Clevatess Season 2

Episodes 1-3

The first season of Clevatess was one of my favorite series of 2025, and as you can read even more about in my Summer 2026 Preview Guide coverage of this follow-up's first two episodes, Clevvie and Alicia haven't missed a beat in their transition to more scholarly adventures. After the dark and thrilling quest of the first season, I honestly wasn't sure of what to make of this new mission to uncover Drel's secrets at Solesin Academy. I've seen enough fantasy school anime that wallow in lame cliches and stagnant storytelling to last a few lifetimes, thank you very much. Of course, I ought to have put my faith in the Dark Lord of the Beasts and his Adorably Undead Servant. Clevatess II is off to a great start.

When we last left our heroes, the Academy had been rocked by Nathan's transformation into a dark and dangerous beast of mysterious magics. Determined to make some headway into the investigation, Alicia begins Episode 3 by making some alliances and scouting for clues by herself, since Clevatess has left her high and dry for unknown reasons. If our trusty heroine is going to play the role of gumshoe and solve Drel's mystery, she will have to rely on her wits, her guile, and her deep wellspring of…er, charm? Sure, let's call it “charm.” There's obviously something going on at Solsein Academy that's keeping all of the students mum, so Alicia is forced to fall back on that trusty old strategy of putting the screws to Naie, the terminally anxious frenemy she made last season.

With how action- and exposition-heavy the last few episodes of Season One were, I've appreciated that this new story arc has given Clevatess II the opportunity to slow things down and spend some time with our characters as we ruminate on all the new mysteries. Alicia is one of my favorite anime protagonists to come around in a while, so getting to see her awkwardly flail around in her attempt to approximate quality detective work is a treat, even if I do miss the screwed-up undead family dynamic that the crew had going for them before. I suppose Alicia's fragile alliances with the school's resident Blowjob Brothers and its least qualified instructor will have to do, for now.

I truly admire the lengths to which Clevatess II is going to flesh out its world and establish the political stakes of Team Clevatess' mission, what with all of the conspiratorial meetings and brand new characters who represent the respective (and incompatible) goals of the three competing kingdoms. The only real downside to this approach is that the show is juggling even more plates than it tossed up into the air the first time around, which means each thread of the story only gets so much time to develop before we cut to the next one. Even the cute check-in with Luna and Nelluru serves as a reminder of just how potentially overambitious this new plotline is, since you just know that this delightful pair won't get nearly enough screentime.

This is especially evident with our title character himself. The episode begins with a tantalizing tease of Clevatess' ancient past where we get a glimpse of Zavthier of Phantasms, Lord of the Dark Beasts. After that, though, our anti-heroic hound (in his human disguise of “Klen”) doesn't even get to take the spotlight until close to the end of the episode, and even then we've still got to work through the big twist of Sarasa being the next Queen of the Orggites who has the power to summon Zavthier herself. This turn of events barely has time to register before we learn that Edison is actually a host to the roaming demonic hivemind Rathwell of Azure, the Eastern Lord of the Dark Beasts.

Don't get me wrong, this is all mighty entertaining, but we just added several new characters and motivations to keep up with, never mind Alicia suddenly getting trapped in a jar by some eldritch ghoul giant, and we're only on Episode Three! Still, if I was going to bet on any modern dark fantasy anime that could pull off all of this complex world-building and mystery-making, it would be this one. The first season of the show already went a long way towards crafting one of the finest dark fantasy tales that we've seen around these parts in a long time, and by the looks of it, Clevatess is only just getting warmed up.

Episode 1 Rating:

Episode 2 Rating:

Episode 3 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.