Clevatess

Episode 7

The last couple of weeks have seen Clevatess deliver some solid worldbuilding and character development, but I don't think it will be controversial to say that I'm glad to see the show picking up the pace and ramping up the action a little in “Secrets of Magic.” It's not the kind of episode that is necessarily very heavy in spectacle, per se. However, Meynard's bugs and gravity witch give Alicia and Nelluru some meaningful conflict to deal with, which is still a very welcome shift in tempo. One of the chief appeals of dark fantasy is that ever-present sense of dread and danger lurking around every corner, and the more Clevatess can tap into that particular well of inspiration, the better.

Plus, I'm not about to complain about Nelluru getting to show off some of her newfound troll-strength when she saves Luna from the witch's poison pill. Throwing a bed through a wall isn't the height of anime action awesomeness, but it doesn't have to be. It's a small but meaningful development for the new heroine, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the show can feature her in more scenes that don't strictly involve babysitting and breastfeeding. I was a little wary, at first, when the show decided to split up the party so early in the story's run, but I think giving these two ladies the time to share the spotlight on their own was the correct decision.

Outside of the buggy mess that Alicia and Nelluru have gotten wrapped up in, we also finally catch up with Clevatess' side of the story this week, too. Or, rather, we switch gears to follow Drel in his battle with the Frostflower-wielding hero. The frozen river makes for an interesting battlefield, and we've not seen a battle between two human fighters who are equally matched before. It's mostly been monsters and skeezey bandits up until now, not to mention all of the bugs, so while this front of the storyline isn't quite as grim or dark as I might have liked, it still features some new angles of Clevatess' take on classic fantasy tropes, which I'm all here for. The sequence also helps to round out Drel as someone who could serve as a major antagonist in his own right, giving us some shades of motivation and characterization that serve the story well. The general gets one of my favorite lines in the episode: “If you are wise, you will stay here and watch the world change.”

For as much as I appreciated how much the last two episodes leaned on Alicia and Nelluru, I can't deny how nice it was to see ol' Clevvie show back up in his big, bad monster form at the end of the episode. The dark, moody choir and Clevatess' looming presence remind us whose show this really is. He's spent so much time in his tiny little human body that it has become easy to forget that this creature is a terrifying god of death to the people on the ground. Case in point: After all of that buildup for Drel as an imposing and powerful figure, he gets casually gored by Clevatess as if the beast were swatting at an impetuous fly. When Drel strikes back with his imprisonment spell, and we see that the madman has infused his soul into his own blade to strike Clevatess down, it becomes clear that the stakes of this storyline have just shot up dramatically. What will our antihero do, I wonder, now that he's discovered a human who might actually have a chance at beating him?

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.