Anime

Episode 5 – Clevatess Season 2

Published

16 minutes ago

August 6, 2026

© Yuji Iwahara/LDF/CLEVATESSⅡ Project” Production Committee.

Man, Clevatess is such an interesting little avatar of unfathomable destruction. At the beginning of “Battle With Oneself,” we have Zavthier and Gart flying up to the top of the dark tower our anti-hero just summoned last week to point out that, for as ominous and threatening as this display is, they can totally all tell that a part of Clevatess actually enjoys getting to adventure around in his guise as Klen and act as the protective guardian of Alicia and young Prince Luna. Clevatess may have schemes within schemes to unpack and execute, but he might want to play his hand with a little more caution if he doesn’t want the facade of his new life to come crashing down. Sure, all of this is couched within the pretext of Clevvie’s “ambitions,” for which Alicia and Luna are merely tools to be exploited, and so on. Come on, though. We all know that you don’t go summoning an eldritch tower of doom from the abyssal cracks of the earth to help rescue a lost Hero that you don’t at least care about a tiny bit.

It’s this tiny sliver of relatable humanity that makes Clevatess such an excellent figure around which to center such a dark fantasy. If he were too obviously empathetic and personable, then nothing would separate the Dark Beast Lord from every other not-so-secretly lovable Demon King that fill out the anime rosters each season. Conversely, if Clevatess were truly nothing but a heartless god of death who cared not one whit about the people and creatures he exploits in the pursuit of power, then Clevatess the anime simply wouldn’t be all that fun to watch. The secret about anti-heroes that so many other anime seem to completely ignore is the “hero” part of the equation. If Clevatess was simply a genocidal hell-hound with an unquenchable bloodlust, we would not have a show. When you hear that the Dark Beast Lord is finally coming to life after enduring a “Millennium of Loss,” though? You can’t help but root for Clevatess to tear apart whatever gets in his way, like the blazing flames of a wildfire that will nourish the soil with all of that ash and bring on a new era of life in its wake.

The current systems of power are obviously not to be trusted with ushering in a brighter future. As Dean Cardinal Romain demonstrates, Solsein Academy is very proudly making unholy pacts with Hell’s most wretched demons to bolster its army of child soldiers. If nothing else, the Clevatess Crew absolutely needs to shut down this sham of a school before the quest takes a sharp turn into Doom territory. Alica is currently stuck in the body of an adorable rodent, after all. I don’t even think she could squeeze the trigger of a BFG no matter how hard she tried, much less get some honest ripping and tearing done.

In a fascinating turn, Alicia’s quest becomes just as metaphysical as anything else this week, as her desperate flight from Andrew’s bizarre menagerie leads to a confrontation with a giant Evil Alicia who beats and berates our poor protagonist for all of her fears and failures. Given just how much crazy bullshit the Hero has been through since she died the first time, it’s a welcome opportunity for the show to address some of Alicia’s internal development, especially since it is very satisfying to see her stand in such defiance against her sassy doppelganger. Alicia is nothing if not adaptable, and she has long since learned to recognize that great things can come from unexpected curses if you can learn to roll with the punches. She already managed to figure out the perks of being an undead abomination; you can bet that our heroine will find out how to make the most of being a cute little rat monster with a giant tail.

Clevatess might be the only anime that could make a genuinely thrilling moment of heroism out of Alicia declaring, “There’s a strange sensation down near my ass!” That’s exactly the sort of gumption that separates the champions from the washouts in this industry, I’ll tell you what. I also have to give Alicia bonus points for seeing through the ruse of that evil mirror at the end of her trial. I always hate it when stories have characters have to lose the memories of their adventures, and I think we can all agree that the memories of Alicia the Ass-Blasting Rat-Thing are far too precious to simply toss into the void. Hopefully she will be able to use her explosive tail powers to finally escape the clutches of her captor next time around.

Episode Rating:

Clevatess Season 2 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.

Anime

From Overshadowed to Overpowered Anime Reveals 3 New Cast Members – News

Published

36 minutes ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

The staff for the anime of Kentarou‘s From Overshadowed to Overpowered (Rakudai Kenja no Gakuin Musō: Nidome no Tensei, S-Rank Cheat Majutsushi Bōkenroku ;or The Failed Sage’s Academy Domination) manga revealed three new cast members for characters who will appear in the anime’s seventh episode on Thursday.

Shinichirō Kamio as Abe

over1 — Image via From Overshadowed to Overpowered anime’s X/Twitter account

Rina Kawaguchi as Maria

over2 — Image via From Overshadowed to Overpowered anime’s X/Twitter account

Hiroki Takahashi as Majin (Genie)

over3 — Image via From Overshadowed to Overpowered anime’s X/Twitter account

00000013 — Image via From Overshadowed to Overpowered anime’s website

Comikey is releasing the manga in English, and it is also available through Square Enix‘s Manga UP! Global service. Comikey describes the manga’s story:

Ephtal is reincarnated as a human, coming from modern Earth. In this new world where magic is real, he decides to devote the entirety of his life in the pursuit of magic. Despite his efforts, though, he discovers that he is absolutely talentless in magic, and breathed his last in anguish….But it isn’t the end for him just yet! He reincarnates once again bearing the same name, Ephtal, 400 years later. Having retained his knowledge and power, he steels his resolve and once again sets his sights for the peak of magic!

