English Dub Review: Hatena Illusion Episode 9

A test to prove it.

Overview:

The trio are offered one last chance to show their mettle.

Our Take:

A lot of the episode focuses on Emma, and specifically what Emma decided to gamble with. The trio is tasked with infiltrating a mansion and stealing its artifact, all to keep their stay in the estate. Most importantly, it’s Shiranui’s time to prove her abilities as a master thief.

Emma believes very heavily in the trio, especially Shiranui, so she puts her ribbon and uniform up for collateral in Shiranui’s retest. Even though they passed, Emma’s artifact was damaged in the process. It was luckily recovered, but Shiranui becomes wracked with the guilt of what if they failed. They didn’t; the mission went well, but they’re aware that Emma’s artifact meant so much to her. As it turns out, Emma is an orphan, and while she was on the street, she was relentlessly mocked for it. While she ended up being ‘stolen’ and taken in by the estate, the memories of her parents are still very valuable to her, and so she treasures what little they left her: the clothing she wears. It was incorporated into her artifact, so it’s not just something that’s valuable as a magical item, but something of great personal value. That she was able to put that up for collateral shows her belief, but also shows that in it being damaged, how much she lost.

While being a master thief depends on being able to use artifacts and fight them off equally so, there is also a sense of responsibility. Sometimes, if other people are gambling on a thief’s success, failure or worse, clumsiness, can end up with disastrous results. Luckily, the gang was able to use one of the estate’s artifacts to repair Emma’s, but the lesson remains. Care is necessary. Being responsible is necessary. Even if there is personal gain to be had from a mission’s success, it’s just as important to recall that the path Shiranui’s chosen, all its ups and downs, feature more than just herself.

While the episode does have a lot of character development, the animation is fairly stilted, even during the fight scenes. This isn’t a super high budget anime, but it was fairly noticeable. I think rather than having it be extremely strong visually, it’s better carried by the drama of the piece itself, which I think it manages to succeed in.