Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”: Beginner’s Nightmare Test [Review]

Witch Hat Atelier gives Coco a bit of a nightmare test for beginner witches in Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”. However, it’s even more of a nightmare test for Coco since she literally only just started learning about magic a day prior. But with a very hostile classmate pushing her into doing this test and no adult around to control the situation, there’s only one thing for Coco to do: learn to fly by jumping off a metaphorical (and almost literal) cliff.

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”: Details in Brief

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test” will be the third episode (you can read the review for Ep. 1-2 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.

Synopsis

Alas, Witch Hat Atelier has only just made its official debut. In fact, Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test” won’t make its own debut until April 13, 2026 exclusively on Crunchyroll. Thus, without the official synopsis of this episode, we can only give you the official synopsis of the anime as a whole from Crunchyroll below:

“In a world where only witches can cast magic, they must avoid being seen by ordinary people while casting. While Coco does her chores, she daydreams of becoming a witch. When a young witch named Qifrey visits her village, Coco uncovers the “absolute secret,” becomes Qifrey’s apprentice, and begins her studies. This is the story of children who encounter despair, yet reach out toward hope.”

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”: The Good

The original story by Kamome Shirahama is still one of the best things about Witch Hat Atelier, including (and especially) for Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”. There are many facets and perspectives to this story (including the teacher’s trip to an undersea magical city), but the primary perspective is from Coco (voiced by Rena Motomura (JP) and Anjali Kunapaneni (EN)). Her story is essentially one big test of survival, perseverance, and ingenuity as she figures out the fundamental problem of how to obtain herbs from atop some floating boulders.

Why, you might ask? Well, because she was essentially pushed/bullied into doing it by a fellow classmate named Agott (voiced by Hibiku Yamamura (JP) and Madeleine Morris (EN)), who is herself basically jealous that Coco became one of the students of their teacher Qifrey (voiced by Natsuki Hanae (JP) and Joshua Waters (EN)) without taking the basic entrance exam that all new witch-hopefuls have to take.

While that is technically true, there’s a fundamental problem with Agott’s thought process. See, the thing Agott doesn’t seem to realize is that she and the other students had literal years to prepare for that high-flying entrance exam. Not only that, but they took that same test on easy mode in the times of the year when the boulders weren’t flying as high. The only thing you can really conclude here is that Agott concocted this test in the hopes of forcing Coco to fail through some very unfair circumstances, or even outright hoping to kill Coco. Fortunately, neither case happens, which would’ve likely forced Qifrey to take some drastic actions against Agott either way. At the very least though, I do believe Agott needs some stern Words after this incident.

Story aside, I have to also give praise to the animation quality. Bug Films’ animation team really cooked hard with the animation quality, giving us an anime that’s as good as feature-length anime films, and may even exceed some in pure detail alone. You can literally see strands of Coco’s hair and her clothes realistically billowing in the wind, and close-ups of her face reveal that they even drew individual eyelashes framing Coco’s beautifully detailed eyes. This is truly an anime that goes above and beyond to deliver a good-looking show.

Witch Hat Atelier Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test”: The Bad

For fans of bloody action, Ep. 3 “The Dadah Range Test” is not for you. There’s no blood in this episode in the slightest. The action is a bit debatable though. The episode is mostly focused on Coco’s ingenuity and inventiveness, but when her invention does come to life, it comes to life in style and in force. The result is very much an action sequence that involves no small amount of high-speed aerial acrobatics from Coco that wouldn’t be out of place in a shonen anime. However, there is no enemy to fight. The only enemy Coco has to worry about is physics and her own ability to control her invention’s flight path. If that still doesn’t sound like action to you, then oh well.

Anime Recommendations

If you do want to watch some bloody action, then there are alternatives. 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 that. However, if you want some more quiet anime like this one, then you might also like 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 do you think of this upcoming episode of Witch Hat Atelier? Tell us your testy thoughts in the comments section below.

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