English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Royal Knights Selection Test”

Magical identity theft, it’s more likely than you think.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The King of the Clover Kingdom, King Clover, has decided to create a Royal Knights squad that will be made up of the best members of the Magic Knights. To that end, the king is holding a selection test to see who is worthy of entering his vanity project, I mean, his royal knights. Right before the test begins, however, the vice-captain of the Purple Orcas is confronted and soundly defeated by a masked man named Zora, who is apparently quite powerful.

As the test gets ready to begin, Asta and Yuno share some kind rivalries with each other while touching base with some of their old friends and comrades. Finral, looking worse for wear, recounts the tale of how he asked Vanessa to give him a new hairstyle, resulting in the embarrassing look he has at the moment. Noelle reflects on the lesson she learned for Mereoleona at the hot spring, and the rest of the entrants prepare themselves mentally as well.

King Clover and Novachrono soon arrive and explain that this examination will be a team battle, focusing on demonstrating the ability of each of its entrants to work together. Just as they’re about to begin the exam, Zora comes in pretending to be Xerx Lugner, the vice-captain of the Purple Orcas. Novachrono isn’t convinced by “Lugner”, but for some reason he allows Zora to join in the test. Zora is on Asta’s time along with Mimosa, and the two immediately butt heads. Zora starts ridiculing Asta and sticks a sting bug in his nose, and boldly declares the only reason he’s there is to make fun of all the knights. Not many people know what Lugner actually looks like, so all of the entrants don’t think too much of Zora’s behavior other than considering him to be a huge jerk.

The rest of the teams are assembled and everyone meets their new partners. First up, Asta’s team is set to take the examination first, and Asta is rearing to get started as the rest of the Black Bulls cheer him on.

Our Take:

Black Clover marches on, keeping the episode train a-rolling without stopping to consider if it’s worth telling a story worth paying attention to. This episode is, for the most part, a platter of loud shenanigans that seems to be directed at the 10-12-year-old crowd that I think this show is aimed at. I’ve never, ever, found Black Clover to be funny since it relies on that ancient belief that “Loud, random and eccentric” makes for good comedy. It doesn’t help, of course, that the two-dimensional mannequins that make up most of the cast only ever seem to have one thing to say. (See Gauche for an example, whose obsession over his little sister is the literal entirety of his personality) A good 70% of this episode consists of this high-volume nonsense, which means that this week’s Black Clover doesn’t bother to advance the plot very much. Goodie.

The artwork in anime is exceptionally important, as I’m sure everyone can understand. It’s a visual medium, so a strong understanding of artistic principles and beautiful, iconic artwork is a must. The setting, in particular, defines most of the way an anime is seen visually. Whether we’re looking at the sapphire blue seas of the world of “One Piece” or the 90s aesthetic mix of fantasy and modernity that makes up Konoha in “Naruto”, the style of the backgrounds and setting need to inspire the imagination or, at least, be pretty to look at. Someone should have told that to the creators of Black Clover because it remains as one of the dreariest-looking shows I’ve ever seen. The color pallet is little more than a mix of brown and gray in various degrees, with everything looking washed out and sad. I bring this up here because we’re about to enter into a series of episodes that takes place in a stone coliseum. A flat, stone, gray, arena where we’re going to have the first “Tournament” arc that the show has seen so far. I don’t expect Michelangelo, but there is no excuse to have a setting that looks this bad. It offers no sense of location or geography because it doesn’t have any geography. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Black Clover is dead set on being the blandest looking shounen ever made.

This a nothing episode. Very little happens other than characters babbling on to each other about things that don’t really matter. You don’t need to bother paying attention to the dialogue because none of it matters anyway, and you don’t need to bother remembering who anyone is because the show will keep reminding you who these talking pieces of cardboard are by slapping you over the head with their obtuse personalities. So, yeah, it’s just another normal week for Black Clover.