Witch Hat Atelier Ending Explained And Full Recap: What Happened To Qifrey?

For viewers who fell in love with the anime genre after being introduced to the breathtaking beauty, fluid, dynamic animation, and fantastical world combined with the darker themes of Ghibli movies, Kamome Shirahama’s “Witch Hat Atelier” must have turned out to be a bewitching experience. Animated by Bug Studio, which has managed to capture the ethereal quality of magic realism of the manga panels, the first season of “Witch Hat Atelier” is undoubtedly one of the highest-quality fantasy anime I have come across in terms of visuals and storytelling. The narrative, which follows young Coco’s journey as she gets entangled in the world of witches and magic, left fans craving for more with the cliff-hanger ending of its first season. Let us take a brief look at all the major events that transpired through the thirteen episodes, and discuss what to expect from the upcoming second season. 

How Did Coco Become Qifrey’s Apprentice?

“Witch Hat Atelier” takes place in Zozah Peninsula, a world where magic exists, but only a limited group of people, known as Witches, have the knowledge to utilize it in a number of aspects. In reality, in the past, magic was accessible to everyone. Ink created from the Silverwood tree is used to draw specialized runes, which allow users to harness four sigils of magic: water, fire, wind/ levitation, and earth/ light. However, certain witches used their knowledge to dastardly effects and caused wars and conflicts across the world.

To save the world from the rogue witches, the wise and benevolent ones set a new set of rules on the Day of the Pact, which determined that only a select set of witches would be able to wield magic, and the memories of the masses would be erased to keep the knowledge hidden. Several sanctions were made on the very day, which included a ban on making runes directly on the human body, a ban on transformation and teleportation magic, a ban on temporal magic runes, and the ones that can cause alteration of mind and body. Witches who specialized in healing magic protested in vain, and a devious branch of witches, known as masked/ Brimmed Cap Witches, refused to follow the new order. Those who decided to abide by the new rules came to be known as Pointed Hat Witches and formed their governance in the submarine stronghold, Great Hall. Pointed Hat Witches employed enforcers known as the Knight Moralis, who ensure the secret of the magic remains protected, and make ‘Outsiders’ forget about their secrets if they end up learning them. Pointed Hat Witches help people through their service, and remain wary about the usage of forbidden magic by Brimmed Cap Witches, who remain in hiding. Young kids between 7 and 10 years old who are part of the families of the witch order begin their training as apprentices after choosing their preferred master witches, and have to succeed in several tests to be officially recognized as witches.

Like the rest of the world, Coco, a sensitive, young, talented dressmaker who is deeply fascinated by magic, believes the lie that only a chosen few have the birthright to conjure it, and pines to become a witch. Coco’s mother is her sole guardian after her father’s demise, and they share a strong filial bond. One day, a humble witch named Qifrey visits their shop, and recognizing Coco’s talent in dressmaking, heaps praises upon her. When a Pegasus carriage of a group of city customers suddenly breaks apart, Qifrey offers to fix it using his magic and entrusts Coco to not let anyone enter the room where he will secretly conjure his magic. A curious Coco can’t help but peep into the room, and learns how creating runes allows someone to conjure magic. Coco brings out her picture book of magic and an ink pen set, which she had bought from a masked witch during a festival in a castle several years ago, and decides to give it a shot. Qifrey, who had his own suspicion, especially after learning about Coco’s magic picture book, as witches never hand magical equipment to regular people, decides to visit her, but by then, Coco has drawn several runes after conjuring magic successfully. The picture book runes start an unstoppable crystallization around Coco’s house, and even though Qifre is able to save Coco, her mother ends up being trapped inside the crystal structures. Qifre prepares to wipe Coco’s memories, but he pleads with him not to do so as she wants to undo the effects of the magic and save her mother. Learning that Coco has memorized the runes of the evil tome/ picture book by heart, Qifre speculates about finding the culprit who deliberately sold the book to trigger such an incident and decides to take Coco under his wings. Qifre brings Coco to his secluded atelier, where he is already training three of his apprentices – Tetia, Richeh, and Agott. Qifre believes Brimmed Cap Witches are behind this conspiracy, and he is quite right, given that a member of the rogue order, Iguin, had deliberately set Coco up for reasons still unknown. Qifrey shows Coco the Tower of Tomes, the definitive archive of all the magical knowledge in the world, and she hopes to find a copy of the evil tome of the masked witch there. To do so, Coco needs to overcome the Librarian’s trial, and he encourages Coco to learn magic to ace the trials in the future. Coco shares Qifrey’s belief that using magic, she can bring joy and happiness to the world and save her mother in the process. 

