I’m in a rather vexing Catch-22 situation with Radiant at the moment.  I covered it over an extended period when it was somewhat adrift even while still entertaining, and I toyed with the idea of dropping it based on the deafening lack of interest on the part of the readership here and anime fandom in English generally.  With a new season kicking off this is obviously the logical time to make such a move, but damned if the anime isn’t getting really good again – the last three eps have been the strongest since the superb premiere.  So – what to do?

Of course I’ve carried on in spite of indifference many times before and I imagine I will again, and with Radiant on an odd 21-episode schedule it does seem like it would be a bit silly to jump ship now.  That if, if the show stays as good as it is right now.  While there’s certainly no guarantee that’s going to happen it does seem as if the key has been a return to the source material, which makes you wonder why Lerche decided to lurch away from it in the first place.

The Rumble Town arc is palpably, decisively more engaged and passionately-written than anything we saw after the premiere – clearly, this is the material that Valente launched Radiant for in the first place.  I feel as if we’re finally seeing (again) the potential of this series realized, and what it brings to the table is an interesting meld of medieval European history with present-day political commentary – and not just in Europe either, since Konrad’s rhetoric sounds like it comes right out of presidential tweets.

It’s also bringing some fairly intense drama, as things are pretty much blowing up on every level in Rumble Town.  Doc appears to be dead – though I have a hard time believing that’s going to be a permanent state, especially since we still don’t know why Rumble Town has this effect on his health.  Konrad has gone full big bad, turning his cannons on his own citizens (and not just the immigrants but the “real” Rumbletonians who’ve been terrorizing them at his provocation).  Grimm emerges as an unlikely ally after becoming convinced that Seth is not in league with the domitor he’s in town chasing, who’s name is (heh) Hameline.  Hameline is in league with Konrad secretly (though he’s about to get a surprise) and Dragonov is, as usual, acting as a free agent.

Apart from our main core of heroes and probably Konrad, there are some definite gaps to be filled in here in terms of motivation.  Hameline in particular is still a mystery – why would a sorcerer be in league with Konrad of all people, never mind the Inquisition generally?  She seems to have a connection to the tragedy which occurred 15 years earlier, and her motivation here smells like revenge.  There are secrets in Rumble Town still to be uncovered, but what’s clear is that it’s a shining example of what happens when nationalism runs amok – and while Valente clearly had Europe generally and France specifically in mind when he wrote, it, Radiant has also proved to be quite prescient where developments in both my birth country and adopted one are concerned.