Clevatess: Majuu no Ou to Akago to Shikabane no Yuusha

For as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of fantasy stories. It's definitely my favorite genre, and practically all of my favorite stories fit into it in some way. Even works that aren't very good overall but feature some interesting fantasy element end up finding their way to me. However, it's true that after reading so many fantasy stories, my critical sense of them has considerably improved, so these days I can't stand any of the generic crap that's released every anime season. So, when I first heard about Clevatess, I was surprised by its positive critical reception, coming from people who didn't talk much about anime but recommended it to everyone. And recently, a major anime website declared the anime one of the best fantasy series released in recent years, which further increased my desire to watch it so I could finally experience a fantasy story that breaks free from clichés and features a truly good narrative and captivating characters. However, before even reaching the halfway point of the season, I managed to sum up Clevatess in a single word: disappointing. In *Clevatess*, humanity faces dark beasts until the 13 heroes sent to combat are defeated by Lord Clevatess. Seeking revenge, he devastates the Kingdom of Hiden, but revives the heroine Alicia Glenfall to help him raise Luna, a child whose destiny could save or destroy the world. Disguised as a human, Clevatess travels with Alicia in search of a wet nurse, while neighboring kingdoms prepare to exploit Hiden's fragility and claim his borrowed forge. First and foremost, Clevatess is truly a bit different from other fantasy works, as at least here there's an attempt to create an original world with its own fantastical elements. But make no mistake: every cliché found in any other story of the genre is there, but glossed over with different names—and sometimes not so glossed over at all. There are mysteries related to the distant past of the races that have repercussions on the future of the world, which is interesting in creating a sense that everything happening on screen is "alive" and not simply created to be shown to the viewer. But all my praise ends there, as Clevatess managed to waste all its potential due to a basic narrative error that occurs in many fantasy fictions: excessive exposition through dialogue. It's clear that the original author of the story lacks the ability to present the story's events to the audience in an interesting way, falling into the trap of simply having the characters explain everything—and I repeat, absolutely everything—that just happened, what happened in the past, what might happen in the future, and what is happening now. There simply comes a point where I felt like I was being treated like an idiot by the story, as everything was explained as if it had been nothing more than a neuron in my head. Because of this extremely exaggerated exposition, much of the screen time that could have been devoted to character development, world-building, and building anticipation for future plot developments was simply replaced by small talk about mostly completely insignificant events. For this reason, by the final episodes, I felt like the story hadn't progressed at all and little had actually happened, contrary to what the anime intended. As a result, all the elements that had potential for depth were reduced to dust. The worldbuilding becomes a blur, the political plots lack weight because we don't care about the characters involved, and the mysteries are poorly developed, culminating in meaningless resolutions simply thrown at us without any impact. After a few clever episodes, it almost seems like the writer no longer wants to tell the story, as everything is resolved in such simplistic and idiotic ways that leave the viewer questioning. In short, Clevatess had relative potential and doesn't even compare to other generic fantasy anime. While these at least know how to tell a story to their target audience, Clevatess still manages to present its plot in a way that makes sense. In the end, it seems like the author had a lot of cool ideas in mind but didn't know how to distill them into an interesting narrative along with the characters we care about. The result of all this is a work that promised to be a renewal among generic releases, but which ends up losing out to its own representatives and leaves the feeling that it had some potential, but lacked someone captivating.

Clevatess is a hidden gem that could easily be a top anime of 2025, despite its lower popularity. As an original story, it shines with a unique premise that feels fresh and unpredictable. I went in expecting to drop it after one episode, but its grounded take on real-life situations hooked me , making it my favorite anime this year so far—only Kingdom S6 might top it, but that’s a sequel, and this is an original (based on manga ofc). The characters are well-rounded, each with clear strengths and flaws. They’re neither overly perfect nor inexplicably foolish—their decisions and reactions to events feel authentic, making their growth compelling. Naie Chiffonlits best girl (perfect VA choice). Others might enjoy Clevatess for its originality and character-driven plot, even if they’re not into the genre. For me, it’s a 10/10, and I’m hoping for a Season 2!

