English Dub Season Review: Levius, Season One

 

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

In a world powered by steam, boxers with metal prosthetic arms take part in the sport of metal boxing. Levius Cromwell, an up-and-coming boxer with only one prosthetic arm, takes on increasingly tough opponents. What starts as a journey of finding one’s purpose turns into a much more personal and consequential conflict. 

Our Take

When I saw the trailer for Levius, I gleaned that it was about people boxing with prosthetic arms. I was right on that front, but what I completely missed was that it was also steampunk-esque.

Though the world Levius takes place in is entirely fictional, it is heavily inspired by early 20th century/post-WWII Britain, like most steampunk fiction. However, the reason I added the “-esque” to steampunk earlier is that the story doesn’t cash in on all of the visual quirks of the genre, namely the odd and mechanical flairs usually present in steampunk settings. Steam certainly plays a major role in the story, but the “punk” aspect is absent. For the most part, the setting stays as realistic as possible. There are a few fantastical things that stand out though, like steam robots, magic steam, mind control drugs, and even androids. But these things are never utilized on a grand scale. They merely play dramatic roles in the smaller, more conventional conflicts of the show.

The titular protagonist, Levius Cromwell, is a young man whose suffering and struggles all resulted from the great plague of war. His comatose mother protected him from an explosion and a young girl who he failed to save both haunt him. But in addition to PTSD, this also causes him to lose his sense of purpose. At the start of the series he has found the right track through ascending the ranks of metal boxing, but he’s not quite there yet. 

Levius’ trauma stems not from the events that were beyond his control but from tragedies he felt he could have prevented. He was only a boy when they happened, so he truly could not have done much, but the regret still eats at him. He cannot do much for his mother at this point beyond paying for her treatment, which the prize money from boxing certainly helps with. 

And so he chooses to honor her memory and sacrifice in a different way. Even though all of the other boxers have had both of their arms replaced with metal prosthetics, Levius chooses to keep his one good flesh and bone arm the way it is. He values the body his mother gave everything for and keeps fighting with it even though it puts him at a great disadvantage. There isn’t much else to this aspect of Levius, with only a few lines of dialogue and a handful of flashbacks to tell the story. It does get rather repetitive after a while, but despite it’s repeated simplicity, I think it’s still a very strong character trait. 

Levius’ doggedness in sticking to his personal, high-risk boxing style is ultimately what defines him. He boxes with only one metal arm, halving his effectiveness. He also persistently decides to practice his signature, decisive moves while in the middle of important matches. These traits start as youthful foolishness, but through the trials of his matches, they morph into admirable perseverance. 

For the first half of the show, this perseverance serves only to tell a fairly cliche boxing story. Levius’ first three opponents are all cocky meatheads, in contrast to Levius’ softspoken but earnest nature. As a result, these first bouts aren’t very original and play out similar to something like a Rocky film. 

The real narrative and emotional crux of this show lie in the second half. Here, Levius is allowed to rectify his other big past regret; the young girl he didn’t help back in the war, revealed to be the boxer AJ.

AJ’s narrative appeal lies entirely in her tragic backstory and present situation, having to box against her will for the amusement of others. Her circumstances are direr and more fatal than Levius’, but I felt they were treated with the same brevity. Despite AJ’s backstory given much less screentime than Levius’, I felt the emotional effect was the same, simply because AJ’s had a more dramatic impact. It is a bit too melodramatic, but this doesn’t lessen the legitimacy of its purpose. The narrative equilibrium between the two of them feels nice, like they’re equals, despite all the other factors separating them. It gives force to Levius’ resolve and sympathy to AJ’s misfortune. 

The final product is competent, but there are problems in the execution. The buildup to the final fight felt way too long. They spent a lot of time meandering over an array of small details that could’ve been condensed into one or two episodes. Also, once the final fight began, it focused mostly on the fighting at first and delayed the emotional scenes until the very end. I think if they had cut between the fighting and the dialogue in a judicious manner, it would’ve flowed better, instead of leaving all the catharsis for the last five minutes. 

The antagonist, Dr. Clown, by name alone sounds like he’s the villain in a children’s show. His actions, however, are much more diabolical. Brainwashing war orphans to fight for your own amusement is seriously messed up. It honestly seems too evil and exaggerated for a boxing show. His personality is flamboyant, but ultimately he’s just a psycho, almost like a knock-off of The Joker from Batman. Apart from just being an evil douchebag, in the end, he doesn’t seem to have any other motivations for doing this. He’s detestable but has no depth, so he falls somewhat flat as a character. Also, he’s an android I guess? Is he even human? They do not explain how that works at all. I’m just not going to ask questions because I feel like I’d be putting in more effort than the story did. 

Most of the other characters are, for the most part, perfunctory side characters. Zack is as his guardian and second in the ring. Bill is the deadpan and meticulous steam engineer who builds and fixes his arm. They have their big moments to flesh out their characters. These are good enough, but sometimes they felt oddly placed like they intruded the pace of the main story. 

The one standout among them is Natalia, a former opponent turned rival and training partner. Her arc is that she marches to the beat of her own drum but slowly comes around to appreciate the gang in the end. It’s nice, but I feel like more could have been done with her. Unfortunately, she serves mostly as an ineffective comedic relief character. She’s supposed to be a great boxer, but we only see her fight for a few moments across the whole show. It would’ve been nice to see her in an actual fight, even if for just a short segment of an episode. 

As for the animation, we have yet another combat-oriented anime that has entered the realm of 3D animation. The character designs and models are simple and streamlined, in contrast to usual hyper-detailed 2D anime designs. They look and move around well enough for a relatively civil boxing show. In the ending animation, there are illustrations from the artist of the manga the anime is based on, and the original 2D character designs are very detailed and beautiful. In contrast to the less robust 3D models you can see some parts were definitely lost, but they did manage to keep a lot of the charm which is admirable. 

The cel-shading isn’t very strong and the lighting is very static on the character models. These two aspects are the bread and butter of 3D anime and I think a lot of viewers might lament their reduced usage. This is because a lack of adherence to these techniques usually spells visual disaster for a 3D anime, but it ends up working here due to the simple designs. Because there are less moving parts on the models, when they do move it looks a lot more natural and less distracting, less like an overcrowded 2D animation or more like a fluid 3D animation. 

The decision to stick with a complete 3D style may be interpreted as playing it too safe, and perhaps even straying from being an anime at all. Personally, I think it looks fine. It’s clearly not trying to be innovative and I think sticking with the 3D style was the better alternative than attempting to step into the messy arena that is trying to blend different styles. It’s inoffensive and doesn’t stand out in a good or bad way.

While I wouldn’t dock any points for playing it safe in terms of style, where I do have some grievances is in the movement of the animation itself. The advantage of animation is that you have complete control of the camera and the actors, but here they’ve squandered that advantage for most of the show. The first three fights are very tame and boring. They look like if you took footage of a real boxing match and just sped it up slightly. It would be exciting if it were real life, but in the realm of animation, it looks almost trivial. I understand the show wanting to be relatively realistic, but the fights are the moments where they should’ve gone over the top. These fighters have metal arms, they should be capable of performing crazy arm movements and powerful impacts. 

To its credit though, the animation does pick up a lot during the last, climactic fight. AJ is by far the fighter who is the most fun to watch. The way she bends and swings her entire torso around to dodge big hooks and how she dashes in to deliver a large flurry of jabs is super cool. She brings a frenetic and chaotic energy to her fights and it never fails to please the eye. Her fighting style is the pinnacle of the show, but it really should’ve been the standard. 

I think Levius is a show that is less than what it appears to be on the surface. It’s steampunk with little steam and no punk. It’s a boxing anime with a very civil approach to boxing. But what it does objectively have is concrete and genuine. A traditional but solid story about war, sacrifice,  and perseverance. Its lesson in learning to forgive yourself and keep on trying is a moral well told. What does hold it back though, is its slow-paced, lop-sided narrative and its lack of visual substance? It’s got good ingredients, but it’s not very exciting or particularly memorable.

If you like steampunk and boxing, but neither of those things too much, this is worth a watch. Even if you’re just interested in the concept otherwise, I’d also say give it a try. Just don’t expect to be blown away.