English Dub Review: Black Clover “Captain: Yami Sukehiro”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
In the Heart Kingdom, Nero/Secre seals Vanica with her magic, but apparently was too late to stop her devil Megicula from giving her even more power to escape, utterly defeating her, Noelle, Mimosa, and Loropechika. Meanwhile, Yami uses a new technique to fight Dante, but he easily regenerates from it, forcing Asta to get back into the fray.


OUR TAKE
This is one of the times were it is probably the most obvious where the budget priorities were. We have two plots, one looks like it was given a ton of love and care in showing how epic the animators want it to look, and the other barely looks animated at all. Naturally, the one that they cared about is the one the title focuses on, though really they’re both meant to give off the same vibe. Both plots about one of the Triad totally trouncing the ones they’re fighting at the moment, even if we’re going to have to wait until the next episode to see the proper ends of these fights. And for what it’s worth, the Yami fight does look pretty good, it’s just a shame that we’re not going to see any of this resolve. I must say it’s pretty chuckleworthy that Chris Sabat, who plays Yami, once again finds himself in a situation like Vegeta’s Final Flash moment against Perfect Cell, which ALSO showed a major and powerful character use a new technique against new enemy, only for said enemy to completely shake it off. Thankfully, this is not the last well animated fight we’ll be seeing in the series, which still has a few episodes left, but it’s still a bit irksome that we’re going to be left on such a cliffhanger.

Though you can blame that on Black Clover trying to do the old and obsolete model of keeping their show going until it catches up with the manga and not doing the seasonal model that every other contemporary shonen show is doing. Oh, and it looks like Noelle getting her mermaid form was the trigger for the opening to show some tweaks to highlight the last few bits left to show us. That mysterious Black Bull member from last time is obviously going to show up soon, but we’re also due to see more of a white hair devil and some strange pointing woman surrounded by light, likely indicating a flashback. But considering these episodes came out months ago, people watching this dub already know who all these people are, so I’m not sure why I’m teasing it like I am, but it will be at least something more to talk about. It’s hard to fully comprehend but Black Clover only has four more episodes of its anime left to dub. I’ll get more into this in the weeks to come, but it is truly a strange feeling knowing that this weird show is actually about to end. I guess the best we can do is just take the rest as it comes and see how it all adds up. See you then!