With the long-awaited and highly anticipated adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier from Bug Films, actors Anjali Kunapaneni (Kowloon Generic Romance, Go! Go! Loser Ranger), Joshua Waters (Sasaki and Miyaon, Sentenced to Be a Hero), and Madeleine Morris (Trigun Stargaze, Zenshu) had well-established, fan-favorite characters to dig into. Coco, Qifrey, and Agott are some of the best-written and layered characters currently being written about in a world that matches their quality.
Witch Hat Atelier takes place in a world of magic where only a few can cast magic. Coco (Kunapaneni), a young girl with dreams of becoming a witch despite not being born into a magical society, is thrust into danger when, while attempting to cast a spell from a spell book gifted to her as a small child, she accidentally turns her mother to stone.
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Qifrey (Waters), a witch, witnesses the event and rescues her. And, rather than erase her memory, he takes her in as a student to practice and learn magic at his atelier, along with students Agott (Morris), Tetia, Richeh, and their watchful eye, Olruggio. As Coco learns the truth about magic, she also sets her sights on saving her mother.
Witch Hat Atelier is already great. It’s going to get even better.
The story, with its fantastical backdrop and painstaking artistry, is as much a visual feast as it is a narratively gripping experience. As the studio’s second series, following the uneven but fleetingly delightful Zom 100, Bug Films has gone to great lengths to capture Shirahama’s distinctive art style, which evokes both classical sketchwork and an evocative framework.
Season 1 of Witch Hat Atelier is just the beginning. For all that Coco, Agott, Qifrey, Tetia, and Richeh have faced so far, audiences are still only on the threshold of even more devastating and inspiring stories, as the characters face greater threats and triumphs in their personal and collective pursuits.
For a year that could’ve been overrun by explosive shonen, this fantasy series is the buzziest. We spoke to Kunapaneni, Waters, and Morris about diving into the world Shirahama has created and about their favorite parts of their respective characters.
But Why Tho: I have to ask because I watched the first episode of Witch Hat Atelier and then immediately went and read the entire manga. Were any of you aware of the manga or already reading the series when you first got your role? And, if so, how did that change how you approached your character?
Joshua Waters: I find it interesting in this group because Anjali and I have both been fans of the manga for a while. But Maddy [Madeleine Morris] has just started to get ahead in the manga. So it’s a lot of different perspectives here. We’re different in how we’ve approached it as well.
Qifrey and Coco are such vastly different characters with what they have going on in the manga, in what we’ve seen in the anime, but also in the manga, in where we’re going. So in my mind – in the audition process at least – it made me so nervous.
I was so excited for this series, and I was so excited for it to come out. The opportunity to be brought on as the English voice for Qifrey, one of my favorite characters while I was reading, was a joy and an honor, and it’s still so surreal and exciting.
Joshua Waters admits we’re only scratching the surface of what we know about Qifrey.
In terms of how it’s helped my performance, I feel there are so many layers to Qifrey as a character and so much mystery that we’ve been building up in Season 1 that I feel hinges on his drive for something that we don’t know as an audience yet in the anime.
In the anime so far, we’ve seen that he has some relations to the Brimmed Caps. He has some want to find them for some reason. And we have not yet received the actual context for that.
Going into these scenes, being a manga reader and knowing that context, helped me intersperse not even these giant, very extravagant yelling scenes, but even in the smaller moments, showing that he’s constantly thinking about these things. Where his past has brought him to now. Very, very helpful in my opinion and super cool.
Anjali Kunapaneni plays it cool while auditioning.
Anjali Kunapaneni: I’ve already read the manga and have been a fan for quite a bit of time. But it’s interesting because whenever I like anything, in my mind, I’m not thinking about voicing any of these characters. I’m like, I don’t want to think about that.
But when I was auditioning, it was helpful, of course, to know a little bit about their personalities. When something gets adapted, I am always like, there’s going to be subtle little changes. Or, my interpretation might be a little different, whatever it might be.
Knowing and being familiar with these characters was helpful, but I don’t get my hopes up. I have a system, I protect myself [laughs], and I’m like, I’m not going to get excited about something.
Joshua Waters: Oh gosh, I wish I did that!
