Radiant 2nd Season

If there was anything to redeem this series as a whole, it would be the series' continuation a.k.a Season 2 here, as Season 1 is mainly just relegated to character introductions and development in the beginning arcs of small dosages, and absolutely creamed with fillers (because the story structure just doesn't fit easily to 21 episodes (whereas the standard is 24-26)). If like many people, falling off the bandwagon after the atrocity that is the prequel, I highly implore you to give this series a 2nd chance with the sequel.

Season 2 here covers the long-running Caislean Merlin arc of Tony Valente's manfra, and for another ... 21 episodes, it could not be more fitting than that to show just how massive the divide between the massive character cast is. Without spoiling anything, it was literally an all-out war between regular humans (a.k.a the Inquisition plus a band of people) vs. the sorcerers (a.k.a Seth and his brothers alongside support from Melie, Doc and others), and pick your side of the battle, because this battlefight outrageously affects those who are involved and maligned to the cause of their own calling. Needless to say, there are deaths in battle to fight for what's right, but to the mainstay character cast (Seth, Melie, Doc), endless inquiring about them looking forward to find Radiant once again, just got caught on the wayside with facing the Inquisition again after what happened in the Rumble Town arc in Season 1. All I can say was, it was a battle of epic proportions, and it's a redemption all to itself.

To add onto the insanity, if the same production staff and Lerche absolutely bogged the comedy in Season 1, the seriousness in tone is just as goog (not great, mind you) coming into Season 2 with a fleshed-out plot and visuals that still make the manga better than the anime, but where the latter nails it is in the pacing and story restructuring that's better than the former.

THIS is what fans of the manfra have been waiting for the series to truly flex its story, just that the beginning journey is more rough to swallow than it is here, and unfortunately having to stomach Season 1 just disappointed both fans and newcomers and this gets shunned immediately. So for Season 2 here to go back to its roots, I've gotta commend the staff for doing such a good job bringing Tony Valente's vision to light, and also to check out the manga as well (besides being an advertisement for the source material DUH).

Music aside, the OP/ED pairing is fine, though I'd like Emi Nakamura's song as well on the levels of Season 1's OP and ED.

Re-stating the point overall, to either end this show's run or continue with a Season 3 (in the future), it's time to revisit Radiant and binge it for all its pretty good hype and worth. Just as decent for the myriad of Shounen series overall, but definitely not bad than expected, at all.

There's a great story hidden within this mediocre one. Characters with extensive backgrounds and complex motives, adventures and fights on the level of Naruto, maybe even HxH if there was enough care put into its making. But the imagination cannot make up for all that is lacking.

Seth is similar to Naruto in that he's dumb but wants to help his friends, only turned up to an almost unbearable level. The Inquisitors at first seem like an enemy who has either good intentions but have been fooled by subterfuge into being too harsh on the sorcerers, or are villains pulling off an intricate plan to solidify ... themselves as the heroes for nefarious gains. And then suddenly they are acting like some kind of racists against not just sorcerers and intelligent creatures, but even other humans who were born in a different country. Doc has shown subtle hints of becoming more, but then he is constantly used as a source of poor comedic punchlines.

The characters all have varied powers that are interesting or exciting, and open up plenty of avenues for deeper lore, but are usually just large blobs of color in passable animation work. The sorcerers' spells are usually green or blue while the inquisitors are gold. Makes me wonder if they were going after the look of lightsabers in Star Wars. The sounds don't feel out of place, but most of it isn't helping the show in any way. Better than dead silence but nothing memorable.

The good thing is that season 2 does improve on the first a bit. Just maybe season 3 could do the same and get a bit closer to what this story deserves.

Much like the first season, Radiant throws all the shounen cliches you can possibly think of into yet another shit show. It's more the aggravating because you think it will somehow get better, and you hope it does, goaded on by reviewers, but none of it ever materializes. Like renting an apartment that checks all the boxes, but it turns out the running water is actually a sewage drain in the back, the wifi is dialup, and covered parking is a tent made of rags. Any possible intrigue among the inquisitors boils back down to the same black and white obsession with genocide and baseless ... self-righteousness. They all turn out to be the same sadistic one dimensional psychopaths of zero redeeming quality, but Radiant turns it up to 11 by denying them any backstory and laying on the gratuitous violence and jeering laughter and pompous speeches. Instead of triumph over evil, it's just sheer masochism with nothing but death and destruction at the end, even if the anime tries to paint it as a great victory. And no character in the show has an IQ above 50. Everyone is so easily manipulated, so easily deceived, and utterly devoid of intelligence. Even the ostensibly clever captain Dragoniv is easily duped like a child. The animation and sound is just as bad as the first season. The only good thing compared to the first season is the pacing is a bit faster and the detestable MC has significantly reduced screen time. His dialogue is still basically the same two lines though. 1: HA???? HA???? 2: I'm gonna beat up Radiant!!!!

Spoiler: There's a girl in the show that has a mark behind her neck you can push like a button and command her to do whatever you want. It's one of the worst plot devices ever imagined.