English Dub Review: Black Clover “Wounded Beasts”

Asta fights for his life, while Julius Novachrono brings the pain.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The tables have turned on Asta and friends, as more rogue wizards have arrived to aid Rades in his one-man invasion of the capital city. Asta, Noelle, and Leo are surrounded, but Yuno and Charmy are off on their own.

Asta surprises everybody with his surprise self-surgery from the last episode, finding himself earning the respect and ire of the rogue wizards. They quickly realize that Asta is a wielder of anti-magic, but that isn’t going to stop them from getting what they want. Asta thinks back on what Fuegoleon told him, and heightens his fighting spirit against his new foes.

Asta goes to town on the rogue mages, with Leo joining in a righteous fury. The two are capable fighters, fighting like wounded beasts. Their fearlessness intimidates even these advanced mages, and Noelle soon jumps in to use her defensive water magic in aid. One of the rogue mages responds to Noelle’s water shield bubble in kind, using some kind of tree magic to leech away the water shield. Soon, they’re overwhelmed, and Asta and Leo pass out on the ground.

Things aren’t looking good for our heroes, but suddenly, appearing from a cloud of smoke in the center of the battle, the magic knights who had previously disappeared reappear. They used their magic in conjunction to form a powerful spell to bring them back to the capital city.

The knights soon work to revive Asta and Leo, but there is still the matter of the rogue mages to attend to. The invaders attempt to escape, but using one of their members’ gel magic, they manage to capture Asta before escaping through a portal. Despite all his friends’ efforts, Asta is lost to these sinister wizards.

Noelle wants to save Asta, but the magic knights are more focused on securing the city and making sure everything is safe. They work to reestablish the chain of command and get back up from HQ, and soon the capital city is secure.

Meanwhile, the rogue mages return to their hideout; the remaining members are upset at Rades for being so selfish and putting the mission in jeopardy. When the conversation shifts to the subject of Asta, they begin to argue over whether or not they should leave Asta alive. Asta soon awakes, but can’t move inside his gel bubble prison, and is soon brought further into the hideout. But just then, an unlikely challenger appears to rescue Asta: Julius Novachrono, the Wizard King.

The rogue mages realize what a dire situation they’re in, and try to stop Novachrono before he can defeat them. Their magic is nothing compared to the fool-wrecking power of the Wizard King. Novachrono is clearly there to take care of these invaders once and for all and uses his time-bending magic to lock all the enemy mages in chrono-stasis orbs.

In one fell swoop, it’s over, and the Wizard King’s work is done. He uses the moment to try and impart the importance of strength to Asta, a lesson which Asta takes to heart. Just, as usual, Asta gathers his resolve and tries to stand tall above what he’s just experienced, but finds himself feeling the distance in power between him and Novachrono. Just then, as things seem to have settled down, a blinding white light fills the room, and a sinister looking figure emerges, setting us up for next week.

Our Take:

This has definitely been one of the more watchable episodes of Black Clover in these past weeks. Though it did suffer from some filler moments and bulky dialogue, I thought the appearance of Julius Novachrono brought a breath of fresh air to this episode. Asta’s shtick of getting angry to overcome his problems is starting to get a little old now, too, and really starting to show its wear. However, I’ve definitely seen worse.