English Dub Review: Black Clover “Return”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Finally, after two long recap episodes leading up to current events of Asta being on trial for bullshit that he didn’t even do, the Black Bulls finally return home. The only problem is, Henry can’t reconstruct the base as he has forgotten what it looks like, so in response to this, everyone writes requests for their new rooms to get a magical makeover once their base is reconstructed. However, it does lead to a series of comedic subplots such as Noelle becoming jealous and confused over Asta with Secre/Nero’s relationship despite how platonic it actually is which makes you even wonder if Noelle is going to be honest with her own feelings someday.

Of course, the biggest subplot that takes the most of the running time is Yami searching for the three dangerous magical beasts he keeps as pets that consequently escaped when the base was destroyed during the Elves arc. Later a few Black Bull students do manage to find the beasts but it comedically resolves itself leading to a touching story about how he found and raised them. With the beasts re-established as Yami’s pets, Henry completes the new base, including a few upgrades that accommodate certain students and the episode ends when the Black Bulls begin researching the history of the recently discovered devil species in an effort to prove Asta’s innocence.



Our Take

Aside from a few big changes, this was still a filler episode, but for once, it wasn’t boring and kept a natural flow of plot progression while also marking a series of other big changes within the show itself such as a new anime opening with more subtle symbolism and foreshadowing which I’m sure will make more sense as the story unravels.

I just hope we don’t get into a super long filler arc, but it makes me glad we’re back to the present day with the Black Bulls and their new adventures again. Some could argue that they reset the characters from any kind of progression, development, or change they’ve made. But that remains to be seen since we have yet to see them in action once more and the focus of this current arc is primarily on Asta since the Wizard Parliament’s way of handling things is more broken & unfair than Litchfield’s prison system when it comes to anything judicial.