Black Clover

Episode 46

Now this is more like it. While the strength of episode 35 (the only other episode I've given an 'A') was being slickly animated, this week's installment has something completely different going for it. Animation-wise we're still pretty stiff and repetitive, but now there's finally enough energy and personality to pick up the slack. This episode is dirty and violent and weird in all the right ways.

We continue where we left off last week with Noelle and Kahono breaking in on Asta and Kiato's fight with Vetto. This is the first time we've gotten to see Kiato and Kahono, a dancer and a singer respectively, fight in unison. I love how Kahono's singing actually impacts the soundtrack of the episode. Her lullaby makes for a solid insert song to punctuate the fight. Unfortunately, neither are a match for Vetto, who proceeds to cut Kiato's leg off and beat Kahono within an inch of her life. The modern Shonen Jump pillars rarely feel as indulgently violent as they used to, so seeing a safer one like Black Clover go for the carnage was a nice change of pace, and Vetto feels threatening in a way he didn't before.

I already liked Kahono just fine, but seeing her "yeah, screw you too" face while she's at the villain's mercy made me really like her, and from there the fight rests on Noelle's shoulders. This is our chance to see how much stronger she's gotten after the past few arcs, giving it her all with a final water spell that blows Vetto's arm clean off. I enjoy how even Vetto remarks on the Silva family's corruption, implying that he thinks Noelle's royal power is an extension of the evil that he and the Midnight Sun is trying to fight the Clover Kingdom over. Of course, we know that Noelle's power is her own and that she's fighting on the behalf of her friends, not her clan.

Despite taking the brunt of Noelle's attack, Vetto has an awakening of his own: a third eye that opens along with a boost in power. The end of the episode sees Asta using his anti-magic to protect Noelle from Vetto's counterattack, and the shot of him standing in front of her with the ground carved out around them from the energy blast just screams "iconic". Asta and Noelle both come across marvelously heroic this week.

This is such a good episode that it makes me wish the lead-up to it was better constructed. I still think the way the battle royale game transitioned into the Midnight Sun fight is clunky as hell, but this is a rare moment of clarity where Black Clover succeeds at being the kind of shonen action show that it's trying to be. There's a great push and pull between the heroes and villains, and the show finally feels like it has an ounce of personality that isn't just an echo of shonen battle manga before it. This is Black Clover's best episode yet.

Rating: A

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