There’s a definite trend to this anime season both internally (to LiA) and externally.  There are a large number of shows I’m covering that are virtual ghost series, with little English following, and a lot of the traffic is concentrated on just a few others.  And the major players of the season are ones I’m totally on the sidelines for – the two isekai LN blockbusters (though I am watching Slime, and modestly enjoy it), SAO Alicization, Index III (though that franchise has dropped off some).  There’s always been a gap between my tastes and the mainstream, but it’s never been wider.  For me, this is a weak season.  Commercially, it stands to be a huge one.

All of that means little in relation to Radiant apart from the fact that it’s one of those fringe series that I just seem to gravitate to.  I’m not even that huge a fan of the shounen fantasy series that it follows in the tracks of, though I did rather enjoy Fairy Tail (the most obvious ancestor) for a while.  Radiant for me is just a blast – fun, colorful, packed with just enough subtext to spice things up a bit when the plot seems a bit too literal.  I’m not expecting Made in Abyss here and I’m not going to get it, but in terms of writing and storytelling this series more than holds its own, no matter its nationality.

This was the best episode since the rollicking premiere for me.  The pacing was better, the world-building was excellent and we got a good mix of themes over the course of 22 minutes.  It also featured a truly staggering dump of seiyuu talent added to the pot, something that certainly doesn’t do a show any harm.  The world being built here is Artemis, the city of sorcerers.  It’s a place that’s both exactly what it seems to be and much more, a refuge for sorcerers in a world that despises them as much as it depends on them.  The first question Seth is asked upon arrival is “Do you want to become a resident?” – obviously a loaded one.  Doc pushes him to accept, seeing it as a way to get the annoying boya our of his hair, but that turns back on his rather viciously.

The first seiyuu legend to enter the fray is Yamaguchi Kappei, who plays the ruler of Artemis Master Lord Majesty – a character who could have spring from Mashima Hiro’s pen without anyone batting an eye.  He’s the yellow cat Alma told Seth not to trust and fur good reason – the residency thing is a scam starting from the entrance ceremony on and the shakedown never stops.  But he has his reasons for what he does, which will become clear to the newcomers when the city is approached by the Inquisition ship commanded by Dragunov.  It’s Majesty against the world, pretty much – and fighting that fight costs a lot of dimes.

Dragunov is no fool – even if Majesty hadn’t bought off the authorities to call off the attack, I don’t think he’d have gone in anyway.  He makes references to the “Coven of 13 Sorcerers”, any one of which could defeat a thousand of him (false modestly?).  It’s not hard to figure out that Yaga (Yoshino Hiroyuki) is one of them – nor that he’s the pothead who’d been tailing Seth, Doc and Mélie since he overheard Alma’s name dropped.  There’s obviously a lot of history between Yaga and Alma, but even so he wants to see what Seth is made of before he commits to helping him – and that includes testing whether the temptation of staying in the one place where he’s safe and protected can dissuade the boy from his impossible dream of finding Radiant.

Meanwhile, Dragunov reports back to General Torque (Miyake Kenta) who I’m assuming is the head of the Inquisition.  It’s clear from their conversation that Seth is of great interest to them – if I were to hazard a guess now, I’d say there’s some sort of prophecy involving a sorcerer who can use magic with his bare hands and has horns.  Torque’s secretive colleague Piodan (I’m not sure which is the real power broker of the two) is played by the last of this week’s seiyuu titans, Kimura Ryouhei.  It’s certainly going to be interesting to see the larger struggle take shape, but I hope we get some time to further explore nichijou in Artemis – it’s an interesting place, and I quite like the dynamic with Seth, Doc and Mélie.