Crunchyroll's New Fantasy Anime Series Is Better Than Harry Potter

HBO's marketing team is going to be spending the rest of the year doing everything humanly possible to get eyes on that new "Harry Potter" TV series. Given the trailer has everyone saying the show looks pointless when the movies still exist, not to mention "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling's inflammatory stance on transgender rights, a lot of people will be looking for "Potter" alternatives. Luckily for fantasy fans looking for a superior magical school story that hasn't already been adapted for the screen, the anime "Witch Hat Atelier" just premiered on Crunchyroll and the show is off to an incredible start.

Coco (Rena Motomura in Japanese, Anjali Kunapaneni in the simultaneously-released English dub) has dreamed about becoming a witch since she was little. Alas, she wasn't born with magic powers, so this will remain nothing more than a dream... or so she thinks. Witnessing in secret how the witch Qifrey (Natsuki Hanae, Joshua Waters) performs magic, Coco tries her hand at some spells herself. Suffice to say, the world doesn't work as she thought it did, and though her attempts go very wrong, she gets the opportunity to be one of Qifrey's apprentices at his Atelier.

The ongoing "Witch Hat Atelier" by Kamome Shirahama is one of the most gorgeous manga around, picking up Eisner and Harvey Awards among other honors. Translating Shirahama's intricate line work and majestic paneling to animation was never going to be an easy task, but, based on these first two episodes, it looks like studio Bug Films has pulled it off. The animation here is incredible, with the extra time spent on the series during delays paying off — it was originally scheduled for 2025, but the wait has been worthwhile.

What's immediately clear when watching "Witch Hat Atelier" is that Shirahama is much stronger at worldbuilding than J.K. Rowling. Its magic system, where drawing is power, is thematically befitting for such an artistic series. Where "Harry Potter" is filled with questionable things that just get ignored, "Witch Hat Atelier" is willing to ask hard questions. What does it mean to withhold secret knowledge? Can such secrecy be justified? What's the right way to use magic? "Witch Hat Atelier" is also far beyond "Harry Potter" in terms of diversity, featuring witches from around the world, significant queer characters, and major story arcs centered around accessibility for people with disabilities.

Appropriate for kids yet mature enough in its writing to stand up to adult scrutiny, "Witch Hat Atelier" is an anime classic in the making. New episodes stream Mondays on Crunchyroll.