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I re-created Google’s cute Gemini ad with my own kid’s stuffie, and I wish I hadn’t

I re-created Google’s cute Gemini ad with my own kid’s stuffie, and I wish I hadn’t

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When your kid starts showing a preference for one of their stuffed animals, you’re supposed to buy a backup in case it goes missing.

I’ve heard this advice again and again, but never got around to buying a second plush deer once “Buddy” became my son’s obvious favorite. Neither, apparently, did the parents in Google’s newest ad for Gemini.

It’s the fictional but relatable story of two parents discovering their child’s favorite stuffed toy, a lamb named Mr. Fuzzy, was left behind on an airplane. They use Gemini to track down a replacement, but the new toy is on backorder. In the meantime, they stall by using Gemini to create images and videos showing Mr. Fuzzy on a worldwide solo adventure — wearing a beret in front of the Eiffel tower, running from a bull in Pamplona, that kind of thing — plus a clip where he explains to “Emma” that he can’t wait to rejoin her in five to eight business days. Adorable, or kinda weird, depending on how you look at it! But can Gemini actually do all of that? Only one way to find out.

I fed Gemini three pictures of Buddy, our real life Mr. Fuzzy, from different angles, and gave it the same prompt that’s in the ad: “find this stuffed animal to buy ASAP.” It returned a couple of likely candidates. But when I expanded its response to show its thinking I found the full eighteen hundred word essay detailing the twists and turns of its search as it considered and reconsidered whether Buddy is a dog, a bunny, or something else. It is bananas, including real phrases like “I am considering the puppy hypothesis,” “The tag is a loop on the butt,” and “I’m now back in the rabbit hole!” By the end, Gemini kind of threw its hands up and suggested that the toy might be from Target and was likely discontinued, and that I should check eBay.

‘I am considering the puppy hypothesis’

In fairness, Buddy is a little bit hard to read. His features lean generic cute woodland creature, his care tag has long since been discarded, and we’re not even 100 percent sure who gave him to us. He is, however, definitely made by Mary Meyer, per the loop on his butt. He does seem to be from the “Putty” collection, which is a path Gemini went down a couple of times, and is probably a fawn that was discontinued sometime around 2021. That’s the conclusion I came to on my own, after about 20 minutes of Googling and no help from AI. The AI blurb when I do a reverse image search on one of my photos confidently declares him to be a puppy.

Gemini did a better job with the second half of the assignment, but it wasn’t quite as easy as the ad makes it look. I started with a different photo of Buddy — one where he’s actually on a plane in my son’s arms — and gave it the next prompt: “make a photo of the deer on his next flight.” The result is pretty good, but his lower half is obscured in the source image so the feet aren’t quite right. Close enough, though.

The ad doesn’t show the full prompt for the next two photos, so I went with: “Now make a photo of the same deer in front of the Grand Canyon.” And it did just that — with the airplane seatbelt and headphones, too. I was more specific with my next prompt, added a camera in his hands, and got something more convincing.

Looks plausible enough.
Image: Gemini / The Verge

Safety first, Buddy.
Image: Gemini / The Verge

I can see how Gemini misinterpreted my prompt. I was trying to keep it simple, and requested a photo of the same deer “at a family reunion.” I did not specify his family reunion. So that’s how he ended up crashing the Johnson family reunion — a gathering of humans. I can only assume that Gemini took my last name as a starting point here because it sure wasn’t in my prompt, and when I requested that Gemini created a new family reunion scene of his family, it just swapped the people for stuffed deer. There are even little placards on the table that say “deer reunion.” Reader, I screamed.

<em>I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this family in a pharmaceutical commercial before.</em>
<em>Oh deer.</em>

1/2

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this family in a pharmaceutical commercial before.
Image: Gemini / The Verge

For the last portion of the ad, the couple use Gemini to create cute little videos of Mr. Fuzzy getting increasingly adventurous: snowboarding, white water rafting, skydiving, before finally appearing in a spacesuit on the moon addressing “Emma” directly. The commercial whips through all these clips quickly, which feels like a little sleight of hand given that Gemini takes at least a couple of minutes to create a video. And even on my Gemini Pro account, I’m limited to three generated videos per day. It would take a few days to get all of those clips right.

Gemini wouldn’t make a video based on any image of my kid holding the stuffed deer, probably thanks to some welcome guardrails preventing it from generating deepfakes of babies. I started with the only photo I had on hand of Buddy on his own: hanging upside down, air-drying after a trip through the washer. And that’s how he appears in the first clip it generated from this prompt: Temu Buddy hanging upside down in space before dropping into place, morphing into a right-side-up astronaut, and delivering the dialogue I requested.

A second prompt with a clear photo of Buddy right-side-up seemed to mash up elements of the previous video with the new one, so I started a brand new chat to see if I could get it working from scratch. Honestly? Nailed it. Aside from the antlers, which Gemini keeps sneaking in. But this clip also brought one nagging question to the forefront: should you do any of this when your kid loses a beloved toy?

I gave Buddy the same dialogue as in the commercial, using my son’s name rather than Emma. Hearing that same manufactured voice say my kid’s name out loud set alarm bells off in my head. An AI generated Buddy in front of the Eiffel Tower? Sorta weird, sorta cute. AI Buddy addressing my son by name? Nope, absolutely not, no thank you.

How much, and when, to lie to your kids is a philosophical debate you have with yourself over and over as a parent. Do you swap in the identical stuffie you had in a closet when the original goes missing and pretend it’s all the same? Do you tell them the truth and take it as an opportunity to learn about grief? Do you just need to buy yourself a little extra time before you have that conversation, and enlist AI to help you make a believable case? I wouldn’t blame any parent choosing any of the above. But personally, I draw the line at an AI character talking directly to my kid. I never showed him these AI-generated versions of Buddy, and I plan to keep it that way.

