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| Meta Title | 'Witch Hat Atelier' is anime's next truly magical hit |
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| Boilerpipe Text | Burning it all down for a fresh start.
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There are few shows that carry quite as much meta baggage as
Rick and Morty
. But if the Season 5 premiere (titled "Mort Dinner Rick Andre") is any indication of what's to come, the beloved Adult Swim comedy is treating 2021 like the clean slate it so desperately needed to not buckle under the weight of its own cultural significance.
Ever since its transformation from the weird little fucked-up cult favorite underdog into a full-blown mainstream phenomenon so popular that hardcore fans
nearly caused riots at various McDonald's in 2017
, the subculture bred around
Rick and Morty
has threatened to overshadow the show itself.
There was the added pressure of sky-high expectations causing year-long delays between Seasons 2 and 3, and a vocal minority of fans who harassed Season 3 and 4's new women writers, and the subsequently memed stereotype of those insufferable Reddit edgelord-type fans, and then the
creators' public denouncements of said fans
, and open discussions over how to create a more sustainable writing process for their
unprecedented 70-episode deal
in 2018.
For some time now, part of the tense anticipation for each new season of
Rick and Morty
has been speculation over how these off-screen battles would impact the show's long-term arc. Will this season be fundamentally different from
Rick and Morty
of years past? How will they approach the more serialized, season-long plotlines? Will changes in creative direction make it better or worse? Can it even live up to the oversaturated hype of it all at this point?
The show's excellence, and escalating fervor of its fandom and critical attention, reached a level of noisy online chatter surpassed only by even bigger global sensations like
Game of Thrones
. And as
that
show's final season proved, mishandling this meta relationship with your avid fandom — either by ignoring it or catering to it too much — can lead to disaster.
Season 4's response was to
double down on the show's natural tendency toward meta-commentary
, embedding the creators' anxieties about the show's identity into the episodes. More than once, characters echoed a common online edgelord refrain that demanded they go back to “classic"
Rick and Morty
adventures. More egregiously, the sixth episode's plot basically boils down to a string of dense, straight-to-camera in-jokes about co-creator Dan Harmon's now-infamous
storytelling structure
.
The effect of this excessive navel-gazing on the overall season was, to many critics and fans, lackluster — though even a lackluster season of
Rick and Morty
is still pretty damn great.
Rick and Morty Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us.
Whether or not the creators took this general consensus about Season 4's disappointments to heart, what does seem clear is that
Rick and Morty
Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us. The show is at least trying to mature past that overly self-conscious and self-referential back-and-forth with its own fandom over what
Rick and Morty
should or should not be.
Season 5's premiere instead delivers an episode that makes good on the promise that last season only paid lip service to: a hard reset for one of the internet's most contentious and hotly debated shows.
Mashable Top Stories
While the premiere does start
in medias res,
with Morty fighting to save the duo from some interdimensional threat or another, it isn't a plot carried over from the last season — as some of the show's most popular premieres have been in the past. Instead, the titular characters walk, wounded and bloodied, through what appear to be various portals revealing glimpses into their other potential realities. When they take off on their spaceship, Rick and Morty leave behind these
potential plotlines
(some maybe even referencing popular fan theories) to implode on themselves.
While more subtle than Season 4's overt meta-commentary, the symbolic message to viewers reads loud and clear. After crash landing back home, the episode then launches into a wholly unrelated and delightfully bizarre plot about a nemesis of Rick's we've never seen before.
Guess we won't be getting Rick and Morty as Blade :(
Credit: adult swim
The Season 5 premiere doesn’t necessarily feel like a return to "classic"
Rick and Morty
, and nor does it feel like a dramatic departure. But the episode's straightforwardness, relying more than anything on the show's trademark rapid-fire joke-to-page ratio, is a welcome shift. Another internal battle debated among critics and fans revolved around whether or not the show was still properly balancing its own headassery with enough humor, or too often belaboring highfalutin concepts and/or emotional character arcs that lost the pure comedy of it all.
Some storylines have definitely carried over, like Rick dealing with the
Season 4 power dynamic shift
that ousted him as the Sanchez family's authoritative patriarch. Beth and Jerry's ongoing marital journey is another highlight, of course. But these more ambitious long-term arcs are kept as added background texture, while the full focus of the episode remains on a self-contained and joyfully non-sequitur plot that packs a whole season's worth of emotional stakes into 22 minutes.
Rick and Morty
's writers seem to have finally succeeded in letting go of all the "shoulds" they thought they were beholden to: We should address the fandom's toxicity, we should take back our show from the edgelords, we should go back to the beginning, we should keep outdoing ourselves, we should be smart, we should raise the show's narrative stakes every season.
By replacing its "shoulds," it's more grounded than ever in simply
doing
.
This all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its avid fans, which some might experience as a loss.
Now, this all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its fans, which some might experience as a loss. There is more of a wall between creator and viewer, making it feel more traditional (if you can call anything
Rick and Morty
"traditional") and less personal. But sometimes, these traditions are in place for a reason. A greater division between the show's world and ours feels like the right move to serve the longevity of
Rick and Morty
's quality and timelessness.
Like most things in life, though, that shift comes with it a mixture of gains and losses.
The Season 5 premiere is one of the most laugh-out-loud funny episodes I can remember in recent show history, with the infectious and unfettered joy of creators that have liberated themselves. The episode clearly benefits from a renewed sense of freedom, of letting go of control to instead follow the strange impulses that gave us such classic gags as Mr. Poopy Butthole. It's also regained more of its universality, requiring less prior knowledge of the show or its surrounding subculture to find the jokes hilarious.
All of that comes with less encouragement to read between the lines, though — removing the promise that rewatches will reveal more about what the writers and characters are thinking about or wrestling with. It's a loss of that ephemeral kind of intimacy and emotional vulnerability that made
Season 3 one of the most electrifyingly human stories
to ever play out in a popular mainstream animated comedy series.