Coco’s New Life and Attack of Brimmed Cap Witches

The news about an outsider being permitted to keep her memories despite casting forbidden magic becomes known to witches, and to Qifrey’s apprentices as well. A cheerful, friendly Tetia quickly warms up to Coco. Richah, a stoic, observant apprentice, has her issues with the authoritarian rules of the grown-ups for having to follow the whims of elders in the past. Coco’s roommate, Agott, who belongs to a prestigious Arklaum witch family, is an ambitious individual who has struggled with the adverse criticism of her previous master. Initially, she doesn’t like Coco at all due to her outsider identity, and in Qifrey’s absence, she almost forcibly sends a novice Coco to her first witch mission – to complete Consent of Crown at the floating mountains of Dadah range.  Without minimum experience of using magic and with only Agott’s Sylph Shoes at her disposal, Coco feels hopeless, until she befriends a Brushbuddy (weasel-like creature) and holds on to the tailoring lessons of her mother to create a levitating makeshift glider. Coco manages to complete the mission, and Qifrey brings her back to formally make her his fourth apprentice. Iguin becomes aware of Coco’s success, and the Brimmed Cap witches start plotting to use her to fulfil their secretive mission. 

Qifrey takes his apprentices to the witch island   of Kalhn to visit the magic stationary shop, the Starry Sword, which is run by elderly witch Nolnoa and his grandson, Tartah, in order to buy supplies for Coco. However, spotting Iguin/ the masked witch watching over her, Coco decides to chase after him, and the rest of the apprentices follow suit. Iguin traps Coco and the rest of the apprentices inside a blank space labyrinth dimension, setting a dragon after them, and as the apprentices try their best to survive, Tetia and Agott end up blaming Coco for dragging them into her mess. Later on, Tetia apologized to a hurt Coco, who got the idea of using Tetia’s cloud conjuration rune to offer the dragon a place to rest. Coco has noticed the rune that has created this reality, and plans to remove it by keeping the dragon distracted. However, instead of choosing violence to keep the beast distracted, she chooses a gentler method to deal with the situation. However, even after being able to calm the dragon, the apprentices face trouble when Qifrey opens an exit from the dimension upon finding the location with the help of Brushbuddy, which causes a massive catastrophe. Qifrey rescues his apprentices from the dimension, and in her dream, Coco is visited by Iguin, who promises to teach her forbidden magic one day. When Nolnoa suggests that Qifrey report the entire incident to the Great Hall, he menacingly asks him not to do so, as he seeks to investigate this on his own. 

Partnership Among the Apprentices

Qifrey teaches Coco how to internalize magic by incorporating it as a part of her daily life. Coco gets introduced to the Watchful Eye, overseer of Qifrey’s atelier, Olruggio, who initially comes off as troubling, as he plans to hand Coco over to Knight Moralis after learning of her connection with forbidden magic. However, Qifre convinces him not to report Coco, and eventually Olruggio too starts to share his compassion for Coco after knowing her a bit better. On one occasion, a desperate merchant named Dagda seeks Qifrey and Olruggio’s help in rescuing his drowning son, Custas, from a flooded river, and Agott, who has been searching for a chance to prove himself, volunteers to accompany the witches. Qifrey brings all his apprentices and saves Custas, but he has to leave along with Olruggio to help others who are stuck in the flooded zones. Coco and Agott find themselves in a problematic situation when Custas falls into the river once again, and they need to rescue him while keeping the usage of their magic a secret. Even though the kids manage to pull off the tall task, due to the manipulations of Brimmed Cap Witches, a long stretch of the riverbed turns dry, making it seem Coco lost control over her magic. A troop of Knight Moralis arrives at the location, and their chief, Easthies, decides to wipe Coco’s memory to punish her. However, a timely intervention by Qifrey and Olruggio prevents Easthies from taking such a drastic decision, although he plans to investigate the incident further in the upcoming days. 

