“The Ultimate Natural Enemy”
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)
Asta and Yuno are having a difficult time against Dark Elf Patry. He uses his demon light magic to fire off a Ray of Divine Punishment. Asta and Yuno use their combined strength to block the attack. This takes a lot out of Asta as he can no longer sustain his black form. However, Patry also used up a bunch of mana. He should be significantly weaker now, right? Not at all. His magic continues to swell up as his hatred rises. He unleashes another Ray of Divine Punishment at the duo before they have a chance to recover. The attack is blocked at the last second by Captain Nozel! He still hasn’t forgotten what Patry did to Fuegoleon all those months ago. Nor will he forgive him! I am still a fan of this bromance.
Nozel is confident that his mercury magic is enough to defeat Patry. And you know what? He’s right. His magic’s affinity with Patry’s light magic is better than anyone else’s. Patry attacks Nozel but he’s able to create mercury shields and deflect them all. On the other hand, Nozel has Patry on the ropes and forces him to fly around the battlefield in order to evade his attacks. But he won’t be running for long! Nozel traps him inside his Mercury Creation Magic: Silver Star of Execution spell. Patry is basically trapped inside a spherical cage made from mercury. His attacks will all be deflected and he’ll be continuously attacked. Regardless, he tries to attack Nozel anyway and is soundly defeated when his attacks are reflected back at him. Nozel hilariously looks back at Asta and proclaims that he will be the Wizard King, haha. Asta, Yuno, and Nozel all banter back and forth about who’s going to become the next Wizard King.
Raia, who’s about to die, starts having regrets about staying silent after seeing Patry in his current state. Would things have turned out differently if he said something? As he starts to fade, Mimosa begins healing him. Why would she do that? She comments that she doesn’t need a reason to save someone who’s about to die, whether they are friend or foe. On the subject of people who are about to die, Nozel is about to kill Patry. Asta and Yuno immediately tell him to stop. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go down! Nozel states that Patry is the leader of the Eye of the Mightnight Sun who killed many people and caused chaos in the Clover Kingdom. Doesn’t he deserve to die? Yuno remarks that his body belongs to Captain Vangeance. Nozel still wants to kill him but allows Asta the opportunity to bring him back to his senses.
The moment Asta takes out his sword, he knows that something is amiss. He’s never seen so much anti-magic! He’s engulfed by the darkness and Patry’s memories begin to flood through his mind. His memories are filled with hatred, sadness, and pain. Asta feels every one of those emotions. He also witnesses Patry killing Julius which causes Asta to start screaming as he descends further into Patry’s mind. Speaking of Patry, he’s still having that existential crisis. Is everything he ever knew a lie? Did his life serve any purpose? He’s filled with regret and you can see it written all over his face. But once again, he blames the humans for everything. At that moment, Asta starts walking towards him. He’s surprised to find out that the real Patry is about the same age as him. He tells him that he was fooled and couldn’t protect what was important to him. He lost the light he believed in and is probably an emotional mess. But you know what? He ran away. Asta starts going to town on Patry and tells him that he took the easy way out. Patry is trying to avoid the subject and tells him to shut up. Humans can’t understand how he feels! Asta is tired of this human crap. HIS NAME IS ASTA AND HE BETTER REMEMBER IT! He berates Patry for killing the Wizard King, for killing innocent people, and hurting many more through the kingdom. Just like he won’t forgive humans, Asta will never forgive him! Yeah, you tell ’em!
But Asta isn’t done speaking his mind. He remarks that Patry shouldn’t give up just because he made a mistake. Get back up and fix it! Didn’t he want to stop that demon bastard as well? Then do it. JUST DO IT. He made that decision himself, no one else. Even if he wasn’t chosen, even if he wasn’t wanted, even if he isn’t forgiven, he needs to own up and stand his ground. Patry doesn’t know how to react and punches Asta in the face. He’s unfazed by the punch and admits that he knows it feels to not be chosen, wanted, or forgiven. But he made up his own mind. He’s going to become the Wizard King, dangit! And he’s not going to give up on the elves either. What a guy! You can just feel Asta’s raw emotion as he delivers each line. What a great scene.
Asta manages to finally bring Patry back to his senses. He’s not ready to let Vangeance have control of his body just yet though. He’s got some unfinished business with that demon. They all agree to take down that demon bastard. What’s that demon up to? Well, he’s just found the exit to the outside…and Licht. Licht is ready for a fight but the demon just laughs. He’s not even fully awakened and he thinks he can throw down with this evil demon? That’s fine, he has no problem killing him right now. They start trading attacks until the demon eventually ties Licht up. He may have a sword that absorbs magic but it’s useless against physical objects. Also, his word soul magic is busted. We’ve clearly established this last episode. It appears that Licht is in a bad spot until Charlotte and Yami come to his rescue. Charlotte is still being possessed by an elf but now is not the time to be fighting each other. They must team up to defeat the demon. I also have to mention that Yami hilariously points out that he’s never seen a more obvious bad guy before, haha. Yami is awesome.
There’s a scene after the credits where Finral seems to be starting a Petit Clover segment but is interrupted by Nero!?!? After Nero stops pecking Finral, she commands him to take her to the demon’s bones. Holy smokes, the bird can talk!?!?!?!?
In Summary:
This was another solid episode of Black Clover. The highlight was undoubtedly Asta’s emotional monologue. You could feel the raw emotion in each line that he delivered. You could also see the regret clearly written all over Patry’s face. Honestly, the entire scene gave me goosebumps. I cannot praise it enough. The Nozel moments were fun. That Nozel and Fuegoleon bromance, am I right? Charlotte, Yami, and Licht teaming up together to battle the demon should be interesting. But most importantly, the bird can freaking talk!?!? Is Nero the girl featured in the new opening and ending!? I need answers, now! By the way, the new opening and ending are fantastic. Black Clover always has some of the best anime openings and endings.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV
