Clevatess Season 2

Episode 5

Man, Clevatess is such an interesting little avatar of unfathomable destruction. At the beginning of “Battle With Oneself,” we have Zavthier and Gart flying up to the top of the dark tower our anti-hero just summoned last week to point out that, for as ominous and threatening as this display is, they can totally all tell that a part of Clevatess actually enjoys getting to adventure around in his guise as Klen and act as the protective guardian of Alicia and young Prince Luna. Clevatess may have schemes within schemes to unpack and execute, but he might want to play his hand with a little more caution if he doesn't want the facade of his new life to come crashing down. Sure, all of this is couched within the pretext of Clevvie's “ambitions,” for which Alicia and Luna are merely tools to be exploited, and so on. Come on, though. We all know that you don't go summoning an eldritch tower of doom from the abyssal cracks of the earth to help rescue a lost Hero that you don't at least care about a tiny bit.

It's this tiny sliver of relatable humanity that makes Clevatess such an excellent figure around which to center such a dark fantasy. If he were too obviously empathetic and personable, then nothing would separate the Dark Beast Lord from every other not-so-secretly lovable Demon King that fill out the anime rosters each season. Conversely, if Clevatess were truly nothing but a heartless god of death who cared not one whit about the people and creatures he exploits in the pursuit of power, then Clevatess the anime simply wouldn't be all that fun to watch. The secret about anti-heroes that so many other anime seem to completely ignore is the “hero” part of the equation. If Clevatess was simply a genocidal hell-hound with an unquenchable bloodlust, we would not have a show. When you hear that the Dark Beast Lord is finally coming to life after enduring a “Millennium of Loss,” though? You can't help but root for Clevatess to tear apart whatever gets in his way, like the blazing flames of a wildfire that will nourish the soil with all of that ash and bring on a new era of life in its wake.

The current systems of power are obviously not to be trusted with ushering in a brighter future. As Dean Cardinal Romain demonstrates, Solsein Academy is very proudly making unholy pacts with Hell's most wretched demons to bolster its army of child soldiers. If nothing else, the Clevatess Crew absolutely needs to shut down this sham of a school before the quest takes a sharp turn into Doom territory. Alica is currently stuck in the body of an adorable rodent, after all. I don't even think she could squeeze the trigger of a BFG no matter how hard she tried, much less get some honest ripping and tearing done.

In a fascinating turn, Alicia's quest becomes just as metaphysical as anything else this week, as her desperate flight from Andrew's bizarre menagerie leads to a confrontation with a giant Evil Alicia who beats and berates our poor protagonist for all of her fears and failures. Given just how much crazy bullshit the Hero has been through since she died the first time, it's a welcome opportunity for the show to address some of Alicia's internal development, especially since it is very satisfying to see her stand in such defiance against her sassy doppelganger. Alicia is nothing if not adaptable, and she has long since learned to recognize that great things can come from unexpected curses if you can learn to roll with the punches. She already managed to figure out the perks of being an undead abomination; you can bet that our heroine will find out how to make the most of being a cute little rat monster with a giant tail.

Clevatess might be the only anime that could make a genuinely thrilling moment of heroism out of Alicia declaring, “There's a strange sensation down near my ass!” That's exactly the sort of gumption that separates the champions from the washouts in this industry, I'll tell you what. I also have to give Alicia bonus points for seeing through the ruse of that evil mirror at the end of her trial. I always hate it when stories have characters have to lose the memories of their adventures, and I think we can all agree that the memories of Alicia the Ass-Blasting Rat-Thing are far too precious to simply toss into the void. Hopefully she will be able to use her explosive tail powers to finally escape the clutches of her captor next time around.

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.