Tony Valente's Radiant

[Zpreader]

So there's a comic that has really fascinated me lately - a comic by French artist Tony Valente called "Radiant". I imagine alot of the forum goers here are at least tangentially aware of Radiant because of it's recent anime adaptation.

Anyway, the reason why Radiant interests me so much is because it's the first example of a dream that I've seen spoken of on this forum and forums similar to it constantly - not just managing to publish work in Japan, but managing to publish a work that clearly takes inspiration from classic action-shonen tropes in a market that's already saturated with them.

I myself have really enjoyed what I've seen of the comic so far, but I don't see too much discussion of it online so I wanted to get some opinions. Have you read any of Radiant? If so, what did you think about it?

(Note: I am specifically hoping to talk about the comic, but if you'd like to give your thoughts on the adaptation then that is also welcome)

[abcde]

It's pretty good, has a lot of old-school shounen vibes. I went ten chapters in before stopping, though. The art style's great, but I'm not feeling the characters. They lack this... oomph? IDK how to say it, but maybe I'll reread it again one day.

His work is animated because it has a style close to Japanese shounen mangas, right down to the panels and speech bubble shapes and all -- so now you know what to do to get your comics animated, folks! XD

Speaking of french mangas, ever read Dreamland? I liked it a lot! I heard Valente's work is inspired by Dreamland (or at least the style it has).

[Zpreader]

Yeah, the first volume was a bit of a drag for me, but I think things really start to pick up by the third.

As for Dreamland, this is my first time hearing about it. Do you know if it has an English edition? I might check it out.

[lacoticus]

France is the probably the second largest market where manga sells well, so that's why radiant does so well

[silacinnamon]

I've heard of Radiant but I didn't know it was french, that's nice! I'll try to find it later since I'm actually looking for more comics in french to read ehehe

But yeah, France is really welcoming to manga and they have a huge independent comic culture. I also feel that France and Japan have a good relationship in terms of appreciating eachother's comics/animations and doing collaborations (Miraculous Ladybug and Interstella 5555 for example), so that might have helped? Just guessing tho

[abcde]

It does! It's a manga from 2006 by Reno Lemaire, pretty old, and has a lot of references and inspiration from 90s anime stuff.

The premise is the world of dreams exist and the lucid dreamers who wander the land are called Travellers. They become aware of Dreamland after overcoming a personal trauma/phobia and gain powers based on said trauma. The MC Terrence, for instance, has a phobia of fire due to his mother dying from one. After overcoming his fear, he becomes aware of Dreamland's existence and ventures the ability to use fire-based powers.

It's both shounen, teen drama and coming-of-the-age sort of story. Kind of rough around the edges at some points, but I like the premise and the characters. Especially the MC, he grows on you. I never did finish it, though.

A quick google search can lead you to the English version chapters

[snowy]

Don't know the comic, but I know the publisher. They've made some good stuff. Shamelessly derivative, but still good.

[ar-ninetysix]

I've only watched the first episode a few weeks ago, it seemed pretty alright so I planned on watching more of it but the new anime season keeps making me forget to get around to watching more tbh like- ugh it's one of those anime putting out new episodes now and it's taunting me Anyways, since I've found out about it, I've been real happy that a french creator got their comic adapted as an anime! It's feat a lot of us wish to achieve lol

Another artist with a similar story is Russian artist Ilya Kuvshinov who was fascinated with anime (Ghost in the Shell was a huge inspiration, apparently) but now he's working with animation studios as a character designer. You can see his work in the anime film, Birthday Wonderland and the recently announced, Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045. But uhhh.. there's also their Instagram, Twitter, ArtStation.. you can check out his work there too