Nope, absolutely not, no thank you.

But back to the less morally complex question: can Gemini actually do all of the things that it does in the commercial? More or less. But there’s an awful lot of careful prompting and re-prompting you’d have to do to get those results. It’s telling that throughout most of the ad you don’t see the full prompt that’s supposedly generating the results on screen. A lot depends on your source material, too. Gemini wouldn’t produce any kind of video based on an image in which my kid was holding Buddy — for good reason! But this does mean that if you don’t have the right kind of photo on hand, you’re going to have a very hard time generating believable videos of Mr. Sniffles or whoever hitting the ski slopes.

Like many other elder millennials, I think about Calvin and Hobbes a lot. Bill Watterson famously refused to commercialize his characters, because he wanted to keep them alive in our imaginations rather than on a screen. He insisted that having an actor give Hobbes a voice would change the relationship between the reader and the character, and I think he’s right. The bond between a kid and a stuffed animal is real and kinda magical; whoever Buddy is in my kid’s imagination, I don’t want AI overwriting that.

The great cruelty of it all is knowing that there’s an expiration date on that relationship. When I became a parent, I wasn’t at all prepared for the way my toddler nuzzling his stuffed deer would crack my heart right open. It’s so pure and sweet, but it always makes me a little sad at the same time, knowing that the days where he looks for comfort from a stuffed animal like Buddy are numbered. He’s going to outgrow it all, and I’m not prepared for that reality. Maybe as much as we’re trying to save our kids some heartbreak over their lost companion, we’re really trying to delay ours, too.

All images and videos in this story were generated by Google Gemini.

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The humanoid robotics market is awash in money right now. Last week, AI2 Robotics, a Shenzhen-based startup that makes wheeled humanoid robots, raised roughly $735 million at a nearly $3 billion valuation. Earlier this year, Apptronik, an Austin-based maker of humanoid robots for manufacturing and logistics, closed a $935 million funding round valuing the company at more than $5.5 billion. Last fall, Figure AI, a San Jose-based startup developing general-purpose humanoid robots, self-reported that it closed on $1 billion in Series C funding at an eye-popping $39 billion valuation.

By comparison, Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, is surprisingly measured. We spoke by phone last week, just after the company announced plans to go public through a merger with Michael Klein’s Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal values Agility at around $2.5 billion and is expected to raise more than $620 million in gross proceeds, the largest capital raise in humanoid robotics history. It hasn’t closed yet; the merger still needs shareholder approval and SEC review, and is expected to be completed later this year.

Agility was founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Oregon State University. Based in Salem, Oregon, the company makes bipedal humanoid robots designed to work in warehouses and factories. Its SPAC maneuver is notable for a few reasons. It would make Agility the first pure-play humanoid robotics company to trade on public markets, giving retail investors direct exposure to a sector that has so far been available primarily to deep-pocketed VC funds. It also offers a rare window into the finances of a business in a space where most competitors closely guard their numbers and even the state of the tech they are building.

Johnson — formerly executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, where she helped engineer the $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, and later CEO of Magic Leap, the once-hyped augmented reality headset maker — was careful throughout our conversation. She declined to offer forward-looking financial guidance, declined to disclose the bill of materials for Agility’s flagship robot Digit, and pushed back politely whenever questions veered toward speculation.

Asked why Agility is going public via a SPAC rather than raising another private round — a structure that skips the roadshow and pricing scrutiny of a traditional IPO — Johnson said much of it boils down to the first-mover advantage the company enjoys when it’s the first of its ilk to go public. For investors clamoring for shares in a buzzy robotics company, Agility is “an acceleration story and a timing story,” she said. The proceeds will also help Agility ramp up production at its 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon, and fulfill an existing pipeline of customer orders.

As for the troubled reputation of SPACs — many companies that went public that way in 2021 famously fizzled out entirely or trade well below their offering price — Johnson was unfazed. “If we just keep our head down, keep delivering customer by customer, robot by robot, we hopefully won’t experience the same volatility,” she said. “Our biggest competitor right now is just us. How quickly we can execute, how quickly we can continue to add new skills.”

The pipeline goes well beyond pilots, Johnson told TechCrunch, pointing to more than $300 million in booked, multi-year revenue that represents roughly 1,000 robots that are part of a robots-as-a-service model in which customers pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing the machines outright. “Everybody on our list right now is already vetted, and they have deployment plans behind their proof of concepts,” Johnson said. Customers include GXO Logistics, Amazon, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre.

Digit itself is a deliberately unfussy piece of hardware. It stands about 5’9″, weighs around 160 pounds, and is designed to do one thing exceptionally well, which is move heavy objects in human-built spaces. Its most distinctive feature is a set of reverse-bend knees — they’ve been called “bird legs” — that allow it to reach from floor level to overhead shelving without the knees colliding with warehouse racking. (Agility’s founders, Johnson explained, weren’t interested in biomimicry for its own sake.) The robot’s hands — two thumbs and two fingers — are similarly task-specific; they’re optimized for gripping heavy plastic totes, even as their contents shift in transit.

Johnson said Agility is “LLM-agnostic,” drawing on models including Claude and Gemini to handle what she calls the semantic layer — translating high-level instructions into robot behavior. She described a recent test in which engineers scattered different types of trash on the floor and told Digit simply to “clean up this mess.” The robot assessed, sorted, and binned everything correctly, including correctly identifying bubble wrap as non-recyclable.

