The 2025 anime series streaming on Netflix, Leviathan, is a brilliant amalgamation of stunning art styles, a moving plot, and a touching romantic story, all brought together against the backdrop of real history. Adapted from the novel series by American writer Scott Westerfeld, the series brings to screen the friendship and eventual romantic bond between Aleksandar von Hohenberg and Deryn Sharp, two youngsters who find themselves on opposing sides of the developing World War I. Added to this backdrop of history is another layer of fiction, as the whole ordeal takes place in a steampunk universe, meaning that the fighting factions are differentiated by their reliance on mechanical robots on the one side and their love for and use of genetically engineered animals on the other. Leviathan is a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing anime series and is a recommended must-watch for all anime fans.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Netflix anime series about?
Leviathan begins in the royal castle of Bohemia, with a teenage boy of 15 or 16 trying to keep himself entertained by playing both sides in a game of chess. This teenager, Aleksandar von Hohenberg, is no ordinary boy, but the prince of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his solitude is suddenly shattered by the presence of two of the most trusted men in the royal court. Count Volger, a member of the empire’s army, and Klopp, the caring attendee of young Alek, come to his room and take him out of the castle in the middle of the night. Although Alek finds the situation a bit suspicious, he is quite happy to accompany the two men, especially as they promise to take him for military training. However, he soon realizes the real truth—Alek is being taken away from the castle for his own safety, as the empire’s subjects have violently turned against the royal family, and his parents have just been killed by revolutionary assassins in Sarajevo.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria sends ripples all across the European continent, as conflicts start to break out quickly, and the British navy prepares for difficult times. Amidst this tension, a young girl about the same age as Alek dreams of flying high in the skies and seeing the world, as she is tired of her humble home in Edinburgh, Scotland. This girl, Deryn Sharp, realizes that the impending war might be a good chance for her to live her dream through the British air navy, which would also give her the noble opportunity to serve her nation. The challenge in Deryn’s path, though, is that she will never be allowed to serve as an airman, as the position is restricted to men. Thus, she takes the bold, but quick, decision to pretend to be a young man, Dylan Sharp, and serve in the air navy as an airman.
While Alek still reels from the realization that he is now an orphan who is also in mortal danger, as he would be the official ruler of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom once the current emperor passes away, Deryn’s heroic antics land her not only in the British air navy but literally on their biggest airship, the Leviathan. In a matter of days, the two characters come across each other when the Leviathan crashes in Switzerland, and Alek and his trusted friends help the British crew repair their ship. It does not take long for Alek and Deryn to become friends, but this bond is immediately threatened by the fact that they actually belong to opposing sides in World War I.
Who are the Clankers and the Darwinists?
The steampunk world in Leviathan is divided into two factions, the Clankers and the Darwinists, and this distinction accurately aligns with the original historic divide between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers as well. The Clankers are mechanical engineers and technology worshippers, as they consider electronic and instrumental advancement to be the driving force for all human civilization. Therefore, the Clankers have mechanical robots at their disposal, ranging from small vehicular machines resembling motorcycles to absolutely gigantic mecha beasts fitted with gun turrets and rockets to be used in warfare. The Germans and the Austro-Hungarians, who make up the Central Powers in the war, happen to be Clankers, and they rely on these machines to defend themselves as well as attack their enemies.
Opposed to them, both in the war and in spirit, are the Darwinists, who believe in the theories of Charles Darwin and consider him to be the founding father of human civilization. The Darwinian theory they follow is an alternate history version, as its essential principle is to genetically engineer various animals and wild beasts to create natural, yet modified, forms of them that can be used for human benefit. The Allied Powers, represented by the British in the anime series, are Darwinists, and they are outright disdainful towards the Clankers. The Darwinists use various genetically modified animals in their lives, and the biggest (literally) example of it is the Leviathan itself, which is a gigantic whale that flies through the air and acts as a combat airship.
