“Smiles, Tears”
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)
While everyone is wondering whether Rufel is going to explode or not, Luck is having an internal monologue. He thinks he hears a voice calling to him. That voice actually belongs to Asta and he’s begging Luck to finally come to his senses. However, Luck’s voice is soon drowned out by the voice of his mother who tells him that he’s not normal and that he can only be by her side. Luck accepts her words as truth and acknowledges that she’s the only person that can love him. Of course, that’s not true! Everyone from the Black Bulls thinks of Luck as family. Asta, Magna, and Vanessa are all pleading for Rufel to let their friend go but he continues to refuse. He hates humans for taking away everything that was ever precious to him. For that, they must die.
Asta can sense the sadness in Rufel’s voice and says that if humans caused his pain, then he apologizes on their behalf. Nevertheless, Luck is their friend and they want him back! Luck starts hearing the voices of his comrades and starts smiling. He tells his mom that he has people that are important to him now and that he has to go them. Numerous happy moments with the Black Bulls flash through his mind as he begins to regain control of his body. This also means that Rufel has ultimately lost the will to fight. Before he disappears, he recalls happy moments with his own friends as well. He smiles and says that he also wanted to be friends with humans like them. In one of the most touching scenes of the series, Luck, now in control of his body, asks everyone if he’s still one of the Black Bulls with tears in his eyes. Magna pulls him in for a manly embrace and tells him of course. This genuinely pulled at my heartstrings. It just further solidified just how strong their bond is. They’re all family, and they love their family.
And then the mood goes from heartwarming to hilariously entertaining in the blink of an eye. Luck is already back to his old self and gives Magna a dropkick to the face full of love. Magna is understandably irritated at how fast he’s recovered. Vanessa starts laughing at him and says that Luck is only doing it to hide his embarrassment. She then proceeds to tease Magna about his passionate hug. Asta chimes in that he’s a man’s man. Magna is all embarrassed now and Luck is simply giggling in the background. I was smirking during this entire exchange. The timing of the comedy was perfect.
Asta can’t help but wonder if Rufel is actually dead. He firmly believes that the elves weren’t always bad. Luck tells him that Rufel was smiling at the end and was happy to be set free. The reincarnation spell is a scary thing. With renewed determination, Asta and the rest of the Black Bulls head towards their base. When they get there, they find it completely destroyed! Gordon, Grey, and Henry are all sitting on debris mumbling incomprehensibly. No one can understand them. Well, no one but Asta for some reason. He correctly deduces that Gauche has become an elf and has headed towards the royal capital. They can’t believe that Asta could understand all that mumbo jumbo. They also wonder who the hell Henry is since they’ve never seen him before. There was a lot of fun back-and-forth banter between the characters here. It gave me a few good chuckles.
The laughs don’t stop there though! Charmy also arrives on the scene but she appears to be mad? In fact, she’s so angry that her intimidating aura is causing the ground to shake. Oh no, has she become a reincarnated elf? Actually no, she has not. She’s mad because her vegetable garden has been destroyed! She’s ready to beat up all of the Black Bulls for this atrocity until Asta tells her it wasn’t them but rather the Eye of the Midnight Sun. Well, now she’s ready to kick some elf butt instead and demands everyone to come with her. They’d certainly love to but most of them are out of magic. Out of magic? Charmy scoffs that it isn’t a problem at all and proceeds to use her Cotton Creation Magic to summon sheep cooks to make them some food. Everyone complains that they don’t have time for this but Charmy forces them to eat anyways. You just can’t say no to her right now. Everyone soon finds out that they’re regaining their magic while eating the food. Charmy reveals that their magic increases the more they eat the food made by her sheep cooks. Of course, this doesn’t apply to Asta since has no magic. Zero multiplied by anything is still zero sadly. But dang, that’s one heck of an ability. I am super curious about Charmy’s magic now. What else can she do!? Is she actually one of the strongest members of the Black Bulls!?
That whole scene was so darn funny. Charmy is great. It was also nice to just see all the members of the Black Bulls just hanging out and having fun together. They don’t get to do that much these days. After everyone has eaten, it’s time to save Gauche and kick some elf butt!
In Summary: This episode was half feels, half laughs. And you know what? I enjoyed every second of it. The comedy was honestly a much-needed breath of fresh air after that emotional fight and a string of frustrating episodes. Black Clover has some really great fights but it also has a lot of good comedy too. It’s nice to see it on display every once in a while. Also, how strong is Charmy!? That’s going to be on my mind the whole week. Anyways, that makes two solid episodes in a row. Let’s keep ’em coming!
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV
