200 Word Anime: Black Clover Episode 11

Weekend Otaku and I continue our coverage of Black Clover as we move on from the fight and… go shopping? Check out our previous posts if you have missed them.

Karandi’s Review:

What little hope I had left for this series kind of shrivelled and died over the course of attempting to watch episode 11. There were just so many groan inducing moments and places where I had to pause and walk away from my computer before convincing myself it wasn’t actually that bad and attempting to continue. But, I’m kind of done making excuses for this show or pretending it will eventually pick up.

Black Clover is decidedly mediocre. Even at its best, which arguably was episode 10, it barely managed to be slightly better than average with many examples of similar scenes played out better in other anime. And then we are reminded of everything that is actually pretty terrible about this show in the very next episode.

Repeating bad jokes does not make them better. They might have been tolerated the first time, groan worthy the second, but by the time we get to episode 11 and the captain breaks yet another wall while telling the other members of the bulls not to break things (twice in the space of five minutes) all you can do is shake your head and wonder why you are still giving this show any of your attention.

Magna’s screeching about Asta not knowing the Magic Knight’s salute (first I’ve heard about it either) seems really out of place given neither Asta nor Noelle even knew what a magic knight was supposed to do and the Black Bull’s clearly have done nothing to actually have any kind of orientation program for new knights (which you would think would be pretty standard protocol for any organisation).

We also get a rehash of the Sister Lily joke and Magna gambling, the guy with the little sister crush, and so on and so forth until we end up shopping in the castle town. Basically, this show has no charm or appeal and this week it didn’t even manage anything that might resemble action or excitement. At this point I’m just accepting that the show isn’t going to get better and while it remains watchable it really isn’t enjoyable.

Weekend Otaku’s Review:

Whatever hope last week’s episode instilled in me was fairly dashed this week . Perhaps hope might be too strong a word, as that possibility faded about halfway into the season. Call it ‘mild expectation’ instead, that a shounen battle show would do shounen battle things, or at least attempt to work toward a plot that leads to whatever this story is trying to do.

Instead we get yet another episode where virtually nothing at all happens. I’m not sure I’ll understand or accept Pierrot’s reasons for whittling away time like this. I’m not at all opposed to more mundane moments in action series, but when said moments don’t do much to develop characters, don’t add to any framework for the plot, and barely add flavor to the world, what can you say about them? The only things we learn from this episode are: missions get you gold stars (but because the Black Bulls are awful they’re hilariously behind everyone else). and missions also get you money (but because the Black Bulls are terrible they spend it poorly). Also that nonsense with the three finger salute (despite the four leaf clover being a well known thing) that Karandi mentioned.

Everything else that happens is symptomatic of the same problems this series has had from the start. Humor continues being forced upon the viewer, eg: Asta reaching for Noelle’s waist on the broom immediately after she tells him to back off just so she can knock him off it, or Magna setting Asta’s hair on fire because what else could have resulted from his William Tell practice session? On the other hand, I genuinely laughed when Agrippa said they should all hang out and everyone walked away because they couldn’t hear him. A shame they don’t do more to use these characters.

Really, aside from peddling jokes I don’t know what this show plans to do. A little research indicates that manga readers like Black Clover (or at least don’t hate it) because it gets to a compelling story in relatively short order. You can’t say Pierrot has any intention of following that pattern when the cliffhanger of this episode is a petty robbery. If this series is going somewhere, it probably won’t do so before most viewers have given up on it.

 Thank-you Weekend. Be sure to check out Weekend Otaku’s blog for our reviews of The Ancient Magus’ Bride. It you’ve missed our posts be sure to check them out.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.