But you know, maybe I'm doing the exact thing that created the problem in the first place: over-intellectualizing, with analysis that thinks it's smarter than it actually is (like a certain genius cartoon mad scientist we know and love).
At the end of the day,
Rick and Morty
is back, baby. And that's never a bad thing.
Rick and Morty
premieres Sunday, June 20 on Adult Swim.
Related Video: What to binge on the best 30-day streaming service free trials
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
You do not need another trip back to Harry Potter to find a magical world worth getting lost in. "Witch Hat Atelier" is right here.
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
There is something almost radical about the magic of
Witch Hat Atelier
.
The
anime
adaptation of Kamome Shirahama's beloved,
Eisner Award–winning manga
arrives in a fantasy landscape still crowded with chosen ones and prophetic lineages. But
Witch Hat Atelier
, currently streaming in the U.S. on Crunchyroll, imagines something softer. What if magic was not something you were born into, but something you could learn? What if curiosity was seen not as a flaw to grow out of, but a gift worth protecting?
The story follows Coco, a young girl who has spent her life dreaming of becoming a witch in a society that insists magic is reserved for a select few. When she discovers that magic is something anyone can access, it cracks open not just her world, but the rigid rules around who is allowed to have power in the first place. It's part fairy tale, part coming-of-age story, and part quiet rebuke of fantasy stories that hinge on exclusivity.
Coco experiencing the wonder of water magic.
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
As a huge fan of the ongoing manga, which began in 2016, I've long found Shirahama's intricate artwork makes the story feel less like a comic and more like a storybook you could fall into. The anime preserves so much of that magic, capturing the same sense of wonder that made the manga such a favorite in the first place. It's lush and deeply beautiful, full of elaborate spell circles, sweeping cloaks, diverse characters, and the kind of intricate world-building that makes you want to pause every frame.
But what makes it feel truly magical is how much faith it puts in its child protagonists — their imagination, their grief, their instincts, and their ability to change the world around them.
The world of
Witch Hat Atelier
feels lived-in.
Coco has a face that seems made for wonder: wide eyes, wind-flushed cheeks, the look of someone still willing to believe the world might be bigger and stranger than she has been told.
Coco's discovery of magic is not a triumphant moment so much as a devastating one. After secretly watching a mysterious white-haired, blue-eyed witch cast a spell, she tries to recreate it herself, accidentally unleashing a tragedy that changes her life forever. That is how she ends up under the care of Qifrey, a gentle but enigmatic witch who takes Coco in as his apprentice alongside three other young girls: the prickly Agott, the enthusiastic Tetia, and the reserved Richeh.
Tetia, Richeh, Coco, and Qifrey in "Witch Hat Atelier."
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Part of what makes
Witch Hat Atelier
so compelling is the way those relationships slowly unfold. Coco is bright-eyed and impulsive, desperate to prove herself, while her roommate Agott initially treats her like an outsider. Tetia brings warmth and lightness to the group, and Richeh, quiet and observant, often seems to understand more than she lets on. Together, they give the series the kind of emotional texture that makes the world feel lived-in, rather than simply beautiful to look at. Their dynamic is so charming that even the quieter moments — shared meals, study sessions, small acts of kindness — feel just as important as the larger magical set pieces.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave:
Nominate your favorite creators today
And visually, the adaptation is stunning. The spell circles unfurl across the screen like pages from an illuminated manuscript. Clothes billow and drape with tactile softness. Backgrounds are crammed with tiny details that make every town, workshop, and meadow feel like somewhere you could step into. The episode transitions themselves feel pulled from a storybook, complete with page-turn flourishes that make it seem as though you are moving through an illustrated fairy tale.
The score also has a whimsical quality, swelling with the kind of gentle orchestral wonder that makes the world feel even more magical.
A wonderous sight.
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
More than most anime adaptations,
Witch Hat Atelier
understands that the appeal of its source material was never just the plot. It was the feeling of getting lost inside it.
Beneath
Witch Hat Atelier
's beauty is a story about power and gatekeeping.
Even in its earliest episodes, the anime hints at something darker beneath all of that beauty. The real tension comes from the battle over who magic is really for. On one side are the witches, who closely guard magical knowledge and believe the truth about magic must remain hidden from the wider world at all costs. On the other are mysterious, shadowy figures who believe magic, even dangerous magic, should be available to anyone willing to use it.
That conflict gives the series a sharper edge than its storybook aesthetic initially suggests. It is not just a whimsical fantasy about spellbooks and cloaks; it is a story about systems, gatekeeping, and the people left behind by them.
Qifrey introducing himself in the first episode of "Witch Hat Atelier."
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Qifrey sits at the center of that tension in a particularly interesting way. As Coco's mentor, he is kind, patient, and unusually attentive to his students' emotional lives. But there is clearly more motivating him than simple generosity. Even in the earliest episodes, the series hints that his decision to take Coco under his wing is tied to a deeper, more personal agenda.
Qifrey also feels primed to become a character anime fans latch onto immediately. With his white hair, striking blue eyes, and quiet charm, there are obvious visual comparisons to
Jujutsu Kaisen
's Satoru Gojo. But where Gojo thrives on arrogance and distance, Qifrey feels warmer and more grounded, a teacher who kneels down to meet his young students where they are rather than towering over them.
There's also the fact that magic in
Witch Hat Atelier
begins with a pen. Witches draw intricate spell circles by hand, meaning magic feels tied to creativity and invention. Spells are always evolving, shaped by the idea that there is always another way to draw the world around you.
Witch Hat Atelier
feels like a coming-of-age fantasy alternative to Harry Potter.
For an entire generation,
Harry Potter
offered the fantasy of discovering that there was something special hidden inside of you — that somewhere, beyond the ordinary world, there was a place where you belonged.
