“The Desperate Path Towards Survival”
What They Say:
In a world where magic is everything, Asta and Yuno are both found abandoned at a church on the same day. While Yuno is gifted with exceptional magical powers, Asta is the only one in this world without any. At the age of fifteen, both receive grimoires, magic books that amplify their holder’s magic. Asta’s is a rare Grimoire of Anti-Magic that negates and repels his opponent’s spells. Being opposite but good rivals, Yuno and Asta are ready for the hardest of challenges to achieve their common dream: to be the Wizard King. Giving up is never an option!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun has succeeded with his ritual and has brought back his beloved Elven race. Unfortunately for humanity, the Elves have been reincarnated into the bodies of fellow humans. Thus, friends have become foes. Many find it difficult to accept this new reality. Who is an ally? Who is an enemy? Emotions are running high! Amidst all this confusion, it is still the Magic Knights’ duty to protect the people.
In this episode, the battle between humanity and the newly reincarnated elves continues. The commander of the Royal Knights as well as the captain of Crimson Lion Squad, Mereoleona Vermillion, faces a tough challenge against five opponents that include Raia the Disloyal and four Royal Knights who were her allies not too long ago! Previous episodes have shown us that Mereoleona is a truly impressive fighter, one of the strongest in all of the Clover Kingdom. In a one-on-one fight, she would undoubtedly come out victorious. However, in this one-on-five fight, combined with the fact that all five of her opponents’ magic increased in strength the moment they turned into elves…well, the chances of victory aren’t as certain.
In true Mereoleona fashion, she welcomes the handicap because she believes that she’s going to win anyways. When the battle begins, she easily overpowers any attack thrown her way with her Mana Zone: Calidos Brachium magic spell. As the fight continues, she notices that her senses seem to be shot and that’s because she has been caught in the Phantom Snow Box Garden spell. It dulls the senses of everyone except the elves. This gives her opponents the perfect opportunity to capitalize and unleash attack after attack on her. Raia even manages to land a clean hit on her and proclaims that this fight is over.
Much to his dismay, however, a bloody Mereoleona is still standing…and smiling! Their attacks definitely did some damage but it wasn’t enough to put down the fiery captain. Raia wonders if she is even human and comments that she’s a real pain in the ass. Mereoleona is still fired up and goes on the offensive but is unable to land an attack. Instead, she is bombarded with a series of attacks herself and is taken down. Proving to be much more resilient than they had anticipated, she stands up once again and makes it known that she will stand up as many times as it takes for her to win. It’s at this point that she fully releases her Mana Zone and unleashes her most powerful spell, Calidos Brachium Purgatory. She engulfs the entire area in a brilliant blue flame and manages to catch all five of her enemies inside it. Sadly, her ultimate spell wasn’t enough to finish off her opponents. They definitely felt it though. Mereoleona can barely move but she still laughs and eggs them to come at her. Her enemies decide that she’s too dangerous to be left alive and decide to eliminate her once and for all. They combine all of their magic into a compound magic spell called Elemental Quintet and fire it off at her.
While all of this is going on, Asta and Zora are arguing over whether they should go back and help Mereoleona. Zora doesn’t want to waste the captain’s sacrifice and suggests they leave because their opponents are too strong. Asta strongly disagrees because he wants all three of them to make it out safely. Asta eventually suggests an ingenious idea that involves using Zora’s counter trap magic combined with his strength to send the enemy’s magic back at them at quadruple the power. Zora agrees to his absurd plan and they both appear in front of Mereoleona just as the Elemental Quintet spell is about to hit her. Asta and Zora execute their plan perfectly and reflect the enemy’s magic back at them at quadruple strength. They use this chance to grab Mereoleona and quickly escape.
Things rarely ever go exactly as planned though. As they’re escaping, Raia appears and grabs Asta by the arm saying that he won’t let him escape. Asta tosses Mereoleona to Zora and tells them to go ahead without him and that he’ll definitely meet up with them. Zora, annoyed, responds that he better not be lying as Asta is taken away by Raia. Raia takes Asta to an area where members of the Golden Dawn are gathered. Everyone but Mimosa has been transformed into an elf, including Yuno. Asta is in utter shock that Yuno is now his enemy. The long-awaited battle between Yuno and Asta is teased as the episode ends. Will it finally happen!?
In Summary:
Mereoleona shows us how much of a badass she really is. If that wasn’t obvious in previous episodes, I’d like to think it’s definitely clear now. Even if the odds are against her, she doesn’t back away from a fight and you have to admire that. The next Black Clover episode is the big #100! Congratulations to the anime for achieving the 100 episodes milestone. I think it’s only fitting that Episode #100 will feature the confrontation between Asta and Yuno. Will we get the long-anticipated fight we’ve been waiting for? I hope so! And I hope it delivers.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV
