Status Updates From Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 5

I’m so obsessed with this series it’s not even a joke I’ve missed reading mangas shamelessly

i'm sorry. qifrey and olruggio EXCHANGED HAT TIPS?????? show me the flashback NOW i cannot believe that is real until i see it with my own eyes. that's gayer than suguru leaving his jujutsu teach button and wearing a gojo kesa what the FUCK

and there are the tears!!!!!! they fucking got me good with this one holy shit what a beautiful conclusion. if i'm crying now, i just know this is gonna absolutely ruin me when it gets animated in an indeterminate amount of weeks
the scalewolf tie-in was even more effective than i thought it'd be WOW

richeh fully embracing the beauty of collaboration and the fact that we (and thus, the art we create) are all mosaics of the people who have influenced us. it doesn't mean it's any less ours, in fact, it means the exact opposite

PROTECTIVE OLRUGGIO SNAPPING SOME SENSE BACK INTO QIFREY LETS GOOOOOOOO
i could see this being one of the reasons why olruggio was onboard for qifrey becoming a teacher. if he has a greater purpose outside of himself, children to nurture and protect above all else, then maybe he'll eventually let go of his obsession. or at the very least, it can be superseded at times like these (dependent on olruggio's reminder....)

OOOO the sketchier style of that top panel of iguin reminds me so much of the more sinister, emotionally volatile panels of gachiakuta

ouch what a beautiful full circle moment for richeh's arc. she's really grown so much in this portion of the story, and it was all bc of qifrey truly having her best interests at heart when he signed her up for this test

AHHH IT'S TINY BUT IT'S A FLASHBACK NONETHELESS!!! so fate really took the wheel and they just stumbled upon richeh on one of their outings (dates). and i LOVE what they said to her, stressing that they'd BELIEVE her. she'd been around adults who refused to listen to her and treated her like an object with no mind or opinions of her own, so that must've been a ray of hope in such a dark time. so duh they adopted her

so not only do they have the complementary black and white designs, but olruggio is a master of fire magic and qifrey is a master of water magic????? could the soulmatism be any clearer

i'm calling it now with literally no evidence to back it up: iguin is the brimmed cap with qifrey's face

the imagery of iguin's (name reveal!!) cape spread wide behind coco, making it look like she has these massive wings is FANTASTIC

so we can all agree that the lean in and blush from agott was wholly unnecessary unless it's for the purpose of implying gay shit

okay first of all. hot.
second of all HUH??????? there's a brimmed cap that looks like qifrey???? why????? how???? is that what they stole from him???? why is that such a big deal???? it's gotta be more than just his appearance they stole right??? and again, WHY????? i literally cannot even begin to theorize about the implications of that, that is so far out of the realm of what i was expecting his grudge to involve

okay so it's taking all of my willpower to look past the beauty of this man and actually consider wtf is wrong with him. what happened to him to make him think like this???? i can see him as a great foil to qifrey. they're both a bit obsessive to an unsettling amount in service of these lofty goals and visions of the world. one is staunchly protective of order, the other is jaded and lives more in the grey