English Dub Review: Black Clover “Stirrings of the Strongest”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the Black Bulls recover from the battle with Dante, the Clover Kingdom Magic Knight Captains convene about their next step, along with Asta, Yuno, and the Black Bulls’ Vice Captain Nacht, who is also Devil Possessed and has recently come back with intel from his time spying on the Spade Kingdom. Meanwhile, Noelle wakes up surrounded by the reincarnated elves from the former Eye of the Midnight Sun.

OUR TAKE

This week kicks off a brand new arc for the Black Clover anime!…that the manga is still on at the moment, so no wonder this show ends in two more episodes. I’m a broken record at this point, but I can’t help but acknowledge the weirdness in this episode introducing new details and plot elements and even formally introducing a brand new major character with so little time left. Yet I do need to also acknowledge this was obviously not the intention and the story continues from there in the manga. As for this episode in particular, it was a bit funny seeing the doctor look over Asta’s arm and give it some bad prognosis when Asta has been through crap like this in recovering from impossible odds before. I’m guessing this training that Asta will be getting from Nacht is likely to be a part of that recovery, actually. Speaking of Nacht, I don’t have a ton to say about him. He seems cool and fun enough for the moment and will act as a mentor for getting Asta caught up on his own devil powers, but he does feel a bit conveniently written into this moment. Though I suppose the Vice Captain spot was always empty this whole time so this may have been planned.

The big part of the episode would have to be the captain meeting, where Nacht lays out the more detailed plans of the Dark Triad and how they plan to use Yami and Vangeance. Basically, in three days, their respective unique magic powers will used to open a doorway to bring forth even worse devils and essentially destroy the world. And that process will take seven days, each day bringing out more and more powerful devils. Based on my familiarity with shonen stories saying that “x thing can’t happen or else the world is doomed”, I’m almost certain every single level will be open just to up the stakes as high as possible so the victory will be all the more satisfying. The one that comes to mind in this category would be Cell absorbing the Androids in Dragon Ball Z. And maybe Yami will actually die, though that would surprised me. Also, side note, it really irked me that, when Yuno revealed he was a prince, Nozel thought to himself “oh, that explains why he’s so powerful, it’s because he’s royalty” when that has been a long since debunked notion in this story, made all the more obvious when Yami, a fellow captain, was canonically born to fishermen.

Anywho, these remaining two episodes feel like they have a lot to live up to in order to wrap the show, at least for now, but while they won’t be giving us a definitive ending or much in the way of resolution, I do know that they will make use of what’s left to get the series to go out with a bang. And to do that, it’s also going to bring in a lot more new information and even another new character, which is frustrating in and of itself, but I’ll make sure to look at what it brings to the table as best as I can.