Black Clover Season 2 ‒ Episode 176
1) Were the fights good?
Yep. They were pretty good. I turned my brain off partway through, so I could feed that caveman side of me that goes “Oooo fights! Me likey fights!!” And let me tell you, that side did not leave the table hungry.
We're back to the fight between Vanica, Charlotte, and Rill from a few episodes ago. Noelle bursts through to take on Vanica, and from there the gain is cranked up to make everything sound so very, very explosive. This might even be the loudest episode of the season thus far. Every attack, from Vanica's spiny blood magic attacks, to the red beast monsters she summons, to Noelle's sword attacks, to the sound of the two bouncing off the walls, blares all over the place. Especially when Noelle drop-kicks Vanica at around the 16:34 mark, when the audio gets so loud it clips. Sonically speaking, it's pretty dumb, and the equivalent of hearing the sound design of a Michael Bay movie. But this is just the way Black Clover rolls. Should I be surprised that a show like this would resort to such a gimmicky way to grab my attention? If it works, it works.
And hey, guess what we get at the 11:55 mark? What else, but HEAVY METAL! Speed metal, to be exact! Hear that guitar noodle through all those arpeggio riffs! Look, the episode's called “The Sacred Valkyrie,” because Noelle uses Undine to transform herself into a flying, sword-wielding Valkyrie. So freakin' metal, dude. And Noelle summons a gigantic sea dragon! Devil horns high up in the air on that one. Seriously, I love how Black Clover isn't afraid to roll up its sleeves and get cheesy. If you're going to be shonenslop anyway, go hard or go home.
The animation is still as strong as ever, especially towards the end, where the area around Vanica and Noelle crumbles to the ground. Vanica and Noelle keep bouncing off the walls and into each other, each followed by (respectively) bright bursts of pink and blue light that give the fight a nice, sparky sizzle. There even seem to be shades of the Homura v. Mami fight from Madoka Magica: Rebellion here, in the way these two clash and ricochet off each other. In other words, I like it.
Which now brings us to...
2) Did the plot progress in any meaningful way and/or at least made sense?
Uh... sure?? I mean, you get to learn more about some characters' pasts. Through flashbacks, of course. Two of 'em, to be exact. I can roll my eyes all I want at this gratuitous flashbackery, but let's be real. I expected this. There's no point in getting that upset anymore.
I'll keep it brief. The first flashback is from before the fight, to establish that Noelle gets to host Undine's power to kick Vanica's teeth in. But it also turns out Undine originally hosted many of the Heart Kingdom's queens, including Loropechika, who lacked any special magical abilities! Remind you of anybody? Anyway, Undine wanted to protect Loropechika but failed. Oops.
The second flashback shines a light on Vanica's past. Gee, Black Clover simply cannot let bad guys be bad guys, can it? Everyone's gotta have a backstory. Fine. Vanica's fight with Noelle brings back memories to right after she became Megicula's* host. Turns out that she fought, of all people, Noelle's mom when Noelle was just a wee baby! Talk about a crazy coincidence. Why? How? This is bad writing. Never mind that, because Noelle's mom can fight Vanica with a giant drill. Nice Gurren Lagann reference. Also, what's the strongest power in the world for Noelle's mom? The power of a mother protecting her children! See translation: the power of love. Cue Huey Lewis and the News (I wish); the flashback ends before we get back to the awesome fight between Noelle and Vanica. Well, at least this flashback didn't last long.
We have here another passable, doable, if not narratively clumsy and predictable episode of Black Clover. Vanica gets owned at the end, and Megicula appears out of her eye socket (how heavy metal!). And I guess Megicula is about to unleash a good, hard thrashing in the next episode or two. I'm guessing anyway, considering there are a bunch of other skirmishes involving other characters we still have to navigate.
* - Also, of all names, we're calling this bad mamma jamma Megicula? Really? Sounds like the name of a lame industrial metal band. But hey, heavy metal forever, dude.
Rating:
Black Clover Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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