Of the Crunchyroll dark fantasy anime about the trials and tribulations of raising a child on the battlefield set to air this year, Clevatess was one of our favorites for its odd-couple premise and killer retro anime vibes. And as fate would have it, the folks behind the show were at Anime Expo to talk about the first season ahead of the second season’s premiere, which is streaming now on Crunchyroll
Clevatess, animated by Lay-duce, follows Alicia, a recently deceased great hero slain by an all-powerful beast she and her party were charged with vanquishing. Much to her chagrin, Alicia is reanimated by the eponymous beast, who now walks the Earth as a human named Clen rather than in his giant, multi-tailed beast form. His reasoning for bringing back the great warrior is mostly a lark: He wants her to help him raise a princeling he kidnapped from the nearby kingdom he just sacked to see how the little guy turns out. The show’s first season was full of fantastical battles, both death-defying and hilariously unserious, and its second season looks to send their dynamic to school.
At Anime Expo 2026, io9 spoke with Clevatess director Kiyotaka Taguchi, Lay-duce animation producer Seiichiro Kuriyama, and Kadokawa producer Kosuke Arai about how the dark fantasy anime got its winning retro veneer, balances its dark fantasy meets comedic tone, and how it landed its surprising ending theme by Ellie Goulding
Isaiah Colbert, io9: One of the most striking qualities of Clevatess is its retro‑leaning aesthetic—from character designs to the subtle film‑grain texture. In animation terms, how would you describe that “retro” quality, and what techniques or stylistic choices did the team use to authentically emulate that?
Seiichiro Kuriyama:In terms of character design, most creators are more digital. But we wanted to make [Clevatess] look more hand-drawn or like cel anime from back in the day. We also wanted the lines to be distinct, which was something we really aimed for. If you notice the backgrounds in the anime, they look more like a freehand drawn style. One of the directors, [Atsushi] Morikawa, was one of the leads who made it look painterly. With him and other staff, we put all those elements together to make it look closer to cel, like you’re watching an ’80s or ’90s-style anime. That was one of our aims for this anime.
Kiyotaka Taguchi:Of course, this anime was made digitally. Everything’s finished digitally. But we wanted to bring out that back-in-the-day feeling that you’re watching a film. We would have the noise of the grain on there and increase it depending on what kind of scene we were in. When you watch a film, you’ll notice a bit of shakiness. We actually added a little bit of that shakiness to make the anime—but not too shaky, of course. It’s digital, but we wanted to make it look more like a film.
Kosuke Arai:For me, I feel like for the older generation, this is more nostalgic. But for the younger generation, right now we’re in kind of a retro boom, as we say. I think when the younger generation says, “Oh, it’s like back in the day,” they appreciate and get excited about that. Something I wanted to mention about Taguchi-san: the fonts were something he was really looking at closely. For example, the ending credits, if you look at the signs or the place locations, he was really particular about the fonts. He would make a K a little bit bigger or move the location of a U. I think that was pretty cool to see for myself, and I really respect Taguchi-san for that.
io9: At its heart, the series is about a demon king and an undead knight unexpectedly raising a child together, creating a blend of chaos, tenderness, and comedy. Looking at the season as a whole, which scene best captured that dynamic for you, and why did it stand out?
Taguchi:One of the scenes I really liked from episode one was when they’re changing a diaper in the river. One of the scriptwriters, [Keigo] Koyanagi-san, had just had a baby at the time. He was also basing it off of his experience. If you remember, Clen is telling Alicia what to do from behind, like, “Hey, what are you doing?” and she’s like, “Why are you telling me all of this stuff?” This was actually not in the manga, but it was based on Koyanagi-san’s experience. Clen is being very serious, but in that scene, we made him really humorous. We thought that encompasses that relationship.
io9: Alicia’s reanimation sequences are some of the most visually intense moments in the anime. From an animation and design standpoint, what went into crafting those gnarly scenes to ensure they felt both shocking, occasionally hilarious, and believable within the show’s world?
Kuriyama: I agree. Alicia’s scenes were very memorable for me. I remember that for Taguchi-san, this was one of the scenes he was super particular about
Taguchi:I was born in the ’80s. Instead of doing VFX, I’m more of an SFX type of guy. I grew up on those type of movies. For example, I love zombie movies, and with Alicia, I incorporated that by giving her zombie-like movements after her reanimation sequence. I was really inspired by Steven Spielberg’s movies, where you see something that’s grotesque but humorous at the same time. Indiana Jones is one of the movies that comes to mind, or even Jurassic Park is a movie that had a lot of influence. Those kinds of elements are what I borrowed from, and you see that on screen.
io9: The anime joins a rare group of series featuring a British artist on the ending theme, with Ellie Goulding’s “Destiny” closing each episode. What led to the decision to use that song, and what qualities made it feel like the right emotional fit for Clevatess?
Arai: For us at Kadokawa, we really wanted to reach a global audience. Of course, make it popular in Japan, but we wanted this anime to appeal to a global audience as well. I don’t think many of us have had experience working with an overseas artist, so we talked about that. Ellie was a big fan of Japanese culture, so there was a fit there. With endings, the tones are more relaxed or subdued. When you watch the anime, Alicia and Clevatess are always battling or doing more hectic, busy things. But in the ending, we thought there was another side to them when they weren’t in the mayhem. That kind of song, we thought, reflected that part of them.
Clevatess season 2 is streaming on Crunchyroll
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