Qifrey realizes Coco’s inkpot has been altered by Brimmed Cap, and it is revealed that Iguin has tainted it using his blood before using duplication magic on it. Qifrey takes the inkpot to Nolnoa to find the source, and brings Coco along with him. Coco learns about Tartah’s Silverwash condition, which limits him to watching the world in silver, preventing his opportunity from being a witch. Qifre recklessly uses the tainted ink, causing an explosion of sorts, about which he and Nolnoa remain completely mum – much to Tartah’s surprise. Later, Qifrey tries to secretly look into the mystery of the tainted ink on his own, triggering a waterspout explosion, which indicates that the Brimmed Cap Witches deliberately set up the trap for him. Coco suffers from recurrent nightmares where Iguin tries to manipulate her fears and insecurities, but doesn’t reveal her predicament to anyone. Agott, who has gradually accepted Coco as one of the apprentices after appreciating her ingenuity and skills, apologizes for her past actions. Spending sleepless nights takes a toll on Coco, as she suffers from a high fever, and Qifrey takes her to Kalhn for treatment. Admitting Coco to the hospital with Tartah’s help, Qifrey has to leave to take care of a fire breakout incident, while Tartah tends to Coco. As Tartah struggles to find the right medication for Coco due to his colour-blind condition, Coco helps him by teaching him to conjure a reverse earth sigil spell, which allows users to break down medication to show their source ingredients. Tartah finds confidence by conjuring the spell and finding the right medication, and is motivated to pursue the training of the witches by Coco’s motivation. Tartah had his doubts about the explosion in his grandpa’s workshop, and he directly asks Qifrey and Nolnoa about the past incident, only to realize that both of them don’t remember anything about it. 

What Happened to Qifrey and His Apprentices?

As Qifrey prepares to have her most talented apprentices, Agott and Richeh, undergo the second test in Serpentback cavern, a glimpse of Richeh’s rebellious nature is given. In the past, Richeh, who was able to create her own runes and spells, had found appreciation only from her elder brother, Riliphin, while the rest of the grown-ups only pushed her to always adhere to a set of rules and laws. Richeh hates following rules and orders; her curious mind wants to unlock the secrets of magic instead. As Richeh throws a tantrum upon seeing Coco’s bookish instincts, Coco follows her inside her own hidden lair and manages to connect with her by showing appreciation for Richeh’s creativity. 

Despite feeling betrayed by Qifrey for having her take the second test, Richeh agrees to participate. Alaira, one of Qifrey’s good friends from the Great Hall, will conduct the second test, where players need to guide a Myrphon bird through the treacherous Serpentback Cave to lead it to their migration destination. It is revealed that the Serpentback cave, which once led to the extremely affluent Romonon cavern empire, is laced with dangerous runes, due to the greedy denizens of the kingdom trying to live as an exclusivist society, which also resulted in their ultimate downfall. The players need to use their wit and casting ability to safely guide their Myrphons to exit, and throughout the test, Alaira will be by their side. 

Euini, a nervous, diffident apprentice of a crude, discouraging Witch Kukrow, participates in the second trial – and this is his third attempt in this. As Euini’s troubled psyche makes it nearly impossible for him to muster the courage to move through the perilous cave path, Richeh helps him to find mental strength and emphasize his individuality to gain confidence. Euini shows his skills to overcome the obstacles along with fellow participants, Agott and Richeh. Alaira gets attacked and abducted by Sasaran, one of the Brimmed Cap Witches, who planned to sabotage the second witch trial by conspiring with Iguin. As Sasaran continues to threaten and taunt the players, Agott realizes the order is after Coco, and tries to foil their search by lying that Coco has been handed over to Moralis. Sasaran catches his ruse and pins him down, but Euini, who has gained newfound confidence in his abilities, manages to rescue Agott with Richeh’s help. However, the dastardly Sasaran uses a forbidden rune on Euini’s body, turning him into a vicious Scalewolf in the process. A scared and ashamed Euini flees inside the treacherous Serpentback cave, and Sasaran flees after taunting the participants. Richeh remains determined to save Euini, but Agott suggests she complete the test first as they won’t be able to do much to help in this calamity. Agott assures her that they will seek help after completing the test, and Richeh begrudgingly continues his journey. 

On the other hand, Qifrey, who remained outside of the cave along with Tetia and Coco, senses danger after finding Alaira’s hat. The Serpentback structure comes alive and attacks the trio, bringing them inside the depths of the cave. In the final moments of the first season, the gold statue turned citizens of Romonon, who harbour deep disdain for witches, attack the trio, and Qifrey, determined to save his apprentices, prepares to engage with his adversaries. 

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