English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Beginning of Hope and Despair”

Overview

As the Spade army begins crossing the border in a mechanized citadel called Candelo powered by siphoning magic from Spade commoners. Asta, who has grown even stronger and can now fly astride his demon slayer sword, flies to Candelo where he is enraged to see Spade Knights siphoning prisoners to death. Asta confronts Candelo’s commander who reveals a sinister secret about himself.

Later on, the Black Bulls arrive and Mimosa helps the prisoners recover. Noelle reveals Luck and Leopold were sent to destroy the Spade base near the prisoner’s village. Realizing they get to return home safely the prisoners reveal the Spade kingdom is ruled by a trio of sadistic magical siblings known as “The Dark Triad”…


Our Take

The Spade Kingdom Arc has arrived and damn! The new opening wasn’t what I expected for this arc, but It was also well animated. The new end credits was a nice callback to the beginning which is a nice touch. As for the action scenes, where do I even begin? Studio Pierrot (who has a long and decent track record) knows when and, most importantly, how to step up their game. The pacing certainly didn’t seem to be on the slow side either.

We also see some substantial changes from the time skip after 6 months. Everyone has aged with dramatically different character designs with Asta being one of the true highlights as he’s leveled up. The new things he’s learned to do with his swords are so cool. While Noelle and Mimosa sure got substantial upgrades as well, and Finral being the same-old womanizing jerk when he himself is engaged. Of course, Luck and Leopold really are crazy beings at best to help secure ordinary Spade citizens on their way out back to whence they belong.

Overall, this is a step in the right direction with the anime starting with this episode, is said to be adapting the current storyline of the manga. While part of me wishes they could’ve added new episodes to show us how they did the 6 months’ training in terms of plot and characters, I’m just glad we’re seeing actual progression at all. The Dark Triad looks like a pretty formidable group and I can’t wait to see the unraveling mystery progress after that cliffhanger ending…