Black Clover

Episode 135

Episode 28, the original mixer episode, is one of my least favorite non-recap episodes of the whole series, with the only redeeming value being the presence of likable minor side character Rebecca. Since this episode was advertised as Mixer Version 2.0, I was not looking forward to it, and the first few minutes did, indeed, make me cringe. However, the episode recovers just enough to prove to be decently entertaining, thanks in large part to expanding the game it plays.

The first part of the episode is essentially an inversion of the original mixer: instead of Finral aiming to pick up girls, he is training himself to resist casually flirting with every woman around. Despite how ill-advised an idea this seems like, I was ready to cut Finral some slack at first, as at least his heart is in the right place on this. Indeed, that is the impression that two of the undercover spies – unsurprisingly Finral's brother and true love – walk away with at the end. However, on further reflection, nothing about this scenario is at all fair to the young women who got invited, as they are being set up for a disappointing experience. Finral still has a ways to go to properly appreciate women.

As it turns out, that concern does not end up mattering for one of the women and almost doesn't for a second. Red-themed Rebeccah Scarlet, a carryover from the original mixer who has popped up a few other times, know that Asta's heart lies elsewhere but still likes him enough to have no problem just hanging out with him, while Finral's efforts to be aloof ironically endear him to the vaguely blue-themed Eliza. Yellow-themed Karen (why isn't she blue-themed with the last name Lapis?) somewhat gets left out here, though she somehow mistakes Luck's efforts to start a fight as making a pass at her and does start to get somewhat interested. As before, Noelle is spying as a waitress, though interestingly Nero joins her this time for unfathomable reasons. And Sekke is playing the idiot once again in his own mixer in the episode's most irritating part.

The eye-rolling content going on downstairs is saved by what's transpiring upstairs, where another mixer-type event is going on. The Blue Rose members have all gotten behind helping their captain, Charlotte, hook up with Yami. That's an impossible task, since Yami is so romantically dense he make Asta look like a lightweight, though the irony here is that Yami ends up unwittingly doing everything that Charlotte is advised to do to win Yami over. Charlotte's outfit here is nothing trivial, either; I have to wonder about Yami's sexuality (as in, if he even has any) for that to not make an impression on him. The big surprise here is that the Black Bull who actually has a clue is Gordon, and he seems to be hitting it off pretty well with the heavier-set Blue Rose Member by the end. That would be an interesting couple if ever allowed to develop. I don't see any chance of anything developing between Sol and Magnus even though they are the most similar in spirit and do seem to connect at least somewhat over the eating competition.

On the whole, this is yet another stall before getting back to the main plot, though seeing characters like Rebeccah pop up again and Nero get a bit more involved are plusses and at least some of the antics ended up being funny.

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Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and FUNimation.