English Dub Review: Radiant “Overture of Turbulence -Storm-”

SNOT looking good!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

While Seth and Melie plan on what to do next, Doc plans to head back to Artemis, feeling he’s done all he can do, though he does inform Seth that the one controlling the rat Nemesis and its echoes is a type of sorcerer called a Domitor. The next day, Dragunov sneaks around to get a feel for the city, and notices a rising anti-immigrant sentiment growing amongst the citizens, linking them to the already-heated sorcerers, which he confronts Conrad about later. Conrad reveals that this is mainly his plan to weed out immigrants who bringing drugs, crime, are probably rapists, and some, he assumes, are good people. And so he will act as a defensive wall against the foreign threat. Dragunov isn’t about to interfere with how Conrad runs his own jurisdiction, but he does care about if he’s letting a Nemesis run around freely for his own gain.

He also informs Conrad that General Torque and his “Thamaturges” (the other ones seen with Torque in the OP) will be arriving soon to find and capture Seth, as well as inspect Conrad on how well he’s doing his job. This forces him to rush his plans of creating chaos and ousting the immigrants before the general’s arrival.

Meanwhile, Seth tries desperately to keep Doc around to help protect the people who are being attacked, but Doc still is wary of how the Inquisitors are deliberately avoiding fighting the Nemeses and heads out. So, Seth and Melie go back to Taj’s house, only to find it’s been almost completely destroyed. Someone comes by to inform them that they were taken to the Inquisition for hiding an infected person, as well as the hunt for immigrants supposedly colluding with sorcerers.

Conrad rallies his people against the incoming immigrant threat, confirming Dragunov’s fears. Doc runs into the rats on his way out of town and has to choose between helping or running, only to be captured by the Inquisition. Seth and Melie find Taj about to be burned like Seth almost was years ago, so Seth does the same thing Alma did by pretending to curse someone. As they determine Conrad to be the source of the citizens’ anger, Conrad arrives to fight them with his troops’ full might.

OUR TAKE

This arc continues to keep up a strong pace as the noose tightens around the heroes and the mystery slowly becomes clearer. Though as much as I’m loving how the story is escalating further, this wasn’t an especially eventful episode for Seth’s group. Their part in things was mainly Doc calling it quits and getting captured (while also dropping some important info about the Domitor for later) and Seth and Melie going to save Taj. These were important steps in their involvement and lead them directly into a confrontation with Conrad next time, but they still didn’t really have much of the spotlight this time.

The real chewy meat of the episode really goes to Conrad and Dragunov, which basically acts as an exponentially better version of Episode 9, Dragunov’s focus story. Back there, I remarked how a lack of a present and threatening antagonist in the show made its attempts to show Dragunov as the well-meaning bad guy with morals only hampers the momentum of the show. Now, with a proper villain who is more concerned with their own xenophobia to do their job properly, we have an opportunity that the filler episode covering a similar subject didn’t have, as it seems the arrival of General Torque will highlight the difference between a short-sighted baddie like Conrad against the big picture villainous plans for Seth that Torque has. And if Conrad can already cause this much damage while being lower on the totem pole, that only makes what’s coming all the more intimidating.

And I know I made some jokes in the Overview, but that wasn’t just me who noticed that, right? I mean, I’m an American projecting the current political climate onto a Japanese cartoon adapting a French comic, so I can’t assume they were thinking of Trump when they wrote Conrad. I don’t even know when this arc came out in the comic, but the parallels are really uncanny. But it being coincidence might work in the show’s favor more than if it were intentional because it shows just how universal this kind of political posturing and fear mongering is across different cultures, as well as in a pretty concise and clever way. The metatext might be more concerning than interesting if I’m interpreting it right, but for now, I’ll just enjoy it. And we’re not even halfway done yet, so here’s hoping it can keep up the pace it’s set for itself.