Clevatess Staff Explain the Retro Cel Look and Heidi Flashbacks
The staff deliberately built Clevatess' visual identity around period styling, using a 1990s cel look for the present and a 1970s Heidi-inspired look for flashbacks to separate the story's time periods.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
In an interview at Anime Expo 2026, Clevatess director Kiyotaka Taguchi and Lay-duce producer Seiichiro Kuriyama explained how they built the series' visual style. The episode one destruction scene was stretched from a few manga pages to about 20 minutes. Present-day scenes use a 1990s cel look, while flashbacks aim for a 1970s style like Heidi, A Girl of the Alps. Kadokawa producer Kosuke Arai also brought Ellie Goulding in for the ending song.
The episode one destruction was built from a few manga pages into a roughly 20-minute set piece, director Kiyotaka Taguchi said, drawing on his love of kaiju and disaster movies. The background art aims for the painterly look of 1980s and 1990s cel animation, a style Taguchi and art director Atsushi Morikawa agreed fit a fantasy series.
The story jumps across time periods, so the staff gave each era its own look: present-day scenes carry the 1990s cel style, while flashbacks use a 1970s look like Heidi, A Girl of the Alps. Producer Seiichiro Kuriyama said the challenge was making the flashbacks look rough without looking sloppy, which took trial and error. Kadokawa producer Kosuke Arai also explained how Ellie Goulding came to perform the ending song.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.