5 Point Discussions – Black Clover 25: “Adversity”

Just as our heroes think they’ve won, the Captain of the Crimson Lions is teleported somewhere else, leaving them to face a new player! Looks like things are just heating up! Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. While the city has been in danger from zombie armies and a mage with an inferiority complex, Charmy has been munching on Saiyan-size portions of food. In a better adaptation, she would be the dark horse character in terms of popularity–basically this universe’s Tsuyu Asui–all she wants to do is eat delicious food, who doesn’t identify with that?
In any case, after the witch from the previous episode loses her fight with Yuno she runs off in a place to find mana as quickly as possible and runs upon Charmy. Ever-obsessed with yummy noms, Charmy thinks the witch is after her food and gets serious long enough to knock the witch out for good. But when a sudden breeze nearly ruins her comically gigantic plate of food, it’s Yuno that’s forced to save it. Viewing him as the beautiful boy who saved her food, she develops a huge crush on him and y’know what? …I kinda ship it. They look cute together, and it’s probably good if not every girl in the series is attracted by Asta’s muscles and honest idiocy.

2. Despite covering quite a bit of the manga, this week’s episode actually has a good bit of filler. To begin with, after Charmy knocks the black witch out the mana she stole starts to return to the people she stole it from. I’m not even sure that makes sense–she used it up, that’s why she starts looking old herself–but one supposes they wanted to go for the happy ending.
Secondly, we get a second appearance of the King. At this point in the manga, you’re not even aware there is a King, and you certainly have no idea what he looks like. But to the show’s credit, they make the guy out to be the most unlikable prick possible just like he is in the manga, so it certainly lines up.

3. Fuegoleon vanished last episode thanks to a spatial mage. Asta pinpoints that mage’s location and he puts himself out of harm’s way. They try to get to him, but it’s far too late–Fuegoleon returns minutes later and has suffered pretty terribly. He’s been beaten in battle, and lost one of his arms as well. The biggest gun remaining in the city has been taken down. Without knowing who it is, you get the sense that this happened because Leon was caught off guard by recognizing who his attacker was, and that’s probably pretty accurate.
As for why they were so desperate to take specifically him down when the other Magic Knights were captains and lieutenants as well? Well, that part remains to be seen.

4. This is the quickest swing from a clean sweep by the good guys into “all hope is lost” an anime has done in a long time. Asta’s still suffering injuries from being hit with multiple curse attacks, Fuegoleon is in such bad condition he’s seconds away from dying, Yuno’s passed out, the other Magic Knights have been teleported outside the city, and Leopold is caught off guard and knocked on his butt by Rades.
By the way, if it seemed as if Rades was going to rehabilitate last episode? This one throws that entirely out the window. Upon seeing Fuegoleon’s wrecked body, his response is a simple “serves them right” before he walks up to him to torture him for telling him how to live. A reminder: Leon just told him to stop being a jerk, while Rades believes the weak exist only to be beat on by the strong for their amusement. Look up “trash person” in the Black Clover dictionary and you’ll find Rades’ picture.
Still, Asta remains unfazed, and uses his swords to cut away the curses on himself so he can continue to fight. He does a bit of damage to Rades, but I’m pretty unsatisfied with how that went down. It’s supposed to be this big, impactful moment when he starts slugging Rades while pointing out how trash he is for abusing his strength, but the hits lack any sense of real impact–they don’t look like they hurt at all, even though Rades acts like they do. It’s the difference between a wrestler badly “selling” a fake punch and someone actually being punched in the freaking face.
Not that it matters, as before Asta can do too much damage, he and Leopold are surrounded by Rades’ recently appearing friends. Uh-oh.

5. Next Episode: With everyone down and the villains making their grand appearance, things seem pretty bleak right now. Knowing that, it feels weird that this preview is so comedic in nature. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but if this arc is paced properly there’s about two episodes left before it reaches it’s conclusion. Three if they decide to really delay things. But our heroes are really about to go through the ringer!
Black Clover is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.