English Dub Review: Black Clover “Flower of Resolution”

Zora wins the award for troll of the year.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The first match of the tournament to decide who will be allowed into the Royal Magic Knights is upon us, and things aren’t looking too good. Asta and Zora, the impersonator of Xerx Lugner, are butting heads, and their opponents, another squad of three, is raining down fire on them and their crystal with their combined magical abilities. Not only are Zora and Asta not getting along, it seems as if Zora isn’t even interested in passing the test at all, as he uses this time to take a nap.

Mimosa, thinking quick on her feet, wraps up their damaged crystal in a giant vine and tells Asta they’re only hope is to keep their crystal with them as they charge the enemy, breaking theirs in a desperate attack. Asta agrees, and so the two are off, leaving Zora behind. Once Mimosa is able to locate their opponents, she fires off a giant solar beam at their defensive position. Everyone is amazed at Mimosa’s strength, but it’s not enough to rout their foes.

Things are looking up, but Asta accidentally steps onto some kind of trap that causes him to be encased in crystal, rendering him helpless. The enemy team takes this advantage to surround Asta and Mimosa, and they each fire off a powerful attack at them. Out of nowhere, a powerful magic appears that redirects the attacks back at their senders. The three take massive damage and fall onto the ground, incapacitated.

Zora comes out of his hiding place and it’s revealed that it was him responsible for the “counter” magic used to win the fight. Mocking his foes, he destroys the enemy crystal, making him, Asta, and Mimosa the victors. No one is happy, though, rather they’re frustrated that this villainous man won the fight in such a dishonorable way. What’s worse, it appears that the trap Asta fell into was placed by there by Zora. Asta tries to pick a fight with Zora, but it’s a moot point; one way or another, the fight is won.

Our Take:

Things are a bit awkward this week on Black Clover, as this episode sputters and shambles it’s way to the finish line by finishing its first tournament arc battle with nebulous quality. This isn’t terribly surprising, it’s just par for the course for Black Clover, which hasn’t done a good job establishing it’s world and characters since the start. Unfortunately, fights and combat tend to exacerbate problems that the show already has. It’s harder to disguise bad storytelling when it’s time to saddle up and show your cards. Weak animation, vague understanding of the world and a lack of character motivation make this just another disappointing fight in a series known for it’s disappointing battles.

Powers in Black Clover have always been a real problem. Much like in another magic-based show, “Fairy Tail”, a character’s powerset isn’t very well defined or limited, so it feels like anything can happen at any time. This, of course, takes a lot of the tension out of a battle, because it ruins the sense of immersion and reeks of lazy world building. Understanding our character’s limits is vital because it makes their challenges clear and real. Otherwise, the audience will know that the author can just write a character out of a bad situation even if it breaks the suspension of disbelief. A fine example of this is Mimosa’s “Solar Beam” attack. We’ve never seen this move before, and such a powerful beam attack doesn’t mesh with the powerset Mimosa has had before, which is mostly focused on defense and healing. It’s not impossible for such a move to exist, but without some explanation of how she learned this powerful attack, it just feels like the story is coming up with shit on the spot.

Insufficient world building aside, this episode lacks the kind of stakes that make a battle fun to watch. This is in large part because the Royal Magic Knight squad is a plot point that was only recently introduced to us, and doesn’t feel like a goal that really matters. Other than just the status of winning another test, what’s the motivation for our cast to fight for a place in this squadron? It seems like they’re only interested in this tournament because the plot wants them to be, but it doesn’t feel like a natural extension of their character motivation to do so.

The great sin of this episode isn’t that it’s insulting, it’s just boring. Battles that aren’t done well are just flashy nonsense, and if they’re not well-animated, then they’re just ugly flashy nonsense. There’s so little to care about here you can’t help but yawn as the episode keeps floundering about without a clear idea of what it wants to do.