Radiant

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

English: Radiant

Japanese: ラディアン

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 21

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 6, 2018 to Feb 23, 2019

Premiered: Fall 2018

Broadcast: Saturdays at 17:35 (JST)

Producers: Studio Hibari, NHK, NHK Enterprises

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Lerche

Source: Other

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Magic

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.71¹ (scored by 7,491 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet aired' titles are excluded.

Ranked: #4884²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1492

Members: 59,679

Favorites: 154

6.71

Ranked #4884Popularity #1492Members 59,679

Fall 2018TVLerche

Add to List

Episodes: /21

* Your list is public by default.

play

Edit
Synopsis

Seth is an aspiring sorcerer from the Pompo Hills area. Like all wizards, he is an "infected," one of the few living beings who survived the contact of the Nemesis—creatures fallen from the sky that contaminate and decimate all those they touch. Being immune to them, Seth wants to become a Hunter and fight the Nemesis. But more than that, Seth wants to engage in a quest that goes beyond the simple hunt for monsters. He wants to find the Radiant, their presumed cradle. Aided by a faction of fellow sorcerers, he travels the world in search of the Radiant, under the harsh scrutiny of the Inquisition.

(Source: MangaHelpers, edited)

Edit
Background

Radiant is based on the french Comic of the same name.

Edit
Related Anime

Sequel:

Radiant 2nd Season

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Mélie

Main

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Seth

Main

Hanamori, Yumiri
Japanese

Alma

Main

Park, Romi
Japanese

Doc

Main

Oohata, Shintarou
Japanese

Dragunov, Dart

Supporting

Yusa, Kouji
Japanese

Grimm

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Bagliore, Ulmina

Supporting

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

Master Lord Majesty

Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei
Japanese

Mister Bobley

Supporting

Koichi, Makoto
Japanese

Yaga

Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki
Japanese

More staff
Staff

Kishi, Seiji

Director

Fukuoka, Motoo

Director

Takadera, Takeshi

Sound Director

Sugawara, Yukie

Script

Edit Opening Theme

"Utopia" by 04 Limited Sazabys

Edit Ending Theme

"Radiant (ラディアン)" by Polkadot Stingray

More reviewsReviews

Feb 23, 2019

21 of 21 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Stark700 (All reviews)

18 people found this review helpful

Oh no, Radiant isn’t a perfect adaptation! What has the world come to?!

We get it. This isn’t one of those anime that will meet our expectations by adaptation standards. From the beginning, I’ve heard of comments about how the anime changed the tone of the story and even the way the main protagonist has been adapted into it. For the sake of this review, it will be based from an anime viewer’s perspective. I’m not going to go into the French series to look and compare every episode to see what was wrong with it.

Now with that mushy stuff out of the way, you may be wondering what exactly is Radiant. As a French comic, there’s actually not much difference to tell between this and Japanese manga. Artwork resembles shounen style characters with a fantasy world setting and even the speech patterns. Not to be judgmental but I think it’s pretty clear that Radiant is aimed for a wider audience. The story takes place in a fictional world where monsters exists. Known as “Nemesis”, they are creatures with catastrophic powers that fell into the world of humanity and causing devastating damage. A young man named Seth survived the catastrophe and vows to hunt down the Nemesis as a Sorcerer and one day hope to bring peace in their world. So begins his quest to find the legendary Radiant, the origins of the Nemesis.

I’m not going to lie, the first few episodes had me bite my lips a few times. Essentially, I see Seth as a brat who may be easily be the type to die young. His recklessness and daredevil personality from the start makes him hard to follow. Not to mention, he isn’t very talented in the art of magic as demonstrated by his flying skills. The only move in the boy’s arsenal that makes a difference is his signature “Titan Punch”. But if you look just a bit carefully, it’s pretty much a shounen-style punch powered up with a signature pose and name shout. That’s damn disappointing. To make matters worse, Seth isn’t exactly a Brainiac either. The boy is so eager to prove himself that he puts an entire town in danger just so he can show the world what he can do. Looking back now, I can easily say that Seth is nothing short of a dumbass.