But part of what makes
Witch Hat Atelier
feel so refreshing is that it is not interested in telling children they are special because of bloodlines or destiny. Coco is not a chosen one. She does not secretly come from a powerful magical family. Her story begins with the realization that the rules she has been taught about who gets to access magic are not fixed at all.
Agott and Coco eventually learn that friendship is, in fact, magic.
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That idea feels especially resonant now, as audiences are once again being asked to return to Harry Potter through HBO's
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
, the first installment in what is expected to be a seven-season retelling of the books. The new adaptation arrives in a very different cultural moment than the one that first made the books such a phenomenon. Beyond the exhaustion of endless reboots and franchise recycling, there is also the
shadow of J.K. Rowling's increasingly public anti-trans rhetoric
, which has fundamentally changed the way many fans engage with that world. In a moment when Harry Potter feels increasingly tied to exclusion and rigidity,
Witch Hat Atelier
offers something far more open-hearted.
That does not erase what Harry Potter once meant to people. But it does make room for something else: the possibility that there are newer, richer fantasy stories waiting to take its place.
A pen is mightier than a wand in the world of "Witch Hat Atelier."
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That is where
Witch Hat Atelier
feels so important. It offers much of what people once loved about Harry Potter — the wonder, the hidden world, the feeling of stepping through a door into somewhere magical — but without the same fixation on exclusivity. Instead, it imagines a world where knowledge is meant to be shared, where children's instincts and emotions are valued, and where difference is not feared. The manga also makes room for canonically queer characters and a broader sense of representation that feels woven naturally into the world rather than
added as an afterthought
.
It is difficult to watch
Witch Hat Atelier
and not come away feeling like this is the fantasy story audiences have been waiting for. Its vision of magic is less interested in who is born special and more in what becomes possible when someone is given the chance to learn.
Witch Hat Atelier
is streaming now on Crunchyroll with new episodes every Monday.
Digital Culture Editor
Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities.
She was formerly the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped the brand expand its coverage of extremely online fan culture and K-pop across its platforms. You can find
her work
in Teen Vogue, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.
She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie. |
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# 'Rick and Morty' Season 5 is done trying to be anything but itself
Burning it all down for a fresh start.
By
[Jess Joho](https://mashable.com/author/jess-joho)
Jess Joho
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
[Read Full Bio](https://mashable.com/author/jess-joho)
on
June 20, 2021
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All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
***
There are few shows that carry quite as much meta baggage as *Rick and Morty*. But if the Season 5 premiere (titled "Mort Dinner Rick Andre") is any indication of what's to come, the beloved Adult Swim comedy is treating 2021 like the clean slate it so desperately needed to not buckle under the weight of its own cultural significance.
Ever since its transformation from the weird little fucked-up cult favorite underdog into a full-blown mainstream phenomenon so popular that hardcore fans [nearly caused riots at various McDonald's in 2017](https://mashable.com/article/rick-morty-szechuan-sauce-mcdonalds-taste-test), the subculture bred around *Rick and Morty* has threatened to overshadow the show itself.
There was the added pressure of sky-high expectations causing year-long delays between Seasons 2 and 3, and a vocal minority of fans who harassed Season 3 and 4's new women writers, and the subsequently memed stereotype of those insufferable Reddit edgelord-type fans, and then the [creators' public denouncements of said fans](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/04/i-loathe-these-people-rick-and-morty-and-the-brilliant-backlash-against-tvs-bad-fans "(opens in a new window)"), and open discussions over how to create a more sustainable writing process for their [unprecedented 70-episode deal](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-renewed-70-episodes) in 2018.
For some time now, part of the tense anticipation for each new season of *Rick and Morty* has been speculation over how these off-screen battles would impact the show's long-term arc. Will this season be fundamentally different from *Rick and Morty* of years past? How will they approach the more serialized, season-long plotlines? Will changes in creative direction make it better or worse? Can it even live up to the oversaturated hype of it all at this point?
The show's excellence, and escalating fervor of its fandom and critical attention, reached a level of noisy online chatter surpassed only by even bigger global sensations like *Game of Thrones*. And as *that* show's final season proved, mishandling this meta relationship with your avid fandom — either by ignoring it or catering to it too much — can lead to disaster.
SEE ALSO:
['Solar Opposites' Season 2 gives 'Rick and Morty' a run for its money](https://mashable.com/article/solar-opposites-season-2-review-rick-morty)
Season 4's response was to [double down on the show's natural tendency toward meta-commentary](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-season-4-premiere-new-era/), embedding the creators' anxieties about the show's identity into the episodes. More than once, characters echoed a common online edgelord refrain that demanded they go back to “classic" *Rick and Morty* adventures. More egregiously, the sixth episode's plot basically boils down to a string of dense, straight-to-camera in-jokes about co-creator Dan Harmon's now-infamous [storytelling structure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4WcRAgm7Y&ab_channel=AdultSwim "(opens in a new window)").
The effect of this excessive navel-gazing on the overall season was, to many critics and fans, lackluster — though even a lackluster season of *Rick and Morty* is still pretty damn great.
"Rick and Morty Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us."
Whether or not the creators took this general consensus about Season 4's disappointments to heart, what does seem clear is that *Rick and Morty* Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us. The show is at least trying to mature past that overly self-conscious and self-referential back-and-forth with its own fandom over what *Rick and Morty* should or should not be.
Season 5's premiere instead delivers an episode that makes good on the promise that last season only paid lip service to: a hard reset for one of the internet's most contentious and hotly debated shows.
