Radiant

Belated thoughts on Episode 19:

Yeah, I still feel that the Majesty is rather a scummy individual although Seth got a bit of a celebration and glad that there is a bit of a character development for him and Alma's come back and Rumble Town ended up becoming a better place than before I guess same with Pompo Hills.

I hope they give a good explanation next episode, because as it is now, this resolution seems to go against everything that the arc was trying to say.

Well, he does get affected by the events of Rumble Town, in that he discovers that he has this Superpowered Evil Side that he can't control that could very well hurt people around him, and that the Thaumaturges seem to be hunting him specifically, both of which make him believe that he would be better off continuing his quest alone without involving his friends, since he doesn't want to endanger them with his mere presence. And the next arc seems like it might explore a different factor of the nature of prejudice and discrimination.

As for Rumble Town aftermath, yeah it was tied up a bit too neatly. To the story's credit, there are several mitigating factors, as Lyendith pointed out. Perhaps if at some later point we get to revisit Rumble Town, we can get some proper development and closure. The barons in the current arc did mention the factories that were lost in the attack, after all, so it's not impossible.

Edited by danime91 on Feb 11th 2019 at 4:35:58 AM

I forgot to post:

Episode 20:

Welp... The episode is a fucking filler I guess and it's about the aftermath regarding the Inquisition's reputation after the Rumble Town incident and yeah, it got hit pretty hard thanks to that especially on Dragunov's squad who tries to search for more food. And poor Dragunov that he will be punished by the higher-up Inquisition. But in the meantime, I think this episode is also going to set up for a big arc which won't going to happen unless if the show getting a second season. Meanwhile, I don't really care that much about the Sidequest on Seth regarding him finding a coffee for Doc's best friend so yeah...

@Lyendith So... The manga is still at Cyfandir arc or not?

The Cyfandir arc runs from volume 5 to volume 10, so it ended just recently. And it's awesome.

So yeah, this ep… no news of Rumble Town, sadly, outside of the economic situation. Much like episode 9 I liked the focus on Dragunov, but for god knows what reason they felt it was important to dedicate a third of the episode to Doc and his squid's coffee adventures… Interesting info on Von Teppes' status, which was a big What Happened to the Mouse? in the manga.

On another note, it's a pity that the anime removed Ullmina's Covert Pervert character trait. That made her funnier (and although a little creepier).

That truly makes sense.

@Lyendith Also, once the anime's over... Yeah, have to admit that I would love to PM you regarding on Konrad's Complete Monster status and definitely argue on his inclusion. But I think I need to PM so that it would make the arguments a little bit accurate on what happen in the anime.

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Feb 19th 2019 at 1:11:58 AM

I am still unsure if Konrad died or not.

The one good Inquisitor is gonna get punished. Typical.

About that, if you don't mind spoilers… his "punishment" is to take Von Teppes' place as a Thaumaturge.

Random thoughts:

Is it me or is Hameline reminds me of Lucy from Elfen Lied. I think its one of the reasons why watching this anime wasnt a bad idea to begin with along with the theme song

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Feb 18th 2019 at 9:20:45 PM

Both being tragic monsters who became that way due to an extremely abusive childhood at the hands of humans, yeah, I can see the resemblance. It is a fairly common character archetype, though.

@danime91 yea... Thats about it. Since Counterpart Comparsion has been cut. Feel like Hameline could be an Expy of Lucy I guess? That and I also feel that Konrad almost reminds me a bit of Frollo with badass mustache.

Expy = obviously and intentionally identical character, not vaguely similar.

I don't really see much in common between the two, honestly. =[

right... i still think Hameline almost reminds me of Lucy but thats just me.

Also another random thoughts:

Everytime I play Radiant OP, it blends pretty well with Murder Princess OP, Black Clover 3rd OP and My Hero Academia OP. Is it a coincidence :3

Still haven't actually watched the anime. I'm just reading the manga. Which is almost caught up with the raws, since we're just starting the battle between the sorcerer knights and the Inquisition.

While I think Queen Bodicea's use of Spectrums to terrorize the populace into not cooperating with the barons is terrible, damn if she isn't badass.

And also this is probably gonna be really obvious but does the theory that Myr is actually Merlin already exist? Because the words "I do not share this land" could be very much taken out of context in the way of "I don't own it in the first place, so it's not mine to share". And Myr's been around long enough and can do all sorts of crazy things with Fantasia.

Edited by danime91 on Feb 19th 2019 at 11:34:23 AM

Hmm, it seems like Boadicea wasn't actually aware of the Spectrum conspiracy. She looked genuinely confused when Ocoho confronted her… But yes, she's badass alright.

Speaking of the latest scanlations, my god, Piodon is a treacherous piece of shit. "Precious little brother", my ass.

As for Myr… I haven't seen anyone speculate about that I think? Not in MD's comments at least. You made an interesting point about the quote, though.

It's cool to have someone who follows the scans here. Volume 11 comes out next week in France, so they won't be stuck for long either.

If you watch the anime, I'd advise you to skip episode 7, 8 and 10, they're just useless filler.

