An interpretation of the cover of Witch Hat Atelier chapter 52
This was discussed among a few of us in WHAcord, and because I wrote so much, I wanted to put this somewhere more accessible. Please note that, while I have seen others do intertextual reads, mine aims to be an intratextual read.
While I love intertextuality, especially for high fantasy I really like examining things through the lens of intratextuality as well. That is, symbols and meanings that have been created within the text itself, rather than through symbols we connect from our knowledge of the outside world. Of course, I think authors, much like readers, have their own cultural referents they're applying and that they also expect an audience to read into and the most proficient ones are able to employ these as shortcuts, so I'm not saying either an inter vs intra textual read is above the other; I think they're meant to exist in conversation with each other.
So, that said...
The first thing to stand out to me is the frame around Tetia. Shirahama has used them before to represent different settings where a person's different selves present themselves; the one that exists at alone, in public, with family... In this case, it's notable that we don't see any of the background or foreground: all we know is that the background is pitch black, and light exists where the foreground is. This part, then, is leaving a world where one is kept in the dark, and stepping out into one where light allows for sight.
Clearly, the next thing to stand out, then, is that Tetia is blindfolded. This is very straightforward: even if the knowledge exists and is right in front of you, if you are forcefully kept from it—a blindfold structurally forcing her not to see, even though this should not be an impairment for her—, you will still remain in the dark. I want to point out, then, that this is not quite just a picture frame: it's more like the shape of one cut into a surface, the way a keyhole or ship door (or makeshift box shelters for animals in winter) works. The place of darkness is not just a different space, but a physically constraining one, where she wouldn't be able to even leave at all if it weren't for the space of the frame.
Now, flowers. As I said, I'm working only within the text, so despite itching to talk more about real flower symbolism, I'll leave it at this: blooming flowers pretty consistently represent wonder and new beginnings in WHA. We see them when Qifrey makes the water flower for Coco and when Agott makes the light one for her; we see them when Coco and Tartah are hopeful to start working on a contraption for Custas; it's the spell they see when they first walk into the festival at Ezrest. It's a wonder she should be made privy to as soon as she steps out into this world, yet it is also being kept from her.
Perhaps it's worth pointing out that all the ones I mentioned were magic-assisted flowers in some way, and the ones pictured in the cover can be mapped to flowers from the real world, yet the clothes of royalty she wears depict her as an outsider. Is she meant to be an outsider (clothes) who steps out into the world of witches (the ones "in the know;" thus, in the light) or a witch (her true identity) who steps out into the world of outsiders (non-magic flowers)? I think the cover is meant to obfuscate things on purpose, and to exist as an unresolved oxymoron: neither is as different as they believe they are, and both witches and outsiders can be interpreted to exist on either side.
Having brought up royalty, there is a fascinating tug of war between them and witches in WHA: royals and nobles are outsiders and are kept from the information only witches are privy to, and pay levies to them; yet they have the power to command them not to use magic (Castle Ezrest) or to command them to use it in their favor as long as it's not for war (Marquisate of Cladd). Nobles are the only ones who exist in somewhat of a balanced position of power to witches, but it's only because they can exert structural violence in somewhat of an equal measure as witches can, not because they exist in harmony.
As I was clearly getting to, the next thing is that she's wearing princess' clothes. They're even more ornamented than the ones she wears in the dress-up chapter just before, have a patterned ribbon much as is the unifying design feature of the Ezrest royal family (though Tetia's is different), and even have the diamonds at the end of the ribbons unifying it with the crown of the frame. This is, perhaps, the one element tipping the scale towards one side more than the other in terms of which side is "outside" and "inside" (and also, one intertextual element I want to bring up later).
Also, importantly, the fit of the clothes is wrong. We see this in several ways: the crown is lopsided, rather than sitting on her head; the neckline of the dress and the ribbons are falling over her shoulder rather than sitting on it; the dress is too long for her; the left sleeve goes way past her wrist and down to the palm of her hand and the cuffs are so loose that, by raising her right arm, the sleeve slides down, exposing her wrist. The symbolism to me is pretty clear: these are not her clothes, and this is a role that's too big for her. She's barefoot, as she's had to leave her own clothes to don new ones, which one usually steps out of one's shoes for, while not having had an opportunity to wear them again either due to haste or the shoes not fitting (too small shoes are painful but doable; too large are more less unwalkable). In any case, she's left completely vulnerable.
The very last thing of note is the quadryphon. Birds are usually a symbol of freedom, and this is even supported by WHA itself: flight has been a symbol of entry to the world of magic to Coco (her cloak of flight proving her worth as an apprentice), Tartah (being finally able to see pigments like witches can being the moment he's given sylph shoes), and Custas (the silverwood affecting his feet, but the wingcloak Coco and Tartah made for him still enabling the flight all witches seem to have). Being a beast created by magic, I think we're meant to read it as a representation of it, and it stands in stark contrast to the flowers of the exterior being non-magical ones. It's pulling on a binding on Tetia's wrist, but is this merely a ribbon or a bandage? In other words, is it guiding her into the light or removing a bandage that is supposed to aid healing? I think this is yet another thing that's meant to be more about the question rather than the answer, and meant to have us ponder the role of magic in both expanding the world and hindering its advance in terms of curing existing evils.
So, all in all, I think the cover as a whole is meant to talk about all the ways in which the power balance in the world is messy, have us evaluate the ways in which both witches and outsiders are ahead in different ways and in which the status of both is keeping them from necessary knowledge, and how playing a role can give you access to it whether you're prepared or not... which is totally not important for Tetia and Eoleo, and why I don't think it's coincidental that she's specifically dressed as a royal, which is the position most evenly matched to witches' as a whole.
