Whelp, it has finally come, the second season of Radiant has finally been dropped and I’m both wary and excited. The first season of Radiant was… painful at its worst and decent at its best. I do remember enjoying it to an extent, but the amount of filler that went from nearly the start all the way to the first actual arc was so bad. I understand that filler will happen in long running shows, but come on… that was too much.
In any case, this first episode was… not bad. They definitely set up a bit of intrigue, which a first episode is supposed to do. While I have a bit of minor problem with them shoving in a flash back, it wasn’t Ensemble Stars levels of disparity when it comes to flashbacks so I’ll give it a pass. Not to mention it didn’t take TWO FREAKING EPISODES. More on that later though.
Also can we just take a moment to appreciate the tonal shift of the new opening? The first opening gave all sorts of happy, whimsical and adventurous vibes. But this new opening has a darker tone and a lot more struggles. It doesn’t even show Seth smile even once. Which is sad because it’s basically saying how all of Seth’s initial optimism isn’t in the forefront anymore. I MISS SMILING SETH. However, I do appreciate that how they had a bit of ship tease between him and Melie… I hope they come back together soon… Their bond was so precious. T^T
I do appreciate that this was a fairly lowkey episode and it took its time to explain where exactly this season will be going. Not to mention Seth FINALLY addressed his concerns about his “brother” to Alma and if she knew something about him. It’s pretty evident that Alma DID know something about him. However, due to her memory loss, she’s left with only bad feelings towards him. I can only imagine that she had tried to save Seth from whatever is after him and knew exactly what they were doing. Considering the bandage that suppresses Seth’s magic on his cheek. And while it may be easy to pass off Piodon as lying, I definitely think there’s more to it than that.
Both Alma and Seth have good points on looking further into things, though I don’t think that Alma should be so passive towards it and should probably take it seriously. As for Seth, he should definitely not go charging headfirst into believing this guy as Piodon hasn’t proven himself to be someone that is trustworthy. And I do agree with Alma that Seth shouldn’t trust everything that is said to him and should try and see for himself if certain things are true or not. I do wish that Alma could have gone with Seth to wherever he’s headed though. He really needs someone to help keep him on the right track.
While I love Bossman and how he makes a great foil to Seth, I’m not sure how I feel about him becoming a servant to Alma. On one hand, it’s hilarious how he would so easily he’d follow after her. On the other… it feels like it came out of nowhere. Not to mention that despite all the terrible things he did and said to Seth, it’s all just water under the bridge now. I’m all for giving people second chances, but I feel like he was forgiven a little too quickly. So it felt a little disorienting when Seth almost immediately became buddy buddy with him. I do hope that the core of Bossman’s character didn’t change since it would take a whole lot more than Alma saving him to change his mind completely on how he views things.
In regards to the Flashback, I feel like in the long run, it didn’t really add too much. We already knew how Konrad basically slimed his way through everything to get what he wanted and that Dragunov wished he could have stopped him back then. We’ve already seen what ultimately happened to Rumble Time during that time, so it felt like a needless reflection on what happened from Dragunov’s point of view. But whatever, it didn’t really take that much away from the story since the plot hasn’t started rolling just yet.
Speaking of Dragunov, I had a feeling that his “punishment” would basically be him becoming a Thaumaturge, since he refused to become one in the past. Now that he’s officially become one of the higher ups, I do have to wonder what his “holy” ability will be. Though I’m assuming it’ll be either a power up on his eye or something to do with his archery skills. Considering his archery skills are already pretty amazing.
The holy land of the Inquisitors was actually a really cool setting. I loved the overall look to it and I really liked the lighting. Most of the time, this series feels too bright and saturated, but with the darkened, underground lighting, it gave it a more interesting feel and definitely set the tone a lot better than the natural lighting in this show. The story about the father of the Inquisition is also interesting. Telling of a tale of how one lowly farmer rebelled against the tyrannical sorcerer rulers. After hearing that story, it honestly made me think that history is repeating itself in this world. Someone with great power overturning to yet another person with great power. And whoever the one is overturned, their people get rebuked and treated like they are the lesser person. It’s like no matter what, someone will suffer in the end. Both sides cannot coexist. However, I’m sure that the story’s direction is to try and find the balance where both sides can coexist peacefully. But with how things are, there will always be a power struggle of some sort. Maybe the Nemesis came into being to temper the balance. Who knows.
This series has such good intrigue, but the first season’s execution was just so wonky that it took away from what was good from this series. I hope that the second season will deliver a better executed pace rather than go all over the place. Though from what was set up in this first episode, it looks like they’re mapping out a definitive route this time. So far, I am willing to give this series another chance to see if it gets better. But depending on when Nanatsu no Taizai comes out, I may have to drop this series in order to keep that one rolling. Hopefully the timing works out since I do want to see where the series goes.
Possibility of watching: Most likely
Possibility of blogging: High (as long as timing allows)
Just wanted to give a heads up that the next episode will be postponed as a double post next week!