Radiant continues to power along in its inimitable shounen fashion.  That’s both its biggest source of charm and the biggest challenge as far as writing about it in concerned, because these sorts of stories don’t generally have huge amounts of subtext and misdirection (only the best of them do, anyway).  Radiant is a series that seems to lay its cards on the table and take the “Yokozuna style” approach to storytelling, which is very effective for the kind of show it is.

If I were to make a call based on the first four episodes, Radiant’s Japanese side is by far the more forward as compared to its French side.  Some of this may be shading the anime is imparting, and indeed Valente has said the first arc has more changes than those that follow – it’s important to remember that this series is being made primarily for a Japanese audience.  As well, once the political side of things becomes more prominent and the story focuses more on the nature of the Inquisition and the persecution of minorities (as he says it will) I think it will inevitable feel more “European”.  But one thing is for sure – there can be no mistaking that Tony Valente is a huge Shounen Jump fan.  Its stamp is all over Radiant.

The new characters we meet this week are consistent with that to the core.  First, we see that Alma did indeed give Seth some travel advice before he left at least, which makes me feel a bit better about his hasty departure.  And a good thing too, as he had no clue where to even begin his quest.  She directs him to the academy city of Artemis, where sorcerers gather, and instructs him to track down an especially learned one named Yaga.  But before he can do that Seth haplessly crashes his broom into an Inquisition ship commanded by Dragunov (Yusa Kouji), who promptly chucks the boy in a fantasia-proofed cage and warns him not to mention the word “Radiant” again if he wants to avoid getting into even deeper trouble, because it’s taboo.  Inquisitions have a lot of taboos.

Seth isn’t alone in his imprisonment – also locked up is Mélie (the eternal chameleon Aoi Yuuki).  She’s the assistant to the researcher from Artemis who Alma called to pick up the remains of the Nemesis, but she got lost on the way (as she tends to do) and blabbed the truth of her mission.  Mélie has a “friend” (he’s an “M”) named Mr. Bobelie (Koichi Makoto) – a very French name, like hers, but a very shounen appearance.  Eventually her boss Doc (Oohata Shintarou) shows up to try and talk Dragunov into releasing her, but she’s already said too much and Doc ends up in a cage too.

Dragunov doesn’t come as evil in a cackling, sneering way, but that makes him almost worse – he’s very matter-of-fact about his draconian ways.  It’s pretty clear hear that both Seth and Mélie are exceptional sorcerers, even if they don’t understand that fully themselves yet.  The fact that Seth can use magic with his bare hands seems to make him unique, and Mélie’s nature – her personality does a 180 when she’s under threat, and her defensive magic turns to attack – makes her especially formidable.  I quite enjoyed the dynamic with Mélie, Doc and Seth and I hope they’ll be together for a while – as they seemingly will next week, starting in Artemis.