Kodansha announced an anime adaptation of Kamome Shirahama's Eisner Award-winning Witch Hat Atelier.The new anime was revealed alongside a motion-comic style teaser trailer and a new piece of art from Shirahama herself. The trailer offers a brief introduction into the series' magical world before listing all of the awards that the manga has won in its six years of serialization. Details about the new anime are still scarce, as Kodansha isn't ready to announce a cast, premiere date, or even what studio is producing the new adaptation of the acclaimed fantasy manga.
Witch Hat Atelier tells the story of Coco, a young girl who dreams of becoming a wizard but is born without any sort of magical aptitude. Coco's life changes after she witnesses a wizard casting spells without using his own innate power, but through the use of mysterious runes. Coco realizes she can achieve her dreams through the use of these runes, but her use of this ancient and potentially dangerous form of witchcraft threatens to shake up the foundation of the magical society in which she lives.
The series was created by Shirahama in 2016 and continues to be serialized to this day. The manga has been a big hit in Japan, where it has sold more than 2.5 million copies. Witch Hat Atelier has been lauded for its optimistic tone, memorable characters and for Shirahama's distinctively detailed art style, with some critics drawing favorable comparisons between it and the works of Studio Ghibli and the Harry Potter series. The series has been awarded with numerous honors, including the prestigious Taisho Manga Award in 2018, and both the Eisner and Harvey Awards in 2020. An on-going spin-off series, entitled Witch Hat Kitchen, premiered in 2019.
Shirahama is also known to audiences in the West for her work with DC and Marvel comics, where she has created cover art for series such as Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Nightwing and Star Wars: Doctor Aphra. She most recently worked with DC in 2019, when she created a variant cover for Wonder Woman #63.
The first eight volumes of the Witch Hat Atelier manga are available in English in both print and digital formats from Kodansha USA. A ninth volume is scheduled to be released next June. Details about the anime adaptation's release outside of Japan have also not been announced at this time.