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While the premiere does start *in medias res,* with Morty fighting to save the duo from some interdimensional threat or another, it isn't a plot carried over from the last season — as some of the show's most popular premieres have been in the past. Instead, the titular characters walk, wounded and bloodied, through what appear to be various portals revealing glimpses into their other potential realities. When they take off on their spaceship, Rick and Morty leave behind these [potential plotlines](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/rick-and-morty-season-5-trailer-blade/ "(opens in a new window)") (some maybe even referencing popular fan theories) to implode on themselves.
While more subtle than Season 4's overt meta-commentary, the symbolic message to viewers reads loud and clear. After crash landing back home, the episode then launches into a wholly unrelated and delightfully bizarre plot about a nemesis of Rick's we've never seen before.
Guess we won't be getting Rick and Morty as Blade :( Credit: adult swim
The Season 5 premiere doesn’t necessarily feel like a return to "classic" *Rick and Morty*, and nor does it feel like a dramatic departure. But the episode's straightforwardness, relying more than anything on the show's trademark rapid-fire joke-to-page ratio, is a welcome shift. Another internal battle debated among critics and fans revolved around whether or not the show was still properly balancing its own headassery with enough humor, or too often belaboring highfalutin concepts and/or emotional character arcs that lost the pure comedy of it all.
Some storylines have definitely carried over, like Rick dealing with the [Season 4 power dynamic shift](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-season-4-review/) that ousted him as the Sanchez family's authoritative patriarch. Beth and Jerry's ongoing marital journey is another highlight, of course. But these more ambitious long-term arcs are kept as added background texture, while the full focus of the episode remains on a self-contained and joyfully non-sequitur plot that packs a whole season's worth of emotional stakes into 22 minutes.
*Rick and Morty*'s writers seem to have finally succeeded in letting go of all the "shoulds" they thought they were beholden to: We should address the fandom's toxicity, we should take back our show from the edgelords, we should go back to the beginning, we should keep outdoing ourselves, we should be smart, we should raise the show's narrative stakes every season.
By replacing its "shoulds," it's more grounded than ever in simply *doing*.
"This all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its avid fans, which some might experience as a loss."
Now, this all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its fans, which some might experience as a loss. There is more of a wall between creator and viewer, making it feel more traditional (if you can call anything *Rick and Morty* "traditional") and less personal. But sometimes, these traditions are in place for a reason. A greater division between the show's world and ours feels like the right move to serve the longevity of *Rick and Morty*'s quality and timelessness.
Like most things in life, though, that shift comes with it a mixture of gains and losses.
The Season 5 premiere is one of the most laugh-out-loud funny episodes I can remember in recent show history, with the infectious and unfettered joy of creators that have liberated themselves. The episode clearly benefits from a renewed sense of freedom, of letting go of control to instead follow the strange impulses that gave us such classic gags as Mr. Poopy Butthole. It's also regained more of its universality, requiring less prior knowledge of the show or its surrounding subculture to find the jokes hilarious.
All of that comes with less encouragement to read between the lines, though — removing the promise that rewatches will reveal more about what the writers and characters are thinking about or wrestling with. It's a loss of that ephemeral kind of intimacy and emotional vulnerability that made [Season 3 one of the most electrifyingly human stories](https://mashable.com/article/rick-morty-season-3-finale-dan-harmon-interview-humanity-real) to ever play out in a popular mainstream animated comedy series.
But you know, maybe I'm doing the exact thing that created the problem in the first place: over-intellectualizing, with analysis that thinks it's smarter than it actually is (like a certain genius cartoon mad scientist we know and love).
At the end of the day, *Rick and Morty* is back, baby. And that's never a bad thing.
*Rick and Morty* premieres Sunday, June 20 on Adult Swim.
#### Related Video: What to binge on the best 30-day streaming service free trials
Jess Joho
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
[Home](https://mashable.com/) \> [Entertainment](https://mashable.com/entertainment) \> [TV Shows](https://mashable.com/category/tv-shows)
# 'Witch Hat Atelier' is anime's next truly magical hit
You do not need another trip back to Harry Potter to find a magical world worth getting lost in. "Witch Hat Atelier" is right here.
By
[Crystal Bell](https://mashable.com/author/crystalbell)
Crystal Bell
Digital Culture Editor
Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities.
[Read Full Bio](https://mashable.com/author/crystalbell)
on
April 13, 2026
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Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
***
There is something almost radical about the magic of [*Witch Hat Atelier*.](https://zdcs.link/a56mGd?pageview_type=Standard&template=article&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=Witch+Hat+Atelier.&object_type=article&object_uuid=050bYpgnCwh6D5kSgtCCxRS&short_url=a56mGd&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fwitch-hat-atelier-anime-review-harry-potter&session_uuid=a6c56e37-06de-4743-9f4a-91fffb934599&view_instance_uuid=574937e1-b2a4-4059-ab23-87bdeb287bac "(opens in a new window)")
The [anime](https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/the-best-anime-on-crunchyroll "(opens in a new window)") adaptation of Kamome Shirahama's beloved, [Eisner Award–winning manga](https://kodansha.us/2020/07/25/eisner_winner_witch_hat_atelier/ "(opens in a new window)") arrives in a fantasy landscape still crowded with chosen ones and prophetic lineages. But *Witch Hat Atelier*, currently streaming in the U.S. on Crunchyroll, imagines something softer. What if magic was not something you were born into, but something you could learn? What if curiosity was seen not as a flaw to grow out of, but a gift worth protecting?
The story follows Coco, a young girl who has spent her life dreaming of becoming a witch in a society that insists magic is reserved for a select few. When she discovers that magic is something anyone can access, it cracks open not just her world, but the rigid rules around who is allowed to have power in the first place. It's part fairy tale, part coming-of-age story, and part quiet rebuke of fantasy stories that hinge on exclusivity.
