Clevatess

Episode 10

If you're a recently undead hero with a lifetime of emotional baggage stemming from the untimely demise of the father you once idolized, you know that nothing good can come from anybody stopping in the middle of a fight to say, “Listen while I recount the tale…” Nothing is waiting for you in that direction but shattering revelations about secrets that were better off dead and buried. I swear, if I am ever in a heated argument with a son of a bitch who makes my blood boil, and he drops a “Listen while I recount the tale…” on me? I'm squashing that beef like a Wendy's patty and walking away without looking back.

Alicia is the heroine of a dark fantasy anime, though, so she doesn't really have a choice but to sit there and endure Drel's flashbacking about the time he spent as her father's best friend and rival. The guy was one hell of a warrior back in the day, even managing to best Drel and claim the regalia blade from the Hiden king. He was a cocky bastard, too, going so far as to set his sights on felling a vicious dragon and attracting the ire of the Dark Beast Lord Varden. Thankfully, the story that Drel tells is more compelling than a simple history of bitter jealousy and pride. The general was a good man once, too, and his friendship with Margo was truly a prime source of their incredible strength.

In fact, the fall of Margo is a shockingly pathetic and literal thing, compared to the heights of greatness to which the heroes once aspired: In the middle of his climactic attack, Margo trips on a rock. It isn't played for a joke, either, as ridiculous as it might sound on paper; the ridiculous mundanity of the situation is the whole point. A man destined for greatness was foiled by a pebble in the snow.

This also explains why Drel has a bone to pick with the current state of the world, ever since his entire life was upended by picking up Margo's blade at the last minute and claiming the regalia's power for his own. He sees magic as a rightful power that was stolen away from man by the selfish powers-that-be, and he's willing to use all of the pent-up rage and righteous fury that is stored in his blade to bring the whole system crashing down.

It's compelling stuff, and the only real complaint that I have is that it feels like we could have gotten a more concrete understanding of the current status quo, especially where the traditions of the heroes and the regalia are concerned, before all of this revelatory exposition was dumped on us. When you consider the episode's other big twist, which sees the headless king in the Hiden forge seemingly set on tossing Luna into the flames, it feels like we're in the endgame phase of a story that is trying to subvert all of our expectations and preconceived notions. The execution of these story beats is strong enough to make for very compelling viewing, but I can't help but think that it would all have hit much harder if we had more preconceived notions to shatter in the first place.

Rating:

Clevatess 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.