RADIANT
Radiant was a peculiar anime adaptation to a peculiar manga. Created by French writer Tony Valente, Radiant is a story about a typical Shonen protagonist who wishes the save the world. It is a story of a band of misfits, led by the overly annoying protagonist Seth who was cursed by the enemy faction “The Nemesis.” So he sets out on a quest to destroy the Nemesis once and for all and “save the world” with his friends, and as he sets out to save the world, all I wished for while watching Radiant was for someone to save me from it. The series just flat-out falls on its face and breaks a nose.
The story is about a 15-year-old named Seth who is a victim of a Nemesis attack, so he sets out on a quest to find the Radiant (the birthing place of the Nemesis) to destroy the Nemesis which inhabit its world. This is pretty much a typical, boring Shonen anime plotline with nothing else to offer. First impressions have always been important when it comes to anime, and Radiant doesn’t do well.
The first ten episodes leave too much to be desired, it is just 200 minutes of actual filler, and nothing intense or exciting happens. Radian begins to find its footing during the 11th episode when the main arc “Rumble Town” starts at episode 11. The series is somewhat enjoyable if you turn your brain off and pretend you’re watching nothing; it serves pretty well as background noise at the very least!
Seth is the typical Shonen protagonist but dialed up to ten within the first ten episodes. He looks at things one-dimensionally, without putting himself in anyone else’s shoes, and he yells a bit too much. Seth’s constant yelling about destroying the Nemesis without much reason for it is just an obnoxious affair to sit through.
I will admit, he does go through some moments of character development which can be seen when he questions whether it is justifiable for him to destroy the Nemesis, which was a good chance of pace towards the latter half. Melie had the potential to be a great character. Her split personality and Kawai charm kept her afloat; however, her ditzy nature allowed her to do anything Seth wanted, resulting in her seeming like a one-dimensional character.
The only character that stood out to me was Captain Dragunov, who was named and inspired after the famous Tekken character Dragunov; he was somewhat remarkable compared to the rest, honestly. Do not even get me started on the villains, generic and poorly written, all of their motivations for being evil were simply too shallow. They had no actual reason to hate what they hated; for example, Konrad was merely a racist throughout the entire series. His design was bland; he looked like Nappa from Dragon Ball Z but WORSE.
The animation in the series was honestly quite mediocre, with the Studio Lerche honestly doing a pretty poor job overall. They have been known to create some dazzlingly beautiful anime, but here it seems like they didn’t even put any effort into it. The whole anime has a blurry texture, which would’ve been fine if it was a romantic anime or even a coming of age series, but this was a Shonen, and those require sharp aesthetics. Every single spell in the series was green or black, and I honestly cannot remember a single color different from that.
It infuriates me that the only well-animated parts in the series are towards the last arc, and at that point, it’s just a bit too late, and my motivation to watch this with interest is gone.
The art itself is consistent, not excellent, but relatively consistent. The colors are often nice, although a bit too green during spells. The variety in art is lacking, though, with the world covered with the same dull greys and browns, whereas the characters are multi-faceted in their aesthetic.
Melie had a pretty neat aesthetic; her looks were overall pretty decent. Seth, on the other hand, I can’t say much about his aesthetic as he looks like a random teenager from any anime you pick up.
For the most part, the music is entirely forgettable. The series constantly has these grandiose orchestral, soundtracks which honestly do not fit into this world well. Original soundtracks play a considerable role in battles or fights in Shonen anime, so the lack of good music in the series was quite disappointing. However, the opening song “Utopia” was a bombastic opening that fuels you with hype; I feel like it was a great song but somewhat wasted here.
Radiant was not a well-made series, and it often made me question whether or not I should just stop watching it. The show GENUINELY does get better during the Rumble Town arc, so if you are or ever were interested, then you should watch at least up till you finish that arc to see if you’d like to continue or not. It wasn’t for me, and I honestly did want to quit watching it within the first few episodes, yet I did finish it to review it.
If you are looking for a random battle-action Shonen series with mediocre animation and almost no fluidity to the movement, then you probably might like Radiant. It is a typical Shonen series through and through; it brings nothing new to the table and remains contempt in its position of mediocrity.
