Long-awaited returns are a recurring gimmick in the worlds of television, movies, and the streaming services where they frequently coexist. They bring fans surprisingly unhinged and uninhibited new seasons of acclaimed hits like Twin Peaks: The Return and aggressively more violent revivals like Daredevil: Born Again. Anime, in particular, has seen a rise in similar revitalizations of key franchises, often putting more weight into the quality of each episode once again, as opposed to quantity squeezed out of an unsustainable weekly production model. One of the most prolific studios benefiting from this has been Pierrot, from Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, to now, with Black Clover.
Pierrot’s original Black Clover adaptation up until season 2’s return in October was a beautiful mess. At its best, it introduced positively gorgeous visuals with particular love for its impact frames, lovable characters, and a strong balance of old school charm and humor with breathtaking action. At its worst, the show’s weekly model meant occasional interludes into mild filler, pacing issues, and inconsistent visual quality. It was a high-risk, high-reward system, but with Pierrot going fully seasonal, Black Clover’s big return aims to shed those negative drawbacks. Courteously provided a review screener for Black Clover season 2, episode 1, ScreenRant got to see Pierrot stick the landing after five years of waiting.
Black Clover Is Back & Worth The Wait (Obviously)
Cutting off at a pivotal time after a relatively short cour of what’d been originally called “season 4”, Asta had begun to forge a proper connection with the devil living inside his grimoire. It was a frustrating way to end things before a five-year wait, while the manga shifted to a slower release schedule through Jump GIGA, allowing creator Yuki Tabata the time to guide the series to its end on his terms, and leave enough of a steady trail behind for studios to steadily adapt without incident. Opening on this same moment with a small narrative nod to Asta’s origins, Asta is once again facing down Nacht Faust, ready to attempt the Devil Union with Liebe, initiating an intense sparring match.
For the most part, Black Clover season 2, episode 1’s action is sparse, sparingly introduced, and conveniently teasing just enough for fans to keep their expectations high. Asta and Liebe struggle for much of the episode to attain this state, and indeed only reach it for about one second, with the sheer aura and intensity of the moment, and their impact on Nacht, teasing a truly spectacular showcase ahead. Between these events, the mounting resistance efforts and coordinated Magic Knights allied with the likes of reformed Eye of the Midnight Sun members readied for the Spade Kingdom Raid to begin, with Yuno’s training under Langris Vaude bearing fruit.
Everything about this return is what fans could have reasonably hoped for, but with the caveat that the episode, even though it paces itself more tightly than ever before. The episode is merely teeing up glorious events to come, the proverbial strategic setter before the crowd-pleasing outside hitter, to borrow volleyball jargon. But beyond the narrative thrills of the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc coming in subsequent episodes, there’s still plenty to love in Black Clover season 2, episode 1’s improved polish. The Spade Kingdom’s Dark Triad, Zenon, Dante, and Vanica Zogratis, have captured Yami Sukehiro and William Vangeance to conduct their horrible ritual, and the mission to rescue them promises the anime’s greatest visual showcase to date, but not all at once.
Asta & The Magic Knights’ Big Return Has With Flickers Of Far Greater Visuals Ahead
Naturally an exposition-heavy episode isn’t going to win over every viewer hoping for an absolute 10/10 experience. Such expectations cheapen the experience of a true landmark episode of this iconic action-fantasy anime, but even then, there’s plenty to love in Black Clover’s season 2 premiere. The character designs are ostensibly the same, but with superior atmospheric lighting, greater emphasis on body language and subtle movement, and a weight to the relatively quick action sequences. Nacht’s Mana Zone: Dark Prison Hunting Ground, converting everything as if staring at a colorless photo negative, to then see the shades of Asta’s blood cut through the monochrome, is a simple yet visually-arresting moment that lingers in the memory.