Coco experiencing the wonder of water magic. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
As a huge fan of the ongoing manga, which began in 2016, I've long found Shirahama's intricate artwork makes the story feel less like a comic and more like a storybook you could fall into. The anime preserves so much of that magic, capturing the same sense of wonder that made the manga such a favorite in the first place. It's lush and deeply beautiful, full of elaborate spell circles, sweeping cloaks, diverse characters, and the kind of intricate world-building that makes you want to pause every frame.
But what makes it feel truly magical is how much faith it puts in its child protagonists — their imagination, their grief, their instincts, and their ability to change the world around them.
## The world of *Witch Hat Atelier* feels lived-in.
Coco has a face that seems made for wonder: wide eyes, wind-flushed cheeks, the look of someone still willing to believe the world might be bigger and stranger than she has been told.
Coco's discovery of magic is not a triumphant moment so much as a devastating one. After secretly watching a mysterious white-haired, blue-eyed witch cast a spell, she tries to recreate it herself, accidentally unleashing a tragedy that changes her life forever. That is how she ends up under the care of Qifrey, a gentle but enigmatic witch who takes Coco in as his apprentice alongside three other young girls: the prickly Agott, the enthusiastic Tetia, and the reserved Richeh.
Tetia, Richeh, Coco, and Qifrey in "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Part of what makes *Witch Hat Atelier* so compelling is the way those relationships slowly unfold. Coco is bright-eyed and impulsive, desperate to prove herself, while her roommate Agott initially treats her like an outsider. Tetia brings warmth and lightness to the group, and Richeh, quiet and observant, often seems to understand more than she lets on. Together, they give the series the kind of emotional texture that makes the world feel lived-in, rather than simply beautiful to look at. Their dynamic is so charming that even the quieter moments — shared meals, study sessions, small acts of kindness — feel just as important as the larger magical set pieces.
***Mashable 101 Fan Fave:*** *[Nominate your favorite creators today](https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8757028/2f364b3d9f89 "(opens in a new window)")*
And visually, the adaptation is stunning. The spell circles unfurl across the screen like pages from an illuminated manuscript. Clothes billow and drape with tactile softness. Backgrounds are crammed with tiny details that make every town, workshop, and meadow feel like somewhere you could step into. The episode transitions themselves feel pulled from a storybook, complete with page-turn flourishes that make it seem as though you are moving through an illustrated fairy tale.
The score also has a whimsical quality, swelling with the kind of gentle orchestral wonder that makes the world feel even more magical.
A wonderous sight. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
More than most anime adaptations, *Witch Hat Atelier* understands that the appeal of its source material was never just the plot. It was the feeling of getting lost inside it.
## Beneath *Witch Hat Atelier*'s beauty is a story about power and gatekeeping.
Even in its earliest episodes, the anime hints at something darker beneath all of that beauty. The real tension comes from the battle over who magic is really for. On one side are the witches, who closely guard magical knowledge and believe the truth about magic must remain hidden from the wider world at all costs. On the other are mysterious, shadowy figures who believe magic, even dangerous magic, should be available to anyone willing to use it.
That conflict gives the series a sharper edge than its storybook aesthetic initially suggests. It is not just a whimsical fantasy about spellbooks and cloaks; it is a story about systems, gatekeeping, and the people left behind by them.
Qifrey introducing himself in the first episode of "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Qifrey sits at the center of that tension in a particularly interesting way. As Coco's mentor, he is kind, patient, and unusually attentive to his students' emotional lives. But there is clearly more motivating him than simple generosity. Even in the earliest episodes, the series hints that his decision to take Coco under his wing is tied to a deeper, more personal agenda.
Qifrey also feels primed to become a character anime fans latch onto immediately. With his white hair, striking blue eyes, and quiet charm, there are obvious visual comparisons to *Jujutsu Kaisen*'s Satoru Gojo. But where Gojo thrives on arrogance and distance, Qifrey feels warmer and more grounded, a teacher who kneels down to meet his young students where they are rather than towering over them.
There's also the fact that magic in *Witch Hat Atelier* begins with a pen. Witches draw intricate spell circles by hand, meaning magic feels tied to creativity and invention. Spells are always evolving, shaped by the idea that there is always another way to draw the world around you.
***
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## *Witch Hat Atelier* feels like a coming-of-age fantasy alternative to Harry Potter.
For an entire generation, [Harry Potter](https://mashable.com/category/harry-potter)offered the fantasy of discovering that there was something special hidden inside of you — that somewhere, beyond the ordinary world, there was a place where you belonged.
But part of what makes *Witch Hat Atelier* feel so refreshing is that it is not interested in telling children they are special because of bloodlines or destiny. Coco is not a chosen one. She does not secretly come from a powerful magical family. Her story begins with the realization that the rules she has been taught about who gets to access magic are not fixed at all.
Agott and Coco eventually learn that friendship is, in fact, magic. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That idea feels especially resonant now, as audiences are once again being asked to return to Harry Potter through HBO's [*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*](https://mashable.com/video/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-trailer-hbo), the first installment in what is expected to be a seven-season retelling of the books. The new adaptation arrives in a very different cultural moment than the one that first made the books such a phenomenon. Beyond the exhaustion of endless reboots and franchise recycling, there is also the [shadow of J.K. Rowling's increasingly public anti-trans rhetoric](https://mashable.com/article/jk-rowling-controversy-timeline), which has fundamentally changed the way many fans engage with that world. In a moment when Harry Potter feels increasingly tied to exclusion and rigidity, *Witch Hat Atelier* offers something far more open-hearted.
That does not erase what Harry Potter once meant to people. But it does make room for something else: the possibility that there are newer, richer fantasy stories waiting to take its place.
