Black Clover

Episode 126

Noelle has long reigned in this series as its official resident tsundere, but it can be easy to forget that she's not the only hard-core tsundere type in the cast. The other candidate – Charlotte Roselei, the Captain of the Blue Roses – has only gotten serious attention a handful of times over the course of the series, with this episode being the first since episode 69 to make her a focal point character. She certainly doesn't waste the opportunity to show off her own particular version of the popular character archetype.

Episode 69 laid out in detail why Charlotte has such a weak spot for Yami even though she normally comes off as a frosty man-hater: like with Vanessa, he saved her from a bad situation – in her case, a family curse going berserk – and inspired her in the process. Given that more than a year has passed since that came up, a recap of it here is appropriate. That episode also implied that Charlotte may have a thing for brawny guys over pretty boys, but it's the former point of interest which is more relevant here: Yami and the Black Bulls are on a quest to learn about devils, so researching curses provides the excuse for Yami to visit Charlotte. That case doesn't end up amounting to much beyond the acknowledgement that the curse is probably driven by the same kind of otherworldly power that the devils use, but it does point things in a surprising direction: back to Gordon. But that actually makes sense because Gordon did reveal in episode 89 that he's from a family of curse-workers, and all curse magic being associated with otherworldly power would both make sense and explain a few things about how pesky curses are to remove.

The development barely keeps the episode on track with the new overall plotline, but it is also just a minor part of what the episode is actually focusing on, which is Charlotte's feelings about Yami. She's so undeniably attracted to him that she can't even deny it to herself, but she's also so horribly embarrassed by it that she resorts to the craziest antics we've seen yet from her. While this is all most likely just typical teenage-style hang-ups over the opposite sex perhaps exacerbated by a career of distancing herself from men (her age is never given in the animated content, but other sources claims she's 27), at least some classism could probably be read into it; she is a noble, after all, and Yami isn't, as well as being notoriously uncouth. I do have to give the episode points for allowing her to frankly admit it at least to her all-female squad members – who are, not too surprisingly, mostly overjoyed by the revelation since some of them now don't have to keep their boyfriends a secret – though it seems admitting it to Yami is still a ways off.

But maybe the best part of the episode was Asta's surprisingly astute observation that Charlotte is behaving just like Noelle. He clearly is not fully understanding what that behavior actually means, but he's a full step up on Yami nonetheless when it comes to being dense. Oh, and Petite Clover resurfaces for the first time in a while to be as forgettable as ever. The alternate artwork of Charlotte as she was running away was fun, too.

Ultimately, this is an episode that needed to happen at some point, as enough happened between Yami and the elf Charla during the fight against the devil that a follow-up to their words on Charla's departure needed to be made, and this episode serves that purpose well enough for now.

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Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.