English Dub Review: Radiant “The Palace of Schemes -Palace-“

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Melie, Doc, and Ocoho return to civilization, leaving Seth behind to train and being aware of the fact that Spectral Nemeses are actually a big hoax. But they can’t say anything about it until they know who’s really behind everything, because it could be someone high up. Back with the Knight-Sorcerers, Brangoire is demoted from command by Boudica, with Lord de Gulis being put in his place. Boudica also gives Ocoho some advice that her rebel behavior might be cool but will get her weird looks from the guys.

Meanwhile, Seth awakens from recovery in the forest to find TWO YEARS HAVE PASSED! But it’s fine, because the forest is actually disconnected from time so he can come out of it exactly when everyone else is at. Kinda like a Hyperbolic Forest of Spirit and Time. Myr then decides to investigate more of the situation with Seth’s floaty black eye, as well as teaching him how to make use of its power, AND harnessing the potent Fantasia surrounding him. Through all of this, Seth is able to become more attuned to controlling Fantasia, plus learn that the being inside him acts as a peephole for some larger force, likely Piodon.

OUR TAKE
OKAY. WE GET IT. YOU WATCHED A LOT OF DRAGON BALL AND NARUTO. YOU NEED NOT BE SO BLATANT WITH YOUR INSPIRATIONS.

…alright, to be fair, I don’t think Radiant has managed to cross the line into full blown rip-off, so we’re good as long as we avoid that, but it is certainly getting difficult to not notice how much very clearly came from this author’s likely most influential sources for material. I’m of the mind that what separates a rip-off from an homage is that an homage is able to add something to what it takes from an existing idea, which I’m glad to say it has so far. Melie’s split personality most definitely felt like a play off of Launch’s two sneezing personas, but then built on that by making it a source of pain and trauma for her (even if that hasn’t been fleshed out the best). Likewise, this magical forest that is outside of time definitely gives me vibes of both Naruto’s sage training with frogs and the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from the Cell Saga (plus some Yoda from Star Wars in Myr), but I think so far it’s blending them together in an original enough way. Time will tell if things get too derivative for me to excuse it but that time’s not now.

Though Dragunov’s arrows look like they’re pretty much rip offs, sorry to say.

Other than that little ramble, this is probably one of the more low key episodes we’ve had this season, with the focus more on Seth’s training than the more exciting stuff we’ve had in the past few installments. Which is totally fine, to be clear. Stories need breathers in between the more intense bits and this seemed like a good time to do that. Training segments are often maligned in shonen anime for being slow and plodding, but like with Tournament Arcs (which I am a big fan of if they’re done well), they don’t HAVE to be bad. Plus, the air has been cleared between Melie and Seth, Ocoho is on the trail of a spectral conspiracy, and Myr is helping look into what Piodon has actually done to Seth’s body to make him so powerful. Everyone’s got an interesting thing to do until the next big plot event occurs. We’re coming up on the halfway point for the season, so I’m pretty sure that things should be ramping up once again very soon.