English Dub Review: Black Clover “Two New Stars”

Two kings, two stars, and one boring episode.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The main event of the Star Festival is underway. Julius Novachrono, the Wizard King, addresses the people of the Clover Kingdom and acknowledges the efforts of the Magic Knight squads who defended the country from the Eye of the Midnight Sun. He introduces each of the captains of each squad, including two new addition, Mereoleona Vermillion, who captains the Crimson Lions, and Kaiser Granvorka, who captains the Purple Orcas after their last captain turned out to be a traitor. Furthermore, he takes time to congratulate the Golden Dawn on being the squad with the most stars as well as Yuno for being the highest earner of stars in the squad. Surprisingly, however, the Black Bulls are in second place in the rankings. The Black Bulls send Asta on stage to represent them, since he’s the best earner of stars in their squad as well.

The people are surprised that two commoners have been able to be so succesful in the magic knight squads, so Yuno decides to show them all the extent of his magical power. Using his wind magic, he fires an enormous arrow at Asta, which he deflects with his anti-magic sword. The crowd is amazed at their respective abilities. As a reward for their service, Novachrono sets them up to be commended by the king of the Clover Kingdom, King Clover. King Clover gets upset that the Wizard King is more popular than he is, which is made clear by how unenthused the crowd is at King Clover’s appearance. To try and save face, King Clover announces that they’ve found the hideout of The Eye of the Midnight Sun, and that he is forming a new squadron of magical knights called the Royal Knights to be dispatched against the Eye.

Asta and Yuno openly question King Clover’s shenanigans, which almost earns them a death sentence from the unruly monarch. Thankfully, Novachrono convinces Clover to forgive them, and the two head off together to reminisce. As they walk around, they stumble upon the Crimson Lions, who are getting a tongue-lashing by Mereoleona.

Our Take:

The Black Bulls have seemingly brought themselves up from nothing as they rise through the ranks to second place in the obviously named Star Festival. This is supposed to be an important moment for their development as a squad, but I can’t help but wonder how unearned their fame feels at this point. Not because they haven’t endured their share of hardships, but because this new rise in rank comes seemingly out of the blue. Not to be one who picks at plot holes, (After all, what am I, a critic or something?) but don’t the Black Bulls get a running tally of how many stars they have whenever they complete a mission? And hasn’t that tally run in the negatives for quite some time? I understand Asta is a fine addition to the squad, and that they’ve had more success as a squad than ever before, but they’re still the same bunch of goofballs they ever were. I’m not sure how they can have this kind of dramatic turnaround in such a small amount of time.

With that in mind, this whole ceremony seems silly. It’s almost as if the amount of stars a squad has at any given time is an arbitrary number to be determined by the needs of the plot instead of following a sense of internal logic or character progression. I’m all for long-form developments of characters; it would be a real treat if the Black Bulls actually earned their new place in the world but that is far from the truth. I don’t see what separates the Black Bulls of now from the Black Bulls fifty episodes ago other than a couple of missions completed.

And, speaking of silly, this business with King Clover also has me in a funk. Comedy is comedy, but this is the king of the Clover Kingdom we’re talking about. Why do people treat him like he’s the sideshow for Novachrono? This doesn’t make much sense especially when this setting has a deeply rooted system of nobles. One would think the king would be treated with more respect. Strangely enough, the people in the crowd at the festival even comment on how pathetic the king is and how Novachrono should be the ruler of the kingdom. Yes, I agree; why does this kingdom have two kings anyways? But, rather than playing this potential conflict in an interesting way, Black Clover just goes for the cheap funny, which isn’t very funny at all.

What a mess. Apart from already being a very “filler-y” episode, the conclusion to the star festival is chock full of the half-baked inconsistencies that continue to establish this anime as being a show for kids who watch whatever flashy nonsense is popular at the time. No show can be perfect, but each episode has the potential to be interesting if it tries. Where’s the effort, Black Clover?