The fight for survival begins now.
Levius (レビウス, Rebiusu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nakata Haruhisa.
In a World… that's in its equivalent of the 19th century, it is also recovering from a devastating war over a valuable resource - the Agartha water. A substance that, combined with someone's blood, instantly turns into compressed steam - one that can be controlled at will by the blood "donor". It discovery lead to leaps in engineering development, one of the most appreciated being the creation of highly advanced and widely available cybernetic prosthetics.
Soon, with the growing number of augmented people among the populace, a new sport was created - metal boxing, where flesh and metal combine and face other in combat, often with fatal results.
Young Levius Cromwell is one of those battlers, hell-bent on winning due to tragic events he faced in his childhood during the war. He slowly climbs the ranks, but unbeknownst to him, a sinister plot creeps into the sporting events.
The series received an Animated Adaptation by Polygon Pictures, which was released worldwide on Netflix on November 28, 2019.
Levius contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Natalia and AJ are experienced metal boxers.
- Actor Allusion: In the Latin American Spanish dub, this is not the first time we hear Arturo Cataño (Bill Weinberg) being involved with cybernetic boxing.
- Actually a Doombot: The Dr. Clown we've seen throughout the show is an automaton. The real Dr. Clown is still at large.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Natalia appears much earlier in the anime than in the manga.
- All-CGI Cartoon: The anime adaptation.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Agartha Water and it’s other form, Hyper-steam. On contact with human blood, Agartha Water instantly turns into steam that can be controlled based on the will of the “donor”. As a result, things like TV, blimps, and functional prosthetics are a reality in a world that’s still going through it’s equivalent of the 18th or 19th century.
- Arc Words: "Family."
- Artificial Limbs: Widely available, to the point that no one bats an eye when someone decide to replace their healthy limbs for one. Levius himself is considered an oddball for not replacing his left arm.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Smashing an opponent's steam generator to shut off their cybernetics is a legally hazy move due to how hard it is to attack their back, let alone strike at such a small target on it.
- Body Horror: Hugo in the manga... Let's say that he got lucky in the anime, and leave it at that.
- Evil, Inc.: Amethyst, Dr. Clown's organization, kidnapped children during the war for Agartha water and performed unlawful experiments on them, all the while presenting themselves as a charity and philanthropy organization.
- Finishing Move: Levius often uses his spin hook to finish off his opponents. AJ catches on and attempts to block it, but Levius instead uses his left arm and successfully KOs her.
- Friendly Rival: Levius and Natalia towards each other. Natalia always boasts about being the one that will eventually defeat Levius in a match, so she tells him never to lose until then. Levius, for his part, is always unfailingly kind and polite towards Natalia, to the point he even considers her family.
- Genetic Adaptation: Greenbridge, Levius and AJ's hometown, was located to an Agartha water springs, which is believed to have affected the physical constitution of the people there, making them more compatible to Agartha water than the average person. This explains Clown's obsession with Levius. He wants to turn him into a puppet, just like he did with AJ.
- Great Offscreen War: Back when Levius was a child, a war broke out for control over the Agartha water springs next to his hometown.
- Lighter and Softer: The anime, compared to the manga.
- There isn't as much bloodshed and no major deaths occur.
- Nudity is completely absent, which is present in the manga.
- The fate of several characters is much more closer to a Happily Ever After
- Natalia debuts earlier to make the entire thing much less tense.
- Zack doesn't fart
- Mad Artist: Clown has a particularly twisted love for referring to bloodshed, mayhem, experimentation and inhumanity as a "symphony". His trigger words for AJ are musical terms and he constantly talks about how good it will be to have Levius "sing" for him.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Dr. Clown wears a mask that covers most of his face and is very much sinister. Even more so in the manga, where he combines it actual clown make-up.
- No Blood for Phlebotinum: The war over the Agartha water in the backstory.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Dr. Clown is the primary antagonist of the show, but he isn't a metal boxer. Instead, it's AJ who Levius has to defeat.
- Phlebotinum-Induced Steampunk: Agartha Water becomes a much more potent kind of steam when heated up and this steam can be manipulated by the human mind to a certain extent — cue steam-powered Artificial Limbs. And wars to get Agartha stream supremacy. And experimentation on humans who can manipulate it better than average.
- Retired Badass: After losing his match to Levius, Malcolm chooses to retire and fund a charity to help injured boxers and families of dead soldiers. He does help Levius train for his bout against AJ.
- Subverted by Zack Cromwell. He's a former boxer, but his skills and body have vastly decayed since his time in the ring and he proves a poor sparring partner for Levius.
- Signature Move: Levius' spin hook.
- Skilled, but Naive: Natalia is legitimately as gifted as she boasts, which is a good job as she doesn't know how to train, is startlingly ignorant of the fundamentals, and tends to overestimate her own skills.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Both Malcolm and Hugo survive their bouts with Levius and AJ, respectively.
- Steampunk: Very much in this trope, what with steam-powered cybernetics. Funnily enough, they reach the biologic part so deeply that one could make this a Cyberpunk story and no one would be surprised.
- Trigger Phrase: Clown has two for AJ: "Fortissimo", which forces her to fight, and "Cadenza", which pushes her into a mindless berserker rage.
- Wicked Cultured: Dr. Clown is obsessed with the fine arts, speaks in a sophisticated and flowery tone and is always seen wearing a suit. He even appreciates the beauty of a lower art such as metal boxing.