The manga is itself based on Arata Shiraishi‘s Rakudai Kenja no Gakuin Musō: Nido Tensei Shita Saikyō Kenja, 400-nen-go no Sekai o Maken de Musō light novel series. The anime is adapting Kentarou‘s manga, and specifically uses the manga’s slightly different title.

The anime stars:

Hisashi Ishii (Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, I’m Quitting Heroing, The Unaware Atelier Master) is directing the anime at EMT Squared, with Deko Akao (Higehiro, Komi Can’t Communicate, Flying Witch) supervising the series’ scripts. Hideki Furukawa (WATAMOTE, Strike The Blood III onwards, Ayakashi Triangle) is designing the characters.

Rock band FLOW performs the opening theme song “+Encount,” and the group TrySail is performing the anime’s ending theme song “Dōkei” (Aspiration).

The anime premiered on the d Anime Store, ABEMA, and U-NEXT streaming services in Japan on June 25 at 24:00 (effectively, June 26 at midnight). It then started on the Tokyo MX channel on July 1 at 24:00 (effectively, July 2 at midnight), and also runs on ABC TV, BS Fuji, and WOWOW in Japan. Crunchyroll streams the anime simultaneously with the Japanese stream.

Kentarou launched the manga in Square Enix‘s Manga UP! website in September 2019. Square Enix published the manga’s ninth compiled book volume on July 7.

Arata Shiraishi originally published the story in a web novel format, before Kadokawa published the first print volume in October 2019, with illustrations by uodenim. Kadokawa published the eighth novel volume in March 2022.

Source: From Overshadowed to Overpowered anime’s X/Twitter account via Ota-suke

Anime

Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine’s Print Circulation Falls Below 1 Million Copies for 1st Time – News

Published

7 hours ago

August 6, 2026

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Japan Magazine Publishers Association: No more magazines in Japan above 1 million in circulation

The Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA) reported on Wednesday that print circulation for Shueisha‘s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine fell to an average of 985,000 copies from April to June this year, marking the first time the magazine has fallen below 1 million copies in circulation for a given quarter since the JMPA began posting circulation numbers in 2008.

With the fall in circulation numbers, the JMPA noted that there are now no magazines at all in Japan that have more than 1 million copies in circulation.

The latest drop continues a steady decline in circulation Weekly Shonen Jump has undergone in at least the last 12 years. The magazine had 1,290,417 copies in circulation in April-June 2022.

Weekly Shonen Jump‘s print circulation dipped below two million in 2017 to 1,915,000. The print circulation dipped below 1.6 million during the period of January to March 2020 to 1,572,833, and then fell below 1.5 million to 1,475,000 during the period of October to December 2020.

The magazine’s record circulation was 6.53 million in 1994, when it was serializing Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and other manga.

In the same April-June 2026 quarter, Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine had a print circulation of 281,000, and Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine had a print circulation of 120,000.

The All Japan Magazine and Book Publishers and Editors Association’s (AJPEA’s) Research Institute for Publications reported in March earlier this year that the manga magazine market shrunk by 12.7% in 2025, now amounting to 39.2 billion yen (about US$249 million). The print numbers combined amount to 165.2 billion yen (about US$1.04 billion yen), a reduction from 2024’s 192.1 billion yen (about US$1.22 billion in current conversion). The print market has overall shrunk every year since 2017, when it amounted to 258.3 billion yen (about US$1.64 billion in current conversion). Sales of printed compiled manga book volumes shrunk by 14.4% year-on-year, now amounting to 126 billion yen (about US$801 million).

The AJPEA’s report on the overall publishing industry in Japan for 2025 showed a decline of 1.6% for the publishing market as a whole in 2025, to a total market value of 1.6305 trillion yen (about US$9.82 billion). The digital market rose 2.7% to 581.5 billion yen (about US$3.69billion), and the print market decreased 4.1% to 964.7 billion yen (about US$6.13 billion), the first time in fifty years (1976) it has been below 1 trillion yen in value. Digital publications currently take up 37.6% of the market share.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun via Yaraon!

Anime

New ‘Ghost in the Shell’ TV Anime Announces Additional Cast Pair

Published

7 hours ago

August 6, 2026

qasimgillani

The official website for the new Koukaku Kidoutai (The Ghost in the Shell) television anime announced an additional pair of cast on Thursday. The new TV anime premiered on Tuesday at 11:00 p.m. on Kansai TV and Fuji TV affiliates.

Voice actresses Aya Hisakawa (Dragon Ball Daima) and Nina Kumagaya (Yowamushi Pedal) are joining the cast as Annapuna and Unipuma, respectively.

Moko-chan (Dandadan assistant director) is helming the anime at Science SARU. Toh EnJoe (Godzilla: S.P) is handling the series composition and script. Shuuhei Handa (Little Witch Academia (TV)) is designing the characters. Taisei Iwasaki (Kekkai Sensen), Ryo Konishi (Kill Ao), and Yuki Kanesaka (Dr. Stone) are composing the music.

The latest installment in the franchise, Koukaku Kidoutai: SAC_2045 – Saigo no Ningen (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 – The Last Human), compiling the second season of the Koukaku Kidoutai: SAC_2045 (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045) 3DCG anime series, opened in Japan in November 2023.

Source: Moca News