Clevatess, in a nutshell, is an extremely ambitious show. Clevatess is like one of those stories that has some good ideas and initially starts out great, but it's drastically hindered by the format of the medium and the lack of structure in the show. It would have been better if the anime had learned to cut out some story elements in favor of more development in the main narrative, because it felt like the anime was trying to build too many things at once without proper planning. The good is that the anime had a strong start and good production, thanks to the anime's first episode being a 45-minute foundation that built interesting narration and good characters to boot, with some nice dialogue. The production and direction helped cement the show as another sleeper hit of this Summer, which I honestly didn't expect to be, but it was a nice surprise nonetheless. Clevatess was the main highlight of the show because he has a lot of interesting things going for him, caring for a human baby, reviving a human hero, watching the human world through the lens of a protectless maiden, etc. After all, I wanted to see how Clevatess can gradually learn to acknowledge humanity through the action of taking care of a baby. Albeit stereotypes are present to drive the story, such as making Clevatess portrayed as a conceited nihilistic being or creating douchebags as stepping stones, as the norm for some shows nowadays. Still, part of me was amused by the action and drama the anime introduced in its first episode. With little time to progress, the first half of the story is solid, as it introduces a couple of interesting characters like Neruru and Dorel while providing quite nerve-racking action for Alicia during her climaxes (I don't mean it in a kinky way). As for Dorel, I'd say the story does a decent job at fleshing out this character, showing him as a fearsome general along with some notable fight scenes, which help him stand out as the series' antagonist for the time being. Now with all that being said... The bad starts mainly because of its pacing, and by that I don't mean it's sluggish; it's too choppy and rushed. Part of that came from the show's attempt to explore its multiple story ideas, but it does so quite clumsily. It's an example of what scope creep is to a show. I'm not saying that the show didn't make any notable progress. It was able to deliver good character development when the story took it slow, primarily looking at Alicia, for example. Her backstory and scenario were already interesting, a revenge story coupled with the disgraced hero narrative, besides even Neruru was also interesting, but instead of trying to solely focus on that, the story wanted to include more lore and exposition, hence churning the story into a rushed war climax that later stopped delivering character development during that arc. This, unfortunately, results in the following action sequences lacking emotional impact, and some characters start to feel more like plot tools (like Dorel, who starts to act more like a backstory dump during crucial action sequences) than actual characters as it later progresses. Another issue I had with the story is the baby, since he's nothing more than a plot device in the entire anime and lacks plenty of baby personality despite the anime desperately trying to show you a lot of crying scenes, and I mean A LOT. I'm confident that if the baby didn't exist and somehow were to be replaced by a secret key, it wouldn't change a damn thing about the story at all. Long story short, many of its story aspects needed more time to flesh out, but due to the show's format of only allowing 21 minutes of storytelling and exposition, it feels oddly rushed in the end. I think the story could've worked if it had lowered its scope, which would have helped create more breathing room for the more interesting story aspects it managed to flesh out, like Neruru, who got sidetracked for the sake of the story. But wait, there's more! We need to talk about the ugly, too! It stems directly from Clevatess. Yeah, it turns out they actually don't know how to write Clevatess in his own damn story. He's directly the main source of my complaints, because Clevatess has reached the maximum level of wasted potential; it's like watching the boss when you play him as a playable character. The story's decision to make sure to turn Clevatess into a useless character in the later chapters was utter garbage for a direction, because it cuts Clevatess away from more unique and interesting interactions, thus he's far inferior as a character compared to others since the story desperately wants to build him as its own surrogate. If you need a reminder, Clevatess nuked a kingdom because its domain was attacked by its heroes, then later shown to be extremely fragile and useless in human form in the SAME EPISODE! Whenever Clevatess (as Clen) tries to apprehend an issue through action, he ends up getting thrown around like a ragdoll, even though it's shown he has shadow powers! I really did not like what they did to Clevatess, especially looking at how rushed and straightforward Clevatess starts acting more 'human' without any needed development. It's pretty obvious that the story wanted to make sure Alicia gets all the screentime for action, but all it did was make me wonder why make Clevatess the main character, if he's not going to do anything in the first place? Might as well turn the title into The Adventures of Alicia. Long story short, the anime fails at trying to keep itself grounded, since it wanted to be a narrative masterpiece for some reason, despite lacking the creativity or writing to pace the series, so it ends up being a disjointed mess that tried too hard to go beyond the scope it's supposed to go for. So it's not going to feel satisfying for any ongoing watchers. Although I have to give credit for the way they handled the first half. Alicia and Clen were interesting at that time since the anime had a valid reason to keep up the human facade that terribly backfired at the end of the series. However, I am pretty drained after the show, even knowing the show will get a Season 2, I don't think I can continue watching when the show did a flimsy job at delivering a war arc when it mattered most. Thank you for reading.

The animation is ok when it's present. There's some CGI and still shots but the picture won't be bothering you much. The OST is generic. The characters are generic, their development is inexistent. That's it for the positives. The writing is offensively stupid. It's so bad Danmachi will feel like Lord of the Rings in comparison. The protag is facing off the bad guys? let's drop in a 6-minute long exposition dump mixed with detailed explanation of motives and life plans of the current villains. An evil guy surrounded by a swarm of insects crushes into MCs room and kills several people with bugs? I'd bet you didn't understand he's controlling the insects so here's a TED talk on his ability + some world history + some background of how he became a cringe ass bug kissing edge lord. I swear, it's so eye-rolling it's impossible to watch without 2x speed playback and some alcohol to dull the voice inside your head saying these are 5 hours of your life you're never getting back. I've checked the source material's reviews and the stated problems are the same: all the world building is done in the most exaggerated badly timed cringe-inducing way possible, half of the dialogues are just exposition dumps, the author treats the reader as an idiot and overexplains even the most obvious shit. Why wasn't it possible to fix this in the adaptation? Mushoku tensei's doing just fine replacing the enormous amounts of world building from the novels with visual storytelling. The author had a bunch of interesting ideas but they all fall short due to absolute inability to make them into a compelling story and that's not how entertainment works. Feel free to skip.