Features such as Nacht’s hound-like shadow magic manifestations have a certain depth to their increasingly abyssal shades, even if the animation of their introduction is somewhat clunky. Simple features like floating particles sell the indoor atmospheres the best in Nacht and Asta’s scenes, although the rest of the episode has its moments. It makes strong use of dynamic lighting, such as in Morris Libardirt’s meeting with Zenon Zogratis projects enough of an evil lair atmosphere as they set off the Tree of Qliphoth Advent Ritual to unleash the Underworld’s forces onto the world above.
But beyond neat details like well-composed shots of candles melting down to convey time passing during Asta’s training, the most overt visual showcase came in the moments before credits roll. Initially teased ahead of an absurd number of Black Clover episodes before, an ancient demon resembling the one fought by the first Wizard King bursts aboveground as the Spade Kingdom’s Resistance bears down on the Dark Triad. A moment that should convey the gravitas of the threat faced by the Magic Knights is instead undermined as Mereoleona appears in a literal flash, laying down the hurt on the demon as the episode closes. Between this and Asta’s all-too-brief Devil Union flicker, get ready for more Black Clover greatness ahead.
Black Clover Retained Much Of Its Soul In Its Return
Becoming the newest poster child to advertise the prestige appeal of Pierrot’s new business model, Black Clover had to discard some of its old origins along the way. The anime’s pacing is much more brisk now, adapting the entirety of chapters 271-275, with just enough of a glimpse of Zenon’s aura-laden sideeye from chapter 276 to keep fans excited. Perhaps most tragically, Petit Clover segments appear to be a thing of the past, with the amusing omake nowhere to be seen at the end of the episode, something of a recurring trend with vanishingly few exceptions. But still, much of Black Clover’s appeal is still alive in this anime, even with what it has lost.
Asta is still an adorable meathead, and now he is as much a straight man to Asta’s foolish antics as he is his battle partner. The voice acting feels largely the same, as everyone is back, even Sekke with his classic laugh. While Black Clover‘s big prestige anime return doesn’t feel quite as radical as Bleach’s was, it remains clear that Pierrot has not lost sight of how fun the series can be even during its most action-packed, beloved arc ever. Even Liebe gets to cash in the biggest laugh of the episode, initially developing faith in Asta’s ideas for forming the Devil Union, only for Asta himself to undermine it right after.
“When he gets like this, about 10% of the time, whatever he comes up with is genius…”
Spoiler alert: Asta did not, in fact, hatch a genius plan, but another half-baked early-One Piece-style idea akin to the Big Emperor formation. It’s enough of a moment to break the tension and remind viewers that the series never lost touch with what it was. While Black Clover ditches the sometimes-bloated, sometimes-lovable old features of its previous iteration, what came instead was the promise of a brilliant, blazing battle to match Mereoleona’s entrance, while keeping its soul alight all the same. The animation is solid, the visuals are clean with even the mildest digital effects being subtle and barely noticeable. But this is all merely a tease of the true hype on the way, as long as expectations aren’t betrayed in upcoming episodes.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2021
- Network
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TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC
- Directors
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Matsuo Asami, Rokou Ogiwara, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Akira Shimizu, Fumio Maezono, Daisuke Chiba, Toshihiro Maeya, Yoshimitsu Tsuda, Toshiaki Kanbara, Takahiro Enokida, Yasumi Mikamoto, Kenichi Maejima, Chihiro Kumano, Naoki Horiuchi, Yoshino Miwa
- Writers
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Kanichi Kato, Mio Inoue, Masanao Akahoshi, Momoko Murakami, Kunihiko Okada
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Gakuto Kajiwara
Asta (voice)
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Nobunaga Shimazaki
Yuno (voice)
- Strong visual polish as expected with Pierrot’s new production model
- Spirit of the series’ action and humor stays alive and kicking five years later
- Atmosphere and music are as engrossing as ever
- Sacrifices include the noticeable absence of the old Petit Clove omake
- The true excitement and payoff for the wait is largely withheld ahead of upcoming episodes