English Dub Review: Radiant “Fly High and Pierce Through the Storm -Rising-”

Things are starting to get Grimm.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The citizens rejoice over Seth’s defeat of Conrad and destruction of the wall keeping them trapped, but before an exhausted Seth can get away, he’s met by Dragunov who is still tasked with bringing Seth in. Unfortunately, the island is under threat of destruction and Seth’s stirring Shonen Protagonist Speech puts his conscious first, but he swears he’ll be back to capture him later. He also sends word back to Torque and his people about Conrad, which gets a mixed reception. As they talk, one of the Inquisitors who hides his face behind a hood decides to go scout ahead.

Back in Rumble Town, Grimm continues his fight against Hameline, asking if she was taught to be a Domitor by people named “Behemoth” or “Sirin”. When it becomes clear she doesn’t know who those people are, he retreats, though not before taking a flesh wound and panicking. Melie awakens from fighting off some of the echoes, remembering a time she let someone down due to her weakness. Her mood changes when she runs into Seth, who seems to be carrying a baby…who is actually Doc’s new body. Turns out his curse has been molting his skin but he never had a chance to find this out until now. Grimm joins them and they formulate a plan: Melie will absorb the energy of the main Nemesis while Grimm and Seth fight Hameline.

Things start out pretty smoothly until Seth is blasted by several of the echoes at once, only saved by the last minute intervention of Piodon, the hooded Inquisitor. He takes Seth to a clocktower and reveals his face to be an uncanny resemblance to Seth’s except for having larger horns and a scar on his forehead. He asks about a bandage on Seth’s cheek that covers up the scar he got from a Nemesis which seems to be suppressing some of his power. He then grills Seth on what and who he’s really fighting for in all this, whether it be for humans or sorcerers, as well as the people he may have to side with to accomplish either goal. Before they can talk more, Seth heads back to fight.

After trying and failing to talk Hameline down, Grimm and Melie continue with their plan, trapping her Fantasia within a “Plundering Lamp” which will keep her from attacking them further. Grimm then unleashes “Kannibal”, a gigantic weapon to finish the battle with.

OUR TAKE

Wow, we’re learning new stuff about EVERYBODY this week! Well, not EVERYbody, since Hameline and Conrad kinda got their share last time, but I didn’t expect this much new info about our leads in the middle of all of this! Melie’s is pretty minor since it’s just a brief flashback alluding to some time that someone she cared about died, but it sounds like something I’d sure love for the show to at least touch on before the season ends. Doc’s is probably the weirdest, considering he pulled a Dragon Ball GT and de-aged suddenly. I guess we never really did know what his curse was, so that left it pretty much open to being anything. I was honestly starting to think he was just a regular human who happened to live amongst sorcerers and do jobs for them. Bit of an odd turn so close to the end of the season, but at least this means the stale jokes with Melba will have a new spin on them.

Though the biggest revelation is for Seth, which also links nicely with his brief scene with Dragunov. Turns out one of Seth’s actual blood family has been working for the upper echelons of the Inquisition this whole time! Luckily this doesn’t turn into an Itachi situation where they automatically hate each other. Far from it, actually, as Piodon arrives to bring Seth a (rather abrupt) moment for him to really understand who and/or what he’s fighting for. After seeing the worst of both sides in Hameline and Conrad, it’s clear both sides of this conflict have their bad apples, but then there are people like Melie and Dragunov who show there are those who simply want to help. Dragunov especially prioritizes protecting the defenseless over capturing sorcerers, so it’s clear he’s not that bad a guy. That talk will have to wait as Seth takes the third option of simply going back to the fight, but I’m really glad they had an introspective moment for this. Again, these seem too obvious to not include, but that may be why some shows forget to do so and suffer as a result.

Yet another solid entry in this arc and this series. After the discouragingly low point of Episodes 6-10, the drastic improvement since then has been a more than welcome surprise. We’re onto the final five episodes of the season (and possibly the series, assuming it sells as poorly as I expect it to), so let’s savor this as best we can until then.