Clevatess

Episode 12

To quote the old meme, “There are two wolves inside of me.” One of those wolves is an aging and increasingly scrupulous beast, the scrupulous critic with elevated tastes in art who demands quality craftsmanship and creative stories that provide well-developed character arcs and cathartic climaxes. The other wolf is a ravenous and juvenile pup who will howl and dance at any opportunity to see a freakish, Final-Fantasy-Villain-in-His-Second-Phase-Boss-Fight-Form looking bastard get his skin flayed off by the eldritch forces of his demonic blade before his disembodied and still screaming skull literally explodes in a geyser of shattered bone and gobs of blood.

The season finale of Clevatess has made both of the warring wolves that reside within my soul very happy, indeed.

To start, the climactic battle between Drel and Alicia delivers on everything it promised with all of that build-up. Alicia, now erupting with pride and rage at the disgrace that Drel has given to the title of “hero”, is finally given the chance to use her wits, her swordplay, and her conveniently undead flesh to shatter Drel's blade and end this disastrous war against Hiden for good. The animation is bursting with raw energy and stylish framing that makes for a damned fine conclusion to this arc, especially once we get to Drel's shockingly gruesome demise. In order to make good on its ambitions to revive the aesthetics of yesteryear's dark fantasy classics, Clevatess was contractually obligated to give us at least one more set piece of self-indulgent ultraviolence, and by God, did the show pony up the goods.

Of course, this is a story that genuinely cares about developing its characters and exploring the promise of its world-building, so the finale makes sure that the scenes that don't involve obscene amounts of blood and gore are just as satisfying to behold, if not more so. You could maybe argue that Klen's sudden pivot to (relative) sentimentality is a cheesy way to resolve last week's cliffhanger, but to that I would counter two vital points. First, Alicia gave one hell of a pep talk at the top of the episode, and given her unique bond with Clevatess, it shouldn't be that hard to buy that she could persuade him to admit that he has come to value the Hidden Princeling just enough to keep from walking away. If that isn't enough, just watch the scene where Luna takes his first steps into Klen's arms so the Dark Lord of the Beasts can look at the child in his glistening violet eyes. That's pure cinema, my friend.

At the end of the day, we're left with more questions than answers, but that is perfectly fine by me. It would be one thing if it felt like Clevatess had failed to invest us in its smaller stories and the journeys of its heroes, but there's no need to worry about that, here. Seeing Luna reunited with his mother while Klen schemes to get his party installed as the royal tykes' official court guardians is enough of a hook to get me on board with the next season on its own; all of the intriguing breadcrumbs about “true Humans” and whatever “Toa” is simply give us even more to look forward to. “Return of the King” concludes this outstanding first season of Clevatess with bombastic spectacle, shocking violence, and enough genuine pathos to ensure that this show will stand tall as one of the year's best anime. I can't ask for much more than that.

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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.

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