English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Only Weapon”

Vanessa finally shows us what she’s capable of.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Vetto continues to decimate the Black Bulls one by one until only Asta is left. His courage is still with him, but its clear that his power alone won’t be enough to defeat Vetto’s enormous strength.

Vanessa, meanwhile, fights a member of The Eye of the Midnight Sun and quickly defeats him using her string magic to drain her opponent’s magical energy. With her first foe defeated, Vannesa continues searching through the cave.

Eventually, she stumbles along Asta, along with Finral, and offers her strength to fight alongside the two of them against Vetto. The three stand defiant and attack Vetto with everything they’ve got, setting up Asta to finish this battle once and for all.

Our Take:

Well, this elongated mess of a fight has been going on for a few weeks now, and unfortunately, Black Clover is still flopping around like a fish in a boat. What is supposed to be an epic confrontation between a big bad and our heroes feels more like a filler episode that’s gone on too long? Vetto has absolutely overstayed his welcome and has served as little more than a poorly characterized and undefined mook. In addition, Noelle’s big arc has been totally undercut by how shoddy this arc has been, making the other big draw to this story totally boring. While some entertaining moments do exist in this episode, they’re few and far between the shoddy storytelling this week is subject to.

When Vetto first stepped onto the scene of Black Clover, he had the potential of being a real terror; his constant smile a distinguishing feature that made him rather unsettling to look at. Yet, despite his initial impact so many episodes ago, now, he’s existed only as a bestial muscleman, who loses audience interest rather quickly. His powers have gotten basically no real explanation in what they actually do. His “Beast Magic” feels like it could be basically anything, and is too vague to catch my interest as a powerset. Furthermore, he’s gotten no real development other than being a huge jerk. He doesn’t exist to demonstrate any higher theme as a good villain should be. He’s just an obstacle for Asta to conquer, a brick wall to be torn down and forgotten. It’s not merely enough for a villain to be strong, they must be interesting too.

Maybe I could take this episode more seriously if Asta wasn’t such an inhuman protagonist. I’ve watched anime since the days of Saturday mornings and sugary breakfast cereal. I’m used to shounen protagonists who are defiant against all odds and fighters to the end. But Asta’s nonstop persistence and unwillingness to “Give up the fight” feels more like suicidal ignorance than conscious determination. He takes all hits right on the chin and keeps spouting the same line of cheesy dialogue about “Never giving up” almost verbatim. He never changes, he never grows, he never really learns to save for the occasional upgrades in power. But he doesn’t grow as a character, just remains a static point in an anime that’s reaching the 50 episode mark.

This episode puts a bitter taste in my mouth. Aside from its usual problems, the recaps they’ve been putting at the beginning of these episodes is reaching around seven minutes before the show actually starts. Then it proceeds to insist on this tepid and stale fight. Yuck, Black Clover. 

Score
3/10