Anjali Kunapaneni: It took a long time. I love auditioning. Which is not something a lot of actors say. But I really love it. It’s almost like you get a moment that you steal away from a character. That is all yours. Whether you get a role or not at a certain point it doesn’t matter because you got to have fun auditioning. So I really try not to think about things – sometimes I fail. But I was happy, and off it goes, and I’ll never hear about this again. And of course that’s not what happened.
That, almost, for me, is more of a challenge. Because Coco doesn’t know anything about this world, and I know a bit too much. So reading the manga it’s helpful but I’m like ‘I have to ignore this.’ I have to have shielders, and I have to focus on just the experience that Coco is going through.
It’s nice in certain ways. It presents challenges in other ways. But also just incredible to see. The part that I never have to fake is the awe because everything I’m seeing is so incredible that I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it’s even prettier than I imagined.’ So that’s always nice. That’s pretty easy.
“I get to do each session living in that moment of discovery.”
Madeleine Morris: Yeah, I didn’t know anything about this show. Very, very little I knew. Historically, my most successful auditions are the ones that I think the least about. To the point where I opened this audition and started looking at these characters and thought Agott was a little boy, and I was like, ‘Got it, nailed it, boom, done.’
And then I got two sentences more and realized she’s a little girl and was like, ‘Okay, now I’m not so sure.’
But coming into it with very little knowledge has been a lot of fun. I get to do each session living in that moment of discovery. And living in the moment of where that instinct spark is. It feels a lot like clowning. I rely very heavily on my first instincts, and then I have our incredible, brilliant, visionary dub director, Emily [LAST NAME], right next to me to help guide those instincts to the right place. It’s very, very creatively fulfilling in a way that dubbing always is. I feel grateful to be part of it.
Kindness and compassion is key to the heart of Witch Hat Atelier.
But Why Tho: So far, do you have a favorite part about voicing these characters or a favorite characteristic?
Joshua Waters: I think the calm that Qifrey brings to a lot of these scenes, and the knowledge that he spouts sometimes can be a lot, especially for him talking to these kids.
So getting to deliver these things in a way where it’s like, “Hey, um, I’m respecting you, child, I know you are a human being that has thoughts and feelings, and I am respecting your time, and I’m respecting your individuality.”
I find that the kindness and softness with which he approaches these situations are really, really fun to do. And I don’t often get to do that with characters. There’s a lot of comedy and yelling in a lot of the roles that I do. It’s just not that often where you get to lie on that line of just, ‘we’re having a good time, and it’s very chill. It’s very nice and very calming.
Qifrey remains a steady figure for Coco and Agott to rely on.
Madeleine Morris: My favorite instances of that are actually the most recent episode [Episode 9]. Well, actually, first, before this scene happens, there’s a very vulnerable moment for Agott. Like one of the first genuinely vulnerable moments we see from her, when Coco returns her shoes, and she’s confused by this non-transactional gesture. It’s like, what are you [Coco] getting out of this? You didn’t tell on me, so what gives? And she kind of starts to crack open to that. We’re getting to her nougaty center, and I find that really exciting.
My favorite example of what Joshua was talking about is, instantly, when Coco passes out, and Agott zooms and full-on body slams Qifrey, he’s like, “Wow, you were going really fast there. Do you know how fast you were going?” And he’s like kind of like joking and asking if she wants him to look at the shoes and she’s like “I’m serious!”
Joshua Waters: There are just so many moments where he’s just so happy to be there. So happy to teach. So happy to see people who are excited and learning, and even in that situation where he gets torpedoed into and nearly falls off a cliff.
Coco and Agott act as interesting contrasts to one another as they continue to grow.
Anjali Kunapaneni: What an interesting contrast between Agott and Coco. Because one of the things that I admire most about Coco is her resilience, she’s been through so much in a very recent amount of time, and she’s handling it like a champ. But she is also very openly unsure, scared, guilty, and vulnerable.
Madeleine Morris: And she’s willing to express that which I find so beautiful.
Anjali Kunapaneni: Yeah, and I think part of that invites support from a lot of other characters in a way that Agott is like, “Show me support, and that is an insult.” What a beautiful contrast between these two characters who are very resilient in their own ways and have a lot to learn from one another.
Madeleine Morris: Qifrey having them room together was very intentional.
Joshua Waters: 4D chess, 4D chess.
Witch Hat Atelier is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
