English Dub Review: Black Clover “Burn it Into You”

Langris finally gets what he deserves.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Langris is foaming at the mouth with anger for his brother Finral’s fellow teammates. Blinded by rage, he continues to press his assault as strong as he can against those around him. Asta tries to negotiate with Langris and get him to calm down, but he isn’t having it. He unleashes his attacks at Asta with full force and without mercy. In response, Asta unleashes his devil powers at full blast to defeat Langris. The increased strength, speed, and defense are what gives him the edge over Landris, and eventually, Asta is able to nail him with his anti-magic sword.

With a powerful attack, Asta is able to incapacitate Landris, but not for the victory. Just for the draw. The fight ends between them but there is an incredible animosity still there between the two mages. Landris’s attitude simply didn’t last under the pressure of Asta’s relentless assault. In Asta’s victory, Zora finds some redemption, since good was able to overcome evil in this particular instance, reminding Zora of the honor of the Magic Knights, the same honor his father saw in them.

With the biggest fight of the tournament done, we take a look at the other, smaller battles that finish out the episode. The first one pits Luck’s team against Rill’s team. Luck initially has the advantage with the advances he’s made in his electrical abilities. With the aid of these teammates, Luck launches an electric spear combo attack at Rill, the head of the Azure Deer. Yet, Rill uses his painting magic to return the attack to sender, winning the round by destroying Luck’s crystal.

Next up has Noelle and Yuno’s team up against another team of nameless randos. Yuno ix extremely confident and uses his wind magic to dispel the attacks against him from his opponents. In one fell swoop, Yuno uses his magic to completely annihilate the enemy crystal, leaving both friend and foe in complete awe.

Our Take:

More often than not when it comes to anime, the journey to a particular moment is more notable and interesting than what happens when we get to the end of a struggle. Case in point, we have this episode, which marks the end of the “Langris” arc and really doesn’t stick the landing. While not terrible, this episode just kind of coasts on the goodwill the prior few episodes have earned it without doing much to catch my interest or resolve the story of Langris in a satisfying way.

As I’ve so often said when reviewing this show, there is a feeling that very little actually happens in this episode, and most of what’s present within the episode are just there to fill time. Apart from the obnoxiously long recap that comes at the beginning of the episode, Asta’s fight with Langris doesn’t really amount to much more than a simple power upgrade and a defeat. Anime fights need to have structure, cleverness, and panache. There need to be warring elements at play and conflicting themes that make the fight fun to watch. With Finral fighting his brother, I think we got that down pretty well, but with Asta fighting Langris, much of the tension that was present in the episode before disintegrates.

After that, it’s basically just cleaning up a couple more fights that also don’t have a whole lot going on. Luck’s fight is just a way to show us how powerful the captain of the Azure Deers is, and Yuno’s is just there to remind us Yuno is one of the most powerful dudes to ever cast a spell. Nothing really new or entertaining to watch. If you have half a brain or you’ve been watching this series for at least a few episodes, you’re not really getting anything new out of this episode.

Black Clover seems to be a show that’s designed for quantity over quality. Though I was happy with the Finral vs. Langris episode we were treated to a couple of weeks ago, it seems this might be a “Broken clock is right twice a day” situation. There isn’t even that much to critique here because the episode simply doesn’t try to do anything that’s worth taking seriously. If entertainment value is your only aim, then there are much better shows with much better animation and fighting to enjoy, and if you’re looking for a story, you won’t find it here. Yet, this is nothing new, and nothing I haven’t come to expect on the regular from this show. Keep walking, Black Clover.