A pen is mightier than a wand in the world of "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That is where *Witch Hat Atelier* feels so important. It offers much of what people once loved about Harry Potter — the wonder, the hidden world, the feeling of stepping through a door into somewhere magical — but without the same fixation on exclusivity. Instead, it imagines a world where knowledge is meant to be shared, where children's instincts and emotions are valued, and where difference is not feared. The manga also makes room for canonically queer characters and a broader sense of representation that feels woven naturally into the world rather than [added as an afterthought](https://mashable.com/article/jk-rowling-intense-love-relationship).
It is difficult to watch *Witch Hat Atelier* and not come away feeling like this is the fantasy story audiences have been waiting for. Its vision of magic is less interested in who is born special and more in what becomes possible when someone is given the chance to learn.
[*Witch Hat Atelier* is streaming now on Crunchyroll with new episodes every Monday.](https://zdcs.link/z7RNnD?pageview_type=Standard&template=article&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=Witch+Hat+Atelier+is+streaming+now+on+Crunchyroll+with+new+episodes+every+Monday.&object_type=article&object_uuid=050bYpgnCwh6D5kSgtCCxRS&short_url=z7RNnD&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fwitch-hat-atelier-anime-review-harry-potter&session_uuid=a6c56e37-06de-4743-9f4a-91fffb934599&view_instance_uuid=574937e1-b2a4-4059-ab23-87bdeb287bac "(opens in a new window)")
Topics [Streaming](https://mashable.com/category/streaming)
Crystal Bell
Digital Culture Editor
Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities.
She was formerly the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped the brand expand its coverage of extremely online fan culture and K-pop across its platforms. You can find [her work](https://itscrystalbell.com/ "(opens in a new window)") in Teen Vogue, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.
She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.
***
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There are few shows that carry quite as much meta baggage as *Rick and Morty*. But if the Season 5 premiere (titled "Mort Dinner Rick Andre") is any indication of what's to come, the beloved Adult Swim comedy is treating 2021 like the clean slate it so desperately needed to not buckle under the weight of its own cultural significance.
Ever since its transformation from the weird little fucked-up cult favorite underdog into a full-blown mainstream phenomenon so popular that hardcore fans [nearly caused riots at various McDonald's in 2017](https://mashable.com/article/rick-morty-szechuan-sauce-mcdonalds-taste-test), the subculture bred around *Rick and Morty* has threatened to overshadow the show itself.
There was the added pressure of sky-high expectations causing year-long delays between Seasons 2 and 3, and a vocal minority of fans who harassed Season 3 and 4's new women writers, and the subsequently memed stereotype of those insufferable Reddit edgelord-type fans, and then the [creators' public denouncements of said fans](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/04/i-loathe-these-people-rick-and-morty-and-the-brilliant-backlash-against-tvs-bad-fans "(opens in a new window)"), and open discussions over how to create a more sustainable writing process for their [unprecedented 70-episode deal](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-renewed-70-episodes) in 2018.
For some time now, part of the tense anticipation for each new season of *Rick and Morty* has been speculation over how these off-screen battles would impact the show's long-term arc. Will this season be fundamentally different from *Rick and Morty* of years past? How will they approach the more serialized, season-long plotlines? Will changes in creative direction make it better or worse? Can it even live up to the oversaturated hype of it all at this point?
The show's excellence, and escalating fervor of its fandom and critical attention, reached a level of noisy online chatter surpassed only by even bigger global sensations like *Game of Thrones*. And as *that* show's final season proved, mishandling this meta relationship with your avid fandom — either by ignoring it or catering to it too much — can lead to disaster.
Season 4's response was to [double down on the show's natural tendency toward meta-commentary](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-season-4-premiere-new-era/), embedding the creators' anxieties about the show's identity into the episodes. More than once, characters echoed a common online edgelord refrain that demanded they go back to “classic" *Rick and Morty* adventures. More egregiously, the sixth episode's plot basically boils down to a string of dense, straight-to-camera in-jokes about co-creator Dan Harmon's now-infamous [storytelling structure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4WcRAgm7Y&ab_channel=AdultSwim "(opens in a new window)").
The effect of this excessive navel-gazing on the overall season was, to many critics and fans, lackluster — though even a lackluster season of *Rick and Morty* is still pretty damn great.
"Rick and Morty Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us."
Whether or not the creators took this general consensus about Season 4's disappointments to heart, what does seem clear is that *Rick and Morty* Season 5 is done getting in the mud with us. The show is at least trying to mature past that overly self-conscious and self-referential back-and-forth with its own fandom over what *Rick and Morty* should or should not be.
Season 5's premiere instead delivers an episode that makes good on the promise that last season only paid lip service to: a hard reset for one of the internet's most contentious and hotly debated shows.
Mashable Top Stories
While the premiere does start *in medias res,* with Morty fighting to save the duo from some interdimensional threat or another, it isn't a plot carried over from the last season — as some of the show's most popular premieres have been in the past. Instead, the titular characters walk, wounded and bloodied, through what appear to be various portals revealing glimpses into their other potential realities. When they take off on their spaceship, Rick and Morty leave behind these [potential plotlines](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/rick-and-morty-season-5-trailer-blade/ "(opens in a new window)") (some maybe even referencing popular fan theories) to implode on themselves.
While more subtle than Season 4's overt meta-commentary, the symbolic message to viewers reads loud and clear. After crash landing back home, the episode then launches into a wholly unrelated and delightfully bizarre plot about a nemesis of Rick's we've never seen before.
Guess we won't be getting Rick and Morty as Blade :( Credit: adult swim
The Season 5 premiere doesn’t necessarily feel like a return to "classic" *Rick and Morty*, and nor does it feel like a dramatic departure. But the episode's straightforwardness, relying more than anything on the show's trademark rapid-fire joke-to-page ratio, is a welcome shift. Another internal battle debated among critics and fans revolved around whether or not the show was still properly balancing its own headassery with enough humor, or too often belaboring highfalutin concepts and/or emotional character arcs that lost the pure comedy of it all.
