Black Clover Episode 37

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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Black Clover Episode 36

With Licht "defeated" for the time being, the Eye of the Midnight Sun needs to mix things up by bringing in the new batch of villains teased at the end of last week. A portion of this episode feels like the denouement for this arc, with all the kids being saved and the heroes taking a breather, but the conflict keeps rolling in. I interpret Licht as the main baddie of this series, so it's a little strange to me that we're conquering him so easily and for the "next big thing" in the story to just be more of his henchmen.

The henchmen in question this week are the group referred to as the "Third Eye." They're the Midnight Eye's strongest fighters who surpass Licht and supposedly the Magic Knight squad captains as well. Their names are Raia the Disloyal, Vetto the Despair, and Fana the Hateful. It's kind of amusing to hear that Licht went out of his way to give them the edgiest titles he could think of, just to spite the values that the Clover Kingdom espouses. Personally, I think these new guys' designs leave a lot to be desired. For our strongest enemies yet, they look like total scrubs—especially compared to Licht, who nails the "ultimate bad guy" look.

It's dawning on me how little actually happened this week. This is the plodding kind of episode where the heroes are mostly standing around waiting for the cliffhanger to happen. That said, before the Third Eye shows up, Licht makes an interesting note of Gauche, implying that he let his attack be deflected last week because he recognized Gauche as one of his people and didn't want to hurt him. Gauche doesn't know what that means, but the plot thickens nonetheless. After the Third Eye shows up, I got really excited when Yami made his big claim of "Watch me surpass my limits, right here and now!" but that beat gets interrupted once the other captains arrive as reinforcements. The idea that this show is such raw, unfiltered shonen that breaking your own limits is now comically streamlined was a concept I was completely ready for. But alas, it's mere smack talk.

For as bad as it started out, this Midnight Sun arc has been working for me best out of all the arcs so far. The Royal Capital arc started strong, but meandered way too much. By contrast this arc began poorly, but by virtue of sticking to a straightforward sense of escalation, where the villains keep getting swapped out for stronger villains who require the hero team to step up in response, it feels much more in the spirit of what these kinds of shows aim to be. I'm still buzzing from last week's stellar episode, and while this is ultimately an action-lite week, the art has yet to derail back into the half-measures we were seeing before.

I appreciate that the story wants to keep pushing our heroes by having a constant string of obstacles revving up in intensity, though these new villains are likely my absolute limit. Now that the kids have been saved and the main villain has stepped out of the fight, any glimmer of emotional investment has faded. It's a bizarre enough development that I'm prepared to learn there's a storytelling reason for it, but we're making the heroes' obstacles more difficult while minimizing the personal stakes. There's a risk of losing the audience at that point.

Rating: B

Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Black Clover Episode 35

Okay. It's finally happened. I've given Black Clover an 'A.' We're still in the midst of Yami vs. Licht, but the hustle on this episode to deliver far and above the best action this show has ever had is much appreciated. My jaw is still on the floor over how good this episode looks.

Not much has changed since we left off last week, with Yami continuing to show his stuff while he encourages Asta to take on Licht's henchman standing nearby, but the visuals are night and day. Basically the entire first half of this episode is one elongated action scene with some theatrical quality animation and fight choreography. The character designs also pop with much more detail than we've seen before. I was ready to believe that Pierrot was just waiting their 50-episode run out, so this is a fantastic surprise. I'm just giddy. I'm really enjoying myself.

Story-wise, we're continuing to revel in what the strongest characters in this series look like, with Licht asking to see a Magic Knight squad captain at full power, and Yami being more than happy to oblige. It's all basic shonen posturing, but it's hard to complain when it's executed this well. Even once the camera shifts back over to Asta's half of the fight, the show still manages to be fun. "I don't give guys jobs they can't do. Do something about him in your own way," Yami says, continuing to be the coolest.

The less action-heavy portion of the episode connects us back to Gauche, who's talking to Sister Theresa on her "death" bed. She's not really dying, but the show leads us down that path long enough to get a somewhat sincere moment out of her and Gauche, and then it's punctuated with a joke where it turns out she wasn't dying at all. (Kind of reminiscent of the scene in DBZ where the Old Kai resurrects Goku, but not quite as funny.) Now that Black Clover's finally gotten good, that old "this siscon guy ain't so bad!" card is even less appealing. I'm more than happy with just Asta and Yami! Nonetheless, this is still a Gauche-themed arc, and by the end of the episode he's returning to the battlefield, now with an added magic boost he received from Theresa, the children, and one of the arc's original bad guys.

For me, Black Clover's aspirations of "generic shonen done well" always rang hollow. I think of shonen as a playground for a storyteller to pour their own heart and personality into; there's nothing inherently romantic about the template itself, and Black Clover rarely even reached the low bar it set for itself. This week's episode finally sells me on its aspirations, taking familiar tropes and ideas and executing them just well enough that it's genuinely fun to watch. For the time being, Black Clover is exciting, funny, and beautiful to look at. It's juggling its multiple subplots with momentum and sticking to a clear emotional through-line that leaves me wanting to see what happens next. This is generic shonen done well.

Rating: A

Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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"Black Clover: Quartet Knights" Trailer Makes Way for Noelle Silva

With Asta and Yuno trailers already accounted for, it's time for Black Clover: Quartet Knights to highlight another member of the Black Bull squad. Bandai Namco's latest trailer focuses on Noelle Silva, so see how the 3rd Class Junior Magic Knight looks in the upcoming battle action game below. 

Bandai Namco recently confirmed Black Clover: Quartet Knights for a September 14 launch on PS4 and PC in the west. 

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Hirofumi Arai Joins "Black Clover" Cast as Character Based on Himself

In one of the few examples of saying "Hey, draw me" to an artist ever going well, actor Hirofumi Arai will be joining the cast of Black Clover as Rhya, the character based on him.

The rogue Third Eye member will be making his appearance in the anime adaptation shortly. His appearance was based on Arai, after the actor appeared with creator Yuki Tabata on Jump Undercover Mission Police and jokingly asked to be drawn. When it came time to bring Rhya into the series, it was agrees that Arai ought to play his own character.

While Arai has appeared in live-action adaptations of anime series, Black Clover will be his first stint as a voice actor. Despite being an actor since the age of 22, the 39-year-old says he felt like a newcomer in the recording booth. While saying he found voice acting to be his most difficult contribution yet to the world of Shonen Jump titles, he hopes that people will enjoy his character.

Rhya will make his first appearance in the Black Clover anime tomorrow.

Source: Otakomu.jp

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"Braco" to the application gates, defend the kingdom by forming a magical Knight group"Kingdom guardian RPG"

Yuki Tabata Yuki Tabata "Black Clover" is an application game based on the theme "Black Clover Knights of Dreams" is decided to be distributed in the App Store and Google Play in 2018.

"Black Clover Knights of Dreams" is a "Kingdom Guardian RPG" aimed at defining the kingdom by former a magical knight team of yourself. The Kingdom of CLover, as well as the Characters of the Kingdom of diamonds and "White Evil Eye" appear.

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