English Dub Review: Black Clover “Destroyer”

At long last, an episode to write home about.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

So, Lotus of the Abyss just got a nice beating by Asta, Noelle, and Luck, and after taking a minute to contemplate his sorry condition, he decides to cut his losses and make a break for it. He uses his smoke magic to make an automobile out of smoke (Really, now?) and heads for the exit, narrowly escaping Luck who tries to chase him down.

With Lotus out of action, the focus returns to Yuno’s fight with the diamond mage, Mars, which isn’t going nearly as well. Klaus, examining Yuno’s gem-wielding opponent, monologues about how the Diamond Kingdom has been cultivating powerful mages by picking talented youths and forcing them to fight with each other to hone their skills. There’s no doubt that this is one of those mages, attaining his incredible strength through a lifetime of conflict and struggle, making him a powerful secret weapon. Frustrated, Klaus tries to take down the diamond mage, but to no avail. Yuno and Mars go at it, but Yuno can do little more than dodge Mars’s attacks, while Mars bullies the young mage with relative ease. Yuno feels defeat approaching, but reflects upon the training of his youth with Asta and strengthens his resolve to win. He stands tall, even as Mars is about to bring down an enormous sword made of diamonds on his head. Right before the attack squashes Yuno like a bug, Asta comes out of nowhere and chops the blade in two with his own giant sword, proclaiming that no one gets to beat his rival but him.

Asta takes a moment to verbally chastise Yuno for being weak and almost losing, but soon the two stand together, ready to defeat this new opponent. While they’re distracted, Mars tries to send a diamond clone to go after the treasure, but Luck comes in and shuts his attempt down. Of course, Klaus is not at all happy about having to be saved by mages from the Black Bulls. Mars summons a small army of diamond clones to re-ignite the battle, and soon Asta and he are going at it at full force. Asta fights with ferocity, showing what he’s really made of as he beats the snot out of Mars with an initial onslaught. Meanwhile, Luck and Yuno deal with the diamond clones, while Klaus gets a lecture from Noelle to stop being such a putz and accept that Asta is pretty powerful in his own weird way.

The fight has shifted in our heroes’ favor, but Mars isn’t done yet. He summons an enormous diamond golem from the water and smashes Asta with a devastating blow. Asta gets knocked to the floor, but gets back up and hoists his sword high. Mars is baffled by Asta’s fighting spirit, so much so that he has flashbacks to his own past. Yet, this just aggravates Mars further. Beaten and bruised, Asta raises his weapon and jumps through the air, landing the shot of his life right on his foe while yelling at the top of his lungs that he will never give up. Yuno smiles, and Mars falls to the floor, defeated, with Asta standing tall over his decisive victory.

Our Take:

Not too shabby, Black Clover! This is the first episode in a good while that I felt really hit the mark. Not everything is perfect, of course; I was baffled by Lotus’ smoke car magic (I mean, really, what the heck) and Klaus’ constant blathering about nobility is a real momentum killer. Yet, this episode felt like it was finally taking its story seriously, pulling out the stops on the animation and delivering a satisfying, if not a bit cliched, shounen beatdown. I hope we’ll get more episodes like this in the future, but for now, I’ll give credit where credit is due.