When we last left off, Klen felt deceived by everyone and everything, so he wanted to return home to his mountain and abandon Luna in the process. Alicia, in the midst of fending off Drel, starts scolding the dark beast lord telepathically. She pleads with him to stare deep into Luna’s eyes, and thus ask himself if the world is still gray. I guess that’s enough to do the trick. Just like that, Klen reaffirms the bond he has with the child and picks Luna back up into his arms. But like I said last week, that bond between those two seems tenuous if not outright nonexistent. I don’t really believe in things like love at first sight — just an infatuation and nothing more. Instead, I believe actual love is something that builds up over time as you share heartful moments with the people close to you. And certainly, Klen has spent a lot of time with Luna. Unless Nell was nursing the child, the boy was pretty much always in Klen’s arms. But I can’t help but feel as though this isn’t enough. Just one or two explicit bonding moments would’ve gone a long way, but we never got any of those. Instead, we mostly got Klen being confused about humans and human practices.

In any case, with Luna now safe and sound, Alicia can finally put all of her energy into pulling a victory out of her zombie ass. Even though Drel has pretty much held the advantage over the past two episodes, she’ll surely beat him this time! The studio clearly saved all of its budget for the finale, because everything looks a hundred times more fluid this week. And other than Alicia screaming out the name of her finisher, I kinda enjoy the final act of this long, drawn out fight. But you know me. You know I always gotta complain about something, and this time, it’s the delayed effect on Alicia’s final attack. Of course, it initially has to look like she lost… but she didn’t! Alicia wasn’t actually aiming for Drel! She was aiming for his weapon instead, which sure took its sweet time in shattering. I had no idea that’s how swords work! You strike it with all your might, then you gotta explain what your true objective was! Only after that will the sword shatter. Sorry, but as usual, I hate the clumsy storytelling. Blah blah blah, there were pained cries from your sword, because T’ala managed to strike it with the hammer, etc. Boring. But I guess Drel’s body composed of dark ichor was being held together by the sword, ’cause he soon dies with it. And boy is it a death. This is some straight up Hellraiser shit. And then all that blood is just going to dissipate into the air around them? Gross. More reasons to wear a mask whenever you go outside. You never know if you’re going to breathe in some dark beast lord’s fluids.

Everything after that is a rather perfunctory denouement. Klen lets Luna return to his mother on the boy’s own feet. Technically, the child had its first steps in the forge, but shhhh. I’m told children will have all kinds of “firsts” in daycare — first walk, first word, etc. — but this is where white lies come in handy. T’ala doesn’t need to know she missed out. Anyway, Rhode tells both armies that Drel has fallen, so everyone can stop fighting. Oh yeah, there are, like, other people involved in this war. Somehow, they don’t matter at all. It’s also really, really nice of the invading army to just slump their shoulders and fuck off without any pushback. Oh, our general’s dead? I wonder what’s for dinner… Vordin only rears its ugly head in the form of a lizard, which proceeds to spew some vague shit about how Klen will rue this day. We still don’t know much about anything. Toah? Shrug. Legend of heroes? Isn’t that an overrated but still solid JRPG series? The fate of true humans? Beats me… and pretty much every character in this show as well. Last but not least, the new queen dowager offers our heroes any gift they desire, so Klen decides to stick around as Luna’s tutor. We get a glimpse of Alicia’s new look, but Nell is nowhere to be found in the post credit scene. I wonder where she is now. Maybe employed as Luna’s babysitter or whatever.

So that’s Clevatess. They didn’t waste any time in announcing a second season, so there’s more coming in the distant future if you’re interested. But to be honest, I’m lukewarm about the series continuing. The problem is that the mysteries behind the true humans and Toah are too vague. They’re not interesting enough on their own to keep me hooked. Where did the true humans go? What’s hidden within that strange book? Who cares? Clevatess hasn’t done a good enough job to make me want an answer to those questions.

Of course, all of this setup can still work if we have a strong attachment to the characters. Any show needs an emotional center, and by process of elimination, it has to be Klen’s relationship with Luna. It can’t be the comraderie between him and Alicia, because there isn’t really much of one. She’s alive thanks to him, but they don’t even feel like friends. They’ve just bickered all season and that’s it. Nell’s presence has also faded ever since she “joined” the team. She’s not particularly close to either of them. In the end, all we really have is Klen and Luna. So the true human stuff and Toah can still matter to me, but that’s only if I worry how they might affect the show’s emotional center. But I don’t. Klen and Luna don’t exactly have the best father-son relationship ever told in anime, and at this point, it’s hard to imagine how any of the mysteries directly impacts the kid at all.

I covered Clevatess, because it didn’t seem like there was anything else of interest on Wednesdays. In hindsight, I think I would’ve enjoyed dedicating posts to trashing Mikadono Sisters instead. Clevatess seems like it would’ve fit better in my weekly “Everything else” series of posts. And when the sequel finally rolls around, that’s probably where it’ll end up. There just isn’t much here to chew on in terms of character interactions or overall subtext. By the way, does Alicia have some amazing leather bra or what? The way they’re hanging onto her, they’re the most magical thing about this show.