Makoto Shiranui dreams of becoming a magician and arrives in Tokyo to become a student of the world-famous illusionist Mamoru Hoshisato, a friend of his family. At the station, he is robbed by a beautiful thief, and when he arrives at the teacher's mansion, it turns out that his childhood friend Kana, who happens to be the daughter of his future teacher, has changed a lot. And now they do not understand each other at all.
The series' protagonist and Kana's childhood friend. He aims to become a magician and moves to Tokyo to pursue that dream, but ends up serving the Hoshisato family.
Makoto's childhood friend who becomes a thief. She is nicknamed "Hatena", which is an alternate reading of her given name and means question mark, although she dislikes that nickname.
Shueisha published four volumes of the light novel series under their Dash X Bunko imprint, with the latest volume published on November 25, 2015. The series is unfinished owing to the death of Tomohiro Matsu in May 2016.[5][6] Shueisha later launched a new series, Hatena Illusion R,[2] with the first volume being published on August 23, 2019.[7]
Pochi Edoya launched a manga adaptation of the series in Niconico Seiga online website on November 27, 2018.[13] Shueisha published the first tankōbon volume on January 17, 2020.[2]
In March 2017, an anime adaptation of Hatena Illusion was announced at AnimeJapan.[5] The adaptation was later announced in 2019 to be a television series animated by Children's Playground Entertainment and directed by Shin Matsuo, with Tatsuya Takahashi handling series composition, Ruizu Nakano designing the characters, and Kenichi Kuroda composing the music.[2] The series aired from January 9 to June 3, 2020 on BS NTV, MBS, and Tokyo MX.[18]Liyuu performed the series' opening theme song "Magic Words", while Aina Suzuki performed the series' ending theme song "Hikari Iro no Uta" (ヒカリイロの歌).[2]Funimation licensed the series for a SimulDub.[19] Due to "various reasons", the twelfth and final episode was postponed from its April broadcast until June 3.[20]