English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Man Named Fanzell, Continued”

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Overview (Spoilers Below)

After Asta was wounded during his battle with Mars in the dungeon, he comes back into Asta’s life once more when his naked form is captured by Noelle near the Black Bulls hideout. Initially, they believe him to be a pervert, but after Asta explains who he is, they hear him out. Turns out, he wants to find the maker of Noelle’s wand, who he believes to be his love, a woman named Dominante. He’s about to leave for the capital city when the Bulls’ hideout is suddenly attacked by Diamond Kingdom assassins.

With the combined power of the Black Bulls, the Diamond Kingdom Assassin Mages are soon routed. With the attack over with, Noelle, Asta, and Finral bring Fanzell to Dominante. Fanzell is head-over-heels for his fiance, but there isn’t much time for happy reunions, as Mariella arrives from the shadows. Tensions are high, but Mariella explains that she led her forces to the Black Bulls as a way of striking a blow against the diamond kingdom. Turns out she’s been moved by what Asta said during their last encounter and has found her own reason to live.

Our heroes are soon interrupted, however, when Galleo, the commanding officer of the Diamond Kingdom Assassination Mages shows up looking for trouble. He uses his spatial creation magic to trap Asta and the others, but they’re able to overcome his abilities with their own heroism. With all of their business said and done, Fanzell and Dominante leave town together to find a better life together, somewhere the Diamond Kingdom can’t hurt them.

The episode ends as we return to the present, where Noelle has found Fanzell, Dominante, and Mariella once again to find a way to heal Asta’s arms. Dominante says there is one who might help, the Queen of the Witches.

Our Take:

I was somewhat baffled at the strange turn of a filler episode that we were given last week on Black Clover, and I’m even more confused now when I see that same plot continued through yet another flashback, combined with a time skip just to keep things interesting. This episode suffers from a lot of the same issues the first one had. It’s too small, too contained in itself to really matter, without going the creative lengths to do something different from what the main plot gives us. Furthermore, it’s an episode that lacks a lot of tension. It’s an open-and-shut episode that feels more like a speed bump than anything else, the kind of episode that makes you shrug your shoulders and go, “Hmm. Well, okay.”

So with this Fanzell business continuing into a second episode, this continues the story from being a one-off into an “Arc”, of sorts. Its a strange place for two episodes to be, because instead of using that time to tell a larger story, it just gives us two very small stories that have the same characters in them. This makes everything feel rather “Meh.” There isn’t a lot of investment I have in Fanzell or his wife or Mariella or the Diamond Kingdom in general. Furthermore, the tension in this episode cannot be held very well, since the villains are so weak that they die almost the moment they show up on screen. Again, this is a problem with the smallness of the episode. We can’t bother to have these Diamond Kingdom nobodies be of any importance because if they were, we’d need more episodes to defeat them.

The major redeeming quality to this episode is that it’s actually pretty funny. What it lacks in conflict it makes up for somewhat in humor. There’s the typical Black Clover wacky slapstick that you’ve no doubt come to expect from the show, but also some genuinely clever moments and character interactions that make things a little more fun.

In the end, there’s not a whole lot that can be said about this episode, because its major problem is that its a non-story. It’s over so quick and it’s so predictable that it plays out more like the flat line than any kind of arc. What enjoyment is to be had here comes from the humor and the lukewarm character moments that just repeat the same story of “Following your hope” that Black Clover has always had. At least it looks like there’s something more interesting on the horizon, so we’ve got that to look forward to.