Magic was in the air on Saturday morning at New York Comic Con 2024, as a room full of excited fans eagerly awaited getting to meet Kamome Shirahama, a mangaka best known for her beloved magical fantasy series Witch Hat Atelier. Shirahama-sensei previously appeared at Anime Expo, where thousands of fans mobbed both of her panels there. Comparatively, only a few hundred folks were in attendance at her NYCC panel, but such is the difference between an anime con and a general entertainment con. That isn’t to say the enthusiasm was any less muted, of course. Everyone in attendance was clearly a huge fan of Shirahama and Witch Hat, and several people came in cosplays of their favorite characters, most commonly Quifrey, Olruggio, and Coco. Witch Hat Atelier and Kamome Shirahama’s popularity and reputation is incredibly high, and has been long before the anime announcement, because the manga is truly special, capturing the hearts of so many readers through its beautiful art, imaginative world, relatable, diverse, and inspiring characters, and earnest message that magic is for everyone. 

Because the panel room was one of the smaller ones, room 406.2, I was worried that if I didn’t arrive right when the doors to the Javits opened on Saturday morning that I would have no chance at getting in. I’d previously warned my friend, the Black Manga Critic, that he should take advantage of his early entry as an exhibitor to get in line as early as possible. Luckily, even though I arrived later than I would’ve liked to the Javits that morning, the room wasn’t filled yet, and better yet, I was able to get a front-row seat to the panel next to BMC and a trio of Witch Hat cosplayers – one Quifrey and two Olruggio’s! As I waited for the panel to begin, I took a look at Shirahama’s live-drawing setup, which was decorated with an adorable custom plush Brushbuddy. I’d seen Shirahama-sensei at Anime Expo, but this was my first time being able to see her live-draw, and I was excited to see her breathe life into one of her beautiful drawings right in front of my eyes. 

The panel began on time to a full crowd, moderated by Ivan Salazar, with interpretation by Misaki Kido and room assistance by Jorge Aranzazu. After giving a quick rundown on Kodansha USA, Witch Hat Atelier, and Kodansha House, Ivan introduces Kamome Shirahama-sensei. She walked on stage wearing the same white Brimmed Cap mask that she wore at Anime Expo. After she introduced herself to the crowd, she immediately prepared to live draw. Before she began, Ivan asked the crowd which character they want her to draw. He ran through the choices one by one – Coco, Agott, Tetia, Richeh, Quifrey, and Olruggio. Each character got lots of fanfare, but Shirahama heard the most noise for Qifrey. 

She started drawing Qifrey, beginning with a quick, light rough pencil sketch. She finished her rough sketch in just 5 minutes, and then proceeded to ink it. Her process for drawing Quifrey was done in the following steps:

  • Outline of Glasses
  • Outline of Hair
  • Outline of Face
  • Details of Hair 
  • Outline of Hat 
  • Outline of Clothes
  • Outline of Brush Buddy
  • Details on Glasses 
  • Details on Hat
  • Details of Face
  • Details of Brush Buddy
  • Filling in the inking on his neck collar
  • Details on his clothes
  • The ribbon on the top of his hat
  • The button on his cloak
  • His sun insignia
  • Cross-hatching on his hat
  • Filled in his left spectacle 
  • Cross-hatching in his hair
  • Cross-hatching on his buttons and clothes
  • The landscape behind Quifrey
  • The clouds in the sky 
  • Erases the pencil lines 

Overall, she drew this illustration of Quifrey from beginning to end in approximately forty minutes! 

While Shirahama was drawing, Ivan asked her about her experiences coming to NYC, and whether today was her first time here. Shirahama loves coming to NYC, and this was actually her fifth time here, exclaiming “I LOVE New York!” She’d been to most of the tourist sites around the city. Since her last visit, she’s noticed there’s been new construction and building around the Javits Center. She likes to check out and explore the area around Chelsea in particular. Ivan asked if Shirahama if she’d visited Kodansha House, and she said she’d visited it a few times over the past month. Her favorite feature of Kodansha House was the replica of the walled city from Attack on Titan. They provide a costume of the Colossal Titan that you can wear to pose for photos over it, so Shirahama joked how she also acted like a “gross old titan” when she was there. 

Ivan notes how Shirahama has done a lot of work with Marvel and DC. Shirahama has always loved superhero comics, ever since she watched the X-Men and Justice League cartoons when she as a kid. Wolverine is her favorite character. While Shirahama hadn’t gotten a chance to walk around the con yet, she usually likes to visit her artist friend in Artist Alley, as well as meet editors of American comics to find new gigs. Though she lamented she was too busy this time, so she probably wouldn’t, apologizing “sorry!” to fans looking forward to her next foray into American comics. 

Ivan then asked Shirahama about her favorite manga, which she contemplates for a moment. She’s always loved Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, but she has a lot of other favorites, and couldn’t make up her mind. 

When asked about what inspired her to become an artist, she reflected that she’s always loved drawing everything ever since she was a small kid, enjoying capturing everything around her in the form of drawing. Shirahama later studied art at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She noted that when you’re drawing manga, you have to draw from memory. This was the most important lesson she learned from her time in art school. Ivan asks if she still likes to sketch from life. She enjoys sketching animals, including her own dog, in her free time. She loves doing sketches in her free time, though she doesn’t have as much of it nowadays. 

Ivan asks her about how she conceived of the idea for Witch Hat Atelier. Shirahama said she started everything from the worldview of what if everybody could use magic, the basis of the magic system being sigils and drawing, and the thinking about how the magic system would shape the characters’ personal growth. When developing the sigils, she thought about existing symbols in the real world and what the intent was behind the design and movement they were suggesting. For example, if there is a drawing of an arrow and then of a barrier, the effect is that barrier is pushed in the direction of the arrow. She demonstrates this with her own drawing pens, which have arrows on the logos. 

On what her favorite things to draw in WHA, Shirahama says she really likes drawing clothes, having a lot of fun drawing the clothing of the characters. She thinks a lot about whether the characters are wearing clothes for comfort or are buttoned up, and what their clothing says about their characters. Later, Shirahama mentioned that she always tries to consider what she wants to draw right now, and looks into clothing in different parts of the world for inspiration. 

When asked whether she designs clothing for good and bad characters differently, Shirahama rejects the premise of the question, explaining she doesn’t distinguish between “good” or “bad” Characters. She sees many of the characters as morally ambiguous. When she comes up with confrontational characters, she doesn’t she them as bad people, and doesn’t draw them like they’re bad people. While she presents Coco as the protagonist, she sees WHA as a story about multiple characters, and tries to approach that consciously while writing the series. 

Ivan then asked Shirahama about her thoughts on the anime. She replied she couldn’t say anything about the anime due to her non-disclosure contract, but encouraged fans to look forward to it when it makes the drop. She then admits she doesn’t really know anything about it, truthfully. 

Witch Hat Atelier is Shirahama’s longest-running series, but she never intended or imagined it would run so long. She asked the crowd, almost apologetically, “you guys want to read it still, right?” The crowd of course enthusiastically responded “YES!” Ivan jokes about whether Witch Hat could last One Piece length, but she laughs off the possibility, remarking she doesn’t have the stamina for such an undertaking. She mused that if she were to make an epic-length manga, she’d have to go to another work, like a world where manga artists are battling. 

When coming up with the story, she discusses the overall plot with the editors for general direction, but the details of who, where, and what she comes up with and figures out by herself. On whether it’s difficult for her to come up with the story, she jokes that “I have a secret about making manga – when the manga artist is struggling, the manga is really exciting!” 

On what attracts Shirahama to fantasy, she replied that around when she was in High School, a lot of fantasy works like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia were coming out, so she read of lot of fantasy novels growing up. 

Shirahama imagined Coco as someone you’d want to be friends with, someone you wanted to hang out with and would make you feel comfortable. When coming up with characters, she thinks of them as introducing a new friend. She starts off thinking about their problems, but then also what their good points are, and so begins the process of developing them as a character in the story. 

Considering the themes of WHA, Shirahama likes how everyone in her world can use magic, and that it gives her the dream and hope that if we practice something, we can grow and develop our skills to be better at it. She noted that while she loves Star Wars, she wouldn’t be cut out to be a Jedi, and doesn’t think she could be a strong sorcerer in that world. But in WHA, she could be, because magic is something everyone can do. 

With Shirahama’s live-drawing completed, and Ivan’s questions done, they opened the floor up to take questions from the audience. The first question came from a disabled cosplayer, who very emotionally thanked Shirahama for how she depicts and represents disabled characters in the series, and that it meant a lot to them. They asked Shirahama how she draws them so well. Shirahama reflected that she sees a lot of herself in these characters, and that they are based on aspects of herself that she can resonate with to begin with. She also wishes that there were more characters that represent people like herself. That’s what she thinks about when she draws these characters. Later, another fan praised Shirahama for her queer characters, and she thanked them. 

Another fan, who didn’t win the lottery for Shirahama’s autograph session at Kodansha House, asked Shirahama if she will come back to New York again. Shirahama promised that she will absolutely do more signings in the U.S. in the future, and that since she’s come to NYC five times, she plans to come back at least five more times. 

