Popverse's top stories

• If Critical Role's Legend of Vox Machina is The Hobbit, says Marisha Ray, then Mighty Nein is Lord of the Rings
• Watch now: Marvel writer Ben Percy shows off the Wolverine claws he always keeps "within arm's reach" [Popversations]
• For Popverse members only: Watch Prime Video's official Invincible panel from NYCC 2025, with Steven Yeun, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, and Lee Pace

We’ve all been excitedly looking forward to the anime adaptation of Witch Hat Atelier for years now. The manga by Kamome Shirahama was first confirmed to be getting an anime in 2022, and it was originally meant to air in 2025. After some delays, that was pushed back to next year, but now we know that the Witch Hat Atelier anime will be coming to Crunchyroll in the Spring 2026 anime season.

In an announcement on the show’s official website, the release window for Witch Hat Atelier was confirmed for April 2026. Previously, we knew that it was coming in 2026, but this is the first time we’ve had a specific season for the anime’s release. The announcement also included news that Coco will be played by Rena Motomura and Qifrey will be voiced by Natsuki Hanae. Crunchyroll confirmed that it had the streaming rights to the show outside of Asia.

Witch Hat Atelier has been a huge success, selling more than 7 million copies since it debuted in 2016. Because of the manga’s popularity, anticipation for the anime has been high ever since it was announced. In 2024, we got an incredible trailer that only got us more excited, but, since then, we’ve just been waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Now at least we know when the waiting will be over.

The Witch Hat Atelier anime will start in April 2026 and will be streamed on Crunchyroll in most territories. A more specific release date will be confirmed closer to the time.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

• Aggretsuko vs Chainsaw Man: Two Wildly different anine with the same anti-capitalist message
• The Summer Anime season return of Kaiju No. 8, Sakamoto Days, & Dan Da Dan are forcing me to break my vow of watching less anime
• From Tomo-Chan to Oshi No Ko: How some of your favorite manga creators got their start in hentai
• Piracy is baked into anime's past, but, like Crunchyroll, we should move on from it
• Flying whales, mechs, and Miyazaki vibes: Inside Netflix's Leviathan anime with the people who made it
• How AI translations of manga continues the 'enshitification' of the medium, and why Japanese publishers are "less precious" about it
• I never wanted a Cyberpunk Edgerunners sequel, but God help me I'm going to watch it
• The Summer Hikaru Died delivers its cosmic horror at an agonizingly slow pace
• The one thing that Dan Da Dan does better than Demon Slayer ever did
• Studio Ghibli movies have never been as cozy as you think they are and that's what makes them magic