Black Clover Episode 151 Discussion

Rating: 5/5

A gorgeously animated episode with consistent and clean art? Are we sure this is a Black Clover episode? Either way, Pierrot really surpassed their limits on this one.

Favourite Aspects:
<> William Vangeance. I mean, obviously. He is my favourite character after all. And this episode really does do him justice. Normally, he'll maybe cast one or two spells that aren't particularly dynamic... and that's in the manga, the source material, the stuff that's meant to be the best of the best. But here, his magic really feels a lot more versatile, flexible and just in general a lot more badass. And he's still got the same reserved and mysterious charm to him, even after his biggest secrets (thus far) have been revealed. It keeps him interesting. I also really loved that grin on his face when he turned Yami's attempt to cut him and his trees down to his advantage by using it to surprise Yami.
<> Nozel Silva. Honestly, he really did put in a lot of effort and carried his team. Sure, Yami mgiht have the more hax magic, but Nozel's the man with the plan, he's the one protecting the crystal, and Kaiser against someone with a spirit who has an elemental advantage. I even admire him here. Also, his face really does look pretty when Pierrot stops pulling punches with art and animation.
<> Dorothy Unsworth. She never gets this kind of action in the manga and she's certainly never this amusing. And that's because we've only seen Reve awake in the manga, and maybe Dorothy at the very end of that fight. Here she's cute, entertaining and wonderfully misguided in her views of characters.
<> Fuegoleon vermilion. As always, a focused, serious, and hardworking man who is inspiring to watch.
<> Marx Francois. One of the MVPs of this episode on account of him enabling the people of Clover to actually watch at least the vast majority of that fight.
<> End result. Technically, no one really won that battle. And while Yami managed to break out of the spell, it is not necessarily that he outright beat Dorothy, or that he's stronger than the other captains... that can still be debated on because it was left relatively open-ended. And yes, I know most of you will claim this to be absolute proof that Yami is best and strongest captain, but I disagree. He doesn't even have the control over his magic necessary to attack only his opposition's crystal and not his own, and was clearly still fighting blind. His ki has always been rather convenient, even in the manga, sometimes working, sometimes not so much... and ultimately, you can absolutely make the argument that since Dorothy managed to avoid being cut in half by Yami's dimension slash along with her dream realm, that other characters might have stood a chance dodging or even blocking that. Because of how that fight actually ended, anyone can make their own decision on who is the strongest or best captain if there is any, and they'd all be making a valid point... unless they chose Kaiser, I guess, because... really?

Shortcomings:
<> Left out characters. It's a pity Rill was kept out of the battle. It was not as if this couldn't have been fixed with the inclusion of Mereoleona, whom I would have also loved to see fighting. It would have also been interesting if the tournament had more rounds, or lasted more episodes, but I'll take what I can get.
<> Stiff points. There are moments where the anime is, in effect, a slide-show, but to be fair, I suppose they had to cut corners somewhere anyway... and it was still impressive that they remembered as many characters as they had.