Now, don’t worry. This show isn’t just about Seth as the adventure begins to take off after around 5 episodes. After all, it’s his quest and we follow him on his journey find this “Radiant”. On his quest, Seth encounters new allies named Melie and Doc. Now, both of these characters made a different impression to me. For instance, Melie is a bit naïve and too friendly as a girl. Sometimes, I could easily say she’s inattentive. A plot device also reveals that her personality can change into a much fierier badass when under distress. With this type of character, it’s not hard to make us wonder about the importance of her split personality. However, the anime plays it out more of a comic relief and after you’ve seen it a dozen times, it quickly becomes stale. On the other hand, Melie does make a valuable asset for the team as she seems to be a skilled Sorcerer with defensive abilities. This is a contrast to Doc, the researcher who comes off as absolutely useless in their adventure. Driven as an anti-fighter, Doc tries to avoid danger whenever possible while trying to woo Miss Melba, a café waitress that he seems to be in love with. With this oddball group of adventurers together, what could possibly go wrong?

Actually, there’s a lot of wrong things about Radiant that could have been executed much better as a story. At its very baseline, I feel like the story took way too long to get us to care about it. Most of the first few episodes made me dislike the main protagonist for his childish personality. It’s very easy to find Seth irritating along with his questionable logic. Think about some of his actions and it’s not far from those of an underage teenager. Additionally, the story itself seems to be running around in circles without getting the viewers emotionally attached to it. I’m not going to lie, before I even began watching this show, I thought there would be at least some emotional value. The premise almost made the show sounded like a tragic story but instead, we get a cartoony version of a fantasy quest. It took far too long to get the show moving and by the time the gears really started kicking, it’s too late to turn back. Believe me, a story like this really needed a likable protagonist but Seth is about as one dimensional as he can get. He’s far from a larger than life character and an incredibly difficult to tolerate with his personality. The other two on his journey are hardly any better. Melie is too nice as a girl and hard to really talk about besides her split personality. Doc is pretty much the butt monkey in the show where it’s easy to point fingers at how useless he is. However, there are some supporting cast that I want to address as discarding them would be unfair.

To start with, Alma is a character that I grew interest in after seeing her wisdom. She is not only a Nemesis Hunter but also a skilled Sorcerer while serving as a parental figure for Seth. The show could have taken the opportunity to build more between their relationship but instead, she is pretty much left over after the first episodes. Then, there’s Grim, the mysterious figure that our adventurous trio encounters. I was intrigued by his debut but over time, I didn’t find his character to be appealing at all. The fact is, we don’t know his true agenda in the show besides lending in some occasional help to the protagonists. Now, what about the Inquisition? Every fantasy anime like this needs a military group and government to control their world, right? To be honest, I feel like there’s little creativity put in for such an organization. They seem to have a prejudice against infected people and made up of ranks among its staff to carry out their goals. If you’re familiar with military organizations, then it’s easy to recognize some of their ranks such as general, colonel, commander, cadet, etc. Unfortunately, the show falls short on investing into the higher ranked characters. Guys like Dart Dragunov and Konrad are easily forgettable. The latter even seems to play the role of a stereotypical commander who abides with its organization’s goals. At some point in the show, I question if the Inquisition were hiding something beyond what they seem to be. For a 2-cour show, that didn’t really seem possible with such pacing. Now that brings back to my original point. This series suffers not just pacing problems but the way it made its characters. None of them are worth investing into and in the long run, they are too damaged to be repaired.

Adapted by studio Lerche, their resume is a bit questionable when people talk about their fantasy projects. Anime like Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut and the more recent Shichisei no Subaru were mediocre at best in terms of production quality. Judging on Radiant by itself, there’s hardly anything eye catchy about the visual quality either. The character designs gives off a blend feel between shounen and fantasy. Meanwhile, the Sorcerers themselves are decorated with some degree of distinction. (see Melie) Then, there’s Seth, our reckless protagonist who possesses inhuman characteristics such as his horns. The battle choreography in the show remains fluid on some levels although it’s nothing spectacular. Trust me, once you’ve seen the first fight, it almost feels like you’ve seen them all. On the other hand, I do praise the world fiction of the show. It’s not only crafted with a decent amount of fantasy elements but also reinforces the importance of its setting through storytelling.

Let me just say that Radiant could have been a big hitter or at least make a strong impression for a foreign project outside of Japan. It should have at least tried to get the audience’s attention. The key word here is “tried”. Because the reality is, Radiant didn’t manage to capitalize on what it advertised. Instead, it’s a show that threw away its chances and made itself look like a fool.

Helpful

permalink | report

Feb 23, 2019

21 of 21 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Zerity (All reviews)

5 people found this review helpful

In this season nothing for the most part happens. We have two real arcs and that's about it. However it is still something worth watching.