Of course, it’s the physical layer — the mechanics of balance, locomotion, and manipulation — that Agility considers its core proprietary advantage, one built up over more than a decade of real-world deployment. “The LLMs had the entire internet to train on,” she said. “When you think about the physical AI of humanoids — that doesn’t quite exist yet.” At most companies, anyway. Johnson believes Agility is the exception: “We may have the largest data lake of actual operating robotics data in real-world environments.”

Beyond raw data, Johnson said, safety is where the gulf between Agility and its competitors is biggest and most consequential. While rival companies showcase their robots in lab demos and choreographed videos, Agility has had to meet actual industrial safety certification requirements to operate inside customer facilities. “You can’t build your robot and then make it safe,” she said. “That’s a redesign. You have to have all of the safety certified — the electrical system, all of the parts, and the software to support all of that.” (It’s not a trivial concern given that humans are often somewhere in the room. Back in November, Figure AI’s former head of product safety sued the company, alleging he was fired after raising concerns that its robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. Figure has disputed the claims.)

As for the home, Johnson thinks humanoids will get there eventually, but she said not to expect them to deliver breakfast in bed anytime soon. It’ll be “10-plus years,” she said of the timeline, observing that warehouses and factories, for all their complexity, have fixed aisles and predictable equipment and workflows unlike homes that are chaotic, with dogs, babies, visitors, and objects left in unexpected places.

“At least roads have some discipline to them,” Johnson added, comparing the challenge to that of autonomous vehicles. “Most of the areas that humanoids will be operating in don’t.”

Agility isn’t ruling out the home market. Johnson said the company will enter it when it makes sense. For now, though, it’s laser focused on the warehouse market, given the growing numbers of retiring workers and younger workers who aren’t willing to take physically demanding roles. “There’s something like over a million jobs in the US today in these areas that are unfilled,” she said. “They’re just very, very hard to hire for.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#humanoid #robotics #company #public #CEO #isnt #promising #robot #home #anytime #TechCrunchagility robotics,Peggy Johnson,SPAC">This humanoid robotics company is going public, but its CEO isn’t promising a robot in your home anytime soon | TechCrunch The humanoid robotics market is awash in money right now. Last week, AI2 Robotics, a Shenzhen-based startup that makes wheeled humanoid robots, raised roughly 5 million at a nearly billion valuation. Earlier this year, Apptronik, an Austin-based maker of humanoid robots for manufacturing and logistics, closed a 5 million funding round valuing the company at more than .5 billion. Last fall, Figure AI, a San Jose-based startup developing general-purpose humanoid robots, self-reported that it closed on billion in Series C funding at an eye-popping billion valuation. By comparison, Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, is surprisingly measured. We spoke by phone last week, just after the company announced plans to go public through a merger with Michael Klein’s Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal values Agility at around .5 billion and is expected to raise more than 0 million in gross proceeds, the largest capital raise in humanoid robotics history. It hasn’t closed yet; the merger still needs shareholder approval and SEC review, and is expected to be completed later this year. Agility was founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Oregon State University. Based in Salem, Oregon, the company makes bipedal humanoid robots designed to work in warehouses and factories. Its SPAC maneuver is notable for a few reasons. It would make Agility the first pure-play humanoid robotics company to trade on public markets, giving retail investors direct exposure to a sector that has so far been available primarily to deep-pocketed VC funds. It also offers a rare window into the finances of a business in a space where most competitors closely guard their numbers and even the state of the tech they are building. Johnson — formerly executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, where she helped engineer the billion acquisition of LinkedIn, and later CEO of Magic Leap, the once-hyped augmented reality headset maker — was careful throughout our conversation. She declined to offer forward-looking financial guidance, declined to disclose the bill of materials for Agility’s flagship robot Digit, and pushed back politely whenever questions veered toward speculation. Asked why Agility is going public via a SPAC rather than raising another private round — a structure that skips the roadshow and pricing scrutiny of a traditional IPO — Johnson said much of it boils down to the first-mover advantage the company enjoys when it’s the first of its ilk to go public. For investors clamoring for shares in a buzzy robotics company, Agility is “an acceleration story and a timing story,” she said. The proceeds will also help Agility ramp up production at its 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon, and fulfill an existing pipeline of customer orders. As for the troubled reputation of SPACs — many companies that went public that way in 2021 famously fizzled out entirely or trade well below their offering price — Johnson was unfazed. “If we just keep our head down, keep delivering customer by customer, robot by robot, we hopefully won’t experience the same volatility,” she said. “Our biggest competitor right now is just us. How quickly we can execute, how quickly we can continue to add new skills.” The pipeline goes well beyond pilots, Johnson told TechCrunch, pointing to more than 0 million in booked, multi-year revenue that represents roughly 1,000 robots that are part of a robots-as-a-service model in which customers pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing the machines outright. “Everybody on our list right now is already vetted, and they have deployment plans behind their proof of concepts,” Johnson said. Customers include GXO Logistics, Amazon, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre. Digit itself is a deliberately unfussy piece of hardware. It stands about 5’9″, weighs around 160 pounds, and is designed to do one thing exceptionally well, which is move heavy objects in human-built spaces. Its most distinctive feature is a set of reverse-bend knees — they’ve been called “bird legs” — that allow it to reach from floor level to overhead shelving without the knees colliding with warehouse racking. (Agility’s founders, Johnson explained, weren’t interested in biomimicry for its own sake.) The robot’s hands — two thumbs and two fingers — are similarly task-specific; they’re optimized for gripping heavy plastic totes, even as their contents shift in transit. Johnson said Agility is “LLM-agnostic,” drawing on models including Claude and Gemini to handle what she calls the semantic layer — translating high-level instructions into robot behavior. She described a recent test in which engineers scattered different types of trash on the floor and told Digit simply to “clean up this mess.” The robot assessed, sorted, and binned everything correctly, including correctly identifying bubble wrap as non-recyclable. Of course, it’s the physical layer — the mechanics of balance, locomotion, and manipulation — that Agility considers its core proprietary advantage, one built up over more than a decade of real-world deployment. “The LLMs had the entire internet to train on,” she said. “When you think about the physical AI of humanoids — that doesn’t quite exist yet.” At most companies, anyway. Johnson believes Agility is the exception: “We may have the largest data lake of actual operating robotics data in real-world environments.” Beyond raw data, Johnson said, safety is where the gulf between Agility and its competitors is biggest and most consequential. While rival companies showcase their robots in lab demos and choreographed videos, Agility has had to meet actual industrial safety certification requirements to operate inside customer facilities. “You can’t build your robot and then make it safe,” she said. “That’s a redesign. You have to have all of the safety certified — the electrical system, all of the parts, and the software to support all of that.” (It’s not a trivial concern given that humans are often somewhere in the room. Back in November, Figure AI’s former head of product safety sued the company, alleging he was fired after raising concerns that its robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. Figure has disputed the claims.) As for the home, Johnson thinks humanoids will get there eventually, but she said not to expect them to deliver breakfast in bed anytime soon. It’ll be “10-plus years,” she said of the timeline, observing that warehouses and factories, for all their complexity, have fixed aisles and predictable equipment and workflows unlike homes that are chaotic, with dogs, babies, visitors, and objects left in unexpected places. “At least roads have some discipline to them,” Johnson added, comparing the challenge to that of autonomous vehicles. “Most of the areas that humanoids will be operating in don’t.” Agility isn’t ruling out the home market. Johnson said the company will enter it when it makes sense. For now, though, it’s laser focused on the warehouse market, given the growing numbers of retiring workers and younger workers who aren’t willing to take physically demanding roles. “There’s something like over a million jobs in the US today in these areas that are unfilled,” she said. “They’re just very, very hard to hire for.” When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#humanoid #robotics #company #public #CEO #isnt #promising #robot #home #anytime #TechCrunchagility robotics,Peggy Johnson,SPAC

$735 million at a nearly $3 billion valuation. Earlier this year, Apptronik, an Austin-based maker of humanoid robots for manufacturing and logistics, closed a $935 million funding round valuing the company at more than $5.5 billion. Last fall, Figure AI, a San Jose-based startup developing general-purpose humanoid robots, self-reported that it closed on $1 billion in Series C funding at an eye-popping $39 billion valuation.

By comparison, Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, is surprisingly measured. We spoke by phone last week, just after the company announced plans to go public through a merger with Michael Klein’s Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal values Agility at around $2.5 billion and is expected to raise more than $620 million in gross proceeds, the largest capital raise in humanoid robotics history. It hasn’t closed yet; the merger still needs shareholder approval and SEC review, and is expected to be completed later this year.

Agility was founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Oregon State University. Based in Salem, Oregon, the company makes bipedal humanoid robots designed to work in warehouses and factories. Its SPAC maneuver is notable for a few reasons. It would make Agility the first pure-play humanoid robotics company to trade on public markets, giving retail investors direct exposure to a sector that has so far been available primarily to deep-pocketed VC funds. It also offers a rare window into the finances of a business in a space where most competitors closely guard their numbers and even the state of the tech they are building.

Johnson — formerly executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, where she helped engineer the $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, and later CEO of Magic Leap, the once-hyped augmented reality headset maker — was careful throughout our conversation. She declined to offer forward-looking financial guidance, declined to disclose the bill of materials for Agility’s flagship robot Digit, and pushed back politely whenever questions veered toward speculation.

Asked why Agility is going public via a SPAC rather than raising another private round — a structure that skips the roadshow and pricing scrutiny of a traditional IPO — Johnson said much of it boils down to the first-mover advantage the company enjoys when it’s the first of its ilk to go public. For investors clamoring for shares in a buzzy robotics company, Agility is “an acceleration story and a timing story,” she said. The proceeds will also help Agility ramp up production at its 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon, and fulfill an existing pipeline of customer orders.

As for the troubled reputation of SPACs — many companies that went public that way in 2021 famously fizzled out entirely or trade well below their offering price — Johnson was unfazed. “If we just keep our head down, keep delivering customer by customer, robot by robot, we hopefully won’t experience the same volatility,” she said. “Our biggest competitor right now is just us. How quickly we can execute, how quickly we can continue to add new skills.”

The pipeline goes well beyond pilots, Johnson told TechCrunch, pointing to more than $300 million in booked, multi-year revenue that represents roughly 1,000 robots that are part of a robots-as-a-service model in which customers pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing the machines outright. “Everybody on our list right now is already vetted, and they have deployment plans behind their proof of concepts,” Johnson said. Customers include GXO Logistics, Amazon, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre.

Digit itself is a deliberately unfussy piece of hardware. It stands about 5’9″, weighs around 160 pounds, and is designed to do one thing exceptionally well, which is move heavy objects in human-built spaces. Its most distinctive feature is a set of reverse-bend knees — they’ve been called “bird legs” — that allow it to reach from floor level to overhead shelving without the knees colliding with warehouse racking. (Agility’s founders, Johnson explained, weren’t interested in biomimicry for its own sake.) The robot’s hands — two thumbs and two fingers — are similarly task-specific; they’re optimized for gripping heavy plastic totes, even as their contents shift in transit.

