One of last year’s surprise breakout hits, Clevatess, returns this summer for a second season. The first season’s crisp visuals, dark storytelling, and proclivity for violence and bloodshed drew viewers in by the droves. A budding fandom grew despite many of them (myself included) not knowing much of anything about the property before seeing it. The tale of one of the ‘Lords of Dark Beats’ Clevetass (Yuichi Nakamura) suddenly taking an interest in a humanoid child that has been abducted by bandits, after destroying a horde of heroes that attacked him, felt fresh and new. But season 2 seems destined to take us down an all too familiar, tropey path.

After returning the child monarch Luna to his kingdom and mother, Clevatess’ humanoid form Klen (Mutsumi Tamura) strikes a deal to become Luna’s magic teacher. While Nelluru (Aoi Yuki) stays behind to remain Luna’s wet nurse, Klen and resurrected hero Alicia (Haruka Shiraishi) make their way to the magic academy Solsein. Part of the reason is so Klen can learn how the humanoids use magic. However, the other reason is because the main villain of season one, Drel, held a secret laboratory where he conducted his experiments on children of all races. But of course, Klen and Alicia aren’t the only ones looking.

Setting the second season at a magic school, and having Klen and Alicia change their bodies through Klen’s ‘Dark Ichor’ (the dark fluid than Klen/ Clevatess can produce from his body that also resurrected Alicia last season) so that they look like students feels like a bit of cop out. Sure, the reasoning behind the need for a school arc may be more intriguing than most series also using this classic trope, but it’s still a trope for a reason. And this sure feels like a vast departure from the previous season. Plus the back seating/ departure of fan favorite Nelluru seems like a big loss for them to overcome. Of course the new students they run into on their first day and who will accompany them through the season are all archetypes that any anime fan will recognize as well.

That said,  the animation remains top notch. The voice cast has returned from last season as well which certainly helps. Plus Alicia’s inability to not intercede in any situation she sees as unfair combined with Klen’s inherent ability to stick out despite trying to stay in the shadows are both on full display here, even in the new setting. We can only hope that we don’t spend the entire season behind the walls of the school and get to visit with some of the other characters from last season too.

The first two episodes provided for this preview do little more than to set up the school setting and place into motion the new characters that inhabit it. And while that’s fine it’s also expected and quite frankly similar versions of this have been many times before. One can only hope that Clevatess season two has more of the trademark dark and gory battle sequences for us coming in the episodes ahead. As well, I’m hoping for a well designed mystery at the heart of it. So far, Clevatess season two is at least delivering a satisfying start of a school arc, so let’s just hope it remains engaging through this often used setting.