English Dub Review: Radiant “The City of Knights -Caislean Merlin-“

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Seth spots Melie and Doc, but when Melie sees him back, she gives him the cold shoulder since she and Doc took his sudden leaving very hard. So he decides to get leads on Radiant from the Knight-Sorcerers, but it seems they gave up on finding it back when Merlin, the sorcerer that helped found the city, was alive. It’s POSSIBLE there’s information in their archives, but he’d have to become a knight-sorcerer himself, which doesn’t look likely. When things look their toughest, Seth runs into an odd old man named Myr (who is definitely not Merlin) who wears underwear on his giant beard.

Myr gives Seth a way to sneak into the castle through the stables, with the password “Lulu is napping”. It’s here Seth meets Ocoho, a knight-sorcerer in training under Brangoire. She rides Raccoon Dragon named Dracoon, which she takes into battle (with Seth along for the ride) against a Spectral Nemesis, a new type of the monsters that is even unaffected by Fantasia. Brangoire is a big Merlin fanboy but also a talented sorcerer in his own right. He uses a technique called Gysoni to mentally link with the rest of his knights. Seth attempts to help out, but gets knocked off Dracoon and plummets towards the ground.

OUR TAKE
The arc continues at a pretty consistent pace as we finally get a proper look at Caislean Merlin and its culture. Much like the Inquisition origin myth from a couple of episodes ago, this city also has its own mystical founding, only this time a more sorcerer-friendly tale involving the legendary wizard Merlin. We’ve definitely started getting into more Arthurian lore, what with the knights and having characters named Sagramore (a knight of the round table) and Mordred (the killer of King Arthur), but this episode is when they’re more front and center than the two weeks prior. Interesting that Merlin’s good deeds have managed to create a sustained co-existence between humans and sorcerers, similar to Artemis being a haven for sorcerers. Makes me wonder if there are similar cities around this world, or why this hasn’t become more prevalent.

In terms of new characters, we properly meet Ocoho, who the OP and ED seem to put a lot of focus on, making me think that she’ll be pretty important as the story progresses. This makes sense, as we need the perspective of someone who knows this place to contrast with Seth, a newcomer. Plus, she’s only a knight-sorcerer in training, meaning she has paths for ascension and development which we might see over the course of the arc. Through her, we’ll be able to see Caislean Merlin come alive as not simply a cool looking backdrop or shiny new location for fights, but a living and breathing city that can be a character all on its own. On top of that, we also meet Myr. See, he’s not MERlin, he’s just Myr. He’s probably a totally different guy who is all knowing and wise and talks shit about Merlin as a figure for no reason. And you can’t change my mind on that.

And lastly, the Spectral Nemesis finally get some action AND explanation. They’re apparently a step up in threat level to regular Nemeses, as these don’t have the weakness to Fantasia your typical Nemesis has. AND the “Spectral” part of the name implies more color in their designs, where as garden variety Nemeses are just black and white. Still, they must have SOME sort of weakness to them, otherwise the sorcerer-knights wouldn’t be making these plans to stop them! Or this could be an Attack on Titan situation where even the professionals can still die horribly. Either option sounds like a neat watch, so we’ll see what choice they go with next week.