What They Say:
“Capital Riot” and “Wild Magic Dance”
Asta defends Noelle from her siblings at the decoration ceremony, and the other nobles try to put him in his place. Meanwhile, Leopold and Fuegoleon seem to have taken a liking to Asta, which causes an argument between Fuegoleon and Nozel. After hearing about the attack on the capital, Asta rushed out, and the rest of the Magic Knights quickly followed. They found that corpses being controlled by Rades’s wraith magic were attacking the citizens.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first thing we see at the beginning of this episode (other than the normal recap), is a man with an interesting looking eyepatch and long pastel purple hair talking to a zombie; more like ranting. The aftermath of Asta defending Noelle and declaring he will become the Wizard King occurs; the Silvas laugh and some of the other nobles attack Asta to silence him. Of course, Asta can take it because he’s Asta. Finally stopping the conflict Nozel uses his super powerful magic to put a brutal chill in the air. Fuegoleon Vermillion tells him to calm down. Leopold makes Asta his rival. This pisses off Nozel and him and Fuegoleon have a staring contest while their magic makes the fight look even more intense. Suddenly a man runs in saying that the city is under attack. We get shots of the attack then Fuegoleon takes the lead and gives everyone districts to protect and we see a bit of that. We also see that the corpses are being summoned by the eyepatch which seems to be his magic. Asta, of course, has his heroic moment where he just happens to find the villain and begins his conflict with him as the episode ends.
I found it very unnecessary for the nobles to just start attacking Asta for simply standing up for his friend and declaring his dream. Ridiculing him is one thing, attack him because he’s below them and shouldn’t be allowed to speak is definitely not something that should be done. This explains why Noelle acted/acts the way she does since the other nobles also think everyone else is scum but them. Isn’t the Clover Kingdom great?
I thought the shot of Fuegoleon and Nozel squaring off was cool with their magic appearing ad a fiery lion and a silver eagle respectively. I hate Nozel’s guts, as I do all of the Silva family that I’ve seen, but Fuegoleon Vermillion is unique as a noble and as a captain. Leopold is cool as well so I have a bit more respect for the Crimson Lions than any other of the squads that involve nobles that we’ve seen representatives from. The Blue Roses seem okay but we have only really seen Charlotte and Sol. Charlotte’s whole character so far, and this goes for episode 22 as well, is that she’s a strong independent woman who doesn’t like taking orders from men unless she has to, and telling her sister Sol to call her captain. I hope there’s more to her someday but at the moment her personality is pretty hollow. Sol is basically comic relief.
We got some new characters and got to see them come together as magic knights. They have their differences but all in all, their commitment is to the people, so they are also willing to put those differences and status aside to protect the citizens.
In episode 22 we see more of the battle. We find out that the villain’s name is Rades (at the end of the episode in Petit Clover) and watch Asta fight him. Noelle becomes a bit more confident in herself because of Fuegoleon and we get to see the other knights use their magic.
Not much to it other than fighting this time. The magic knights get their times to shine a bit, showing off their powers and the different magic that they have. It’s not that interesting because it’s all in passing and the plan to keep hitting the zombies until they can’t get up, which is totally a foolproof plan. Only the best strategy from this anime…I would have liked it better if they found another way or even tried to find the source, such as finding Rades and maybe all fighting him at once. But Asta is the main character so he needs to fight every villain head on and be the centre of everything so I’m not surprised.
The focus is on Asta fighting Rades and it’s not much more than any other fight, though arguably it does feel like stakes are being raised as they draw out the fight. Rades doesn’t use a grimoire but summons this being he calls “Jimmy” and later one called “Alfred”. Asta spends a lot of his time slashing at the cursed orbs and occasionally one or two get in, and the curse is that the wounds will just continue bleeding. This was interesting enough to keep me invested…up until I realised that Leopold, Noelle, and Fuegoleon were all in the area and could have helped once they found him. Noelle helps eventually and so does Leopold but like were they just watching this happen? It didn’t make sense to me.
Rades is the most mediocre villain so far. He’s just confident and just evil because he hates the kingdom. The reasons are vague but the most we know is that for some reason he was cast out because “they couldn’t realize his potential”. So basically a salty outcast villain that feels like no one in the capital deserves to live because he was cast out. We could learn more later but for now, he’s just a threat with unique magic. He also doesn’t use a grimoire, probably because his mana goes through the zombies but it’s still a new concept which makes him only a little bit intriguing. I assume the Wizard King might know who he is but the others don’t so it’s weird for him to talk about being cast out when he’s a nobody to any magic knights who could have encountered him.
I think my single favourite part of this, despite some convolution, was when Fuegoleon encourages Noelle. She is discouraged by the thoughts of the comments her family gave her at the banquet and he tells her that she shouldn’t be ashamed to be weak, only if she continues to stay weak instead of getting better. It was a cool moment and is part of why I love Fuegoleon as a good nobleman and it was nice to see Noelle inspired to be her best. Just one problem: in the dungeon, it seems like she could control her magic and she helped out a lot. Such as when she shielded Mimosa and when she had to push Asta through the smoke she didn’t miss. It’s definitely the change of setting (you know, the city being under attack and all), and the ridicule from her family, but I would have assumed she would have done more than just stand around while Leo and Fuegoleon defended the people. It just felt weird to me. I think Noelle is my favourite character so far based on her struggles and her depth surrounding her insecurities. She has more to her than Asta or anyone else, that’s for sure. Not much more but more nonetheless.
In Summary:
The harshness from the Silvas was very unnecessary. I know it’s like their only character trait but it doesn’t make them likeable at all. The magic from the knights was cool but these are all minor characters so it doesn’t have much of an impact unless they are a captain. Charlotte isn’t interesting though. I liked seeing Noelle more confident and I hope it only gets better for her. I also hope this fight ends soon or at least the Wizard King shows up soon. No matter how busy he is this should be a big enough deal for him to come and help. I bet he’ll come back once this is all over.
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
