Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 10 “A Promise In Silver”: The Defeat Of Ableism [Review]

Witch Hat Atelier shows off the defeat of ableism via a bit of magic by Coco and Tartah in Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver”. Specifically: this episode shows off the harmful effects ableism has on a kid’s development, with the disability in this case essentially being monochromacy / total color blindness. However, this episode also shows off the sheer joy that someone gets when they show all those ableists that they’re utterly and completely wrong.

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver”: Details in Brief

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver” is the tenth episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1-2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, and Ep. 9 here) of this dark fantasy anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Kamome Shirahama.

Bug Films (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead) is the animation studio behind this anime. Ayumu Watanabe is the director of this anime, with Jun Shinohara as the assistant director, Hiroshi Seko as the writer, and Yuka Kitamura as the composer for the music.

The opening theme song for Witch Hat Atelier is “Kaze no Ansemu” by Eve ft. suis from Yorushika. Meanwhile, “Tada Utsukushii Noroi” by Nakamura Hak is the ending theme song.

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver”: The Good

While the story is indeed the best part about Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver”, the title is a bit misleading. The spell that Coco (voiced by Rena Motomura (JP) and Anjali Kunapaneni (EN)) comes up with doesn’t actually let Tartah (voiced by Mutsumi Tamura (JP) and Emily Neves (EN)) see color. Rather, it lets him see the shapes of the things prior to them being made into medicine. It’s not a cure-all spell, but rather, it’s a workaround to his color blindness, and that is the brilliant part of the plan. The spell and the story as a whole doesn’t treat Tartah’s color blindness as a disease to be cured, but rather, they treat it as something to work around without having to erase it.

The brilliant part about that workaround is that it defeats multiple aspects of ableism seen in this very episode. Yes, Tartah’s color blindness is something that makes his life difficult, but it’s not a result of the condition itself. Rather, it’s depicted to be the fault of his ableist society doing pretty much nothing to accommodate him. Leaving bottles completely unlabeled and differentiated only by color? Yes, that society does have a legitimate reason for doing so, but it still ends up discriminating against Tartah and every other color blind person by making it impossible for them to be able to tell apart the bottle contents. However, Coco’s spell gives Tartah a perfect workaround that gets around his ableist society. On top of that, that spell is actually the result of both Coco and Tartah contributing equally to the spell, giving it additional value for this lesson.

Oh, and kudos to Bug Films’ animation team for giving us glimpses into how Tartah sees the world. Seeing the world entirely in monochrome really hammers it home just how much Tartah’s society makes it difficult for him and his color blindness. It also further enhances just how wonderful the spell is when we see the plants and things sprout forth from the bottles in monochrome light, allowing Tartah to finally be able to tell bottle contents apart even when the ingredients have been ground down into powder.

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver”: The Bad

Alas, if you only like violence, then Ep. 10 “A Promise in Silver” will likely bore you. There is not a single instance of bloody action in this entire episode. The closest we get is when a fire breaks out in a bar in town. However, we don’t ever see the victims of the fire. We only see the burning building itself, and then the immediate aftermath, and we also don’t see how the fire is put out because it’s not the focus of this episode’s story. If you want to watch action, then you will need to wait for the next episode of Witch Hat Atelier.

Anime Recommendations

If you can’t wait for the action though, then there are many other options. You can check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, Nyaight of the Living Cat, May I Ask for One Final Thing?, TRIGUN STARGAZE, and/or Daemons of the Shadow Realm for some bloody action. However, if you want a more calm story or a more dramatic one, then you might like watching Spy x Family, Senpai is an Otokonoko, Apocalypse Hotel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, My Dress-Up Darling, This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Hana-Kimi, and/or Journal with Witch.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Witch Hat Atelier? Tell us your silvery thoughts in the comments section below.

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