Black Clover

Episode 134

Black Clover does have an actual plot to attend to, but it seems to be stuck in one of those lulls that all long-running shonen action series end up in, where they have to kill time to make sure that they don't catch up to the source material too fast. This episode is the third in a row of that nature, and the Next Episode previews suggests that more is coming. At least this one is somewhat entertaining.

When I was a heavy comic book reader, I was always a fan of titles dredging up characters who had appeared years earlier but been largely forgotten about, and that is what happens here (sort of). Sister Theresa Rapual, the old nun who runs the orphanage, had a prominent role back in the early 30s during the storyline about the kidnaped children, but if I recall correctly she has only briefly popped up once or twice since then. She did mention at the time that she was a retired Magic Knight, and now we find out that there was a little more to it than that: she was also the person who trained both Mereoleona and Fuegeleon. They haven't forgotten, so they want to stage a celebratory party in her honor. Because the siblings are every bit as socially inept as many of the other Magic Knights, they drag along Asta, Noelle, Mimosa, and Mimosa's vain brother for the exercise. That means that Marie and the other orphans also appear again, and a transformed Gauche (no doubt converted to a kid by Gray's magic) has also snuck in to get a peek at Marie.

In retrospect, Sister Theresa is an important character in the setting, not for plot reasons but because she represents the only true case of a retired Magic Knight that we have seen yet. (Julius becoming the Wizard King is effectively a promotion rather than a retirement, so I don't count him.) She is also, not surprisingly, the one person who can rein in Mereoleona, and her bad-ass credentials further get solidified by her simultaneously stopping an impending fight between Mimosa and her brother when Mimosa has finally had enough of him. (As much as Noelle doesn't get along with some of her siblings, they at least do not outright fight.) In all, she's a pretty cool old lady.

The rest of this is basic silliness. The younger Magic Knights present do tricks well-suited to entertaining a young audience, while the older ones (Fuegeleon and Mereoleona, both of whom we can now firmly-establish are in their 30s) flame out spectacularly; I think Fuegeleon's trick of hard-boiled eggs to three different degrees of softness at the same time is quite impressive, but it's not kids' fare. His rebuke from the children on that – which I have used as my screen shot – is classic.

So more piddling around is to come. Maybe sometime later this season the series will get back on track plot-wise.

Rating:

Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.