English Dub Review: Black Clover “Destruction and Salvation”

Black Clover sometimes forgets that its an anime and not a slideshow.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Asta has been grievously wounded, after taking down Mars, the powerful diamond mage in service of the Diamond Kingdom. Asta collapses on the ground, but Mimosa immediately rushes to his aid to tend to his wounds. In the meantime, Mars experiences a flashback to the days of his youth, where he was being trained to be the monster that he is now. We see that he made friends with a young lady, but after a brutal fight to the death forced upon him and his classmates, Mars had to fight against perhaps the only girl he ever really cared about. He was the only one left standing, a fate that has weighed heavily upon his life.

Following his flashback, it appears that Mars isn’t quite finished yet. He wakes from his unconscious state and raises the sword of his diamond golem to bring a killing blow down upon Asta. But Yuno, the brother in arms that he is, jumps in at the last moment to save Asta’s life. As he brings his magic forth, time mysteriously freezes, and Yuno sees a pixie/fairy of some kind floating in the air. With a lackadaisical breath, the mysterious pixie breathes out a green gas which dispels Mars’s magic completely and ends the fight for good.

Soon, the others are all released from their bindings and are left to recover from the attack. But just as they gain their bearings, the dungeon begins to collapse in on itself. (Funny how often that sort of thing happens) Our heroes are all set to depart, but Asta insists that they have to take Mars, out of some sense of empathy for his opponent. However, as the ceiling starts to collapse, they decide to go on without the diamond mage. Using their individual magic powers, they manage to successfully navigate their way out of the dungeon, dodging rocks and obstacles along the way. It’s not long before the team reaches the surface, riding on a cloud of Yuno’s wind magic. And of course, our old pal Lotus has managed his way out of the dungeon as well, apparently saving Mars and taking a good share of the loot in the process. Go figure.

Mars and Lotus escape to the skies on Lotus’s funky smoke car, but it appears Mars had some shift in heart since his sound trouncing by Asta. He thanks Lotus for saving his life, and the two travel home, perhaps a bit wiser for their experience. Soon, Asta wakes up from his injuries as well, with everyone happy to see him up and about. He thanks Mimosa for healing him, and it seems everything is back to normal. Asta banters with his pals, as he so often does, but Klaus shows a sudden change of heart, embracing Yuno and Asta an apologizing for his hasty judgment of them for being “commoners.” After a few more shenanigans (With Noelle literally stomping on Asta for being a perv) everything ends peacefully, and the episode ends, rather unceremoniously.

Our Take:

So, the most glaring and obvious problem with this episode is its extreme lack of animation. It becomes increasingly obvious in this episode that, perhaps due to budget constraints, the animators really phoned it in with the actual movement of characters. Scenes are stiff, characters are still, and it really undermines any attempt the show has at creating drama or heartfelt character interaction throughout the episode. This is basically a nothing episode, where it takes twenty minutes for the show to impart to us that “they get out of the dungeon.” Yuck.