Episode 10
Honestly, after seeing what this episode was gonna revolve around after the first 4 minutes, I just hung my head. It honestly felt like this series would just be forever stuck in filler purgatory for the rest of its run or something. For now, I’m just patiently (if not painfully) waiting it out until the series actually gets to a decent arc like the manga readers have been saying. I really do want to hurry up and get to the story plots that are really good because this series has a lot of potential. I mean, I got really invested in the world after only like 2 or 3 episodes before the filler wars happened.
I honestly think it was a bad move to have so much filler early on in the series. If you want to have an engaging story be told that attracts and holds your audience’s attention. Especially when people’s attention spans are quite limited these days. And if I weren’t covering Radiant, I’d probably have dropped it already. However, I am holding onto the hope that it can and will get better. Give us more of what you showed us in the first 3 eps!
With that said, there wasn’t that much going on this episode. I mean, it was the generic plot of main character entering a competition of some sort and immediately being antagonized by this one off character. Considering if Seth won the broom race, it’d help him with his debt. As soon as Nick showed up, I immediately knew he probably wasn’t going to be important after this episode. But who knows, maybe he’ll show up again, but his design just screamed generic so I wouldn’t be surprised if we never saw him again. Not to mention he’s the typical cocky rich kid who believes he’s better than everyone else and unsurprisingly got on my nerves right away.
However, my annoyance only reached a new maximum when he started badmouthing Alma. Excuse me sir, but you DO NOT badmouth this series’ lord and savior. Seth also had the same feelings to which I responded with: YEAH, YOU TELL THAT DOUCHE, SETH! ALMA ISN’T WEAK. While I appreciate the episode trying to bring back the Alma feels, the fact that they used a lot of reused footage from past episodes was a bit off putting. This episode was essentially the mid series recap.
In any case, I had a feeling Seth wasn’t going to win the race and win the prize money because it’d be too easy to help shrink his debt. Which I was right because Seth chose to hang back and save Nick two yes men when they fell, allowing Nick to win the race. Called that outcome a mile away. The filler episodes should have at least had Seth paying back his debt a little bit, but it just continues to grow and my second hand anxiety over this is frustrating to say the least.
Episode 11
HALLELUJAH. We’ve done it folks! We’ve finally made it out of filler purgatory! Thank the heavens! Just judging from the title, I figured we were finally going to start the fantasy adventure I was hoping for going into this series in the first place. After finding a request for help from someone of Rumble Town about a Nemesis, Seth and company set off to the city that roars like thunder. You don’t understand how happy I was for them to leave the accursed city of sorcerers. Though I was annoyed at how 5 min of the episode was dedicated to Doc trying to figure out how to woo Miss Melba ugh… Give it a rest Doc, please.
Not to mention Rumble Town looks lit as all heck. The world of Radiant is still a mystery at this point but after the introduction of Rumble Town, I’m so curious and excited to see more of the cities. I mean, the place is essentially steampunk city. I’ve been waiting for a development like this since Seth left Alma to go travel the world and see different places. Because Seth has spent hardly any time out of the City of Sorcerers since he left his home island, the world has always felt so confined and small since we haven’t explored anywhere else. I do hope this starts a trend of them traveling to different floating islands with their own theme because I feel like Rumble Town is just the starting line of a grand and interesting world.
Once the group lands, Doc informs them to lay low since the city is very anti-sorcerers. When they find the Nemesis, all of their reservations just kind of fly out the window and end up causing a lot of chaos and explosions. I KNOW YOU GUYS ARE CHASING A NEMESIS BUT TRY TO CAUSE TOO MUCH DAMAGE. I mean, even if they are taking a job, the Inquisition won’t care and will try and catch them.
As they chase them, Seth demonstrates the fruits of his training. And while it was cool and all to see how much more magic he’s learned, it feels like these attacks kind of came out of nowhere because the series did not build them off and had him learn them off screen. Yes we know he was training hard, but some sort of build up or just a peek at what he’s been learning would have been nice.
However, we see something interesting. The other Nemesis comes to protect its fallen comrade. From what we’ve seen so far, Nemesis seem to be sort of mindless monsters who go around attacking everyone around them. In this instance, however, we get to see some sort of protective instinct in Nemesis, showing more than mindless monsters. Unfortunately we don’t get to explore it just yet when someone seems to take control of the Nemesis and hundreds of them appear running through the city.
Things get even more complicated when the sharp toothed, bandaged guy makes his official introduction as Grimm by aggressively taking Seth aside to question him. And while, yes the guy looks shady as heck, but yelling at him won’t make your situation any better, Seth! I was getting frustrated over the fact that Seth would not tell him he just wanted to capture the Nemesis for a job. From how Grimm was wording things, he was obviously suspecting Seth of being connected to the Nemesis in a deeper sense, to which Seth didn’t catch onto unsurprisingly and unfortunately. He didn’t even need to tell him the specifics, just tell him you’re on a job and he’d probably let you go! But I digress. Grimm gets away and the Inquisition stationed in the town notices Melie and Seth from all of the commotion. Successfully putting targets on their backs.
Things are finally getting exciting again after Seth left his home island. Though I came off of this episode annoyed at how Seth tried to handle things with Grimm. He was literally insinuating he’d probably off Seth if he had any real connection to the Nemesis in town and if Seth had just said he had taken a job, it probably would have ended a little less violently. Maybe it’s hopeful thinking, but seriously, yelling at him wasn’t the way. But all in all, Grimm seems like a fun and interesting character and I’m eager to see more of him. (even though it’s strange how he refers to himself in third person)