Some storylines have definitely carried over, like Rick dealing with the [Season 4 power dynamic shift](https://mashable.com/article/rick-and-morty-season-4-review/) that ousted him as the Sanchez family's authoritative patriarch. Beth and Jerry's ongoing marital journey is another highlight, of course. But these more ambitious long-term arcs are kept as added background texture, while the full focus of the episode remains on a self-contained and joyfully non-sequitur plot that packs a whole season's worth of emotional stakes into 22 minutes.
*Rick and Morty*'s writers seem to have finally succeeded in letting go of all the "shoulds" they thought they were beholden to: We should address the fandom's toxicity, we should take back our show from the edgelords, we should go back to the beginning, we should keep outdoing ourselves, we should be smart, we should raise the show's narrative stakes every season.
By replacing its "shoulds," it's more grounded than ever in simply *doing*.
"This all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its avid fans, which some might experience as a loss."
Now, this all necessarily creates more distance between the show and its fans, which some might experience as a loss. There is more of a wall between creator and viewer, making it feel more traditional (if you can call anything *Rick and Morty* "traditional") and less personal. But sometimes, these traditions are in place for a reason. A greater division between the show's world and ours feels like the right move to serve the longevity of *Rick and Morty*'s quality and timelessness.
Like most things in life, though, that shift comes with it a mixture of gains and losses.
The Season 5 premiere is one of the most laugh-out-loud funny episodes I can remember in recent show history, with the infectious and unfettered joy of creators that have liberated themselves. The episode clearly benefits from a renewed sense of freedom, of letting go of control to instead follow the strange impulses that gave us such classic gags as Mr. Poopy Butthole. It's also regained more of its universality, requiring less prior knowledge of the show or its surrounding subculture to find the jokes hilarious.
All of that comes with less encouragement to read between the lines, though — removing the promise that rewatches will reveal more about what the writers and characters are thinking about or wrestling with. It's a loss of that ephemeral kind of intimacy and emotional vulnerability that made [Season 3 one of the most electrifyingly human stories](https://mashable.com/article/rick-morty-season-3-finale-dan-harmon-interview-humanity-real) to ever play out in a popular mainstream animated comedy series.
But you know, maybe I'm doing the exact thing that created the problem in the first place: over-intellectualizing, with analysis that thinks it's smarter than it actually is (like a certain genius cartoon mad scientist we know and love).
At the end of the day, *Rick and Morty* is back, baby. And that's never a bad thing.
*Rick and Morty* premieres Sunday, June 20 on Adult Swim.
#### Related Video: What to binge on the best 30-day streaming service free trials
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
You do not need another trip back to Harry Potter to find a magical world worth getting lost in. "Witch Hat Atelier" is right here.
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
There is something almost radical about the magic of [*Witch Hat Atelier*.](https://zdcs.link/a56mGd?pageview_type=Standard&template=article&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=Witch+Hat+Atelier.&object_type=article&object_uuid=050bYpgnCwh6D5kSgtCCxRS&short_url=a56mGd&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fwitch-hat-atelier-anime-review-harry-potter&session_uuid=a6c56e37-06de-4743-9f4a-91fffb934599&view_instance_uuid=574937e1-b2a4-4059-ab23-87bdeb287bac "(opens in a new window)")
The [anime](https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/the-best-anime-on-crunchyroll "(opens in a new window)") adaptation of Kamome Shirahama's beloved, [Eisner Award–winning manga](https://kodansha.us/2020/07/25/eisner_winner_witch_hat_atelier/ "(opens in a new window)") arrives in a fantasy landscape still crowded with chosen ones and prophetic lineages. But *Witch Hat Atelier*, currently streaming in the U.S. on Crunchyroll, imagines something softer. What if magic was not something you were born into, but something you could learn? What if curiosity was seen not as a flaw to grow out of, but a gift worth protecting?
The story follows Coco, a young girl who has spent her life dreaming of becoming a witch in a society that insists magic is reserved for a select few. When she discovers that magic is something anyone can access, it cracks open not just her world, but the rigid rules around who is allowed to have power in the first place. It's part fairy tale, part coming-of-age story, and part quiet rebuke of fantasy stories that hinge on exclusivity.
Coco experiencing the wonder of water magic. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
As a huge fan of the ongoing manga, which began in 2016, I've long found Shirahama's intricate artwork makes the story feel less like a comic and more like a storybook you could fall into. The anime preserves so much of that magic, capturing the same sense of wonder that made the manga such a favorite in the first place. It's lush and deeply beautiful, full of elaborate spell circles, sweeping cloaks, diverse characters, and the kind of intricate world-building that makes you want to pause every frame.
But what makes it feel truly magical is how much faith it puts in its child protagonists — their imagination, their grief, their instincts, and their ability to change the world around them.
## The world of *Witch Hat Atelier* feels lived-in.
Coco has a face that seems made for wonder: wide eyes, wind-flushed cheeks, the look of someone still willing to believe the world might be bigger and stranger than she has been told.
Coco's discovery of magic is not a triumphant moment so much as a devastating one. After secretly watching a mysterious white-haired, blue-eyed witch cast a spell, she tries to recreate it herself, accidentally unleashing a tragedy that changes her life forever. That is how she ends up under the care of Qifrey, a gentle but enigmatic witch who takes Coco in as his apprentice alongside three other young girls: the prickly Agott, the enthusiastic Tetia, and the reserved Richeh.
Tetia, Richeh, Coco, and Qifrey in "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Part of what makes *Witch Hat Atelier* so compelling is the way those relationships slowly unfold. Coco is bright-eyed and impulsive, desperate to prove herself, while her roommate Agott initially treats her like an outsider. Tetia brings warmth and lightness to the group, and Richeh, quiet and observant, often seems to understand more than she lets on. Together, they give the series the kind of emotional texture that makes the world feel lived-in, rather than simply beautiful to look at. Their dynamic is so charming that even the quieter moments — shared meals, study sessions, small acts of kindness — feel just as important as the larger magical set pieces.
