English Dub Review: Hatena Illusion “Episode 8”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Hatena Illusion Episode 8 opens with the children instructed to hand over their magical artifacts and leave the mansion at the behest of their Aunt Mariah via Lady Morrigan. Hatena expresses her unease with the command, but assurance from Jeeves that it is the right thing to do quickly silences her complaints.

Dina appears once more to annoy our main characters. In the way from the start of the episode, he prevents Makoto from approaching an “off-limits” room even though he only has intentions of cleaning and later interrupts his attempts to impress Sir Camelot with an illusion by doing the same trick – but with Basic magic.

Hatena and Yumemi brainstorm and decide to reach out to their mother for assistance. Yumemi sets to the task of creating the necessary artifact. Unfortunately for her older sister, Yumemi’s first attempt spazzes out and attacks Hatena instead of anything of use.

Following multiple failed attempts, Yumemi finally finds success in creating an artifact with the ability to attack. Quickly losing control of her new creation, Yumemi and Hatena look to Gaugau and Muffy for protection while Makoto saves the day by breaking the artifact. Despite the kids handling the situation, Aunt Mariah uses it as an excuse to back her play.

Ema makes it clear that her allegiance lies with the children, stating that she’ll leave alongside them. Revealing her secret to the manipulative Mariah, Ema shows that her artifact was already a uniform and the property of Ema herself, meaning that if she were to leave the mansion, the object would go as well, regardless of Maeve’s enchantment on the item. We get a closer look at the motives behind Ema’s choices and why she supports and shields the children from the world.

Admitting that the children have no hope of avoiding artifacts in their lives due to their bloodline, Ema and Jeeves agree to help train them and prepare them to assist Maeve in her attempts of reclaiming all of the scattered artifacts. Viewers get treated to the twist that Jeeves is an artifact tasked to protect their bloodline for generations, dating back to Morrigan herself. With a much younger form and plenty of stamina, the butler sets out to train the children for combat.

Our Take:

Episode 8 might be my favorite episode of the series to date. The decision to lean on the mysterious character of Ema much supports the storyline, and the confidence she shows is a breath of fresh air, contrasting the constant nerves and uncertainty of the children that come with their age. In episode 6.5, which was a recap of the series by some of the Japanese cast mentioned that Makoto and Hatena are in the age range that falls between middle and high school, so that would make sense.

Aunt Mariah utilizes her charisma in an attempt to manipulate the opinion of the other adults. She hopes to sway them to help her evict the kids from the mansion, which is more interesting than an adult arguing with children for an entire episode. Allowing the audience the opportunity to understand the motives behind many of the characters’ decisions, Episode 8 excels where previous installments lacked.

Dina leaves me wanting for a better rival character, though. The bully trope falls flat when it comes to Sir Camelot’s nephew, and his constant whining and forced interactions are easily the worst part of the episode. Another subplot follows in which the father arrives once again with the same vague and tired excuse as to where he was, w is.

Episode 8 proves an improvement for the character of Sir Gregory Camelot as well. The great magician has meaningful interactions with his apprentice Dina, the eager-to-impress Makoto, and his senior apprentice and Hatena’s father, Mamoru. We get to see that for whatever reason, Sir Camelot holds Dina in higher regard than he does Mamoru – at least as far as he admits. These advancements in the character’s arc made me much less critical of the famous British magician and gave him purpose outside of expressed importance.

Although Hatena’s mother, Maeve, created many of the artifacts seen throughout Hatena Illusion, Episode 8 explores Yumemi’s attempt to enchant one of her success, and I very much enjoyed it. Allowing the kids the opportunity to do something on their own for once, they manage to handle the situation on their own despite initially losing control. Unfortunately for Hatena, Yumemi, and Makoto, their botched attempt to create an attack artifact plays right into the manipulative ploy of their Aunt Mariah, lending weight to her suggestion to kick out the children.

The best part of the episode for me was the choice to explore the characters of Ema and Jeeves. Revealing how the mysteries behind each of them both assist in the protection of the kids, they gained validated purposes. Not only that, but their motives made sense and were exciting plot developments.

We learn that Jeeves to be an artifact himself, but boy was that show worth the wait! And let’s talk about Jeeves’ guardian form! The old butler can transform into a younger, combat-ready version of himself to guard and train Hatena, Yumemi, and Makoto when it comes to fighting.

When Ema reveals the juicy bit that no one can take her artifact, it is incredibly satisfying to see Mariah get a brilliantly-placed wrench in her plans. Now that we have finally explored the reasons behind their motives, we can hopefully look forward to the rest of the season benefiting from their support.

While the first half of the first season of Hatena Illusion was slow and at times tedious, the second half has seemed to pick up. Including new characters and introducing depth to many of the stagnant people in the show kept my attention much more focused on what’s going on instead of thinking of ways it could improve. If the series continues on its current trajectory, it should be smooth sailing from here on out for the remainder of the season. At least I certainly hope that’s the case.