The whole premise of the show is for Seth to find Radiant to destroy it and save the world. Sounds fun let's go and save the world, but why. One thing I like about this anime is how they deal with the discrimination against sorcerers. In the arc were the go to Rumble Town Seth is forced to really understand what he is trying to do and who is he trying to save. I very much like this because even read more

permalink | report

Feb 23, 2019

21 of 21 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Zryn (All reviews)

4 people found this review helpful

I've heard that the manga is different, I don't know how its different so this will be my critique on the anime alone.

Radiant had the potential to be something far greater, it even displayed that for a portion of the show, don't simply look at the score I or anyone else have given it and pass it off as bad.

Radiant is your basic shonen anime with your pointy haired snot-nosed brat protagonist who wants to save everyone and stop the bad guys. Nothing really unique there. A good chunk of the show is spent dabbling in miscellaneous adventures that don't add anything to read more

permalink | report

Feb 23, 2019

21 of 21 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

ZB_Blades (All reviews)

1 people found this review helpful

Radiant is a first for me and the anime community in that it is a french manga (yes, apparently they do exist) turned into an anime. This alone compelled me to check out the anime as it was something different. At least, that's what I initially thought.

Story - 5

I thought that with a french manga we would get an original story with a different perspective on the medium we know and love. Instead, I got just another cliche ridden shounen. Which if executed well can turn out pretty good. Unfortunately, this is not one of those times. From the beginning I could tell this was going to be a disappointment as the first episode was probably the most boring first episode of any anime I had seen in recent memory. Now, I'm not one to make knee jerk reactions after one episode so I stuck around to see how the story would play out. As expected they kept the same style at the same sluggish pace. The story for the most part was slow, boring, and what felt like filler even though this is a decently sized series at 21 episodes. Even when the story gets to its "hype" moments later on they still feel underwhelming just because of how the show was handled. So the story was lacking, but there are ways around this.

Characters - 5

That way is compelling characters which this story has very few of. Off the bat we are introduced to our main character Seth, a sorcerer, who acts very much like your standard shounen protagonist. His power isn't very creative either so its not like he stands out from the crowd very much. The side kicks that go alongside our main character have nice designs but personality is lacking. As the series progresses we are introduced to a few more from the cast who in my opinion are far more interesting then our main group. Yet, they don't stick around for very long but I'm hopeful they will play a more vital role in the future.

Animation - 7

I was surprised that a foreign property like Radiant would have some nice animation and art so it was a pleasant surprise. The animation stays consistent for the most part and its easy on the eyes. The characters themselves do not look cookie cutter which I like. They look like they actually have some personality even if that is sadly not the case. Action scenes are decently handled as well. Overall, for a non Japanese manga turned anime the animation was quite good.

Sound - 8

By far and away this is the main reason why you should watch Radiant. The opening song alone is straight fire and instantly gets me hyped for the coming episode. Even if you don't end up watching the anime, at least watch the opening. The ending song is decent and the voice acting is fine as far as I can tell, but the opening is something else.

Enjoyment - 6

The show started off slow and most of the filler episodes which took up a good bit were boring, but the content towards the end was decent enough. The characters outside of a couple later on were not very compelling nor was I interested in their motivations or journey. I liked the music and the animation though so maybe I'm just a sucker for a good OP, but overall it was a decent enough watch. I am curious to see where the story will go next as of the time of writing this a season 2 was announced. Here's hoping for some more compelling story lines. My recommendation would be to check out the opening and then decide from there.

Helpful

permalink | report

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

'Radiant' Gets Second Season for Fall 2019

After the broadcast of the 21st episode of Lerche's Radiant, it was announced that a second season, which will also have a duration of 21 episodes, is planned ...read more

1 hour ago by Sakana-san | Discuss (4 comments)

Fall 2018 Simulcast List [Update 10/19]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Fall 2018 season. Anime series licensed for home video relea...read more

Sep 28, 2018 4:44 PM by Snow | Discuss (29 comments)

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

	Radiant Season 2 announced JugoKun - Feb 23	8 replies	by Crashmatt »» 11 minutes ago
	Poll: Radiant Episode 21 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 23	16 replies	by Loathsome »» 1 hour ago

Radiant

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

More Videos
Episode Videos

Edit
Related Anime

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

More staff
Staff

Edit Opening Theme

Edit Ending Theme

More reviewsReviews

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Radiant

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

EditSynopsis

EditBackground

More VideosEpisode Videos

EditRelated Anime

More charactersCharacters & Voice Actors

More staff Staff

Edit Opening Theme

Edit Ending Theme

More reviewsReviews

More recommendations Recommendations

More newsRecent News

More discussionsRecent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

More Videos
Episode Videos

Edit
Related Anime

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

More staff
Staff

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion