5 Point Discussions – Black Clover 13: “The Wizard King Saw, Continued”

The truth behind the mages hunting down Yuno’s former opponent is revealed! 

1. Last episode we saw Yuno, Klaus, and Mimosa start their very first mission: guarding a royal named Salim de Hapsass, a mage that Yuno beat in order to make it into the Golden Dawn. They were meant to guard Salim on his journey, only to get stopped by a group of mages that Yuno dispatches easily before stopping to rest in Yuno’s hometown. Picking up from there, Klaus, Salim, and Mimosa are introduced to the people of Yuno’s orphanage.
They’re really going out of their way to keep both Yuno and the village that Asta came from as relevant as possible. By last episode’s point in the manga you had easily forgotten about Asta’s humble beginnings and Yuno hadn’t been seen for several episodes, but the anime is keeping them both firmly in the viewer’s memories. Though it’s filler, it’s difficult to get angry at Studio Pierrot straying from the manga given how important all of these characters are.
Either way, there’s a pretty hilarious bit here where Sister Lilly mentions that both Asta and Yuno sent back pay from their first month, leading to Yuno asking just how much Asta sent.

Being that Asta’s an idiot who probably thinks its fine if he has no money so long as he’s got a place to stay and food to eat, he doubtlessly sent it all, while Yuno likely tried to save for himself as well. But since the lot of them are in endless competition, Yuno immediately agrees to send all of his check to help out. We don’t have any idea what being a Magic Knight pays, but it’d be hilarious to see them keep coming back to this place, and the orphanage just keeps getting larger and larger–that money’s got to go somewhere, right?

2. The plot to all of this should’ve been obvious to everyone from last episode. Salim wants revenge on Yuno, so he’s done research to try and wreck his home life. Still, you’d think he wouldn’t try to make it so painstakingly obvious. When Sister Lilly leaves the house to refill their water supply, he offers her his robe so she can keep warm, which of course gets her snatched by the kidnappers. This would’ve been obvious enough on its own, but to have him point it out? Yikes.
Naturally, Yuno takes off in order to save Lilly, despite being reprimanded by Klaus that their mission is to escort Salim. Of course Yuno ignores him, reminding you that though he and Asta seem like complete opposites, they both have their reckless, cocky sides to them.  Naturally, since proclaiming you’re shooting to become Wizard King is incredibly cocky to begin with.

3. Speaking of recklessness. One by one, Yuno fights his way through the mages that attacked him in episode 12. Each one uses a different style of magic–earth, water, ice, fire–and Yuno easily defeats all of them. This kind of drives home the reason for Yuno’s confidence in his abilities, as he really is as good as he acts like he is.
Ultimately though, the mages make it blatantly obvious that this has always been about him. Even Sister Lilly’s kidnapping isn’t an accident, and becomes the final trump card the group uses to try and stop Yuno. They try to make Yuno hand over his grimoire, which is unfortunate because it feels like a repeat of the second episode, but I’m willing to let it slide if only because it’s the most logical decision when fighting a mage.

4. Fortunately, Yuno doesn’t have to figure out some genius solution to getting them away from Sister Lilly, as Klaus and Mimosa arrive in time to save him. Because this plan was blindingly obvious, Klaus figures it out and has Mimosa use a special plant on Salim that forces him to tell the truth about his intentions. From there, it’s a simple matter of taking down this rather simple group of clowns and turning them in. Oh, and as for the title…?

For whatever reason, the Wizard King now just follows around all the new recruits to see their magical capabilities. This filler was mostly okay until we got here. To be sure, he loves being a quirky guy that studies new magic, but the manga just made it seem like he got lucky and saw Asta while going through his daily routine. This just seems like he’s following people.

5. Next Episode: Asta, Noelle, and Luck are assigned by the Wizard King to explore a dungeon! What lies within…?
Next week finally puts us back to following the manga. However impossibly, they’ve managed to make it through an entire fourth of this series’ run order and have only adapted ten chapters. Since most manga aim for at least two chapters, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. Still, judging from what I’ve seen of future episode titles, I’m guessing that won’t stay the same for much longer, which is good! The “Dungeon” arc of the manga was quite fun.
Black Clover is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.