“Clevatess” is what happens when an interesting idea is paired with absolute garbage world building and idiot characters… so yeah… nothing really new. I’m not gonna sugar coat it. If You have experience in writing or You watched a lot of anime, You can predict a good 80% of what will happen in this show from episode 1. Plus, if You have the former You will be absolutely disgusted with the amount of bullshit that is presented in the plot. It is a shame because the story has a lot of potential. The problem is that the logic behind the catalyst of the story is total garbage (yes I am bitter and insult this show’s writing because I truly believe that given proper care and a skilled writer it could have been one of the greats). Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”. Ever heard the expression “Less is more”? The writer didn’t. Especially when it comes to exposition dumps given in the most nonsensical way possible. I consider myself someone who can suspend his disbelief pretty well but even I have limits. This show tested them a lot. The way the viewer, yes, the viewer, those dumps are useless to the characters, they are purely for the viewers sake. There is nothing organic in 90% of them. The info given in them could be given in a more organic and logical way but that would require more writing skills that the writer of this show has. It’s not only the problem with info-dumps given by other characters, it’s the same with info-dumping scenes of other characters in other places. It’s like the writer wants to put us in a position of an all knowing entity. As a rule it’s not a bad idea but You need a very specific plot and POV characters to make good use of it. For starters it works best if we have two MCs on different sides of a conflict and we witness their inevitable crash. Like two trains on the same track heading for each other. The important thing is to know a lot about both. Their motivations, morality, skills, friends and how they act in different situations. That builds suspense and drama. This show just shows us some characters and that’s it. I couldn’t give a rat's ass about a warmonger with a murder boner if that’s all I get. He’s just a glorified villain of the week at the end of the day. Even if You show me how they kill each other that means nothing given as none of them is the MC. It’s just watching worthless mobs having a squabble. There is no real sense of build up or power since we don’t get a proper contrast to the MCs powers. Everything they do could have been just another info dump in some town by the means of an overheard conversation. But someone decided to waste time by showing meaningless scenes. Usually I’m all for “Show don’t tell” but those scenes have to mean something to the story. What we are given in this show is mostly background noise. They don’t do anything worthwhile until they encounter the MCs anyway. Needless to say that the pacing of the whole show suffers for this. Speaking of the MCs — Alicia and Clevatess. Clevatess is a nice idea when it comes to a story but absolute moron in the first episode, but a lot of characters are morons in the first episode, Alicia included, so I won’t hold that against him too much. That said, it is stated by Clevatess himself that he hasn’t seen a humanoid creature in about a thousand years. He is curious about why they would come and attack him and… does jack shit to find out. The mofo can resurrect them, ask them questions, thanks to his power they can’t lie to him, he could have answers to a lot of things in less than an hour probably. But that would be too logical, instead he just goes on a rampage in a city and learns jack shit. Yeah… and he has the gall to call others idiots. On top of that, he states that he gives zero effs about humanoid races and yet he stops to listen to a dying humanoid and even takes one of them into his care because of that. Now, if the show would position Clevatess as someone who is bored out of his mind and is longing for stimulation I would probably accept that. It wouldn’t be the best motivation to adopt a kid but it would be far better then the shit we get. It is painfully clear that the writer had no idea how to make a powerful, almost omnipotent, creature to adopt a child whose lifespan is too low to even matter to him, so he did… whatever You call this garbage. As it stands there is no real logical reason for him to take the kid. He only did it because the plot demanded it. Another problem with him is his story. His story is supposed to be about a powerful monster learning about humanoid races. There is very, very little of that in all 12 episodes. After his encounter with the slavers that part of the story I abandoned. I do like the fact that his first official learning encounter is with characters that are villainous. I was afraid that we would get the repeat of “To Your Eternity” bullshit that everyone who takes on a role of the teacher will be a good, almost pure person. I seriously dreaded that. That said, Clevatess has barely any meaningful interactions with the child (he named Luna). Apart from keeping it relatively safe he does jack shit. Despite the lack of interactions and any sign of connection the show wants me to believe that he cares enough for the child to change his mind about abandoning everything and going back home. Eff. Off. Just how bad the writers are? The only interactions Clevatess had with the kid was carrying him, once using beetles to clean him and… that’s it. Everything else is connected to Alicia or the wet nurse they recruit. He doesn’t play with it, doesn’t observe it during the interactions with his servants. Nothing. And I am to believe that he gives a damn enough to have an emotional scene in the last episode? Just go fuck yourself You skill-less hack. Now for the worst part of him as a character. In the very first episode we see him as a powerhouse that is able to kill 13 people that are positioned as elite. Yet, after he changes his form into a humanoid, he becomes almost powerless and useless. He gets knocked out by one hit in the head and thrown like a rag doll by a creature far below him. The excuse? He isn’t used to his new form and it’s too light. He even allows negative things to happen to him and his companion because… he’s just an observer? He wants to learn about humanoid races and keep the child safe… while acting like a slave. Yeah… great plan. The worst part? He has plot armor so strong that star wars characters could get jealous. Despite being a slave he’s never treated as badly as others. He’s just there and everyone just treats him almost decently. Apart from the knocking out part at the very start we don’t see him really mistreated. It’s like the writer knew what he did was moronic so he’s just minimizing the losses at this point. Alicia is a bit better as a character in both story and plot. Not by much I take what I can get at this point. Despite the fact that I think she has a better story and plot point, I still think that her character idea is trash. Let me explain. She starts out pretty solid but the more I knew about her, the more I wanted her dead permanently. She's a hero who died trying to slay Clevatess… because she was told to do it by someone. From what is shown and told about the world Clevatess and other Lords of Dark Beasts have their own territory and mostly stick to it. We don’t get any sort of evidence that they are trying to kill everyone, conquer new territories, they just chill on their assess. The only reason the heroes are…

Clevattes is a shounen anime wearing a seinen mask But it does so very poorly, because the mask comes off the moment the expository dialogue goes far beyond treating you like a drooling moron. While it has confidence in driving its own plot forward, it does so with zero confidence in its viewership or own world building, that’s supposed to speak for itself. The most blatant example I can give which is representative of many of the show’s issues, is its inability to have bandits in the show without having them stick their tongue out making crazy eyes at every chance. It’s painfully infantile because it’s a writing approach to drive forward a point: “This character is evil because he’s acting cuh-razey”. Every character, between every action, provides endless context for their actions based on what happened 1-2 minutes ago, as well as one episode ago. Here and there, past episode 6-7, I had to watch this while working, because there’s simply not enough happening to justify my attention both dialogue and action wise. It’s the very definition of missed potential, especially because of the way it treats its main “anti-hero”, relying on every single trope to keep things “balanced” in terms of power levels at the most obvious corners. Klen is shoved in a state of melancholy, coma, capture, or apathy whenever things need to happen. I knew this would happen, but I wish it wasn’t so blatant about it. Hidden gem my ass - I cannot believe anyone over the age of 15 could possibly take this show seriously because of its pacing and inconsistency in animation. By episode 8, the powerpoint presentation rears its head, because it considers its job done after episode 4. With the aforementioned issues, I find it incredible others are saying the show suffers from pacing issues, trying to cover too much. Are people that simple, incapable of following such simple plot lines? The voice acting is pretty good. It’s a shame we had to deal with hearing the insect wizard guy for 2 episodes though. There is nothing more annoying that one “I want to torture people” character archetype when it comes to their VA. This anime is not bad. It’s just a disappointment based on its premise and first 3-4 episodes.

ANIME OF THE YEAR How good is Clevetess? Let's preface this by saying this first: This is a High IQ Dark Fantasy anime show that many anime fans have been waiting for for many years. After YEARS and YEARS of enduring isekai of ecchi/harem slop over and over again and having every brain cell Hoover vacuumed out of our brain for watching to watch it every season we FINALLY get one anime for us. Many did not make it to this day. For fans of early Season 1-3 AOT, Berserk 1997, Death Note, Monster, Claymore, etc. That's who this show is for. If you watch this show and do not fit into this demographic and then hate on the show then you've been warned. This is NOT a shounen. The show feels like it was plucked STRAIGHT out of the 2008 and teleported almost 20 years in the future. That's high praise from me, because I grew up in that era. The pre Isekai era. Review Clevetess is about a badass super demon who basically gets tired of just being a badass super demon, decides to go on a side quest with a resurrected girl who tried to kill him. It's a simple formula, but works because of the intricate and deep plot that's behind everything. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just quit reading reviews and watch it. I don't like to rely on MAL ratings because sometimes they can be very disingenuous. A lot of people are rating garbage slop anime highly, and a lot of really good anime, for whatever reason, are sitting in the low sevens and some of them even in the high sixes. Clevetess being rated anything less than an 8 is a joke. The animation is done in a 2000s style, deliberately hand-drawn to give it that beautiful SMOOTH old school feel. You won't see the CGI fest you see in most modern anime with both my gen and the younger anime gen doesn't both agree looks TERRIBLE. CGI is barely used.It kind of feels more, I think, 2013-2014 than, say, 2005, which I actually appreciate because I think the animation between probably 2008-2015 was probably the peak of animation, in my opinion. But it has that old-school grainy feel, that same feeling that old Attack on Titan had which came out in the early 2010s: the dark colors, the hues, and everything like that, that gives it that kind of period-piece flair to it as well. So basically, now that you know who this is for, you know if this is something that you would want to watch. And let me just tell you that, in my opinion, that this is absolutely easily, without a doubt, anime of the year, and it's really not even close. 10/10

I just finished watching season 1, and truly, t's been a while since old-school dark fantasy fans have gotten fare this good. Clevatess gives us good art and character design, a dark, warring world, strange mysteries, magic that's rare and not well understood, and some well-animated and truly gory fights. (Warning before you watch: There's some impressive gore, as well as adult themes and depicted abuse. If that's not your thing ...) But what stands out for me the most are our main characters. Alicia, Clevatess/Klen, Nellaru all are great characters, with their own motivations and failings, and what's more, they're all very likeable. The show even gives the baby, Luna, reactions to the goings-on and (literal, baby milestones) development. It's fun that Alicia can be driven, kind, and clever, and also be absolutely sword-obsessed. It's great that Klen has an understated (sometimes overt) menace that nonetheless gives you the impression that he kind of wants Alicia and Luna to prove him wrong, and he's actually kind to Nellaru. Even Nellaru, whose character arc is gentle like her, gets room to grow. Plus, the forces driving everyone aren't just "find that McGuffin" or "I want to be the strongest." There's a lot going on in this world at large, between our main characters, and within them. If you're the kind of person who likes both action and characters with some depth, give it a try!

