English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Black Bulls Captain vs. the Crimson Wild Rose”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As Rill interrogates more Midnight Sun goons, they begin disintegrating from Patry’s magic drain. This occurs all over the hideout and is visible all across the Clover Kingdom. Next comes the reincarnation of the elves, which starts affecting Gauche, Marie, Luck, Rill, Rhya, and Yuno, amongst others. Once the elves fully take over their bodies, they begin to look upon humans next to them with disdain and start attacking them.

Yami views the light show but then finds that Marx and Owen have also been possessed, now eager to kill Yami and all of humanity. While they do have a bit of a power boost, he’s able to hold them off and protect Julius’ body, but he has a harder time with a possessed Charlotte, who now wields red roses instead of her usual blue. Sol follows behind, attempting to snap her captain out of the spell, but Yami tells her Charlotte’s being controlled and orders her to take Julius’ body somewhere safe. He then faces Charlotte head-on, Dark Magic to Briar Magic.

OUR TAKE
It still mostly feels like we’re in transition between parts of the arc since most of what happens is seeing characters we know possessed and others react to that. As for where this is headed, it looks like there’s meant to be a massive turn in the tide as half the Royal Knights turn on each other to make Patry’s vengeance for the elves a reality. The problem I’m seeing for that from a writing perspective is that the possessed characters lose all agency and decision making, while the ones taking over their bodies basically have no personality other than “snooty and judgmental”. Even their first appearances give off more of a “you can’t sit with us” vibe than “I’ll kill you for the sake of our lost race”. Which, coupled with how the royalty is usually portrayed in this show and how the classism is typically written more like middle school cliques than anything else, tells me that the author might take a bit too much influence from how he may have been bullied in adolescence if this is the worst kind of antagonist he can come up with.

But switching over from that (and apparently jumping ahead almost twenty chapters of manga according to the wiki) is the other notable part of the episode: the titular battle between Yami and Char. I guess this is supposed to be the first big example of how powerful the elves can become if they can possess a captain. However, the fight doesn’t really have much in the way of tension when you think about it. We know Yami’s not going to die, he’s not going to kill Char, Char’s not going to learn from this because she’s not the one making decisions, AND it’s not very well animated as usual, so there’s not a whole lot but to wait for it to be over and see how much they can pad it with flashbacks. Remember when Yami negged Charlotte into liking him to break her curse? That’s important here, I guess!

I’m hoping we can get to know more about these new elf characters and they aren’t just fodder to be beaten, but I don’t really expect that to happen. Also would like it if these fights gradually evolve in their structure from “oh no, we have to fight a comrade” to something a bit deeper, but again, gotta keep the bar low for Black Clover.