The tissue connecting last week's episode and this week's is fairly weak up front. This isn't the first time that all the Magic Knight squad captains have arrived in unison to save the day, and they continue to lack the heft that the desired beat requires. So few of them are interesting beyond how strong we're told they are. On top of that, I still feel weird that last week's cliffhanger downgraded us from Licht himself to his henchmen, no matter how much stronger they're supposed to be.
The latter issue is alleviated some by the fact that Licht is not completely out of the game; he just needed to call in reinforcements so he could take a breather and get his groove back. The former problem is still prevalent (especially since Fuegoleon is still missing in action) but the show tries to give the squad captains more personality by making fun of Noelle's asshat brother's hair and revealing that Charlotte Roselei has a tsundere crush on Yami. The staggering number of lovestruck women in this series continues to be alarming. It's so aggressive.
But once we get past the so-so content early in this episode, we do come back around to the good stuff. It turns out the Midnight Sun arc ends the way all conflicts must in this show: Asta hits the bad guy with his anti-magic sword and they lose. The End. As predictable as this show's formula is becoming, the end of this fight is satisfying as all hell. Asta emerges in the middle of the chaos while everybody else is preoccupied, targeting Licht with his new Ki-sensing abilities while staying under the radar thanks to his lack of magic. This sequence is the animation highlight of the past couple episodes, and it's fun to see everybody, good and bad guys alike, be shocked that Asta was even still in this fight at all. 'Everybody' excluding Yami, of course, because he had faith in Asta this whole time.
The major intrigue that gets raised as we finally exit the arc is a question of how Asta's grimoire and swords are connected to Licht and his people. Licht's a pretty chill guy, so it's neat to see him get riled up at the thought of a magic-less kid having weapons that supposedly belonged to his master. There's an evil power that goes beyond Licht and his cronies, but Asta's the one reaping its rewards for some reason. I've gotten so accustomed to the fact that Asta has the five-leaf clover that I forgot that was even supposed to be big picture story behind it. Asta's a good guy using the powers of a demon, but that concept has fallen to the wayside for most of the story so far. I hope we get more information on that sooner rather than later.
While I'm not in love with any of the B-tier heroes and villains that make up the bulk of this episode, they do a good job keeping the story busy as we build up to the stronger moments where we finally get to lay the smack down. And even then, beating the final boss only seems to make our heroes' problems worse. Asta hitting Licht with his sword doesn't kill or maim him, but rather opens him up and makes his magic more dangerous and uncontrollable. If Licht's going to be sticking around as the main villain then it makes sense that he'd be reserving his power to become an even worse threat later. He can't keep fighting as he is now, so he and his friends run away to pick a fight with the Clover Kingdom another day.
With the Eye of the Midnight Sun being our primary antagonists, we haven't yet had an arc where we truly beat them to our satisfaction. Arcs usually end with them running away in defeat, which both teases the audience too much about what's to come and undermines the Midnight Sun as a threat. That said, I'm growing increasingly interested in the greater lore surrounding the group and how they're connected to Gauche and Asta. There's plenty of room for the baddies to bulk up and get stronger, and the mysteries that promise to do just that are curious enough to keep me watching. Out of the completed story arcs we've seen so far, I can now safely say this has been the most thoroughly enjoyable one yet.
Rating: B
Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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