I'm going to split my discussion of this episode into two parts: art/animation and story/characters.
Art/Animation:
While most people have given heavy props in this category, there's still some disagreement and a fair amount of people who think it was the worst thing ever. Personally, I feel the animation was quite intriguing - not the best I've seen in anime by a longshot, but fairly well-done by Black Clover standards.
As far as the art goes, it's certainly... different. I can understand the people who don't care for it much, since the style is a little "simpler". Despite this, though, a part of me is drawn to how it looks... they did a good job considering their time/budget constraints. They definitely could have done worse (some scenes in Shippuden come to mind). You can definitely tell they still made a compromise that probably wouldn't have happened with a movie's timeline/budget, but out of all the "minimal" artstyles they could have chosen, what they went with was an interesting choice. I don't feel they dropped the ball at all.
Story/Characters:
I personally ascribe much more meaning to this than art/animation. No matter how sakuga an anime is, if the story doesn't hold up, I'll only like it so much. And sadly, it falls pretty flat in this episode.
I didn't expect too much from this series given its reputation as a generic battle shonen with nothing particularly novel to offer, some questionable writing choices earlier on in the series, and the repetitive arc structure up until this point that's been somewhat reminiscent of Fairy Tail. That being said, the last few arcs in and of themselves have been rather enjoyable. This arc had also shaped up to be quite interesting, and while I'm still fond of the general premise, I'm not too hot on Asta's power-up.
I understand his demon form isn't really an asspull (unlike a couple of things earlier on in the series) since this has been foreshadowed since Episode 1, but seriously, the sheer amount of power he amasses as quickly as it does surely makes it feel like one. It's just... jarring. I've seen enough anime in my life where powerups like this feel incredibly cliche. And I've had this sensation more than once in this series. I also take exception to the power/consequence balance that results from this, which several other anime handle better - but I will save that discussion for the next episode's discussion thread, as there are details that I incorporate into my position that are beyond the scope of this episode.
From a narrative standpoint, this also kind of spoils the whole "kid without magic makes his way in a world where magic is everything" / "hard work can beat out pure talent from birth" premise. I watch this anime together with another person, and they've often remarked at how he likes the idea of a super-hard-working muscular guy with swords that negate magic in the setting the author has set up for us. After watching this episode (and the next few), this very plot and character-important detail... feels a lot, lot less relevant, very, very quickly. I think he's more against the idea of a demon form than I am - I'd have preferred if it was a gradual, well-fleshed-out rise-to-power with several obstacles the main character would have had to overcome, but instead we get this.
I also don't particularly like how the anime portrays his demonic "spirit" as a form of anti-magic, when it doesn't differ from magic in any meaningful way besides its negation properties. This "demonic energy" or whatever still grants him several out-of-this-world abilities, such as manifesting black/red spiritual energy in the form of a demon, body marks, throwing black lightning around, turning the entire sky as far as the horizon at least pitch black... "I don't have magic btw!"
I've noticed some people opine that the powerup felt wasted on such an "unimportant" villain as this one - while I also understand where this point of view comes from, I somewhat disagree. If anything, it's "refreshing", in the words of some people so far in this thread, that this powerup wasn't one that came from the last most epic battle against the worst villain in the arc - in fact, it's that very villain herself that facilitated it! I also wouldn't write Ladros off as utterly irrelevant. Yes, he's one of the "lesser" villains, but he was still pretty cool.
It's also worth noting that, without much explanation, Ladros' firepower is portrayed as "notably more powerful" than the spirit he stole it from, even when said spirit lost a ton of power from getting sliced in half by Asta in the past couple episodes. So... you're telling me that Asta hardcore kicked his ass (even more so in the manga) in spite of this fact? Let's not forget that Salamander laid waste to a significant portion of the village in one of the episodes. For such immense power-leveling-up to happen so quickly is just...
Oh, and regarding the manga. I haven't read it myself, but apparently, there was no "fight" between Asta and Ladros after his powerup - only a one-hit KO on Asta's part. This strikes one part of me as even more ridiculous than the scenario in the anime where Ladros is at least fighting back. I can sort of understand why the studio would want to deviate from the manga here and insert a tense battle instead, but it's certain that some studios would have been more faithful to the manga, especially with a similar budget and with the "tense battle" ultimately being unnecessary. Another part of me hopes that this is a hint that the author wrote Asta's power to not be nearly as strong without The Witch's aid, as she turns against the Black Bulls at the end of the episode... |