KAKANLen09
September 17, 2025
Recommended
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 needthe 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.
