English Dub Review: Hatena Illusion “Episode 1”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Kana is very excited. Even though her mother is away on a secret thief/magician/witch mission, our lovely protagonist is soon to be reunited with her old friend, Makoto. Back in the day, they were both super interested in magic—the profession practiced by Kana’s entire family. As small kids, they made a pact to become partner magicians and perform live shows together. Nowadays, Makoto is coming to Kana’s family mansion to learn the craft of illusion from her father, Mamoru.

The situation couldn’t possibly get any better, until Kana learns that Makoto is a boy, not the girl she believed him to be for so many years. Oops!

Anyway, Mamoru agrees to take on Makoto as his apprentice seconds before being called away on business for an entire month. I can’t help wonder if that was preplanned. With her old man gone, Kana wants Makoto out of the house as soon as possible because she refuses to live under the same roof as a boy.

The mansion’s maid and butler really want things to work out between Kana and Makoto, for some reason, so they go out of their way to forge the relationship. First the maid, Ema, tricks Makoto into breaking a “priceless” artifact. To pay off his debt, he’s forced to become a butler apprentice, thus cementing his tenure at the estate. Kana’s dour younger sister, Yememi, also seems to enjoy Makoto—which is odd since she doesn’t seem to like anybody—and will also do whatever’s necessary to keep the young man in her life.

Once things settle a bit, Ema enlists Kana to show Makoto around town. Begrudgingly, she accepts and the two actually reminisce. On their journey, they come across a young girl and her mother. Both shower Makoto with praise over how he helped calm the girl when she was lost. Surprised by his charity, Kana begins to warm up to him a little—just a little, though.

Later, after Makoto gets the lay of the land—which is a huge mansion, and therefore not easy—Yememi notices something about his magic wand. It smells like their mother, Maeve, who has been suspiciously missing with no plans to return until a mysterious “entrance ceremony” involving Kana. The young man admits that Maeve fixed his wand many years ago after he broke it while protecting Kana from an aggressive dog.

Kana is intrigued by this development, despite not remembering the exact details. Since this item has such a direct connection to her powerful mother, she decides to steal it. To do so, she transforms into her alter-ego—the master thief, Hatena!

 

Our Take

 Alright, this show is okay. We’ve got some mystery going on here. Hatena Illusion isn’t the type of show to reveal the entirety of its plot all at once. We start with Maeve, the mother, with no explanation as to what her deal is besides that she likes to wear thigh highs while flying around the city dressed as a sexy witch. Kana knows about this, and it appears as if her dream is to commit thievery alongside her mom. That’s not normal. What does a sixteen-year-old (?) know about thieving anyway?

And then there’s Makoto. It’s no coincidence that he arrives moments before his brand new mentor is called away on “business.” Why are the domestics working so hard to keep him at the manor? They allegedly don’t have any skin in this game. But to the contrary, Ema in particular appears to have quite the vested interest in getting Makoto and Kana together. On the surface, it appears as if she’s simply a hopeless romantic who is ecstatic over the promise of young love. However, she might also be playing a more nefarious angle, one that has yet to be fully realized or explained.

Let’s talk about that butler for a second. You know, Makoto’s other new mentor. Jeeves Wodehouse is that fakest sounding butler name in the history of butling. He might as well have gone with the name Benson Riff Raff Pennyworth.

But I digress. The most intriguing of all these new characters has got to be young Yememi. This little imp is so dour and curt, one can’t help be reminded of Lydia Deetz from the groundbreaking film—and stunning new Broadway musical—Beetlejuice. How is she able to smell remnants of her mother from years before? Kana wasn’t able to do that, and she was around Makoto for an entire day. This brings up a pressing question. How powerful is this child? Will she be speaking to ghosts in the attic by episode two? Is she the promised chosen one? Or, you know, maybe she’s just an intuitive little girl.

How long until Makoto learns about Kana’s thinly veiled secret identity? He already calls her by the name Hatena most of the time anyway. She doesn’t like it—probably because it’s a huge clue into her secret identity—but as situational comedies of the past have taught us, the more a character hates something the more it’s going to reoccur. Over, and over, and over again, my friend.