English Dub Review: Black Clover “A Young Man’s Vow”

You know this show is good when even the flashback episode is stellar.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This time out, we get a bit of a flashback that explains the bond between Asta and Yuno as well as the start of the boys’ competition of wanting to be the Wizard King. After the end of Asta’s battle that sees him breaking out a buster sword to thwart Revchi the boys confirm their competitive ways and opt on their journeys forward.

Our Take

While the plot of the flashback, which really was the centerpiece of this episode, was rather easy to deduce what was gonna happen, it didn’t matter because I couldn’t stop picking my jaw off the ground regarding just how stellar this series’ art direction is. We established last episode that the fight episodes are crazy looking, but the art direction during Yuno’s battle with a thief was just exquisite and at the end, the producers did a phenomenal job of using said art to really remind the user what the hell is going on here. Little things like the snowfall or when Yuno’s necklace throws a wink at the viewer to remind us, “Yep, this is the necklace from the flashback” is smart and effective storytelling that not a lot of shows are doing right now, anime or not. Dallas Reid’s “Asta” continues to dazzle, and this was probably the most verbose we’ve seen Micah Solusod thus far in his role as “Yuno”.