Black Clover

Episode 12

Just last week I off-handedly mentioned that we had yet to actually meet the Wizard King, not expecting to see him any time soon, and immediately the show delivers the twist that the old lady from last week was in fact the current Wizard King in disguise, observing Asta and his anti-magic anonymously. He seems like a nice guy, and I like his characterization as a "magic nerd" who checks out people he finds interesting, not necessarily because he's duty-bound as a wise leader type, but because he has enthusiasm and interests of his own.

This episode opens with a chase sequence where Asta and Sekke catch the mugger who stole from the aforementioned Wizard King (still pretending to be the old lady). I never thought that I'd have to bring up Sekke's laugh, where he says "Hoo-hah!" like Al Pacino, but this episode gets really aggressive with it. It's "Hoo-hah!" every other word, and even Asta starts to call him by that name in case you wanted to know how else that boy could put those golden pipes to use. Their scene ends with a jokingly dramatic moment where Sekke thinks he's dying of a mild poison numbing his foot, and Asta does that abrasively supportive thing that shonen protagonists do ("Don't give up, you idiot!"), but he's not cool enough to pull it off.

From there we move on to Yuno's side of the story, where he and his squad are escorting a man named Salim de Hapshass, a wealthy individual who has connections with the Golden Dawn. This is our first time meeting Yuno's squad mates or even seeing Yuno at all since the Magic Knights entrance exams, so we get to watch the cast grow even further and see Yuno looking colder than ever. He doesn't seem too thrilled about his client, who he actually defeated in the entrance exams, and the relationship between classes returns as a major theme for the show. It was established in the Lord Heath arc that magic abilities also factor into which communities become wealthy, so little orphan Yuno's place in the Golden Dawns, a squad whose connections to other families and organizations is very politically driven, is looking rather unique.

Of the Golden Dawns we've met so far, Klaus seems to have a good head on his shoulders, carrying out the mission but also being wary of his client, and Mimosa is very cute. I rather like the calmness that the second half of this episode offers as they slowly fly to their destination, but it's making the overall pace of the story terminally slow again. The meandering pace did set off some alarm bells (the manga is much snappier, so any moments of relaxation are a red flag), but this episode introduced us to characters who will become important eventually and gestured at what I thought were more complicated themes, so to double check with the manga and realize the entire second half of this episode was fabricated for the anime was disappointing.

I feel like a schmuck every time the show decides to take the scenic route and I like it, because I worry my patience is getting taken advantage of. I know so little of what it's building to or even if it has anything to say at all. I don't know if an episode like this is extrapolating on the source material in a thoughtful way, or if it's just padding. It certainly seemed a head smarter than your average filler, but knowing now that it's just there to buy time is frustrating. Whenever I think, "Well, surely now is the time to put the filler aside," I'm reminded that no, that's just what this show does.

Rating: B-

Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw