Here we are again: Weekend Otaku and I discussing Black Clover. Well, the episode title promises the first mission and by the end of the episode I guess they’ve kind of left on a mission so how did we take this episode? If you’ve missed them you can check out our previous posts here.
Karandi’s Review:
Okay, I am starting to get seriously annoyed at this show. Asta’s still screeching and for the first few minutes of this episode it is a near continuous and unnecessary shriek that just made me end up muting the episode. I should not have to mute a show in self-defence just to be able to force myself to keep watching it.
After I got over that and we actually got into the episode, I have to wonder once again what is funny about incompetence, laziness, and general poor decision making which is more or less what the audience is subjected to here. Yami, the potentially interesting captain, actually is just another moron who goes on a ‘mission’ which turns out to just be a gambling expedition where he ultimately bets the services of his magic knights and then loses. While I’m still not actually sure what a magic knight does, despite the useless time waste of a breakfast sequence where for some reason the magic knights are discussing it (getting back to that), I am fairly confident in saying that trading a knight’s services for losing a hand of cards is pretty pathetic.
And back to Asta… Just what? How are we supposed to take this character seriously when his entire life dream and every action has been driving him selfishly towards becoming the ‘wizard king’, and now it appears he doesn’t actually even understand the fundamentals of the journey? Who becomes a magic knight without knowing what they actually do? Why on earth do the writers expect the audience just to swallow this?
My happy moment this episode came when Noelle hit Asta in the face and knocked him off the broom stick.
Weekend Otaku’s Review:
When I mentioned last week that the pace of this show can create some real issues with maintaining interest, this is what I meant. “Go! Go! First Mission” had a decided lack of any actual mission as the show spent entirely too much time on insignificant scenes yet again. From the long breakfast scene which served as merely a prelude to the card game that arguably set all this in motion, the episode fails to deliver anything of substance in favour of a new (for once) set of gags and 20 minutes of attempted humour.
The frustration comes from this show’s lack of resolve to actually do anything. It’s perfectly willing to stretch out scenes to fill time when it could be moving the plot forward. It’s really hard to understand what anyone gets out of this, because when the audience isn’t actually having fun the comedic bits lose their effect and the audience loses patience. Asta’s hyper-enthusiasm wasn’t funny in episode 1. It’s still not funny seven episodes later. When is anyone going to see that?
I get that Black Clover is part comedy, but it buries any story relevance under its excessive jokes. As Karandi mentioned, it’s not entirely clear what Magic Knights do and the heavy focus on Asta and the Black Bulls almost ensure that it might be awhile before we find out. It’s a shame that we’re 3/4 of the way through the season and nothing of consequence has happened. Asta’s goal of becoming the Wizard King was never the most compelling premise, but I expected more from this series than what we are getting.
Thanks as always, Weekend. Remember, we’re also covering The Ancient Magus’ Bride here and we actually like that show.
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
Ur right the story is actually getting nowhere but wat did u expect from a story tats inspired from Naruto a series tat has so damn many fillers ,y asta doesn’t know wat do to become the magical king is just like Naruto I wanna become the hokage but he doesn’t know how to do it without guidance I’m not dissing Naruto here,all I’m trying to say is this is the part where asta gets trolled before getting his ass straight and being upto d job ,to give up on this series is a waste bcoz it’s just started after all
I agree I expected more from this series especially being a shounen. But some can do well and some can’t
I’m going to be really honest here: the only reason that I’m still watching this is because of you and Weekend Otaku’s reviews each week. I’m not one to drop a series, in fact I hardly ever do that, but this series is really beginning to get on my nerves. Asta’s screaming and very annoying voice is now just simply put in this anime for the sake of it, the story isn’t going anywhere, abd the humour if you can even call it that is just stupid. Really seems like such a waste. There could have been so much potential in this series, but the writers just wasted it 😢
I’m with you. I’m sticking it out for the rest of the Autumn anime season and then when it comes time to work out my new line up, if this hasn’t improved, I’m thinking it is going to have to go. This episode just really annoyed me and by the end I was actually angry at it.
Yeah, I definitely know exactly what you mean. Anger is definitely the feeling I have when watching this series as well 😊
I’ve pretty much given up on the show but the manga isn’t horrible lol!
I’m getting close to the give up stage with this. There’s still potential but the more episodes that come without it changing for the better the less likely it seems that this show will ever rise to its potential.
Yeah I feel ya! They would need to change a lot for me to keep watching.