Clevatess Season 2

Episode 4

I should have known to expect some pretty big developments from an episode of Clevatess that shares its name with one of my all-time favorite book series. I figured that we'd spend most of “The Dark Tower” figuring out the spot of bother that Alicia got herself into with that giant skeleton-ghoul-thing that she was suddenly captured by last week. While we do get plenty of time to spend with Alicia as she navigates this truly bizarre adventure, it turns out rescuing his missing zombie pet is just one of the many schemes that Clevatess has brewing in that eldritch noggin of his, and he's going to be putting those plans (and giant, imposing towers of infinite darkness) into motion sooner rather than later.

The first surprising turn of the episode comes right up front, when we get a clearer picture of what actually happened to Alicia last week. From her perspective, she has been trapped in a jar and taken to some abominable undead butcher's basement to be fed rotten animal guts and forced to do battle with a hundred venomous spiders. In reality, though, Dean Cardinal Romain has used the Book of Toah to warp Alicia's perception and transform her into a delightfully cute little Dark Rat beast, and she spends several days throughout this episode as the captive critter of that Andrew kid. While our heroine has been forced into pretty dire circumstances, this will all clearly be worthwhile if it means getting a canon confirmation of Alicia's adorable fursona. Clevatess provides, as always.

Clevatess himself provides, too, once he realizes that Alicia's been gone too long for comfort. Given that he has been so reigned in this season, I was itching to see our Dark Beast Lord of the South get a little evil up in this anime magic school. I was not disappointed. First, poor Naie gets begrudgingly roped into Team Clevvie's antics for the second week in a row, but this is the straw that finally breaks the camel's back. By “camel's back,” I am of course referring to Naie's fragile sanity, as she finally gets a glimpse of the unfathomable horror that lurks underneath the “Klen” facade, and her response is heartbreakingly hilarious. After getting literally stabbed in the brain and electrocuted back from the brink of consciousness, Naie just gives up and bows down as Clevatess' loyal servant. She just can't be bothered to care anymore. Every single master she serves is threatening to kill her the moment she fails to deliver, so she might as well start offering her loyalty to the master with more demonic methods of persuasion.

Then there's the titular Dark Tower, which Clevatess summons as his defiant challenge to any of the powers at the Academy who think they even have the right to think they might get the best of him. I was wondering how much of this season would play up the low-key nature of the gang's espionage, and I think now we have our answer. Clevatess is not interested in sticking to the script of traditional narrative tropes. If he has to rend the earth itself apart and announce his presence to all of the enemies and rivals that lurk in the Academy's halls, then so be it. The sooner he will get the opportunity to show the humans and demons who would oppose him why it's a fool's errand to challenge the king for his throne.

Episode Rating:

Clevatess Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.