English Dub Review: Black Clover “To the Heart Kingdom!”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
As Yami learns the Heart Kingdoms can only be visited via-invitation, Finral visits Langris, who is surprised Finral is determined to improve himself and get himself betrothed to Finnes Calmreich, though Langris believes Finral is incapable of making Finnes happy and challenges Finral to become a better man. Mimosa reveals the Heart Kingdom is abundantly rich in natural mana, ruled by a Queen as powerful as a knight squad. Mimosa acquires invitations to the Heart Kingdom for herself, Asta, Noelle, and Finral, with Secre hiding in her bird form. As they enter the Heart Kingdom You’d think it’d be a warm welcome, but of course, the Queen is anything but a warm in her approach as she plans to seize Asta’s devil power for herself. Gaja, a Spirit Guardian, directs them to the palace via a river that flows uphill, thanks to the Queen’s Mana Zone, which basically covers the whole entire kingdom.
Gaja explains every queen for 1200 years has made a pact with Undine, the Spirit of Water. And given how greedy the Queen is for Asta’s power, The Black Bulls aren’t just gonna give him up without a fight as Asta and the others are forced to battle Gaja, who is vastly more skilled. Asta is then deposited in the palace where his devil form impresses Undine. She reveals the Heart Kingdom measures magical strength in with a number/stage system and Asta barely ranks 9th Stage, the weakest, while Noelle and Mimosa rank 1st Stage, and it is suggested Gaja ranks even higher Zero Stage. However, working together, Noelle, Mimosa, and Finral manage to land a powerful attack on Gaja, while Secre manages to free Asta, but in an unexpected cliffhanger, Asta attacks someone who’s yet to be revealed.
Our Take
The Heart Kingdom seems like an interesting place. You’d think they’d be just one episode to give us some respite by letting the protagonists have a sense of exploration, but It didn’t last too long as the border security measures within the kingdom seemed a little extreme. It got right into the action as It started off going from an arc where Asta wants to prove his innocence, to a rescue mission when he got caught by some water magic and Gaja fought against Noelle, Mimosa, and Finral.
In terms of animation and plot-structure, this was a top-quality episode. One of the best highlights aside from the fight scenes was that it didn’t use the “all members get captured when entering a new country” trope which RWBY pretty much did, nor did they use the “we all got our asses kicked in another kingdom” trope which was a breath of fresh air as these are semi-predictable plot points in other stories that are often overused for the sake of their cliche narratives. Hopefully, we can find out who the hell Asta struck at and see if it was even warranted.
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