Johnson said Agility is “LLM-agnostic,” drawing on models including Claude and Gemini to handle what she calls the semantic layer — translating high-level instructions into robot behavior. She described a recent test in which engineers scattered different types of trash on the floor and told Digit simply to “clean up this mess.” The robot assessed, sorted, and binned everything correctly, including correctly identifying bubble wrap as non-recyclable.

Of course, it’s the physical layer — the mechanics of balance, locomotion, and manipulation — that Agility considers its core proprietary advantage, one built up over more than a decade of real-world deployment. “The LLMs had the entire internet to train on,” she said. “When you think about the physical AI of humanoids — that doesn’t quite exist yet.” At most companies, anyway. Johnson believes Agility is the exception: “We may have the largest data lake of actual operating robotics data in real-world environments.”

Beyond raw data, Johnson said, safety is where the gulf between Agility and its competitors is biggest and most consequential. While rival companies showcase their robots in lab demos and choreographed videos, Agility has had to meet actual industrial safety certification requirements to operate inside customer facilities. “You can’t build your robot and then make it safe,” she said. “That’s a redesign. You have to have all of the safety certified — the electrical system, all of the parts, and the software to support all of that.” (It’s not a trivial concern given that humans are often somewhere in the room. Back in November, Figure AI’s former head of product safety sued the company, alleging he was fired after raising concerns that its robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. Figure has disputed the claims.)

As for the home, Johnson thinks humanoids will get there eventually, but she said not to expect them to deliver breakfast in bed anytime soon. It’ll be “10-plus years,” she said of the timeline, observing that warehouses and factories, for all their complexity, have fixed aisles and predictable equipment and workflows unlike homes that are chaotic, with dogs, babies, visitors, and objects left in unexpected places.

“At least roads have some discipline to them,” Johnson added, comparing the challenge to that of autonomous vehicles. “Most of the areas that humanoids will be operating in don’t.”

Agility isn’t ruling out the home market. Johnson said the company will enter it when it makes sense. For now, though, it’s laser focused on the warehouse market, given the growing numbers of retiring workers and younger workers who aren’t willing to take physically demanding roles. “There’s something like over a million jobs in the US today in these areas that are unfilled,” she said. “They’re just very, very hard to hire for.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#humanoid #robotics #company #public #CEO #isnt #promising #robot #home #anytime #TechCrunchagility robotics,Peggy Johnson,SPAC">This humanoid robotics company is going public, but its CEO isn’t promising a robot in your home anytime soon | TechCrunch

The humanoid robotics market is awash in money right now. Last week, AI2 Robotics, a Shenzhen-based startup that makes wheeled humanoid robots, raised roughly $735 million at a nearly $3 billion valuation. Earlier this year, Apptronik, an Austin-based maker of humanoid robots for manufacturing and logistics, closed a $935 million funding round valuing the company at more than $5.5 billion. Last fall, Figure AI, a San Jose-based startup developing general-purpose humanoid robots, self-reported that it closed on $1 billion in Series C funding at an eye-popping $39 billion valuation.

By comparison, Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, is surprisingly measured. We spoke by phone last week, just after the company announced plans to go public through a merger with Michael Klein’s Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal values Agility at around $2.5 billion and is expected to raise more than $620 million in gross proceeds, the largest capital raise in humanoid robotics history. It hasn’t closed yet; the merger still needs shareholder approval and SEC review, and is expected to be completed later this year.

Agility was founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Oregon State University. Based in Salem, Oregon, the company makes bipedal humanoid robots designed to work in warehouses and factories. Its SPAC maneuver is notable for a few reasons. It would make Agility the first pure-play humanoid robotics company to trade on public markets, giving retail investors direct exposure to a sector that has so far been available primarily to deep-pocketed VC funds. It also offers a rare window into the finances of a business in a space where most competitors closely guard their numbers and even the state of the tech they are building.

Johnson — formerly executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, where she helped engineer the $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, and later CEO of Magic Leap, the once-hyped augmented reality headset maker — was careful throughout our conversation. She declined to offer forward-looking financial guidance, declined to disclose the bill of materials for Agility’s flagship robot Digit, and pushed back politely whenever questions veered toward speculation.

Asked why Agility is going public via a SPAC rather than raising another private round — a structure that skips the roadshow and pricing scrutiny of a traditional IPO — Johnson said much of it boils down to the first-mover advantage the company enjoys when it’s the first of its ilk to go public. For investors clamoring for shares in a buzzy robotics company, Agility is “an acceleration story and a timing story,” she said. The proceeds will also help Agility ramp up production at its 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon, and fulfill an existing pipeline of customer orders.

As for the troubled reputation of SPACs — many companies that went public that way in 2021 famously fizzled out entirely or trade well below their offering price — Johnson was unfazed. “If we just keep our head down, keep delivering customer by customer, robot by robot, we hopefully won’t experience the same volatility,” she said. “Our biggest competitor right now is just us. How quickly we can execute, how quickly we can continue to add new skills.”

The pipeline goes well beyond pilots, Johnson told TechCrunch, pointing to more than $300 million in booked, multi-year revenue that represents roughly 1,000 robots that are part of a robots-as-a-service model in which customers pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing the machines outright. “Everybody on our list right now is already vetted, and they have deployment plans behind their proof of concepts,” Johnson said. Customers include GXO Logistics, Amazon, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre.

Digit itself is a deliberately unfussy piece of hardware. It stands about 5’9″, weighs around 160 pounds, and is designed to do one thing exceptionally well, which is move heavy objects in human-built spaces. Its most distinctive feature is a set of reverse-bend knees — they’ve been called “bird legs” — that allow it to reach from floor level to overhead shelving without the knees colliding with warehouse racking. (Agility’s founders, Johnson explained, weren’t interested in biomimicry for its own sake.) The robot’s hands — two thumbs and two fingers — are similarly task-specific; they’re optimized for gripping heavy plastic totes, even as their contents shift in transit.

