English Dub Review: Black Clover “Water Crusade”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Vanica heals all of her Disciples in the Heart Kingdom, forcing all of the Magic Knights to fight them all over again while she faces Noelle and Loropechika. Noelle unleashes a new form, Valkyrie Dress Mermaid Form, and Loropechika learns about the Dark Triad’s plan to unleash devils on the world through the Underworld. While Vanica increases her devil possession power, the group bring out Secre, the most powerful among them, as their trump card.

OUR TAKE
This week settles focus entirely on the Heart Kingdom and primarily to the battle against Vanica, the last of the Dark Triad to get a big intro fight. The fight with Dante is still going on simultaneously and we’ll be getting back to that next time, but Vanica and her devil Megicula are actually the ones among the Triad that have had the most build up. We know that Megicula has impacted the lives of both Loropechika and Noelle, having cursed Loropechika and slowly killing her while having also killed Noelle’s mother. So, while Zeno and Dante are merely setting up for their eventual grudge matches (and by eventual, I mean whenever the planets align to give this anime more episodes), Vanica’s already started hers between Noelle and Loropechika. That said, this is not really meant to be anything decisive. As said, this is just about giving these three new primary antagonists big introductions to best establish their great and dangerous powers and their objectives in taking over the world by unleashing devils. Though Vanica is also showing that she, and presumably Zeno and Dante, can heal their comrades whenever they choose, unless they’re dead. So, right away, we have an idea of how much the Clover and Heart Kingdom are going to need to fight through to even make a dent.

Also, so far, this has probably been one of the better paced fights in Black Clover. It still unfortunately suffers a common Black Clover staple of halting the action in its tracks to have a flashback, but at least it is a flashback with useful information for the fight, as it details the training that Noelle went through to obtain her new Valkyrie Dress form. That form is also subject to the common anime trend of a female character needing to lose clothing in order to gain power, but honestly that is more of a shonen anime problem in general and not one that can be laid on Black Clover exclusively. We also get to know Loropechika’s situation as the ruler of the Heart Kingdom and that she apparently has the collective knowledge of all previous rulers, so kind of an Avatar State sort of deal. That is a pretty neat detail that will probably stay useful in the story that you will need to buy the manga to keep up with. Oh yeah, and a secret Black Bull member has been spying on the Spade Kingdom! More on that soon as we enter the final five episodes.