Clevatess

Episodes 8-9

I love when a show can consistently deliver a story filled with unexpected pivots and thrilling climaxes. From the beginning, Clevatess has demonstrated a keen talent for mixing classic anime tropes and dark fantasy staples with its own fresh perspective, and the last two episodes of the show have not demonstrated any signs that the show might try to rest on its laurels now. When last I checked in with Klen and his cohort, the big beast was trapped by General Drel's shocking use of dark ichor while Alicia and Nelluru were stuck fending off Meynard and Naie's magical insect assault. Over the course of “Current of Insects” and “War Zone Hiderat”, both halves of the story weave back together and come to a head in a very satisfying way.

First, in “Current of Insects,” we deal with the Meynard problem in a delightfully gross and perilous battle against the seemingly endless swarm of bugs that the wizard has at his disposal. This whole fight is great for several reasons, with the generally excellent atmosphere and presentation being just one of them. Not only does it provide a satisfying payoff to this portion of the storyline, but it offers more of the character development for Alicia that has been so compelling across Clevatess' season. The running through-line of her journey has been the conflict between her deep-rooted desire to be a truly noble hero of the people and the dark lust for vengeance that has been driving her more and more since Clevatess brought her back from the dead. It would be easy for the show to swing too far in either direction of this divide — we could have easily been stuck with an exhausting, grimdark version of Alicia that just kills everything in her path, or an equally insufferable beacon of unwavering positivity and goodness that refuses to acknowledge the reality of her situation.

Thankfully, Clevatess is perfectly comfortable living in the realm of the grey. On the one hand, we see Alicia continuing to reclaim some of the lost honor she once felt she possessed in her first life as a hero; she even manages to win over the initially angry villagers who are out for her head, including the innkeepers and their adorably earnest son. After finally getting Clevatess' help to summon her Regalia and defeating Meynard's army of creepy crawlies, though, Alicia doesn't have an ounce of pity to spare for the wizard's bitter sob stories. At first, I thought she straight-up murdered the twerp, but even if he's still alive, Alicia is still clearly not wasting time appealing to the villain's better nature or humanity. She embodies a fairly ideal balance of hope and steeled resolve, which I imagine will serve her well.

Once the business with Meynard is dealt with, Clevatess turns its attention back to the problem of Clevatess' main body being trapped in Drel's evil blood prison. This has convinced Klen that a rival Dark Beast is behind all of this madness, which is a tantalizing turn of events indeed. What's more, Luna's Hydalean mother is entering the fray to take on Drel herself, which is a fantastic development for how it adds more layers of conflict to the big-picture intrigue while also complicating the primary story of Team Clevatess' journey with the baby princeling.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Naie, who has quickly settled into the role of extremely irritated and confused Comic Relief Gal. This is not the path I predicted for the spooky sorceress, but her utter bafflement at Klen and Alicia's bickering and scheming is very entertaining, so you won't hear me complaining. With every passing week, Clevatess continues to up the ante and deliver one of the most consistently entertaining and considered adventures of the season. I can't wait to see what comes next.

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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.