Johnson said Agility is “LLM-agnostic,” drawing on models including Claude and Gemini to handle what she calls the semantic layer — translating high-level instructions into robot behavior. She described a recent test in which engineers scattered different types of trash on the floor and told Digit simply to “clean up this mess.” The robot assessed, sorted, and binned everything correctly, including correctly identifying bubble wrap as non-recyclable.

Of course, it’s the physical layer — the mechanics of balance, locomotion, and manipulation — that Agility considers its core proprietary advantage, one built up over more than a decade of real-world deployment. “The LLMs had the entire internet to train on,” she said. “When you think about the physical AI of humanoids — that doesn’t quite exist yet.” At most companies, anyway. Johnson believes Agility is the exception: “We may have the largest data lake of actual operating robotics data in real-world environments.”

Beyond raw data, Johnson said, safety is where the gulf between Agility and its competitors is biggest and most consequential. While rival companies showcase their robots in lab demos and choreographed videos, Agility has had to meet actual industrial safety certification requirements to operate inside customer facilities. “You can’t build your robot and then make it safe,” she said. “That’s a redesign. You have to have all of the safety certified — the electrical system, all of the parts, and the software to support all of that.” (It’s not a trivial concern given that humans are often somewhere in the room. Back in November, Figure AI’s former head of product safety sued the company, alleging he was fired after raising concerns that its robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. Figure has disputed the claims.)

As for the home, Johnson thinks humanoids will get there eventually, but she said not to expect them to deliver breakfast in bed anytime soon. It’ll be “10-plus years,” she said of the timeline, observing that warehouses and factories, for all their complexity, have fixed aisles and predictable equipment and workflows unlike homes that are chaotic, with dogs, babies, visitors, and objects left in unexpected places.

“At least roads have some discipline to them,” Johnson added, comparing the challenge to that of autonomous vehicles. “Most of the areas that humanoids will be operating in don’t.”

Agility isn’t ruling out the home market. Johnson said the company will enter it when it makes sense. For now, though, it’s laser focused on the warehouse market, given the growing numbers of retiring workers and younger workers who aren’t willing to take physically demanding roles. “There’s something like over a million jobs in the US today in these areas that are unfilled,” she said. “They’re just very, very hard to hire for.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#humanoid #robotics #company #public #CEO #isnt #promising #robot #home #anytime #TechCrunchagility robotics,Peggy Johnson,SPAC
Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay.

Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List

Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game.

TierInnate Techniques
S TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul King
A TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul Manipulation
B TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw Doll
C TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing Courage
D TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique

S Tier Innate Techniques

A Tier Innate Techniques

B Tier Innate Techniques

C Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Inspired by the hit anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay. Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game. TierInnate TechniquesS TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul KingA TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul ManipulationB TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw DollC TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing CourageD TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique S Tier Innate Techniques A Tier Innate Techniques B Tier Innate Techniques C Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsBlood Manipulation• Visually impressive abilities• Can bind enemies and apply pressure• Inconsistent damage• Low overall damageBoogie Woogie• Excellent mobility and disruption• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights• Lacks raw damageBlazing Courage• Decent choice for the early game• Features flashy fire effects• Not strong enough for high-level content D Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsCloning Technique• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Clones are easy to destroy• Very low damageConstruction• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Difficult to aim• Performs poorly in PvPTool Manipulation• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Lacks damage output #Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox
Blood Manipulation		• Visually impressive abilities
• Can bind enemies and apply pressure		• Inconsistent damage
• Low overall damage
jujutsu infinite b tier
Boogie Woogie		• Excellent mobility and disruption
• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights		• Lacks raw damage
Blazing-Courage
Blazing Courage		• Decent choice for the early game
• Features flashy fire effects		• Not strong enough for high-level content

D Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Cloning-Technique
Cloning Technique		• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Clones are easy to destroy
• Very low damage
construstions
Construction		• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Difficult to aim
• Performs poorly in PvP

Tool Manipulation		• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Lacks damage output
#Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox">Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Inspired by the hit anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay. Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game. TierInnate TechniquesS TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul KingA TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul ManipulationB TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw DollC TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing CourageD TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique S Tier Innate Techniques A Tier Innate Techniques B Tier Innate Techniques C Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsBlood Manipulation• Visually impressive abilities• Can bind enemies and apply pressure• Inconsistent damage• Low overall damageBoogie Woogie• Excellent mobility and disruption• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights• Lacks raw damageBlazing Courage• Decent choice for the early game• Features flashy fire effects• Not strong enough for high-level content D Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsCloning Technique• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Clones are easy to destroy• Very low damageConstruction• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Difficult to aim• Performs poorly in PvPTool Manipulation• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Lacks damage output #Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox

lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay.

Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List

Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game.

