Witch hat atelier vol 8 by Kamome Shirahama

Silver Eve is coming, and the Atelier has been asked to help out. With his grandfather still in the hospital, Tartah, Coco’s friend and masterless apprentice, needs help running their booth in a prime location for the festival. Tartah and Coco also spend a significant amount of energy trying to make the world easier to navigate for their friend Custas, who has lost the use of his legs. They create an ingenious flying cape for him. As they muse philosophically about magic not going more directly to the people who could benefit from it most, bandits attack Custas and his master in hopes of getting his cape. Help comes from a witch, but probably not through methods The Order would teach or condone.

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The underlying current through this series rears up heavily in this volume: why is magic so restricted and not used more for the people who really need it? Coco brings this up often because she wasn't born a witch and doesn't really understand the restrictiveness, so is it just for power? Hopefully, this gets explored more as Coco gets into the society more. Also running adjacently with that philosophical problems is the threat of the brimmed hat witches. I'm also ready for a bit bigger role from them, as currently they come in for only bits and moments throughout the series. Let's get into the main conflict already! 

Sara’s Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-12

​Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4, vol 5, vol 6, vol 7
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Publisher: Kodansha
Publication Date: September 28, 2021​
ISBN: 9781646512690 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Elementary School, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Fantasy, Magical Girl, ​Kodansha