English Dub Review: Black Clover “Path”

The Black Clover filler continues with a recap episode!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Episode 29 of Black Clover takes another break from the story with a series recap episode. Through the eyes of Noelle, Gordon (The really quiet Black Bull who doesn’t get much screen time) and others, we take a look back on Asta’s journey from being a magic-less wannabe nimrod to being a magically capable wannabe nimrod. My, what a journey it’s been.

Our Take:

There isn’t a terrible amount of episode to actually review here since its mostly made up of clips from other episodes in the series thus far. However, this serves as an excellent opportunity to express criticism of plot developments in the series, as well as examine what works and doesn’t work from a structural standpoint in this recap episode.

Starting with the latter, this week’s entry into Black Clover is pretty standard fare. It’s told through the eyes of some of the side characters who have had some significance in Asta’s life. While this isn’t inherently bad, it is a little strange to have the perspectives of Asta’s growth keep shifting throughout the episode from one character to another. It’s functional, but boring, and doesn’t offer much in terms of actual entertainment. The nugget of gold here, though, is the segment of the episode told through Gordon’s eyes, whose shtick of being too quiet for people to understand makes him an amusingly ironic choice to tell Asta’s story. Also, by showcasing the endless volumes of observation journals he keeps in his room, Gordon actually gets some real character development as a kind and patient observer of events. We learn how much he cares about his friends, even if he’s always in the background, which serves as the highlight of this episode, without a doubt.

It’s really quite strange to me, then, why Gordon wasn’t just the main character of the episode. Two of the other recappers, Noelle and Yuno, already get enough development that using them in a recap episode just seems like a valuable waste of screen time. They could’ve put my man Gordon front and center, and developed a touching episode of reflection from a character who is basically invisible, but always there for his friends.

The rest of the episode doesn’t really have much to offer except to remind me of some of the unfortunate problems that Black Clover’s plot has. The bizarre, unexplained existence of magical grimoirs, Asta’s sue-esque ability to conquer any obstacle despite all odds, Asta’s bizarre devotion to Sister Lily to name a few. Not to mention, if you were a first-time viewer trying to use this to catch up on the show, you’d be fairly lost, considering the many major plot developments that have gone completely unnoticed by this episode.

Overall, this episode lacks a strong framing device for its recaps, doesn’t give us much in terms of character development or plot progression, and serves to be entirely pointless. Whether you’re a fan of Black Clover or not, there is nothing for you here, so let’s cross our fingers and hope that this two episode filler streak doesn’t last much longer.