The Black Manga Critic asked the next question. He lauded the themes and messages of the manga for young readers, noting that as a teacher he introduces the series to his students. He particularly praises the character of Custus, who is his favorite character and who he sees a lot of himself in. Similar to the first fan question, he asked about the importance to her in including a diverse representation of people of different disabilities in her series. Shirahama noted that there’s not enough representation like that in existing media, including manga. She wanted to represent disabled people in her series as authentic characters. She wants to see more representations of characters like them in more media. 

The next fan asked about how to correctly pronounce Quifrey and other characters’ names. Shirahama noted that in Japan, there’s not much confusion about the pronunciations because their names are written in katakana. However, she notes that the emphasis in her characters’ names always goes on the first syllable and then down. So Quifrey would be pronounced “KEY-free.” 

The next question came from a librarian awaiting their license who can’t wait to recommend the manga to their students. They asked about Shirahama’s inspirations for creating fantasy worlds. Shirahama reflected that when thinking about fantasy worlds, she imagined a very European medieval aesthetic style, and studied the art style of those times, particularly techniques like etching and dotting, and tried to replicate that. 

Regarding which characters she enjoys drawing the most, she noted that while main characters like Coco and Quifrey are easy for her to draw, newer and important characters in the world with more ornate clothing are more difficult. Beladaruit, for example, takes her three times longer than anyone else to draw. 

Reflecting on the message and theme in the series that means the most to her, she thinks she always comes back to the message of believing in yourself and the process that you went through to get where you are. She believes that’s a message everyone can resonate with, but particularly hopes it will for younger readers, as she herself resonated with that message when she was a youth. 

When asked whether she faces artist’s or writer’s block, she responded that we all face blocks. However, when you become a pro, no matter what you do there’s a deadline, and so she powers through blocks. 

When Shirahama studied design in art school, she learned to think of page layouts from the point of view. Specifically, she studied in school how to draw the eye through a page. She wants people to pay attention to how she frames a panel. 

Ever since Shirahama played RPG games as a child, there’s always be a mage character or class who used healing magic. She felt they were under-explored, and wanted to develop such characters more in her own story.

The next question came from a fem Miles Morales cosplayer, who told Shirahama her thoughts about the series in Japanese. They were a recent fan, having only just found out about the series at Kodansha House. It is a really meaningful story to them, and they wished they’d read it sooner, telling Shirahama in Japanese “Thank you for making the manga.” They also shouted-out their friend who introduced her to the series, who hand-made their cosplay costume.

Shirahama was asked whether they’ll sell the Brimmed Cap she’s wearing as official merchandise. She speculated that when the anime comes out, maybe they’ll start selling her hat in NYC. She jokes that if so, only people wearing them will get to make it to or be permitted to join her autograph signings.

Nectarish, an Olruggio cosplayer and fan artist, asked which character she’d be friends with, Shirahama noted she loves all the friendships in the story, but the only character who’d still be up at hours when she’d still be working would be Olruggio. So, if she turned on a Zoom call, he’d still be up to talk. The cosplayer then gave Shirahama their own drawing of Quifrey to her as a gift. 

On the ideological conflict between the Witch’s Assembly and the Brimmed Caps in the series, Shirahama mused that joining a magic school or working with a Brimmed Cap are both tough choices to make, and it’s a problem that there’re only those two choices for aspiring witches. She stated that’s the focus of the story, including questioning whether the Brimmed Cap’s ways should really be illegal or not. 

The last audience question came from another Olruggio cosplayer, who is also a video game maker who’s work has been inspired by Witch Hat Atelier. They ask her about her horror inspirations as an adult. Shirahama reflected how a lot of kids books are actually really scary and traumatizing. In particular, the portrayal of nothingness in The Neverending Story 2 left an impression on her, and she thinks it’s influenced a bit of WHA’s story. 

Shirahama concluded the panel by thanking the audience for their questions. She enjoyed the variety of questions asked, and thanked her fans for thinking so deeply about her work. Ivan noted that the artwork she drew for the live-drawing would be shown at Kodansha House later that day, and later would be displayed at the Kinokuniya in NYC. As Shirahama left the stage to loving applause, you couldn’t help but feel that every Witch Hat Atelier fan in the room felt a kindred connection in sharing such a magical hour, moment, and memories with their favorite artist. 

About The Author Siddharth Gupta

Siddharth Gupta is an illustrator, animator, and writer based in Minnesota. They graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Animation from the School of Visual Arts, and have worked on projects for the University of Minnesota and the Shreya R. Dixit Foundation. An avid animation and comics fan since childhood, they've turned their passion towards being both a creator and a critic. They credit their love for both mediums to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, which has also defined their artistic and comedic sensibilities. A frequent visitor to their local comic book shop, they are an avid reader and collector, particularly fond of manga. Their favorite comics include The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed, and pretty much anything and everything by Rumiko Takahashi.

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