Witch Hat Atelier: The Brimmed Caps, Explained

They hide their faces, break the rules every other witch lives by, and sit at the dark heart of Witch Hat Atelier. Here is who the Brimmed Caps really are: their origin, what they believe, the forbidden magic they wield, why they want Coco, how dangerous they are, and where they stand now that Season 2 is confirmed. Spoilers ahead.

Who are the Brimmed Caps?

In the world of Witch Hat Atelier, magic is tightly controlled. Sanctioned witches wear pointed hats with the brims pinned up, follow strict rules, and keep the true nature of magic hidden from ordinary people. The Brimmed Caps are the witches who broke away from that order. They wear hats with long, drooping brims and ornaments that conceal their faces, a deliberate rejection of the open-faced, rule-bound society they oppose.

Far from a loose band of outlaws, they operate as an organised coven, gathering in large numbers and then splitting into smaller cells to carry out their plans, which keeps their full structure and leadership a mystery for much of the story.

Brimmed Caps vs Pointed Caps

	Pointed Caps	Brimmed Caps
Hat	Brim pinned up, face visible	Long brim hides the face
Magic law	Follow the Day of the Pact	Reject it; use forbidden magic
Belief	Magic must be controlled and hidden	Magic should be free and shared
Role	Society's lawful witches	The series' main antagonists

The Day of the Pact: the rulebook they reject

To understand the Brimmed Caps you need the law they are rebelling against. Generations of misuse, from manufactured monsters to bids for eternal youth, ended in the Day of the Pact. From then on only witches authorised by the Great Hall could practise magic, ordinary people, the unknowing, were kept from learning that a spell is simply a drawing, and whole categories of magic were banned outright. A memory-erasing spell became the tool that keeps the secret: when someone outside the order sees a spell being drawn, the standard answer is to take the memory away.

The Brimmed Caps are what happens when witches decide that settlement was a mistake. They do not quietly bend the rules for personal gain; they treat the Pact itself as the problem, and everything they do is aimed at breaking it open.

What do they actually believe?

The Brimmed Caps are not villains for villainy's sake, and their ideology is what makes them compelling. They argue that the rules binding magic exist to keep power in the hands of a privileged few, gatekept by fear and secrecy. In their view, restricting who may learn magic, and what they may do with it, is a form of control over ordinary people. They want magic opened up to everyone, regardless of birth or formal apprenticeship.

That belief puts them in direct conflict with the world Coco is being raised into, and it complicates the story's morality: their methods are monstrous, but their grievance with the system is not entirely wrong. Coco herself is proof that anyone can learn to draw a spell, and the lawful response to someone like her is to wipe her memory. The anime puts the question in the title of episode 7, "Who Is Magic For?", and the Brimmed Caps are the characters most willing to answer it out loud.

Forbidden magic: where their power comes from

What truly sets the Brimmed Caps apart is the magic they are willing to use. Sanctioned witches are forbidden from casting offensive spells, altering living bodies, or marking magic directly onto skin. The Brimmed Caps embrace all three:

• Offensive magic: spells meant to harm, which lawful witches will not cast.
• Body alteration: magic that reshapes living things, with horrifying results.
• Spell tattoos: drawing magic onto their own or others' bodies, bypassing the need for paper and ink.

It is this magic that scarred Coco's life from the very beginning, tying the coven directly to her personal story and to the secrets her teacher Qifrey is chasing.

Why the Brimmed Caps want Coco

Coco's story starts with them. Years before the series opens, a masked witch sold her a picture book full of spell symbols. When she finally copies one, the spell seals her mother inside blue crystal, and Coco becomes Qifrey's only lead on that book and the stranger who handed it over. That is a large part of why he takes her on as an apprentice instead of wiping her memory.

The coven's interest did not end with the book. Iguin and Sasaran want Coco to practise forbidden magic and call her a "child of hope", someone who could bring the banned spells back into the world. There is a cruel logic to it: forbidden magic is the only thing that can undo forbidden magic, so every harm they cause around her doubles as a temptation. Qifrey, meanwhile, is running a private hunt for the Brimmed Caps that his apprentices know nothing about, which makes the atelier a quiet battleground long before the fighting starts.

Who hunts them: the Knights Moralis

The Great Hall's answer to the Brimmed Caps is the Knights Moralis, a magic police force formed soon after the Day of the Pact to enforce the law and erase the memories of anyone who breaks it. They are not gentle. In episode 8, "The Misgivings of the Knights Moralis", Coco and Agott rescue Custas from a landslide, Coco's spell turns the surrounding ground to sand, and a knight decides forbidden magic has been used, detains both girls and prepares to erase Coco's memory. Richeh and Tetia get them out, and Qifrey arrives to settle it.

The episode matters for understanding the Brimmed Caps because it shows the crack they work on. The lawful order is so afraid of forbidden magic that its enforcers will punish a child on suspicion alone, which makes the coven's pitch, that the system protects itself rather than people, far easier for a victim to believe.

Known members

Member	Notes
Iguin	A cold, formidable Brimmed Cap and one of the coven's most dangerous figures
Sasaran	An active operative who clashes directly with the apprentices
Custas	A tragic figure drawn into the coven's orbit
Ininia & Restys	Further members tied to the group's wider schemes

How powerful are they?

Because they ignore the limits placed on lawful witches, the Brimmed Caps are extraordinarily dangerous in a direct fight: offensive and body-altering magic gives them options no sanctioned witch is trained to counter. Their real strength, though, is secrecy. Anonymity, cells and infiltration let them strike from inside the very institutions meant to stop them. They are less an army and more a hidden hand, which is exactly what makes them so hard to fight.

Sasaran shows the method in the Season 1 finale. He pilots an empty cloak from a distance, so the apprentices spend the fight chasing a puppet while the witch himself never risks his own skin.

The Brimmed Caps in the anime's first season

The anime, directed by Ayumu Watanabe at Bug Films, ran 13 episodes on Crunchyroll from 6 April to 22 June 2026 and topped our spring 2026 picks, and the finale is where the coven steps into the open. At Serpentback Cave, the hollowed-out remains of the city of Romonon, Agott, Richeh and Euini, a nervous apprentice from another atelier, are sitting their second test when Sasaran arrives. Cut off from their examiner, the three are hunted through the tunnels. Sasaran pins Agott and starts carving a casting seal into her forearm, and Euini is taken in her place and turned into a scaled beast with forbidden transformation magic. Elsewhere in the cave, Qifrey is badly hurt shielding Coco and Tetia.

Episode 13 adapts chapters 22 and 23, which close volume 4 of the manga, so the season stops mid-crisis. If you cannot wait, chapter 24 at the start of volume 5 carries on with nothing repeated.

Season 2: what comes next for the Brimmed Caps

A second season was confirmed on 29 June 2026, straight after episode 13's Japanese television broadcast, with Watanabe and Bug Films returning and Crunchyroll streaming it worldwide outside Asia. A first teaser followed at Anime Expo in early July. As of October 2026 there is still no premiere date or release window, so treat any date you see quoted as a guess.

The direction is clearer than the schedule. Watanabe has said the story grows darker from here, and because season one stops in the middle of Sasaran's attack, the Brimmed Caps should be the first problem season two has to deal with. New to the series? Start with our guide to why Witch Hat Atelier is a must-watch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the Brimmed Caps in Witch Hat Atelier?

They are a coven of rogue witches and the series' main antagonists, who reject the laws of sanctioned magic and wield forbidden spells. Their long-brimmed hats hide their faces.

What do the Brimmed Caps want?

They believe magic should be accessible to everyone rather than controlled by a sanctioned elite, and they are willing to use forbidden magic to challenge that system.

Why are they called Brimmed Caps?

Their hats have long brims and ornaments that conceal their faces, the opposite of the pinned-up pointed caps worn by lawful witches.

Why do the Brimmed Caps want Coco?

Iguin and Sasaran call her a "child of hope" and want her to practise forbidden magic. Because only forbidden magic can undo the spell that sealed her mother in crystal, they have a hold over her that lawful witches do not.

Is Witch Hat Atelier getting a Season 2?

Yes. A second season was confirmed on 29 June 2026, immediately after the first season's Japanese television finale, and Crunchyroll will stream it worldwide outside Asia. As of October 2026 no premiere date or window has been announced.

How many episodes is the Witch Hat Atelier anime?

The first season is 13 episodes, released on Crunchyroll from 6 April to 22 June 2026, and it adapts the manga up to chapter 23, the end of volume 4.