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 19th 2019 at 9:22:13 PM

I'm curious on what will be the latest arc that Radiant will cover?

What do you mean?

Anyway, volume 11 is out! And boy, things went to shit fast in this new arc. Grimm is up to shady stuff, we meet two new inquisitors, a new Domitor, and a new… something. Doc is captured by the creature, while Seth, Mélie and Ocoho are captured by the Domitor. Not the brightest situation. The broomstick race at the beginning was a bit fillerish, but it was still fun to read − "Mario Kart on brooms", as the author put it.

I'm a bit amused that the new inquisitor is called "Sargon" and has a badass woman as a bodyguard. A woman with scars too, that's pretty rare in fiction… I already like those two, in any case.

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 21st 2019 at 2:19:56 PM

So the final episode is out. It wasn't bad, the animation in the second half was actually pretty gorgeous, even… but in terms of content, it feels mostly redundant. They just really wanted to emphasize that Seth's Superpowered Evil Side is dangerous, which we already knew. Besides, his rampage lasting a whole 30 seconds undersells the threat more than it accentuates it. Also, thanks for spoiling the end of the episode in last week's preview, guys. >.>

But the biggest surprise is after the credits. There's actually a season 2 announced!

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 23rd 2019 at 12:11:09 PM

Final Episode:

Welp... I think this will be the set up for the next arc, Cyfandir Arc as Seth will go to the capital of Cyfandir so that he could locate Radiant and destroy it and in the meantime, Seth still question whether not all Nemesis are bad or not and it ends with preventable Nemesis attacks so yeah...

Final thoughts: Radiant is an okay anime. There's some weaker parts I'll have to admit such as the cliched motivation of the MC like most of the Shonen MC and several uneccessary filler arcs like the Broom Race or Coffee quest arc. (They're okay but feels rather unecessary). Although I won't gonna lie the anime had its strong points such as the Rumble Town Arc and of course, Dragunov! He's truly a Magnificent Bastard even though at the end he got punished but I think it's a good one as you say @Lyendith. That and the theme song is one of my favorite theme song of all time. So overall, Radiant is an okay anime, not the best...But not the worst either and I'm surprised that it got a season 2 which is interesting. I hope there will be less fillers in that season but we'll see.

@Lyendith As I promised, once the anime is done... I'm definitely going to PM you about something haha... :3 It's all regarding Konrad if you want to ask.

Well, ask away.

There's an interesting interview of Tony Valente from last month (in French, obviously).

He explains a bit more of the series' messages, his own mindset when drawing manga, as well as why the anime was made the way it was.

Some important bits:

• He amusingly notes that when he submitted Radiant, some publishers thought it would never catch on because it was too similar to Japanese manga and wouldn't stand out. Now that it has caught on, some comment that it only did because it's so similar to Japanese manga.
• He expresses his annoyance at those who start drawing with the intent of "crushing the competition", as he considers manga and comic artists in general should stick together, and that he wouln't be where he is if other artists hadn't paved the way in the first place.
• Back when he wrote the Rumble Town arc, he only expressed his fears − a disaster forces thousands of immigrants to leave their homeland, and when they arrive they're piled up in prisons because Rumble Town doesn't know what to do with them. Then the Syrian refugee crisis largely confirmed those fears.
• Apparently NHK tried to make RT's immigrants look more diverse (the interviewer noticed an Asian-looking immigrant in one brief scene) to avoid offending any specific group. That detail completely flew over my head, personally…
• The interviewer was particularly receptive to Piodon's speech about "picking a side" in volume 4/episode 18, as a Belgian born from both Flemmish and Francophone parents. There's a discussion about social networks where people increasingly tend to define themselves as members of a group and reject everyone outside of that group. Tony says Seth's refusal to pick one side largely reflects his own mindset, but that whatever you do your actions will cause the other sides to move in reaction anyway.
• According to Tony, the anime was initially supposed to adapt all the volumes available (there were 8 at the time), but they ultimately decided to stick with the Rumble Town arc because there was just too much to cram in, which partly explains the weird episode count and numerous fillers.
• Tony's favorite episodes in the anime are episode 3 (Seth and Alma's flashback) and 9 (the Dragunov episode), because the former was the way he would tell that story now and the latter reinforced the series' theme of no side being entirely black or white, as well as providing a good transition to the RT arc.
• Apparently all the fillers in the first half of the season were meant to make the relationship between the 3 heroes more concrete and easier to grasp for the anime's younger audience before the main arc started. According to the Japanese anyway. There's a comparison made with the early episodes of the One Piece anime, which look surprisingly childish in retrospect.

@Lyendith And sent btw.

Also, that was some...Interesting interviews

On another note, it's rather insignificant but trope-wise I was wondering if Ocoho◊ (the girl in my avatar) counted as Ambiguously Brown…

So the scanlations have caught up to that chapter. The one that punched me in the gut the first time I read it.

The Gysoni torture scene, the reveal of Ullmina's miracle, and the "Why do you do that, Tony?" scene…

That is indeed VERY nasty gut punch