Black Clover

Episode 9

Figuring out Black Clover's potential is going to be an interesting ride, because we've seen the anime lean in both in positive and negative directions so far. There are moments where I find myself getting invested in the world, as well as seeing Asta shed his skin and become a more well-rounded character, but we've also seen the show jog in place with filler (at a shockingly early stage no less), and stick to some embarrassingly rigid archetypes and clichés.

This is an episode that demonstrates some of Black Clover's best and worst qualities, spending the first half on Magna's relationship with the Mayor of Saussy Village, which is as low-rent as it gets when it comes to heartwarming backstories, but once the action picks up and we find the Black Bulls fighting our first proper villains, I think the story might be on to something. Saussy Village sits within the "Forsaken Realm", the lowest region of the Spade Kingdom in social and economic status, below the Common Realm and the Noble Realm. Class in this world is tied to how strong your magic is, which puts the otherwise heroic and powerful magic users in a much more sinister light as our villain, Lord Heath, attacks the village and sees its people as beasts due to their low magic. "An inferior race who can only use magic to complete daily tasks." If we, the real world audience, had magic powers that helped with daily chores, that would be unbelievably helpful! But the bar has been set so high by the magic users of this world, and this gets said without the show directly acknowledging that Asta has zero magic, but it's implicit.

So our trio of Black Bulls is a great match-up for these villains. Asta has no magic (or whatever his anti-magic sword is all about), meaning he should be an ultra-nobody to these jerks, Noelle has a ton of magic and would normally fit right in with the Noble Realm, but she can't control it, and Magna is more toward the middle, yet his punk-ish attitude would make for terrible nobility. Immediately we get to see Asta and Magna at their best, fighting on the villagers' behalf without missing a beat. Noelle takes a second to find her courage, but you know she's gonna figure it out. Right now, the show is putting the Black Bulls' scrappy misfits to good use.

On the downside, this is an episode that's gasping for better animation. The action is a lot of jazzed-up still frames that make the combat range from stiff and awkward to downright incomprehensible. There's also a scene where a younger Magna is being spanked by a mis-proportioned CGI sword and it looks awful. Thankfully, the music does a pretty good job selling the dark medieval fantasy atmosphere, exploding appropriately with the climax.

We're still waiting to learn more about these villains and waiting for the show to pull back the curtain on Asta's black sword, but this episode gets us into the story's machinations as our heroes prepare to put the smack down on the villains, and I find myself once again wanting to know what happens next. It's not the most complicated scenario, but like any good shonen, it's giving itself solid ground to move forward.

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