Black Clover

Episode 15

There are times in a long-running Shonen Jump series where so little happens that it's a shock to the system when something finally does happen. The first episode of this Dungeon Exploration arc was such a soft breeze I had thrown out all expectations of something fun or interesting rearing its head, but here we are.

Starting off, we've got the clash of personalities between the Black Bulls and the Golden Dawns. The otherwise uptight Klaus gets to have an outburst as Asta gets his goat, and we learn that Noelle and Mimosa are actually cousins from the same family. The value that certain characters place on nobility continues to contrast well in this series, as you've got a variety of characters between the peasants and nobles who wound up on very different paths. The Golden Dawns continue to turn their noses up at the rambunctious Black Bulls, but you can tell they're not the bad guys and will likely pull through when they're needed most. At least that seems to be the case as long as Yuno has anything to say about it. He sternly warns them about underestimating Asta, playing that supportive brother role that suits him well.

Elsewhere in the dungeon is Luck's adventure to track down the source of power that he sensed last week, coming across a man named Lotus from the neighboring Diamond Kingdom. This is the first time in a while that this show has managed to tap into the truly fun spirit of shonen, where the fight is designed to get your (honorary) teen imagination going. Lotus seems to have garnered a reputation, as established by a little exposition scene with the Wizard King, but despite his strength he still gets to be funny, running away from the fight and saying things like "Let's just compete nonviolently!" But of course, the show is playing games with us, asking us to wonder who's underestimating who.

He's actually an interesting opponent for Luck, who has that happy-go-lucky laid back attitude. You already expect him to be much stronger than he looks, but by making Lotus the one in control of the fight with his smoke magic, it puts Luck in a position where he starts to break. The boy's not just incongruously quirky with his strength as we've seen until now, he might actually be the kind of guy who hides his true feelings by smiling all the time, and I'd totally welcome the tragic Luck flashback that the show is teasing. It also helps that there seems to be another weirder strong guy on Lotus' team wandering the dungeon, so Black Clover might finally have more than one thing going on at a time.

This one is definitely up there on the list of Black Clover episodes that I've enjoyed the most. It's just packed enough to keep things interesting as we transition from each story beat to the next, and both the action and the humor benefit from occupying tighter corridors. Even grading the show on the usual curve for shonen stuff, Black Clover has had an emptiness to it that makes it difficult to recommend to fans of the genre, but if the series continues more in this direction, we might have something here.

Rating: B+

Black Clover is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw