English Dub Review: Clevatess “Return of the King”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The battle against Drel and Clevatess’ views on humanity’s survival are finally decided.

OUR TAKE

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few months, but here we are at the end of this first season of Clevatess. That’s right, FIRST season, as it has been confirmed that this group’s adventures will continue in a second season…eventually. It can take anywhere from six months to over a decade for an anime to release a new season, more than likely because the anime industry remains quite callous and cruel by overworking the people who make it until they’re emotionally drained husks. Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, this season finale! Well, it’s a solid resolution for everything involved. Alicia overcomes the viciously depressing talk of Drel as she sees through his facade and hits him in his weak points, both emotional and physical, as she notes that his grudge against heroes is simply his own self loathing projected onto the world, and then manages to crack his Regalia that contained his power and sees his flesh tear from his body in a gruesome fashion that’s just become expected of this series. Despite her struggles, Alicia manages to prove to the world that the hope for heroes is still alive and well, showing that there is a future for this kingdom.

Though similarly, and perhaps more importantly, Clen also faces his own greatest challenge, that being his waning faith that humanity can actually get its shit together. He even starts to abandon Luna momentarily, that is until Alicia tells him (mid-battle) to look into Luna’s eyes and tell her what color they are. And it’s in that moment that Clen seems to see the innocence that Luna still has and may be able to use to revive this nation to some passable standard. With that, the fights die down and time passes, with Clen and Alicia now Luna’s magic tutors. Definitely makes sense to have a time skip considering Luna as a baby only has so many uses as a character and this whole travel to put him back on the throne had to end at some point. So it’s safe to say that the next season, whenever it gets here, is going to be a considerable departure from this one, though how much of that remains to be seen. For now, it’s time to look back at how far we’ve come and review this first season as a whole! Maybe those first few episodes will be a bit more bearable now.