When Alek and Deryn meet and become friends, both of them have certain preconceived negative notions about the Clankers and the Darwinists, and they are surprised to learn that the members of these opposing groups are not always intolerable. This realization takes an even firmer shape when Alek actually happens to get close to a newborn creature called Loris, and he has to carry the tiny beast along with him, nurturing it and keeping it safe. As a result, Alek understands how living creatures are equally as important as mechanical robots, which is one of the themes of the series as well, and thus starts to relate with the Darwinists even more.
Why is Bovril so important?
The small mouse-like loris becomes very important to the plot in Leviathan, mostly because it is an extremely rare genetically engineered version of the real animal that has been reared by a top British scientist named Dr. Nora Barlow. Because of its extreme rarity and also the supreme ability of the animal (revealed later), Dr. Barlow carefully carries a set of loris eggs with her in the first half of the series. While she intends to use one of the creatures for a personal reason, she also wants to gift one to the Sultan of Constantinople, as she is clearly working for the British government as well. As it happens, the British and the Turkish governments are not on the best of terms at the moment, following a broken promise. While the British had promised to give the Turkish kingdom one of its gigantic sea animals, called the Behemoth, for the latter to use as a naval weapon, they had backed out of this deal and had eventually taken the Behemoth back from Constantinople.
Therefore, Dr. Barlow gifts one of the about-to-hatch loris eggs to the Sultan of Constantinople, only to learn that he has already sided with the Germans, who have offered better weapons and machines for his kingdom. As Alek and Deryn work with a local revolutionary group to overthrow the Sultan and get rid of the German presence in Constantinople, rechristened Istanbul, the only live loris happens to be the one being nurtured by Alek, which had been endearingly named Bovril. Turns out, the main reason Dr. Barlow had traveled to Constantinople was to meet with her uncle, George Darwin. Nora Barlow is actually the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, and she had decided to meet with George in Turkey but was unable to do so, as he had already left. She learns that her uncle and his research team are now at Tunguska, in Russia, and so she leads the Leviathan to the place, claiming that it is absolutely necessary for her to meet her uncle.
George Darwin, a highly skilled astronomer, had started researching a series of strange phenomena that kept occurring at various places on Earth, like sudden storms or auroras seen in very unlikely places. After researching these strange weather patterns, he realized that there was a specific pattern to these occurrences, like them always taking place between 9am and 10am GMT, and there always being magnetic field disturbances during these instances. When a horrific inexplicable explosion that displayed similar characteristics to these unnatural weather patterns took place at Tunguska, George and his team moved to the place to study it further. Although the Russian government has officially called the explosion a result of a meteor strike, George is confident that there was a human hand behind it. The series is obviously referring to the real Tunguska event that took place in 1908, only changing the date of its occurrence and adding a layer of science fiction over it.
Based on the research conducted by George and his team, they have only been able to find a number of highly complex equations, while the real mystery behind these events remains hidden beneath these equations. As it would take a mathematically gifted human at least six months to solve these equations correctly, the Darwinists have genetically engineered a certain animal into being a supercomputer. This is exactly where Bovril, the loris, comes into the picture, as these lorises have been modified to be able to make highly advanced calculations in mere seconds. As soon as Bovril takes a look at the complex equations on the board, it starts to solve them and ultimately comes up with the specific coordinates to a spot in New York.
What is the Goliath?
The strange weather patterns and also the Tunguska event are ultimately revealed to have been the work of the American maverick scientist, Nikola Tesla, who had been testing a new invention for some years now. It was the experiments conducted using his new machine, at very specific times of the day, that had been causing these unnatural occurrences around the world, proving how powerful his invention actually is. This invention, which Tesla has named ‘Goliath,’ is a weapon of mass destruction that uses consolidated beams of electricity and energy to destroy any targeted area. As evident from the massive destruction at Tunguska, the effects of the Goliath are equivalent to that of a nuclear bomb, and it can be said that Tesla’s invention is actually the alternate-reality steampunk equivalent to nuclear warheads from our real world.
