Content Warning: Fan service
What’s it about? Kurt is a kind-hearted young adventurer who is the lowest ranking member of his party. He tries to be helpful by doing menial tasks, but he’s eventually fired from his job because they need a stronger member in order to become more powerful. In his pursuit to make a living he discovers that his non-combative abilities are unusually strong and decides to use his skills to help other people.
I’m grateful that fantasy shows are going through a renaissance and the excitement leading up to Witch Hat Atelier is honestly such a treat for us fans and frankly, something to look forward to during these dark times. Unfortunately, The Unaware Atelier Meister isn’t going to be remembered as anything special. It starts off with the usual premise of an unappreciated low-ranking member of a hero group being kicked out by his comically mean teammates, and then slowly his new friends realize Kurt was talented all along! The surprise twist is that he’s skilled in construction, mining, cooking, etc. Basically, skills that aren’t usually thought of when imagining a hero’s party.
Kurt is the typical nice and extremely passive protagonist that is bossed around by everyone around him, except it doesn’t lean into excessive cruelty like other fantasy shows from last season. I’m actually grateful the first half of the premiere was smooth sailing until the fan service reared its ugly head. It’s frustrating how often fan service is used in fantasy shows in order to garner more attention, especially since so many of them recycle the same plot. However, Kurt’s internal monologue about sleeping in a tent with a half-naked woman really disturbed me since he admits “he is a man too” and proceeds to leave the tent. While the following scene tried to play it off as a testing moment of Kurt’s character, the underlying implication is clear. Women can’t feel safe being alone with men (even “nice guys”) because “men can’t control themselves.”
I hated that entire sequence and it soured my feelings about an otherwise mediocre fantasy show. Sure, there are hints that he’ll get a harem of women (they all do) and there’s definitely an audience for that, but considering we are now having more conversations about red-pill content and how that influences toxic masculinity on young men and/or boys, it’s important to continuously highlight this issue. It’s worth noting that the animation was surprisingly good, but I don’t expect that to be the winning factor for our readers. Aside from that, everything else about this episode was forgettable and I’m thankful it wasn’t a double premiere.
It’s frustrating how oversaturated the market is with C-tier fantasy shows when we know there are better stories worth adapting. Heck, I’ll even take another adaptation of Berserk with better animation if it means getting a story worth telling — despite the discourse. I know that I sound like a broken record every season, but I don’t think it’s controversial for me to say that the fantasy genre has so much potential and that we deserve to watch good fantasy shows.
I’ll pass on this one folks. There’s better fantasy shows out there worth your time and thankfully it looks like there are some decent titles to look forward to this season.
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