***Mashable 101 Fan Fave:*** *[Nominate your favorite creators today](https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8757028/2f364b3d9f89 "(opens in a new window)")*
And visually, the adaptation is stunning. The spell circles unfurl across the screen like pages from an illuminated manuscript. Clothes billow and drape with tactile softness. Backgrounds are crammed with tiny details that make every town, workshop, and meadow feel like somewhere you could step into. The episode transitions themselves feel pulled from a storybook, complete with page-turn flourishes that make it seem as though you are moving through an illustrated fairy tale.
The score also has a whimsical quality, swelling with the kind of gentle orchestral wonder that makes the world feel even more magical.
A wonderous sight. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
More than most anime adaptations, *Witch Hat Atelier* understands that the appeal of its source material was never just the plot. It was the feeling of getting lost inside it.
## Beneath *Witch Hat Atelier*'s beauty is a story about power and gatekeeping.
Even in its earliest episodes, the anime hints at something darker beneath all of that beauty. The real tension comes from the battle over who magic is really for. On one side are the witches, who closely guard magical knowledge and believe the truth about magic must remain hidden from the wider world at all costs. On the other are mysterious, shadowy figures who believe magic, even dangerous magic, should be available to anyone willing to use it.
That conflict gives the series a sharper edge than its storybook aesthetic initially suggests. It is not just a whimsical fantasy about spellbooks and cloaks; it is a story about systems, gatekeeping, and the people left behind by them.
Qifrey introducing himself in the first episode of "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
Qifrey sits at the center of that tension in a particularly interesting way. As Coco's mentor, he is kind, patient, and unusually attentive to his students' emotional lives. But there is clearly more motivating him than simple generosity. Even in the earliest episodes, the series hints that his decision to take Coco under his wing is tied to a deeper, more personal agenda.
Qifrey also feels primed to become a character anime fans latch onto immediately. With his white hair, striking blue eyes, and quiet charm, there are obvious visual comparisons to *Jujutsu Kaisen*'s Satoru Gojo. But where Gojo thrives on arrogance and distance, Qifrey feels warmer and more grounded, a teacher who kneels down to meet his young students where they are rather than towering over them.
There's also the fact that magic in *Witch Hat Atelier* begins with a pen. Witches draw intricate spell circles by hand, meaning magic feels tied to creativity and invention. Spells are always evolving, shaped by the idea that there is always another way to draw the world around you.
## *Witch Hat Atelier* feels like a coming-of-age fantasy alternative to Harry Potter.
For an entire generation, [Harry Potter](https://mashable.com/category/harry-potter)offered the fantasy of discovering that there was something special hidden inside of you — that somewhere, beyond the ordinary world, there was a place where you belonged.
But part of what makes *Witch Hat Atelier* feel so refreshing is that it is not interested in telling children they are special because of bloodlines or destiny. Coco is not a chosen one. She does not secretly come from a powerful magical family. Her story begins with the realization that the rules she has been taught about who gets to access magic are not fixed at all.
Agott and Coco eventually learn that friendship is, in fact, magic. Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That idea feels especially resonant now, as audiences are once again being asked to return to Harry Potter through HBO's [*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*](https://mashable.com/video/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-trailer-hbo), the first installment in what is expected to be a seven-season retelling of the books. The new adaptation arrives in a very different cultural moment than the one that first made the books such a phenomenon. Beyond the exhaustion of endless reboots and franchise recycling, there is also the [shadow of J.K. Rowling's increasingly public anti-trans rhetoric](https://mashable.com/article/jk-rowling-controversy-timeline), which has fundamentally changed the way many fans engage with that world. In a moment when Harry Potter feels increasingly tied to exclusion and rigidity, *Witch Hat Atelier* offers something far more open-hearted.
That does not erase what Harry Potter once meant to people. But it does make room for something else: the possibility that there are newer, richer fantasy stories waiting to take its place.
A pen is mightier than a wand in the world of "Witch Hat Atelier." Credit: Kamome Shirahama / KODANSHA / Witch Hat Atelier Committee
That is where *Witch Hat Atelier* feels so important. It offers much of what people once loved about Harry Potter — the wonder, the hidden world, the feeling of stepping through a door into somewhere magical — but without the same fixation on exclusivity. Instead, it imagines a world where knowledge is meant to be shared, where children's instincts and emotions are valued, and where difference is not feared. The manga also makes room for canonically queer characters and a broader sense of representation that feels woven naturally into the world rather than [added as an afterthought](https://mashable.com/article/jk-rowling-intense-love-relationship).
It is difficult to watch *Witch Hat Atelier* and not come away feeling like this is the fantasy story audiences have been waiting for. Its vision of magic is less interested in who is born special and more in what becomes possible when someone is given the chance to learn.
[*Witch Hat Atelier* is streaming now on Crunchyroll with new episodes every Monday.](https://zdcs.link/z7RNnD?pageview_type=Standard&template=article&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=Witch+Hat+Atelier+is+streaming+now+on+Crunchyroll+with+new+episodes+every+Monday.&object_type=article&object_uuid=050bYpgnCwh6D5kSgtCCxRS&short_url=z7RNnD&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fwitch-hat-atelier-anime-review-harry-potter&session_uuid=a6c56e37-06de-4743-9f4a-91fffb934599&view_instance_uuid=574937e1-b2a4-4059-ab23-87bdeb287bac "(opens in a new window)")
Digital Culture Editor
Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities.
She was formerly the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped the brand expand its coverage of extremely online fan culture and K-pop across its platforms. You can find [her work](https://itscrystalbell.com/ "(opens in a new window)") in Teen Vogue, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.
She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.
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