TierInnate Techniques
S TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul King
A TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul Manipulation
B TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw Doll
C TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing Courage
D TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique

S Tier Innate Techniques

A Tier Innate Techniques

B Tier Innate Techniques

C Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Inspired by the hit anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay. Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game. TierInnate TechniquesS TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul KingA TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul ManipulationB TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw DollC TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing CourageD TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique S Tier Innate Techniques A Tier Innate Techniques B Tier Innate Techniques C Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsBlood Manipulation• Visually impressive abilities• Can bind enemies and apply pressure• Inconsistent damage• Low overall damageBoogie Woogie• Excellent mobility and disruption• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights• Lacks raw damageBlazing Courage• Decent choice for the early game• Features flashy fire effects• Not strong enough for high-level content D Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsCloning Technique• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Clones are easy to destroy• Very low damageConstruction• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Difficult to aim• Performs poorly in PvPTool Manipulation• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Lacks damage output #Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox
Blood Manipulation		• Visually impressive abilities
• Can bind enemies and apply pressure		• Inconsistent damage
• Low overall damage
jujutsu infinite b tier
Boogie Woogie		• Excellent mobility and disruption
• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights		• Lacks raw damage
Blazing-Courage
Blazing Courage		• Decent choice for the early game
• Features flashy fire effects		• Not strong enough for high-level content

D Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Cloning-Technique
Cloning Technique		• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Clones are easy to destroy
• Very low damage
construstions
Construction		• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Difficult to aim
• Performs poorly in PvP

Tool Manipulation		• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Lacks damage output
#Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox">Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List

Inspired by the hit anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay.

Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List

Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game.

TierInnate Techniques
S TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul King
A TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul Manipulation
B TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw Doll
C TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing Courage
D TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique

S Tier Innate Techniques

A Tier Innate Techniques

B Tier Innate Techniques

C Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Inspired by the hit anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Infinite lets players master a variety of powerful Innate Techniques. However, not every Technique is equally powerful, even if it has a higher rarity. Some perform much better in battles, while others are better left behind. If you’re unsure which Technique deserves your spins, this Jujutsu Infinite Innate tier list will help you find the strongest choices for both PvP and PvE gameplay. Best Jujutsu Infinite Innate Tier List Every Innate Technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent for most situations, while others have limited use. We have ranked every Technique from S Tier to D Tier to make your choice easier. Your main Innate Technique should ideally come from the S or A Tier. These Techniques deliver serious damage and powerful Domain abilities. B- and C-tier techniques are better suited for support roles. They can help you build, but aren’t reliable for challenging content. These rankings reflect their overall performance across the game. TierInnate TechniquesS TierInfinity, Star Rage, Demon Vessel, Thunder God, Gambler Fever, Ancient Construction, Soul KingA TierCurse Queen, Volcano, Hydrokinetics, Projection, Puppet, Soul ManipulationB TierRatio, Plant Manipulation, Judgment, Curse Speech, Cryokinesis, Straw DollC TierBlood Manipulation, Boogie Woogie, Blazing CourageD TierTool Manipulation, Construction, Cloning Technique S Tier Innate Techniques A Tier Innate Techniques B Tier Innate Techniques C Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsBlood Manipulation• Visually impressive abilities• Can bind enemies and apply pressure• Inconsistent damage• Low overall damageBoogie Woogie• Excellent mobility and disruption• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights• Lacks raw damageBlazing Courage• Decent choice for the early game• Features flashy fire effects• Not strong enough for high-level content D Tier Innate Techniques TechniqueProsConsCloning Technique• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Clones are easy to destroy• Very low damageConstruction• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Difficult to aim• Performs poorly in PvPTool Manipulation• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques• Lacks damage output #Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox
Blood Manipulation		• Visually impressive abilities
• Can bind enemies and apply pressure		• Inconsistent damage
• Low overall damage
jujutsu infinite b tier
Boogie Woogie		• Excellent mobility and disruption
• Good combo potential in 1v1 and team fights		• Lacks raw damage
Blazing-Courage
Blazing Courage		• Decent choice for the early game
• Features flashy fire effects		• Not strong enough for high-level content

D Tier Innate Techniques

TechniqueProsCons
Cloning-Technique
Cloning Technique		• Decent mobility• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Clones are easy to destroy
• Very low damage
construstions
Construction		• Can stun enemies• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Difficult to aim
• Performs poorly in PvP

Tool Manipulation		• No major advantages• One of the weakest Innate Techniques
• Lacks damage output
#Jujutsu #Infinite #Innate #Tier #ListRoblox
“big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier.

At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion.

‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator, Coco Star on How the Anime Exceeded Expectations As far as contemporary anime is concerned, the “big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier. At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion. Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9 Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations? Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVFk9w5qA[/embed] Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9URbx38AIY[/embed] io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco? Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most. Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up. io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story? Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward. Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1sPU4F1n4[/embed] io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why? Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese. Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qoRHqDt8[/embed] io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps? Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion! Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those. Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production. io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier
Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9

Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations?

Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands.

Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater.

io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco?

Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most.

Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up.

io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story?

Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward.

Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward.

io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why?

Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese.

Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain.

io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps?

Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion!

Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those.

Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production.

io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier">‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator, Coco Star on How the Anime Exceeded Expectations As far as contemporary anime is concerned, the “big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier. At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion. Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9 Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations? Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVFk9w5qA[/embed] Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9URbx38AIY[/embed] io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco? Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most. Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up. io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story? Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward. Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1sPU4F1n4[/embed] io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why? Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese. Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qoRHqDt8[/embed] io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps? Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion! Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those. Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production. io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier

have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier.

At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion.

‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator, Coco Star on How the Anime Exceeded Expectations As far as contemporary anime is concerned, the “big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier. At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion. Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9 Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations? Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVFk9w5qA[/embed] Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9URbx38AIY[/embed] io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco? Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most. Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up. io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story? Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward. Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1sPU4F1n4[/embed] io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why? Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese. Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qoRHqDt8[/embed] io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps? Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion! Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those. Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production. io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier
Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9

Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations?

Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands.

Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater.

io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco?

Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most.

Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up.

io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story?

Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward.

Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward.

io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why?

Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese.

Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain.

io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps?

Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion!

Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those.

Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production.

io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier">‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator, Coco Star on How the Anime Exceeded Expectations

As far as contemporary anime is concerned, the “big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier.

