English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Faraway Future”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Liebe remembers his time as a young devil, being bullied and abused because of his lack of magic. One day, a bigger demon threw him into a wall, which turned out to be the portal to the human world, and because Liebe had no magic, he could enter through it. The humans who saw him were horrified and beat up on him too, but he was eventually found by a kind woman named Licita, who lived outside of the town. She did this because, for some reason, she absorbs the mana of everything around her, and things without mana can be sealed in containers, so because Liebe has no mana, he’s safe around her. She adopts him as her son and they have a nice life together for a time, until Lucifero suddenly appears from Liebe and kills Licita, who seals him in a Five Leaf Grimoire she found to keep him safe. Eventually he gains the power of Anti-Magic, which then gets transferred to Asta once he obtains the Grimoire.

In the present, Asta fights Liebe for control in the Devil Binding Ritual, now without even the Anti-Magic he usually has and only armed with Yami’s sword, which has somehow become one of the swords in the Grimoire. Using the fighting techniques he’s learned from several teachers and opponents he’s faced, Asta is able to best Liebe and bind him, but instead decides to be his friend, making the binding equal to Nacht’s surprise. Liebe also puts two and two together and realizes that Asta is actually Licita’s son, who she gave up to the orphanage in Haaj village, probably to avoid draining his mana (which he turned out not to have anyway). Elsewhere, the rest of the Clover and Heart Kingdom’s forces prepare to train hard for two days before the assault on the Spade Kingdom to save Yami and Vangeance, as well as stop the ritual to bring about the end of the world.

To be continued…?

OUR TAKE

And that’s that, the final episode of Black Clover is in the books. As expected, this is not a conclusion of ANY sort, but it picked a pretty good place to sign off for now, that being coming as full circle as possible and finally learning more about Liebe, the devil that’s been with Asta since the first episode. First off, he is NOT voiced by Ben Diskin like I first thought, but actually Bryce Papenbrook doing his Inosuke voice from Demon Slayer. Second, just like Asta, he was also low on the totem pole because he also lacked magic, at least at first. And third, he and Asta were both the sons of Licita, though I guess technically Liebe was raised by her longer, oddly enough. Licita doesn’t really have a lot to her character beyond being the nice flashback mom character who is mainly there to make us sad when she dies. A pity then that she is only really on screen for a few minutes before this death, making it pretty dang hard to feel much of a connection. And naturally, because Black Clover cannot stop cribbing from other Shonen shows, even at the very end, we have what is essentially the flashback from Naruto of Kurama being sealed as the main character’s mother is being killed by one of the endgame villains. Never change, Black Clover.

I didn’t really keep up with the manga as the last few episodes of this were coming out in Japan, but I have to wonder if the author was aware that the anime would have to pause soon around that time, so he may have written this fight between Asta and Liebe as a way to fit in a moment where Asta can show off everything he’s learned from his journey and make things feel cumulative. Or maybe they just threw that in for the anime for all I know. That said, as Asta goes through all the people he’s learned from, I find it a bit hard to remember what he actually learned from those people. Like yeah, there was the Ki reading, but what did Mars teach him that he made use of here? Or that red haired guy? Or Patri? I’m all for having a big emotional send off for a season finale to show how far the main character has come, but I feel like, if there was subtext there, then it’s just a bit too subtle. Unless it was just the very basic message of “I fought a lot of people and got stronger therefore I have learned a lot”.

Unlike Bleach’s premature finale, which at least was able to conclude the arc they were adapting, Black Clover unfortunately leaves a lot of threads dangling and many matters unresolved. Aside from an announced movie with an undetermined release date, which will probably be just high budget filler like most shonen movies, there is not even a remote idea of when the anime will resume, especially since, even five months later, the anime is still way too close to the manga to resume without immediately jumping into more filler, and no one wants that. But they did at least leave things on an optimistic note, with Asta taking a new step in his journey and finally making an alliance with his foster brother, as well as the rest of the cast on the verge of another boost in power too in what will no doubt be the longest two days of their lives. Where we’ll meet the Black Bulls again is up in the air right now, but if Bleach can come back, I guess this can too. Hopefully it won’t take over a decade, but I’m not holding my breath. Guess we’ll see them all on the other side sooner or later, one of these days, but until then, so long, farewell, and see ya next time.