Clevatess is an action-fantasy series that manages to be both engaging and disappointing at the same time. It’s not a bad anime by any means—in fact, it has several strong qualities—but its flaws keep it from being as memorable or impactful as it could have been. More than anything, it feels like a case of wasted potential. The biggest issue is pacing. With only 12 episodes, the series tries to cover a story that really needed at least 16–24 to breathe. So much is crammed into too little time that major events often pass by without proper buildup or payoff. This becomes especially noticeable in the final four episodes, where the story feels rushed and explanations are either thin or absent altogether. What began with momentum and intrigue loses its energy, leaving the conclusion unsatisfying. The lack of breathing room also hurts the characters. Each of the main cast only gets a handful of minutes devoted to actual development, which isn’t nearly enough to establish real depth or connection. Their choices and struggles aren’t meaningless, but without that emotional weight, they come across as hollow. Early on, there’s a sense that the characters are being set up for meaningful growth, but that promise is abandoned in the second half, and by the end, it’s difficult to care about them at all. On the technical side, however, Clevatess does well. The animation is polished, the fight choreography is fluid, and the soundtrack is solid, all of which give the series a professional shine. In fact, the production quality helps disguise the storytelling flaws for a while—at least until the rushed conclusion makes them impossible to ignore. What makes this anime so frustrating is that the first half is genuinely enjoyable. The worldbuilding feels promising, the action keeps you invested, and there’s a sense that the story is building toward something bigger. By episode six, I was convinced Clevatess could become something special. But by episode ten, the cracks were obvious, and the final two episodes left me feeling more disappointed than satisfied. That said, Clevatess is far from unwatchable. There are much weaker shows out there, and this one at least has enough quality and entertainment value to justify the time spent. If you go in with tempered expectations—knowing that the story won’t reach its full potential—you’ll probably still enjoy it to some degree. Overall, Clevatess is a good anime held back by its short runtime and underdeveloped characters. It’s a polished but flawed experience, and while I’d still recommend watching it, I can’t help but wish it had the time to become the series it clearly wanted to be. 7.5/10

Clevatess — Modern fantasy, written the traditional way, reminiscent of the classical era of the 80s/90s, and it's a BANG. I miss the days when anime WAS anime, not like the mainstream slop that is now seeing all of the divisiveness that comes out of the modern era, where hype is king, regardless of quality, that can even "sanitize" brainrot into the masses that see the medium being so hated as it is now. That said, when anime gets a time to represent itself by going back to its roots, there are works like that which give the medium its rightful name, and it doesn't need the hype to back it up, which one such person can prove to be true: mangaka Yuji Iwahara, with his latest series of Clevatess: The King of Magical Beasts, the Baby, and the Corpse Hero, coming forth as his third anime series adaptation since Studio Sunrise's May 2010 feature film of Ibara no Ou a.k.a The King's Thorn, as well as Winter 2016's Dimension W. To understand Clevatess is to understand the author's origins, and Yuji Iwahara has quite the impressive resume of his careers: a graphic artist for Hudson Soft's games back in the 80s and 90s, then shifting to manga work with Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine in 1994, before branching out to some series that you might've heard around the grapevine: 2000 to 2002's Chikyu Misaki, 2006 to 2008's Gakuen Sōsei Nekoten! a.k.a Cat Paradise, and 2009 to 2011's spin-off of Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana. So clearly, the author knows much about the sci-fi, supernatural action world...to create a dark fantasy series during COVID times? Talk about quite the gamble for a still-flourishing manga series that just continues to be unapologetically bold and uncensored with its narrative themes, and the more you watch, the better its world expands with lore so deep into the rabbit hole that it's easy to get in but even harder to come out of. I'm a testament here, and that's a fact after watching so many dark fantasy series throughout the years, that no other dark fantasy-esque show has gripped me harder than what Clevatess has done to us over the Summer season alone. The story of a group of heroes ordained by a kingdom to slay devilish beasts and claim their rightful places in history — that's what you get with the 13 Heroes dealing with the Lords of Dark Beasts, with the strongest of them all being the dragon demon king of Clevatess, whom one such Lord can annihilate kingdoms far beyond its reach that it needs 13 people to get the job done, as the remaining survivor of Alicia Glenfall can attest to the truth in a future where the legend remains true to this day. However, as history cites many claims that need to be proven true or false, the Kingdom of Hiden, where the origin of the 13 Heroes legend stems from, is itself annihilated to the point of no return, with all of its citizens dead from the massacre of Clevatess that seemingly has no interest in conquest but will defend its lands if attacked. All but one survived, and it's a baby that has lost its mother, and seeing no other option, it's Alicia's responsibility to take care of the infant while going off the deep end to understand her role in the story of legend, as well as the state of humanity posthumously from Clevatess's wave of destruction. And this story truly goes ham, as one truth leads to another in what seems to be an endless spiral of lore that has not just Alicia but also her coming to know Clevatess and being reborn thanks to him saving her from a near-death situation, accompanied by the same baby that has the Dark Beast convert himself into the likeness of humans and study both humanity and the baby, whom he dubs Luna to keep his sanity from turning into the demon lord tyrant. Together with the troll slave child of Nell (whom Clevatess, Klen in his human form, calls Nelluru), who provides the much-needed nutrition as do developing babies needing their breastmilk, the trio set forth, journeying around the region to understand not just humanity and its course, but who Luna is and what she'll bring to the course of action when it comes to the crunch. Honestly enough, on the topic of badass women, you can call Alicia one tough nut to crack, as she embodies the "sticks and stones may break my bones, but not my spirit" fire within her that proves her loyalty and discourse to whatever and wherever Klen goes, knowing that a part of him resides within her for an exchange in power between life and death. The no-nonsense hero makes her presence known to everyone that she's a force to be reckoned with, set aside for the enemies that provide a challenge to her, as the legends that surround her get more nuanced on their true narrative that surprises even the Dark Beast Klen himself that the way he sees humanity is a barrage of information with regards to violence and betrayal, so he soon chuckles at how different humans are from the dark beasts themselves. Such an irony that humans are no more different than tyrant beasts, who, bestowed with power and control, seem excessive to the point of domination? This is definitely Klen's perspective from a talking/standing point. Even Nelluru, who's used to human abuse and torture, can be a tool in the right hands, though Klen doesn't care about anyone else other than himself and making sure that the pawns themselves do not die out on him until their roles have been met according to his satisfaction. It's a wild, wild world out there, and it is only humorous to the one who sees fit. The only elephant in the room I can consider to be a fault is on the production side of things, as above-average as it looks coming from a studio that has seen its fair share of action-oriented shows within the last decade, but it still looks amateurish as it looks. It's only by the weight of debut director Kiyotaka Taguchi, whose expertise as a film and TV director is most famously known for his Ultra tokusatsu series, that the show even holds weight to begin with, delivering an insane work that seemed like it took years to get to this point. Whatever it is, Lay-duce got it right being their newest Magnum Opus representative. Furthermore, the director himself is playing another role as sound director alongside music composer Nobuaki Nobusawa, and the music is also a high point for the series as a whole. It's bombastic, to say the least, and it does have an insane effect. Even better are both of the theme songs themselves, from Mayu Maeshima's OP filled with hype to English singer Ellie Goulding's debut English Anisong serving as the ED, with the notion of a book that's just as illusive but that plays a part in the narrative of the series as a whole. Really, what can I say? Clevatess is everything I wanted of a dark fantasy series that stayed true to its roots and held nothing back, especially when it comes to its story elements and the emotions that it embodies. This is truly a show for the ages and a lesson to show that sometimes, tradition beats modernity in more ways than one. What an amazing show to behold; this is a series that DESERVES and breathes hype in all the correct ways possible. Bring us more, because this is only the tip of the iceberg for what Clevatess has to show.

One of the best anime of summer 2025, starting from the first episode to episode 12, it creates its own interest and the unusual concept makes this anime unique and good.This anime story is unique and different from the others. Unique character art style and pretty good animation movements. This anime deserves more attention, because I think it's an unexpectedly good anime. Can't wait for season 2 of this anime! I haven't read the manga of this anime but I think it's good. The ending of season 1 was pretty good, but it was a bit slow to get into the next arc. Hopefully, season 2 will be produced soon.

Clevatess has, for the most part, done a fairly ok job at filling the Ubel Blatt-shaped hole in my heart left by that story’s piss-poor anime adaptation. While my feelings on hyper-edgy dark fantasy anime are extremely mixed on the best of days, and this one certainly isn’t winning me over with its parade of cackling evil villains and brigands, the worldbuilding is certainly unique enough to at least grab my attention. Moreover, the fact that it’s competent at delivering information in a way that feels mostly natural and engaging rather than lore-dumping for minutes on end is one of its biggest strengths, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s still much rarer than you would hope. The cast is pretty solid, though few besides our titular demon lord stand out much, but the mainstays rarely ended up being annoying or poorly-written, and the master-servant chemistry that develops between Clevatess and Alicia did give it a little dramatic tension as our not-quite heroes bumble their way from the countryside to the halls of power. The same vague competence can be found in the art direction and animation. Nothing really catches the eye aside from its crispness, but it consistently punches slightly above average so I rarely disliked looking at it, and the last two episode just go full sakugafest in a very Nakamura kind of way, so that was fun as well. In the end, I can’t really recommend this one if edginess is a huge turn-off for you, but if you’re willing to get down with your inner middle schooler, then I think there’s some fun to be had here.

What an anime!! Definitely a hidden gem. I couldn't even imagine that I would see this kinda nostalgic yet sharp animation in this age. It felt like everything was hand-drawn. The art feels 90's and yet so modern. I don't know why this hasn't gained popularity like Freiren; rather, it should have. Well, let's dive into the plot of Clevatess. Yuusha Alicia's father's dream was for his daughter to become a Yuusha[Hero] and slay Clevatess[Four Lords of Dark Beasts], and because of that, without seeking revenge for her father's murderer, she set out with other Heroes to slay Clevatess. The Heroes were exceptionally strong, but that strength couldn't even come close to Clevatess, and finally, all of them were brutally killed. Clevatess doesn't even know why these people are attacking him without any reason. So he set out to Hiden for revenge. In a few seconds, Clevatess destroyed the whole Hiden kingdom, except sparing a chiled named Luna and decided to raise her and make her a king of the new kingdom. Little does he know that Luna is a royal blood. Later, he revived Alicia to help him raise Luna. Each character of this anime is so unique and has a different motive, but all of them are connected somehow. The main protagonist, Clevatess, was outstanding. Despite him being so powerful, he is much wiser. Yuusha Alicia was also a very refreshing character to watch. The action is top-tier, and the story building is magnificent. Watching Clevatess while drinking coffee was the best part[haha]. The opening was catchy, and the ending song felt like I was listening to some '90s song. For those who grew up watching '90s anime, this anime will be the hidden gem for you. Well, just give it a shot and let me know how you feel.

Clevatess is a good anime that should have been great if it didn't drag its feet and waste time. The story moves way too slow. And the world building isn't that great. The villains are so boring. Combat choreography is lame like most anime. Your typical anime combat that takes too long. With talking and flashbacks. Although it is good it is still disappointing because it could have been better. Would have been great if they expended on the lore. There are 4 Lords of Beasts: Laswell Beast King of the East. A sea monster. Zaftier Beast King of the West. The only female. Seen as a goddess by the forest people. Vordein Beast King of the North. Lord of all Dragons. And of course Clevatess Beast King of the South. Who controls the shadows. These Beasts are basically barriers that prevent the humanoids from venturing further into the world. Heroes are sent to slay Clevatess. Wielding weapons that could in theory harm the Kings of the Beasts. But the heroes fail horribly. Like lambs to a slaughter. They did not stand a chance. Among them a female hero named Alicia is also slain. After Clevatess wreaks his revenge on the kingdom who sent the heroes, he finds a baby (the future king) with a dying woman. She asks him to take the baby. Which he eventually agrees to out of curiosity and for his own goals. Alicia is then revived as a slave. The 3 eventually go exploring so that Clevatess can learn about the humanoid world incognito. The characters should be interesting. But not really. Alicia is meh. They eventually hire a wetnurse who is also meh. The baby (Luna) is meh. They aren't developed enough. They dont do anything interesting with any of the characters in this at all. Whether it be main characters or side characters. Nobody is memorable. Wasted potential.

I’ve become pretty good at picking out anime of the season from the first episode and Clevatess is the latest entry in my book. From the premiere, which is a masterclass in establishing a dark fantasy world and ticked every box I look for in a first episode, I knew this was going to be special. Three months later, I’m happy to say it not only stayed as my Anime of the season, but consistently improved as the show went on. I had so much fun watching this every week, the pacing was perfect, the characters are great, the combat/magical system is well thought out, the story gives you just enough every week while leaving you thirsting for more and it doesn’t shy away from brutality. I enjoyed the unpredictability of this story a lot and the only issue I have with this is that it’s not a two cour show! If you can only watch a few hours of anime a week, Clevatess is one of those shows that needs to be in your list. We’ve seen the whole demon lord as the main character premise before. What we usually don’t get, though is a demon lord having to genuinely rely on the supporting characters to get things done. For example, there’s Maou Gakuin where we have Anos bulldozing everyone he fights or Demon Lord Retry. While technically not a “demon lord” in the traditional sense, Clevatess/Klen more or less fits this role and because of plot reasons, he has to walk among and work with humans. He can’t simply overpower everyone and instead works in tandem with his party members to overcome obstacles. This makes every conflict in this story much more interesting because it usually involves Klen using strategy and being the brains while Alicia is the brawn. There’s not a ton of fights in this 12 episode run, however the ones we do get feel very tense and often involve twists. Things just never felt dull in this show which is great. The other component of the show not feeling dull is this story! I am such a sucker for a good dark fantasy. I’m not sure if it makes sense, but I love “metal”stories that feel like a heavy metal track brought to life and that’s what Clevatess is. It’s a gory, brutal, twisted and cruel, but damn it it’s amazing. The show does a good job of being dark, but not edgy. Some shows try to be dark fantasies and just end up being cringe edge feats where horrible things happen for shock value, but in Clevatess everything feels purposeful and contributes to the narrative. Simply put, the messed up stuff in this series fits in with the established parameters of the story and mechanics of the world. The exploration and mystery aspects were also a big part of my enjoyment. I really like how rich and thought out this world feels. Humans having to fight for survival and not being the dominant species in this world is great. As human beings, we are naturally curious and driven to explore. In the world of Clevatess, that curiosity and drive leads humanity to conflict with the dark beast lords, seemingly impossible hurdles for humanity to overcome with their current level of technology and strength.. until the events of the show. It’s hard to talk about it too much without spoiling, but the way both sides of the conflict begin to realize they’ve been misled and become stuck in their narrow way of thinking is great. We see this on a micro scale in the relationship between Clevatess and Alicia who in many ways are the embodiment of this eternal conflict between humans and the dark beasts. Once the story gets going on and their relationship develops, they see the other side for who they really are and form this really cool bond. I liken this to Ragna Crimson with the two leads there and these worlds have a lot in common actually so if you enjoyed that sort of story, you’ll enjoy Clevatess. So the story’s great, what about the production quality? Animation isn’t crazy, but it’s passable. The art style and direction of the show are great though. The sound design in this show is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Reminds me a lot of fire force and sengoku youko. Every single blow and action in this series resonates with you thanks to the scintillating audio. It adds weight and dynamism in the fights and makes for a much more engaging experience. Again, there’s not a ton of big fight scenes in Clevatess, it’s very much a world-building, lore and mystery driven series as we work to find out the truth about the conflict between humans and dark beasts and humans and beasts coming to understand each other, but still, it’s nice that the few action scenes we have are well done and weighty. I could go on and on about Clevatess, but it’s really hard to describe why this story is so good without spoiling things. The first episode needs to be gone into blind so you can appreciate the WTF moments there and it’s just up from there. If you like dark fantasy stuff or just mature storytelling, give this a watch. Clevatess gets 9, out of 10.