At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion.

‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator, Coco Star on How the Anime Exceeded Expectations As far as contemporary anime is concerned, the “big three” fantasy series have finally been christened, thanks to the wondrous arrival of the last in its holy trinity on Crunchyroll: Bug Films’ absolutely magical adaptation of Kamome Shirahama‘s beloved manga, Witch Hat Atelier. At Anime Expo 2026, io9 got to speak with Shirahama and Coco’s Japanese voice actor, Rena Motomura, about how Bug Films utilized its production delay to deliver an adaptation that honored, and occasionally outshone, the artistry of its source material, what keeps the anime community’s newly adopted daughter so optimistic in an insane world, and whether Pointed Cap witches or Brimmed Caps have the best sense of fashion. Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9 Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations? Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVFk9w5qA[/embed] Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9URbx38AIY[/embed] io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco? Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most. Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up. io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story? Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward. Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1sPU4F1n4[/embed] io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why? Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese. Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0qoRHqDt8[/embed] io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps? Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion! Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those. Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production. io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Witch #Hat #Atelier #Creator #Coco #Star #Anime #Exceeded #ExpectationsAnime,Anime Expo,Bug Films,Kamome Shirahama,Witch Hat Atelier
Kamome Shirahama’s Brushbuddy. © Isaiah Colbert/io9

Isaiah Colbert, io9: During the anime’s delay, Bug Films announced that certain scenes needed additional time and attention, hoping the anime would be as big as The Lord of the Rings for anime fans. What scenes from this season exceeded your expectations?

Rena Motomura: There are so many scenes that exceeded my expectations. But in episode one, at the end, when Coco’s screaming, “Mom,” and then Qifrey takes her up into the sky as the magic is being triggered, they’re skyward and having that moment together—I saw a bit of it in the teaser—but when I saw it in the anime episode, it made me so emotional. I saw exactly how my sensei’s world was being brought to life in anime form, and how the frames were coming together to tell this story. That’s when I knew with great conviction that we were going to have something really special on our hands.

Kamome Shirahama: This was really talked about a lot, but episode five, for me personally, when I saw it, I was super wowed. It made me really feel like I was watching a film in the theater.

io9: Shirahama‑sensei, your live‑tweeting during the broadcast has delighted fans—especially when you pose questions about characters as if you didn’t write them. Which aspects of the anime were your favorites to see realized on screen—and for Motomura‑san, which scenes were the most memorable or rewarding for you to record as Coco?

Shirahama: Yeah, for sure. There’s things that you can see in the anime that the manga doesn’t contain—certain elements that make the world more expansive, more brilliant, more rich, and colored. Those are the things I was looking forward to the most.

Motomura: For me, it’s the last scene in the dragon maze when Coco has this realization that her actions have put everyone into danger and she’s tearing up, saying, “I’m really sorry that this happened.” Up until that point, she’s been really cheerful. Really sort of outgoing. But then you realize that deep inside her heart, she’s been carrying a lot of this anxiety and worry that’s just piling up. As I was playing the character through the scene, it reminded me of how, through episodes one to three, there must have been a lot of internal thoughts—a lot of anxiety and worry. And that part I empathize with. I started tearing up doing the scene. And even when I look back on it now, I start tearing up.

io9: For many, Coco embodies hope and determination, even when the world around her feels overwhelming or insane. How does each of you interpret the way her character maintains that sense of glowing optimism, and what does she represent to you within the story?

Shirahama: Coco’s greatest motivation is her love for magic. Even when she faces situations that are fearful or scary, she knows that’s not all there is to magic. And she knows that there’s hope. And she holds on to that hope as her core belief. And that’s what moves her forward.

Motomura: Coco has this enormous admiration for magic. I think as long as she holds on to that admiration, she’ll be able to keep moving forward. In the story, I believe her existence is like the mast of a ship. She is a very certain presence in the story, and deep inside her heart—at her core—she holds on to this admiration for magic that’s going to carry everything forward.

io9: This season introduced a variety of intricate, hand-drawn spells. Of the spells featured so far, which one stands out as your personal favorite, and why?

Motomura: For me, it’s the very first spell that Coco came up with for herself—the straight arrow that carries her up into the sky in her time of need as she’s flying upwards. I really felt like this spell was an embodiment of her personality. In this moment, she has nothing. She has no skills, no knowledge, nothing. But she has to do something. So she comes up with this spell to help her get out of a tough situation. The name, too, is super cute. I believe Shirahama-sensei named it 空すっ飛び (sorasuttobi/Skysoaring Seal) in Japanese.

Shirahama: For me, it’s the spell that Qifrey casts in episode six when they’re trying to have a picnic in the rain, so he creates this bubble where the rain can’t touch them. I’m so jealous because we get a lot of rain in Japan, and I feel like that would be a great spell to have when you have to walk your dog in the rain.

io9: If you had to choose—based on fashion alone, no morals at play—would you see yourselves more as the Pointed Cap witches in Witch Hat Atelier or one of the Brimmed Caps?

Motomura: Oh! That’s a very difficult question. But personally, I have a bit of an ambition for the Brimmed Caps because ever since I was a child, I thought those kinds of hats were very cool. And then when I came into the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the fact that they cover their face so they can practice forbidden magic, I was like, “Oh, that is so cool.” I know that, morally speaking, as Coco, it’s a questionable answer. But I really like the Brimmed Caps…just as fashion!

Shirahama: (Laughs) I feel like the Brimmed Caps might be more popular in a place like California, where you guys get so much sun. For me, personally, I really like the silhouette of the Pointed Caps, so I prefer those.

Witch Hat Atelier is streaming on Crunchyroll, and season two is in production.

io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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