Ayumu Watanabe has opened up about the immense challenges behind bringing Witch Hat Atelier to television, describing the adaptation itself as “a reckless undertaking.”
In a new interview discussing the production of the anime with Comic Natalie, Watanabe reflected on when he first discovered Kamome Shirahama’s manga and immediately realized how difficult it would be to animate faithfully.
“I thought, ‘This would definitely be incredibly difficult to turn into anime. So when the adaptation offer actually came to me, my reaction was, ‘What a reckless undertaking.’”
The director explained that the manga’s dense artwork and intricate worldbuilding made simplifying the visuals almost impossible without losing the identity of the original work. “One of the series’ greatest strengths is that level of detail,” he said. “As a fan myself, I didn’t want to see that reduced just because it became animation.”
Rather than cutting corners, the production chose to embrace that complexity. Watanabe described the anime as a major challenge for the staff, particularly due to the sheer amount of linework and movement required in every scene.
“In anime production, there’s usually a tendency to settle on ‘this is enough detail,’ but for this project, we decided to throw out that way of thinking. That meant drawing far more and demanding both higher quality and quantity from the staff. It was a huge challenge.”
Watanabe also revealed that the production team became deeply invested in accurately recreating the manga’s fantasy ecosystem, from fabric materials to the movement patterns of the fictional animals and creatures. “Even something as simple as cloth changes depending on the material,” he said. “We had to question the assumptions we bring from our own world.”
Watanabe said the staff went far beyond surface-level fantasy design, carefully considering how every creature in the world would realistically move and behave.
“For example, with the winged carriages, we started asking ourselves whether the creatures pulling them would flap their wings immediately or only after they started running. The ecosystem is recreated as thoroughly as possible, and that becomes part of what gives the world its atmosphere.”
The interview also touched on the anime’s music, including the opening theme “Kaze no Anthem” by Eve featuring suis. Watanabe said he specifically requested a song that would feel welcoming and hopeful while celebrating Coco’s journey into the world of magic.
“I wanted it to feel like, ‘Welcome, it’s about to begin. The story is about the death of ‘Coco the tailor’s daughter’ and the birth of ‘Coco the witch,’ so I wanted that expressed in a positive way.”
Watanabe also revealed that ending theme artist Nakamura Hak originally submitted three demo songs for the series, all of which ended up being used in different episodes.
“I didn’t want to narrow it down to just one song and make the others disappear. So I asked, ‘Can’t we use all of them?’ and everyone around me got nervous.”
The tracks “Tada Utsukushii Noroi,” “Yoru ni Ukabu,” and “Hikari” were ultimately used across Episodes 3, 5, and 8. Watanabe said the songs captured the “despair and hope” shared by both the anime’s witches and the animation staff themselves.
“The people who work in animation are constantly confronting despair while facing their drawings. But after pushing through that despair, they find something that becomes their final hope.”
One of the lighter production stories involved the series’ popular Brushbuddy, voiced by Misaki Kuno in Japanese. According to Watanabe, animators became so attached to the creature that staff members kept sneaking extra Brushbuddy scenes into episodes.
“They’d just add them on their own. The Brushbuddy would be acting in the background while Coco and the others are talking.”
The director also spoke highly of original creator Kamome Shirahama, describing her as someone who “lives inside the world of the story” and thinks about every character and object as though they truly exist.
Watanabe currently serves as director on both Witch Hat Atelier and Akane-banashi in the Spring 2026 anime season. His previous directing credits include Children of the Sea, Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, and Summertime Rendering.
The staff for the anime includes:
- Director: Ayumu Watanabe
- Assistant Director: Jun Shinohara
- Series Composition: Hiroshi Seko
- Character Design / Chief Animation Director: Kairi Unabara
- Art Director: Ryota Goto
- Color Design: Naomi Nakano
- Director of Photography: Tadashi Kitaoka
- Music: Yuka Kitamura
- Animation Studio: BUG FILMS
Witch Hat Atelier (Tongari Boshi no Atelier) is a manga series created by Kamome Shirahama, who both writes and illustrates the work. The series has been published in Kodansha’s Morning Two magazine since July 2016, and as of April 2026, it has released 16 volumes. A spin-off titled Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen launched in the same magazine in November 2019.
The franchise has reached over 7 million copies in circulation. It received notable recognition in 2020, earning the Harvey Award for Best Manga and the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. Kodansha USA publishes it in English, describing the story:
In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…
Source: Comic Natalie
©Kamome Shirahama / Kodansha / “Witch Hat Atelier” Production Committee
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