English Dub Review: Black Clover “Two Miracles”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Asta and Yuno continue fighting the possessed Digit, who has poisoned some of the villagers with his magic, including Father Orsi. As they look on, Orsi, Lilly, and the orphans think back about all the letters they got back from Asta and Yuno over the course of the series, including when Asta was temporarily crippled by Vetto and then later un-crippled by the Witch Queen, as well as they were outed as commoners to a whole noble crowd but with Julius quickly winning the crowd over.

In the non-recap portion, Asta tries to heal Orsi from the poison, but not even his anti-magic sword does anything. When all seems lost, the third sword dropped by Licht arises from his grimoire. Asta grabs ahold of it, causing a massive shock to rip through his body.

OUR TAKE

Didn’t think I’d be covering another recap episode the week after I covered one for Boruto, but I guess I didn’t pick the clover with good luck this time. To be fair, the last time this show had a recap episode was back in Episode 29, almost a year and a half ago, and that was something with virtually no new content. This, meanwhile, at least continues the battle going on in the previous episode and nudges the story slightly. It’s basically the difference between getting an empty hamburger wrapper out of the garbage and getting a hamburger wrapper with an ONLY MOSTLY eaten hamburger in it. And with the rapidly increasing homeless problem in this country, that could be a more common problem down the line than you might think! So eat your garbage burger scraps, swallow it, and be happy god dammit!

There isn’t a whole lot to talk about in plot progression this week aside from Asta being able to use another one of Licht’s swords. That’s going to be an important tool going forward in the fight against the elves (so much so that the way Asta got this sword feels pretty clunky in retrospect), but the way he gains access to it is in a way that Black Clover implements WAY too often to be believable and, at this point, is pretty annoying. Numerous times a hero character in this show is under pressure and things seem hopeless, instead of having them think or plan their way out their situation, their grimoire lights up and they get a new ability that helps them save the day. It’s happened with at least a few Black Bull members, including Asta a couple times now, and the only thing that keeps it from being a straight up textbook Deus Ex Machina is that it’s established already. That doesn’t make it any less cheap or lazy, or make me doubt that they’ll probably do it a few more times before the series is over.

But at least now we can move onto more eventful pastures with the beginning of Black Clover’s third year as an ongoing anime. Next episode will bring us a new Opening theme, new Ending theme, solidify the Elves as a threat, and show how the remaining Magic Knights will make their gambit to stop them. Based on the rate that they’re burning through chapters, I can see this current arc taking us through another six months, which I personally believe would be a good place for the show to just take a break and come back fresh when the manga gets a bit more space. I don’t know if they’ll make that choice, but the other option is probably a filler arc, which I don’t think anyone really wants.