Status Updates From Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 4

i'm sorry. is this bonus implying that brushbuddy is the one writing this manga. shirahama is brushbuddy confirmed
that was adorable and not at all how i expected the brushbuddy's internal monologue to sound but i am obsessed

and our curiosity and anticipation is immediately rewarded with clear confirmation that qifrey is in fact hiding something with those glasses!!!!! does that have anything to do with his grudge against the brimmed caps? did they take his eye? or curse it somehow? did he do something to it himself? i love when one answer uncovers 15 new questions

(cont.)
so to see her arm reaching from the bottom of the page OVER the confines of the panel really puts the reader in her position and makes me think that that IS the intention. obviously shirahama is building a lot of intrigue with qifrey, so i think it's only natural for readers to feel a real sense of anticipation there, only magnified by the fourth wall (panel) break

i've noticed a couple more of these panels that break the fourth wall and seem to come off the page with their composition, but not all of them stick out with potential deeper meaning like this one does. maybe it's just my bias, but i feel like i AM coco's hand reaching out to take off qifrey's glasses bc i think he's clearly hiding something under there (cont.)

no. no no nononono
i thought his design and awkward/self-effacing mannerisms reminded me of jean-jacques from the case study of vanitas AND NOW HE'S BEEN TURNED INTO A FUCKING BEAST????????? this is cruel this is awful i am horrified they have to save him right????? somehow???????

it's volume FOUR and agott has already been singled out and used as bait to hurt coco and tempt her to the dark side mmmmhmmmm i've read enough shonen to know that that's THE sign of thinly veiled gay shit

the way my heart sank and i thought i was gonna have to eat my words immediately after commenting on agott's progress with her bigotry. but NOPE my girl is a badass and is not about to backslide so easily

it wasn't nearly as literal as it could've been (definitely for the best) but so far at least, it does seem like all 3 of the kids had to overcome their personal closed-mindedness and arrogance in order to pass the test. agott is using the shoes coco made for her, richeh is using some of euini's pre-made, "correct" spells, and euini no longer assumes that everyone is laughing at him when he struggles

this extra reaction panel from qifrey absolutely supports my reading of the panel from the previous page, which is that he looks EXCITED at the thought of brimmed caps crashing the test. there's a glimmer in his wide eyes and the slightest hint of a smile that looks almost manic. but it's when he sees coco's fear and anxiety that he snaps out of it and back into teacher mode

olruggio making a point to give qifrey one of the snugstones he made bc he was worried about everyone and agott using the sylph shoes coco remade for her is...........an interesting parallel (gay)

he's discovered the concept of pen names and anonymously created art wow i'm so proud of him
i cannot comment on the rest of his arc bc it hits way too close to home!!!! i was him at 13 and part of me still is and might always be

AGOTT CALLING BACK TO COCO'S PHILOSOPHY OKAYYYYYY
also i cannot hate or judge euini even a little bit bc i fear i am him!!! shoutout to all my type a rule-followers who just wanna get a good grade on the test okay (and who can blame him with the horrible teacher he has?????)

"as the water in a blocked stream begins to cloud, so too did stagnate the closed nation of romonon" BARS
this quote is also making me realize that agott is not the only close-minded individual who could stand to grow from this specific test. richeh might also need this push to realize that if she continues to close herself off from growing at all, even if it's uncomfortable, she may become bitter and turn on herself

the mindset of the romonon people sure does remind me of a certain young witch we know.....i wonder if the story of their bigotry will weigh on her mind as she completes the test, ultimately forcing her to fully confront her own bigotry against coco and finally grow past it

I LOVE CUNTY QIFREY LETS GOOOOOOO
he really said if you're gonna talk shit about your students i am going to blatantly ignore you bc your words are worthless to me :)
i'm a broken record with all my praise for his teaching abilities but the switch-up to protective, bitchy, potentially dangerous qifrey right afterwards makes it even more delicious. he contains multitudes but none of them are cruel to children

THAT'S SO CUTE WHAT THE HELL
okay maybe magical society isn't an entirely corrupt shitshow. sometimes its morals actually do match up with its structures

wow okay so there's that example of a bad teacher i was expecting to see!!! fuck them!!! immediately giving higher-ups from jjk vibes with the way they speak about euini like he's a "thing" rather than a person

where is the pronunciation guide for this manga bc that would be super helpful. the anime episodes for this part won't be out for several more weeks so until then i am unfortunately forced to call this child "weenie"

oh! oh i wasn't expecting that flavor of emotional damage but yeah that makes sense! her brother likened richeh's very identity to her spells and told her to never change, so of COURSE she's gonna take that to the extreme, especially after he leaves her for his own studies (i'm sure there's more there too). that abandonment hurts too deeply, so she clings to the mindset he instilled in her as a way to stay close

HELLO???? that sequence went even further than i thought it would, if it went on any longer i swear olruggio would've said uh actually i sewed the snugstones into my cape for research purposes so i also need to be in your bed with you. for r&d. obviously.
he cares for qifrey so much and has clearly noticed that he's stressed!!!!! and for all his charm, qifrey is left speechless after that display of affection

oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me OLRUGGIO YOU SECRET SAP WE ALL SEE YOU (but qifrey most of all)
this is definitely a habit of his, inventing a new spell as an indirect way of expressing the words or emotions that he feels he can't say. makes the drying spell all the more weighty....
orufrey being an over-talker/under-talker dynamic makes them even better goddamnit

oh god so she had a different teacher before qifrey and they fucking scarred her cool cool cool yeah i was wondering if we'd start seeing examples of bad teachers since we've been so spoiled with qifrey....
and also!! it wasn't hard at all to predict but i was right about more than one person being compared to the scalewolves!!!!

richeh not wanting her magic to be "tainted" by the influence of others, specifically adults, is so sad. i'm a bit scared to find out where that comes from bc it's certainly something she feels VERY strongly about. i think we'll see coco and/or the others showing her that your magic will always be your own, even if it's not ONLY yours anymore. it's a fact of growing up, there's no escaping it, just adapting to it.