English Dub Review: Radiant “Qualifications of a Knight -Quality-“

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Myr and Jill give Seth a special bracelet to help him contain the “freeloader” until they can learn to harness its power without Seth going out of control or giving information to whoever’s spying on him. It also helps connect him to the physical world, which is important since the freeloader could potentially seal Seth’s soul in darkness. With this in place, he returns to training.

Meanwhile, the Knight-Sorcerers and squires, including Ocoho and Melie, face a new Nemesis threat under their new commander, Lord de Gulis. He’s a lot more of a show-off than Bangoire, preferring to act as an individual and competing while Brangoire is strictly beholden to protocol and working as a unit. But de Gulis manages to defeat the insect Nemesis in a single strike, highlighting his immense strength.

When a new, larger Nemesis suddenly appears, the knights head out to face it in earnest, but Ocoho notices that the seemingly slain Nemesis was actually just a collection of Echoes (copies that spawn from the original). Only she and Melie are left to fight them off AND protect the villagers, so they’re quickly overwhelmed. Ocoho briefly regrets going off on her own and disobeying orders, but then decides that she would rather protect the people even at the cost of disobedience. She hijacks Brangoire’s Gysoni spell and brings back several knights to annihilate the Echoes. A job exhaustingly well done.

Nearby, the Baron-Merchants observe Ocoho’s strength and ponder how she can benefit their efforts.

OUR TAKE

Our last Radiant episode before the winter break shifts focus from Seth to Ococho, our deuteragonist. As our main emotional link to the people of Caislean Merlin, she’s had a lot of significant character development through her interactions with Seth and Melie so far, with her main step forward here being finally gaining the confidence to choose her morals and value over the orders of a superior. This obviously wasn’t something that she suddenly gained once Seth showed up to inspire her. She had shown signs of breaking the chain of command and caring about the lives of civilians back in her first shown battle and likely long before. I’m not sure we have a whole on her background besides having grown up and trained with Mordred and Sagramore, but I imagine she grew up in a lower class than her superiors, which is probably why she wanted to become a Knight-Sorcerer to protect them.

This episode also gave us some insight into the influencing mindsets in authority that she is most often exposed to, as well as how they clash at times. As mentioned, Brangoire is a slave to his code, wanting the knights under his command to be little more than an extension of his will. We see him reprimanding Ocoho earlier in the season for breaking away from the group to do her own thing and contradicting his plans. This mindset is displayed best with the use of his Gysoni, which connects minds to a source in order influence multiple bodies at once. In contrast, Lord de Gulis wears the title of knight proudly and arrogantly, looking like he got into the profession for the glory and accolades more than anything else. When he sees a threat to combat, he faces it head on by himself (or at least enough to get the brownie points but not enough to check if he actually killed it). Then, when it becomes clear he CAN’T defeat a different Nemesis by himself, he turns it into a competition, prioritizing individual effort and success.

While these two mindsets have proven valid before, they seem to overlook a key component of being a knight: protecting those they swore to serve. This is what Ocoho brings to the table, as well as what she learns to assert when she overtakes Brangoire’s influence in the Gysoni. With that, as well as her apparently vast reserves of magic, look to be setting her up to be a fine leader in her own right as someone who can return the idealism and heroism that the Knight-Sorcerers seem to be currently lacking. This exploration of ideologies provides a great open pathway for her development in the second half of the season, as well as a great point to send us off as we await for the dub’s return early next year.