English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Wizard King was Watching”

We get some quality time with Yuno this week.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Picking up where the last episode left off, we rejoin Asta, Noelle, and Vanessa in the black market where they ran into Seyhe, Asta’s rival from the placement exams. A thief steals some money from an old woman, and Asta steps into action to catch the burglar. He chases the rogue out of the market, and Seyhe chases after him on a magical bike, declaring he won’t let “Asta get all the credit.” Meanwhile, Asta pursues the suspect through some alleyways, who has some kind of magic that allows him to fly. Asta persists in the chase and runs him off through the rooftop, right before throwing his magic-negating sword at the thief’s flying magic cloud, knocking him to the ground. Out of the blue, Seyhe rides into save the day and gets the thief to the ground. The thief, sick of Seyhe’s annoying mannerisms, stabs Seyhe with a poison blade as his final move, leaving Asta there to comfort Seyhe in his dying moments. But just as Seyhe is about to give up on his dreams and die, Asta slaps him out of it. Seyhe still lives, and Vanessa remarks that the poison was just a mild irritant and the boy is going to be just fine. Embarrassed, Seyhe rides off, and Asta and the others go the old woman to return her money.

The old woman thanks them for being so kind, but after they depart, she reveals who she truly is. In a flash of white light, the old woman transforms into the wizard king, Julius Novachrono, who was just in disguise as the old woman, trying to discover new magic amongst the common folk. Julius, while arguing with his assistant, reveals he’s quite pleased with Asta’s magic-negating abilities and teleports away to see a flying chariot carrying none other than Yuno.

Yuno is on a mission to escort a congressman with his fellow knights on the congressman’s way to the Heart Kingdom. The congressman discusses Yuno’s ambitions as they fly to their destination, and tells Yuno that he considers him a rival on his way to becoming the Wizard King. Yuno shares with the Congressman his own past, and how he has no idea of who is parentage is.

The escort runs into a scary looking mass of clouds, and Yuno recklessly goes to scout it out himself. To his surprise, the clouds start launching fireballs, and a group of cloud-riding bands appears to do battle. Yuno is quickly bested by the cackling brigands but manages to hit them with a magic blast at the last moment and knock them all to the ground, saving the day with a cool grace.

Later, as the troupe lands for the night to camp out, the congressman suggests they should take a detour to Yuno’s hometown to see where his new curiosity has come from. Yuno’s teacher protests, but relents to the congressman’s wishes. They land at the church where Yuno and Asta grew up, where Sister Lily greets them. There, she meets Yuno’s teacher, Clause, and his fellow knight Mimosa. The congressman tries to creepily hit on Sister Loly, who proceeds to punch him in the face. The episode comes to a close as Yuno’s old family and friends throw a potato feast in their honor.

Our Take:

Similar to the last episode, this one has a problem with feeling like its wasting time and not really getting anywhere with the plot. We do get some interesting developments in this episode, the main one being the reveal of the Wizard King, Julius Novachrono. Yet, we don’t get a lot more than that, leaving this episode feel undercooked.