English Dub Review: Black Clover “The Tilted Scale”

Overview

Before being kidnapped by a vigilante group of pissed-off Elf victims known as the Devil Banishers, Secre/Nero frees Asta from the tracking spell bracelet placed on him by Nozel and puts it on herself. The Banishers take Secre to their hideout in Dazu’s destroyed village. Once Yami is reassured Asta will eventually wake up on his own he has Marx examine Asta’s memories. Meanwhile, Gauche interrogates Neige about Marie’s kidnap and deduces the kidnappers are linked to Damnatio, and forces his way into his office. Damnatio denies all knowledge of Marie’s kidnapping and willingly lets Marx examine his memories to prove his innocence. While The Wizard King sends The Bulls to travel to their location only along with Noel, but upon arriving at the village Noelle is surprised at what she witnesses…

Our Take

I actually thought this episode was kinda thrilling as anything could happen and proceedings really hit real deep for me because when you think about it, part of you can easily be angry with these assholes, and yet you also can’t help but also feel for them knowing how wronged & victimized they all must feel. Also, seeing Yami actually worried for his subordinates was genuinely understandable. Gauche is always causing troubles with his weird-ass sister complex, good thing he had Julius and his squad mates to cover his ass.

But I guess the biggest highlight of this episode is Asta being out of commission for the time being. Having him active would end the conflict faster, so he had to be put to sleep for the sake of drama which can feel a bit contrived but It’s easy to assume that Asta will wake up at some point in at a crucial time or intervene in a fight of some sort, very much building up some potential for an epic moment.

Overall, a well-paced episode that wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter for a filler-arch which is mostly about the people living in the Clover Kingdom and what happens when the gruesome aftermath of a big disaster can have lasting effects if not hastily fixed to some capacity. Only time will tell if Asta will wake up to whoop some ass or if the Bulls will rescue them in time but either way, we all have a long way to go before the much-anticipated “Megicula” storyline.