Asta finally learns something
What They Say:
“The Crimson Lion King”
Thanks to Noelle’s help, Asta is now able to concentrate on the battle. However, because of the attack he took earlier, Asta continues to lose stamina and isn’t able to move as well as he’d like.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We finally see/meet King Clover (yes his name is the same as the kingdom), Asta is still fighting Rades. Charmy finds food and there’s a salt bae reference (no, I’m not joking). He’s struggling so Leo offers to join Noelle in helping him but Rades summons a monster to keep them busy. Eventually, Fuegoleon steps in to take on Rades instead of Asta. We learn that Rades used to be a member of the Purple Orcas but was cast out because his magic was too terrifying. Fuegoleon defeats Rades and all is well. We also find out the Wizard King isn’t around to defend the King because he’s on an important mission; more important than the King himself.
Once again, Fuegoleon continues to be an epic individual and a better example of a captain of a magic knight’s squad than Yami is. He declared Asta as his rival as well in the goal to become the Wizard King and Asta is fascinated by him. I love his enthusiasm and openness to Asta’s abilities, even if they are mediocre in this chain of events. I still question why Fuegoleon wasn’t shown to be watching Asta’s fight at all until he shows up to save Asta from a possibly fatal attack. I would have expected to at least see a shot of him watching or something to indicate he was in the area. Noelle and Leopold do next to nothing, not even defending themselves. All they do is watch Asta and comment on the events of the fight while dodging attacks from the monster. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t at least try to defend themselves or even destroy the monster so they could actually help Asta instead of gawking from the sidelines. It was nice to finally see Asta losing a fight, albeit to a less intimidating villain than Mars or even Lotus. He was using the wrong strategy and is told that he should be mindful of his physical shortcomings when he has been hurt. Fuegoleon tells him that mental strength doesn’t equal physical strength, especially if the body is not in any shape to keep going. He’s finally had enough of a challenge to learn something from his loss. Even though there’s the excuse that he’s hurt from previous injuries rather than just from being too weak to win the fight due to his skill level. It’s not much but it’s something.
The king is not very interesting and I honestly don’t care much for him. His whole character is “I’m king, everyone should be around at my will.” I’m sure that he’s somehow a good ruler, but frankly, he’s not far off from that of the Silvas or any other mean-spirited noble. I’m more concerned with whatever Julius is doing and why it’s more important than the noble city being under attack. At least the Wizard King has a character while still being mysterious and vague enough that we care about him. I’m just nitpicking here for this moment but when they show the king, the torso, they have the voice actor making a sound as if he’s drinking something but there is no animation to support it. This king isn’t even worth a small animation…
Rades confirms himself as a whiny villain when he explains his backstory. He was a powerful mage that was involved in the exam some time ago. Fuegoleon remembers him being picked for the Purple Orcas but was cast out of the squad and the kingdom, therefore he is taking revenge on the kingdom for this. It’s cool knowing of a character who is part of a squad that hasn’t had a lot of representation lately, but I found that I didn’t care much about this guy nor did I find him very intimidating.
Now I suppose there’s the elephant in the room…the Salt Bae meme reference. Charmy is still involved in this part of the story simply for comedic effect and she stumbles upon the royal chef who feels that making his main dish for all the magic knights that used to be upstairs is more important than his life. Charmy offers to eat it and when he goes to finish it off they have him pinching salt into the mixture in a very similar way to that of a meme that was very popular of a guy doing the same thing. I have no idea why this is here or if it was in the manga but if it is, I am even more disappointed. I understand the humour but this reference is painfully outdated and has no place in an anime such as this. It just feels random and, as I said, out of place.
In Summary:
This episode was meant to be a suspenseful conclusion to a very short fight and it was pretty boring. Some of this series has actually proven to be even a little bit engaging but this one is a miss for me. I did like seeing Asta losing a fight for once but
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
