English Dub Review: Black Clover “The One I’ve Set My Heart On”

This week, Black Clover makes nobody happy.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Now is a time of peace in the lives of the Black Bulls, following the aftermath of the previous arc. During this time, one of their more illustrious members, Finral Roulacase (Name of the year right there) is tasked is with planning a mixer for all of his fellow mages to enjoy, make merry and meet some lovely ladies. His noble task requires the taking stock of all the eccentric mages in the Black Bulls and their wacky idiosyncrasies. This means that we’re treated to the exquisite pleasure of watching Finral walk around the hideout watching the Black Bulls goof off and do a whole lot of nothing while he makes his mind up on who to take with him to the mixer.

Eventually, he settles on Luck and Asta. The two are dense, but hey, they’re main characters, so the plot demands they get some screentime. Noelle, crushing over Asta as she so often does, sneaks along and follows the young mages to the mixer so she can spy on them. As the mixer begins, Finral uses his charm and magical flair to treat their lady guests to a lovely time. Naturally, Luck’s bloodlusting and Asta’s relentless declaration of his dream to be the wizard king spoil his attempts. Not to mention, the ladies aren’t exactly thrilled at their hosts being Black Bulls, the lowest of the low on the magic knight totem pole.

Finral tries to recover, thinking he can regale the ladies with stories of his adventures as a knight, but it turns out he doesn’t really have any. Luck and Asta take turns telling their stories, but Luck’s are insanely violent and Asta makes the girls uncomfortable by showing them his wounds in battle.

Needless to say, it seems that none of these lads would know the pleasure of a woman’s company that evening.

But Noelle is doing things, too! Disguised as a waitress, she keeps an eye on the boys and looks around at the other mixers going on in the restaurant. She comes across the unfunny comic relief mage, “Haha”, whose arrogance earns him the ire of everyone at his table.

Back at the mixer, proper, things actually start looking up for the Black Bull boys. Luck and Finral somehow manage to charm a couple of the ladies away from the table, but Asta is drowning in an ocean of social awkwardness. However, the remaining girl opens up to him a bit, and in turn, he shares with her some of his life and upbringing. The two begin to bond over their family lives, and Noelle begins to freak out as her beloved Asta starts to make romantic headway.

Asta’s good time is soon interrupted when a big drunk dude comes over and starts being a big drunk douchebag. He slovenly starts harassing Asta’s date, but Asta isn’t having any of that. He uses his shounen protagonist strength to launch the drunk across the room into another table in the restaurant, bringing this fight to a quick end. The two run off outside, and Noelle pursues the couple.

Asta’s date realizes she’s starting to fall for Asta, but Asta insists that he already has his heart set on someone. Noelle, overhearing their conversation, thinks that Asta’s talking about her, but of course Asta is just referring to his crush on Sister Mary. Following this, we see Luck and Finral get dumped by their dates, and the episode just…kinda ends.

Our Take:

Well, this is a filler episode if I ever saw one. I’m already pretty disillusioned with Black Clover, as I’m sure many of my readers know, but here’s an episode that is so milquetoast its not even fun to criticize. If you don’t like Black Clover already, this episode’s weak premise and lukewarm comedic styling won’t win you over. If you are a fan, you’re probably going to hate it even more for being such a pointless waste of ink, bandwidth, and 22 minutes of your life. Blech.