules
Why would you have four primary 紋 that perfectly fill the set of four elements, and then suddenly just go “no, this one is power and this one is levitation”?
Everything changed when the fire 紋 attacked…
Well, I was hoping someone here would have deciphered this already.
Last chapter, Koko managed to freehand a circle almost as tall as she is with that improvised inkstone thingy, but this chapter she complains that she can’t even draw a straight line with the pen. I’ll say the wand is important.
I expected that K-dog would decide to take advantage of her existing skills and only have her draw magic on fabric from then on. Seems to work just fine after all.
I would read it どろもり although who knows with Japanese names…
I was also a bit confused as to what exactly that meant since, as you point out, the City itself seems to be named Karun/Kalun, but I suppose it must be the name of the surrounding forest and, by extension, region. On the very next page K-dog refers to the forest on the other bank as 泥森 and you can see it in the background in your photo.
I went looking on the wiki, all I found is that カルン is translated into Kahln in the English version and the forest is called “the marshwood” but as far as I can tell 泥森 is a made up name in Japanese (although of course it’s easy to derive “marshwood” from the kanji).
I’ve done it a bit myself for Chapter 1 but not so much after, but super happy to seeing filled out anyway!