Although the matter makes it seem like Nikola Tesla has been building his own weapon to become an important figure in World War I, his motivation is quite the opposite. It is mentioned that Tesla, being a brilliant scientist whose skills could be put to use for military purposes, had been approached by both the Allied and the Central Powers multiple times, but he had refused to take any side. The scientist actually wants the war to end and for peace to prevail over the planet. However, his extreme desire for peace has made him act in a questionably violent manner, as he has invented the Goliath, which can easily be used as a WMD. Tesla’s claim, or wish, is to prove the power of his invention to the world and then use his neutral stance to threaten every government in the world to withdraw from the war and bring a quick end to all military conflict. Through this plotline, Leviathan comments on the very human tendency for violence and for the human craving to prove ourselves superior to each other, as Tesla plans on being the harbinger of peace through an extremely deadly form of blackmail.
Can Tesla’s efforts bring a halt to the war?
Nikola Tesla’s intentions initially are not too bad, although the means he chooses to reach his goal are extremely problematic and of the same violent nature that he wants to act against. When the German forces arrive in New York, with the intention of capturing the city, Tesla threatens them to stand down or face the annihilating powers of the Goliath. The Germans seem to halt their invasion for a few minutes, but in reality, they only take a pause to strengthen their forces and attack even more intensely. They are clearly not deterred by Tesla’s Goliath, but are instead driven by the plan to get hold of the WMD so that they can use it to establish dominance over the world.
This is when Tesla himself takes a wild turn and becomes exactly like the power-hungry individuals who he wants to fight against. In order to maintain peace in the world by stopping the German forces, the scientist decides to unleash the horrifying devastation of the Goliath on Berlin. He wants to teach the invading German forces a lesson by destroying their capital city back home and does not bother about the fact that millions of innocent Berliners will be killed as a result. To the cornered scientist, who wants to protect his invention from the Germans and to bring an end to the war at any cost, the loss of these lives is merely a sacrifice required for the greater good.
In the end, Alek and Deryn take control of the situation and immediately rush in to prevent the Goliath from being used to attack Berlin, as they care for human lives. Using his intelligence and his now-developed skills commanding modified animals, Alek brings down the main tower of the Goliath, causing its destruction. Nikola Tesla breaks down at this defeat and is then seen flying away using robotic wings that he had developed, perhaps with the intention of finally joining the war in some capacity. His decision to attack Berlin and the resulting battle on the coast of New York meant that the Americans were now directly involved.
Thus, at the end of Leviathan, the United States of America finally joins World War I officially, as they want to retaliate against the German attack on their coastline. This confirms that Tesla’s attempt to halt the war has failed and has perhaps aggravated the situation. Although, there is a belief among many that the USA’s participation will turn the tides against Germany, which might, in a sense, bring an end to the war.
Do Alek and Deryn finally end up together?
During Leviathan’s ending, Alek decides to return to Austria and take up his responsibilities as the new Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom, since he owes this to his people. Deryn, meanwhile, is recruited by Dr. Barlow to be her assistant in adventures and research, and she readily agrees to this position, as it would allow her to see the world even further. Deryn had already revealed her true identity, as a girl, to her best friend, since both she and Alek had started to develop romantic feelings for one another. Therefore, now that the two finally have the respite to address their feelings, they finally share a passionate kiss.
However, Alek and Deryn do not technically end up together, specifically because Deryn chooses to see more of the world instead of settling down. Choosing to be with Alek would mean that she would have to move to Austria and possibly live the life of a queen, which she does not want for herself. Thus, the two characters part ways, despite genuinely loving each other. They do promise to meet each other soon, and we might get to see this reunion if Leviathan returns with a second season, but for now, Alek and Deryn do not end up together.
What does the last scene signify?
In the very last scene of Leviathan, Dr. Nora Barlow is seen informing Deryn about a new journey they have to set out on, this time headed to Antarctica. The reason for this journey is to investigate unusual weather patterns that have just been reported in Antarctica, and Nikola Tesla seems to be back in action once again. The unusual weather patterns and inexplicable explosion earlier had all been caused by Tesla’s Goliath, and similar incidents in Antarctica now mean that he is once again carrying out research on the icy landmass. Since we see Tesla escape earlier, he is now surely up to some new plan, either to make new additions to the Goliath, or to invent some completely new electric device. His intention is also unclear, as he might as well now jump into the war directly, picking a side as per his current worldview.
