English Dub Review: Black Clover “Adversity”

This week: more magic, more fights, and overpowered characters.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Our episode this week begins with taking a break from the battle going on outside to see what Charmy has been up to. Her endless appetite has gotten the better of her and is still within the castle basking in the head chef’s delicious homemade cuisine. Her feast is interrupted, however, when the newly aged witch Yuno was fighting with flies through the castle wall. The witch needs more mana to bring her youth back and sees Charmy as a tasty mana morsel to do the job.

Meanwhile, Yuno is in hot pursuit of the witch, but his enhanced wind magic is starting to diminish. This leaves Charmy on her own while the witch gathers her power to suck Charmy dry. But just as the witch is about the attack, Charmy’s demeanor completely changes, and the once meek mage soon stands tall with a determined look in her eyes. She immediately turns the tables, using her wacky “Cotton creation magic” to summon a giant sheep to punch the witch back out on her ass down to the city streets below. Nobody gets in the way of Charmy and her food.

But all is not well! Charmy has defeated the witch but finds her lunch about to fall out of the hole in the wall the witch left. Thankfully, Yuno is there to save it with his wind magic and tepidly returns it to the gourmand mage. Upon seeing his pretty boy good looks, Charmy immediately falls head over heels for him. She tries to flirt, but Yuno’s energy is quickly leaving him, and the boy passes on Charmy, much to her glee.

Down on the city streets below, Noelle, Asta, and Leo are stranded with the sudden disappearance of the magic knights. They’re initially confused as to what has just occurred and by whom’s hand, but they soon discover the perpetrator of the transportation spell nearby. This new arrival is a gaunt man with the appearance of a corpse. Taunting our heroes, he drops out a dismembered corpse from a portal above them. The corpse is none other than Fuegoleon, bloodied and without an arm. The young mages are devastated, thinking that Leo’s big brother might be dead. However, his grimoire is still intact, meaning he’s still alive, though it quickly begins to disintegrate.

The distraction of Noelle and Leo gives Rades a chance to counterattack. He quickly knocks out Leo, but Asta is still there and is itching for a fight. He charges at Rades as fast as he can, trying to stop Rades from teleporting away before he gets a chance at him. Realizing that the ever-growing teleportation portal around Rades is still magic, he tosses one of his anti-magic swords at the portal, destroying it immediately.

Without his magic, and without a means to escape, Rades is helpless against Asta delivering him a beatdown. Asta gives him a right hook, a headbutt, and of course declares that he’s going to be the wizard king one day. Rades calls out to his ally to help, and the newly arrived mage manages to sneak a spell behind Asta to take him out. But just before Asta’s attacked, Leo interrupts with a fire strike. This puts the ball back in our heroes’ court, who have Rades cornered without the assistance of his leprous mage friend. But at the last moment, another group of mages in white robes soon shows up to finish the fight. But Asta’s got a trick up his sleeve as well; using his blades, he delivers two small cuts to the cursed wounds on his body. The swords dispel the curse magic in his body and bring Asta back to health. Swords in hand, he roars at the newly arrived mages to bring it on.

Our Take:

This week on Black Clover, a combination of bizarre voice lines, horrendous animation, and poor pacing bring down what really could have been an excellent episode. I really did like some of the moments they had built up to, with Charmy’s power reveal being a highlight of the episode for me, but there are just too many technical and script problems going on for me to enjoy them. Plus, the reaction of Asta, Noelle, and Leo to Fuegoleon’s death felt so forced and uninspired; a cheap attempt to try and draw some tears from an increasingly tired audience. I’m afraid it’s not good enough, Black Clover, try again next week.