Black Clover is based on the manga and the second season is 51 episodes long. It is set in a fantasy world where everyone can use magic. Magic is assisted through the use of a grimoire. The Clover Kingdom is protected by the Wizard King and he commands the Magic Knights. Their structure is similar to guilds. The anime follows Asta, a boy who has absolutely no magic (which has never occurred before) but he has the ability to nullify all magic with his two black magic swords. He aims to become the Wizard King and despite his disadvantages, he never succumbs to despair. He is joined by childhood friend and rival, Yuno, who is on the opposite end of the spectrum, being very gifted in magic.
After the big arc finished in the first season and it immediately commenced the next one, naturally, the second season continues right after that point. With the set up, you would have expected something huge and equally as long but that isn’t the case. The arc is wrapped up in a few episodes, although it introduces the enemy Diamond Kingdom and some of their uses, ultimately, it is not that impactful. The Diamond Kingdom had a few mentions and appearances before but we learn a lot more about their ways and their experiments in magic.
The next arc is triggered by the consequences of the events of the last season. Being a sword user and having both of his arms out of commission is a big disadvantage for Asta, so the Black Bulls knights try and find ways to heal him. It’s heartwarming to see Asta having grown to such a big and special part of their lives such that everyone puts in their all to find a cure. The teamwork displayed at the end of the last season continues here and it strongly emphasizes the teamwork and innate trust that each one has for another. Extending from that are the friendly rivalries that Asta has with Yuno and members of the other Knights, in which each of them use the other for motivation to get better and stronger.
Despite the buildup of several strong characters as villains where you would expect at least a similarly big and climactic showdown as the big villain of season one, this doesn’t happen. All too often, a supposedly extremely strong character is knocked down in the space of an episode and with something that doesn’t nearly have the same amount of thought put into it. Asta retains his happy and unwavering optimism as well as his abundance of enery. It can still get a bit too much when he doesn’t shut up but this is also the most endearing and iconic part of him. Asta isn’t Asta if he doesn’t do these kinds of things.
The amount of filler content has gone up and they are not spaced very well. There are the usual episodes between each arc but then it decides to put some filler or a recap episode right in the middle of a battle, or straight after a cliffhanger of sorts. It’s jarring and destroys the suspense and atmosphere that it had managed to build up. This affects the season finale because the final episode of the season is… a recap episode. This is really annoying, and it would have been better if they could have structured and placed these filler episodes better without breaking any of the storytelling. This is because these filler episodes seem to miss more often than not.
The arcs for the reason of the season may not seem like it at first, but they are all related in one way or another. They go by equally fast but it’s not a bad thing. There’s your typical arc where it pits characters against each other and it uses this to show off the abilities of all the characters we already know, as well as new ones. The point of this is so that when those characters show up again, we are already familiar with them and have at least some sort of attachment, however minimal. The theme of the season seems to be how much the characters have grown stronger. Nearly each of the members of the Black Bulls have someone that they can show off again and surprise them. This can lead to interesting battles where they use their abilities in ways we haven’t seen before.
The pairings of characters is good and bad because it covers off each of the characters, but it has to rush some battles while spending more time on others. This can lead to uneven pacing and seemingly rushes to the ending. After dragging out things in the beginning by covering each of the battles, it then truncates the final ones. It’s not bad but considering the buildup, it seems wasted when Asta finishes his last battle with a quick and somewhat unsatisfying strike. Some of the battles in the season shifts in animation style and this isn’t necessarily a good thing. The animation quality overall is okay and there are the usual tricks of limiting the movement in certain scenes to save on budget. There are a lot of places where the character models are off but there is just enough quality to keep it fun to watch.
Despite the hiccups and the constant switching of perspectives at the worst possible time, the final arc throws many curveballs that you would not expect. It does feel that the past 80+ episodes were building up to this point as it was the big overarching arc. It gets crazy in terms of plot development, and it does things that you would not expect and thought would have been sacred. It gets to the point where you don’t know how it can get resolved without significant negative consequences. The anime doesn’t completely shy away from the darker things, and innocent civilians do die. Unfortunately, the season ends on a cliffhanger with plenty more story content to go, so that somewhat sucks.
Overall, the second season of Black Clover, despite the sheer amount, and the poor timing, of useless filler and recap episodes, is still enjoyable. There are ups and downs to the season, but on the whole, it is better than average. The season packs in a lot of story arcs and it manages to link them all together so that it doesn’t feel like any one of those is wasted time. It is a shame that they couldn’t have finished the final story arc within the season but the plot moves forward so much, with so many developments to digest, that you can’t help but be excited for where the story will go next.
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