Black Clover

Episode 137

For not the first time in the past few episodes, Black Clover digs deep back into its history for a guest appearance, while also continuing with content focused on one or another of the Black Bulls. This time the featured characters are Charmy and Gordon, with each getting a half-episode worth of attention respectively as they focus on trying to enhance the power of their respective magic types. That feels about right, as both of their scenarios would have struggled to generate enough content for a full episode on their own.

Of the two, Charmy is the one whose backstory has been delved into the least; in fact, I think she may be the only one of the Black Bulls whose background has not been explored in detail. We finally learned during the Shadow Palace episodes that she is half-dwarf, but not how that happened or what that might mean in the bigger picture. We also learned about a darker and much more offense-minded side to her sheep magic, a side which has not resurfaced since. Sadly, this episode does not elaborate further on any of this. Instead, it focuses entirely on her cooking magic and her efforts in trying to up its magic-restorative capability – something which was already pretty potent and would make her an invaluable backline supporter as is. But she wants it to be more potent still, so she gets together with the chef she encountered during the first capital invasion arc (way back in the early 20s) to try to boost it further.

Expected shenanigans result, such as Charmy going on dangerous quests for ultra-rare ingredients, Toriko-style, but thankfully that is kept to a series of dramatic (and often slightly comedic) stills. The meat of her half – if you can call it that – is that her food is so mana-rich that it becomes alive and the other Black Bulls have to kill it. And yes, that does mean eating it in the series' best imitation of BOFURI. In other words, this part does not amount to anything of consequence.

Gordon's half doesn't do much better. He somehow gets the notion that his poison magic has gotten much weaker (Asta has just gotten that much stronger), and only by going back to being alone can he make it strong again. Then he goes to a forest whose very name strongly suggests that it is inhabited by poison-using (and thus poison-resistant) critters and laments when his poison magic has no effect on him. While never shown as a mental giant, neither has Gordon ever been revealed as an imbecile, but he clearly did not think this through at all. He also once again overestimates how much his fellow Black Bulls notice that he's missing, resulting in the long-standing running joke that the Black Bulls go about their business heedless of his presence (or rather, lack thereof).

Honestly, did this episode accomplish anything? Just the latest in what's turning out to be one of the series' most lackluster runs of episodes.

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Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and FUNimation.