Clevatess – That Didn’t start Like a Ghibli or Fantasy (FAP-364)

Producers: KADOKAWA Sammy Crunchyroll BS Nittele LINE Digital Frontier AT-X Culture Entertainment
Studio: Lay-duce Lay-duce
Source: Manga
Aired: July 2025 to September 2025
Genres: Action Drama Fantasy
Number of Episodes: 12
Jack's Score: 8 / 10
Rick's Score: 7 / 10

We dive into Clevatess, and we are start off by talking about we are blindsided in the opening and that sent us down quite a rabbit hole of misunderstandings about the king, the heroes and whether this was a noble legend quest or a disguised suicide mission. We spend a big chunk of time untangling and trying to figure out the lore together, along with what the king actually knew and why Clevatess wipes out the kingdom, what the four lords of dark beasts are really doing, and how Alicia’s painful immortality and Naruru’s reconstruction with Betty’s body change the way we see power and sacrifice in this world. Along the way we call out moments we totally misread, and Rick talked about rewatching the final episodes till it finally made things click, kinda, and we talk through how the rapid fire twists, dense exposition and all to round it off with us talking about how it has a Ghibli style of visuals. And that is just what all we talked about. All in all this is a show that you should check out yourself.

Starting off like any other fantasy and in a world where humans and magical dark beasts are locked in a neverending war, you are introduced to the main protagonist along with several other heroes. Journeying to fight one of the 4 Lords of Dark Beasts. The catch though is that they are all killed almost immediately by the one they were fighting and that is Clevatess. As a result of Clevatess being attacked he goes and destroys the kingdom that sent the heroes after which he decides to take in and travel with a human royal infant, and to help him take care of the infant he also revives a former hero, thus forming a strange makeshift “family” all so he can decide on what he will do next.