Clevatess is a show about defeat and resilience. It is surprisingly confident, restrained, and honest about what kind of story it wants to tell. One of the show’s strengths lies in how it treats strength and power. Competence is not assumed, and progress is shaped by limitation and consequence rather than convenience. Characters are allowed to struggle, adapt, and change at a believable pace. At the same time, the story avoids clear moral labeling. Central forces are neither framed as heroes nor villains, remaining difficult to read and intentionally uncomfortable. The world is not handed to the viewer through too much explanation but how it is experienced. Events often precede understanding, and meaning emerges through consequence. When explanation or flashback appears, it is either brief or deepening what has already been felt rather than clarifying everything in advance. Combat is bloody, gory, and unforgiving. Violence feels necessary and often shocking, but rarely indulgent. It supports the tone instead of overpowering it. Some 'unnatural anatomy' and a fair amount of yelling should be tolerated, but they never dominate the experience. Clevatess was better than expected. You will likely want more time with the characters and the story. It can be recommended to viewers who appreciate restraint, earned character growth, and stories that show more than they tell.

This anime really brought back the classic anime adventure feels! I liked that it wasn't super fast-paced, and it wasn't over-stimulating. It wasn't crazy good animation, but it was solid. I liked the fact that it wasn't overly saturated, giving it a more serious feel. Characters are likable, story is interesting! It's a really well-balanced adventure fantasy anime. All the characters are not over-the-top, which is GREAT. They don't really follow an anime character trope, which I liked, cause then there aren't annoying misunderstanding tropes because someones too stubborn or a tsundere. They all actually make sense and have proper reasons for their actions, and they don't need to be annoying to make the story entertaining. Story is pretty good too! There were some sincere moments where I went wtf because of a huge twist. And its pretty hard for that to happen since I've seen a lot of different animes. Anyways, I recommend for people who feel nostalgic about the classic anime adventure!

Story- 8/10 The story is done well, there isn't any filler, and there is a consistent flow of story. The story it self is unique and unpredictable. The action scenes were perfect, and they stayed true to their dark themes. Art- 10/10 The fight scenes were peak, the art was done nicely. Everything looked right, and even the lil gore was done perfectly. The art style really suited the story and themes of the anime. Sound- 9/10 The voice actors were perfect fits. They all sounded right, and honestly there was a lot of skill that went behind it. The opening was good, it suited the anime well. The closing was also good, it was quite calming and it worked well for a closing. Character- 10/10 Honestly I really loved the back stories and all. The characters had their flaws, and strengths. You see them overcome their struggles in realistic ways. And they were all unique in their own way. I really enjoyed how we were following a female hero with great strength. She wasn't given any fan service or anything. They all were well written characters. Enjoyment-9/10 I really enjoyed watching this show, it was a new type of story that kept me interested. I don't think there is many that is similar to this type of story. They really did true to the fantasy genre. The story makes you root for the characters, question your own life in the same way. It there is a lot of suspense that goes on.

Clevatess is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre. It has a mysterious, engaging story that grabbed me from the very first episode and ended in a way that actually felt satisfying. The season does a lot of things right, though it isn’t without its flaws. The early episodes are really solid. I loved the darker themes and stories that were portrayed and thought they were executed well. The season focuses on uncovering the mysteries this world has to offer, and by the finale, it delivers as good an ending as I expected. It is a very solid setup season for the upcoming arc. On the production side, the show shines at times. The OP is fine, while the ED is easily one of the best of the season. The art style is not something I usually like, but it suits the dark, moody fantasy atmosphere surprisingly well. The animation quality does fluctuate, but the standout scenes present are strong enough to make you forget the weaker ones. Where it falls short is mostly in character development and pacing. Clevatess’s growth feels a bit rushed; the show needed more scenes with Clevatess and Luna to make later decisions and character changes feel more earned. More focus on her thoughts and relationships would have made the story feel much more convincing. The plot also takes a turn that the first episode doesn’t really hint at. What starts as a personal journey of Clevatess and Luna expands into a bigger story involving rival Dark Beast Lords and multiple factions, with Alicia becoming the main focus and Clevatess somewhat sidelined. It’s an interesting direction, and I do like Alicia, but I feel that Clevatess is a much more interesting character. The pacing is uneven as well. During the war, the show rushes through battles and exposition without giving certain characters much room to breathe. The first half of the season takes its time and builds tension effectively, but the second half feels like it’s merely checking off plot points instead of letting the story unfold naturally. Despite its flaws, Clevatess is still a really fun watch that keeps you hooked and wanting more. The world-building and mystery are strong enough to carry the show, and it sets up the next season really well. If they can fix the pacing and give Clevatess a little more spotlight, this could easily become a favorite in the fantasy scene. My score: 7.5/10

the writing of this is all over the place, i kept watching it for the sake of maybe it getting better, but nah, there is a fundamental flaw with the author that wrote this, maybe the studio could have done a better job, but this is exactly what i expect when i hear an amateur wrote a story, most of the time a scene rush to show you what happens, instead of taking its time to make you dive deep in it, characters are basically just npcs, i wouldnt care one bit if they are gone the next episode, that's how shallow things were to me while watching this show, nothing felt convincing enough, and that was a big problem for me, instead of relaxing and watching, i kept questioning the identity of this story.