I don’t think there’s any question that Radiant is a better series when it has urgent business to attend to.  The first couple of episodes and the Rumble Town arc were the clear high points of the series, everything in-between was hit and miss.  That’s actually not inconsistent with Kishi Seiji’s track record as a director in a sense – he always seems to do better with a project that requires his full attention (and there have been too many that haven’t).

This week saw the Rumble Town arc fully in the rear-view, and as a result things got a bit stagnant again.  I’m not sure what the endgame is with Radiant, either literally or figuratively.  Obviously we’re not going to get a manga ending because the manga is ongoing, and we’re probably not going to see the anime continue beyond its 21-episode run.  I suppose that makes the most likely scenario something open-ended, where the anime effectively acts as a commercial for the manga.

That’s certainly the impression one walks away from this episode with, as it didn’t necessarily move the needle a whole lot.  The essential point seems to this: what Seth grew up believing about Nemesis was a lie.  His experience with Hameline (who I feel like he’s grieving for a bit too much, under the circumstances) taught him that they aren’t evil, but what’s interesting is that he still professes that finding and destroying Radiant is his dream.  I think the jury is out as to whether that’s still the right course of action given new info about the Nemesis, but it’s hard to know what to believe about any of the major power players here – including the Inquisition and Master Lord Majesty and the sorcerers.

It was nice to see Alma again, and Doc trading up from a t-shirt with a bow tie to two actual ones (but why was he wearing two?).  Seth fully deserved those head rubs for not writing Alma after everything she did for him, that’s for sure.  But apart from that the whole party sequence felt like filler, and it’s a shame to see filler with only two more episodes left on the docket.  Here’s hoping Radiant doesn’t waste a moment of them.