Title: Black Clover Vol. 27
Author: Yuki Tabata
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: November 2, 2021
The Story
Cue the 80’s training montage because Black Clover Vol. 27 is, pretty much, exactly that. After Captains Yami and Vangeance have been captured, the other magic knight captains come together to try and figure out a way to rescue them. This is when Nacht crashes the meeting and proposes a plan to bring a small-scale group to attack the Dark Triad head-on and stop their seven-day ritual that will bring about the end of the world. At the center of this attack will be Asta; however, he’s going to need a classic shonen plot power up!
Before the meeting adjourns, Yuno steps forward as a candidate for the mission. Here, he reveals how he was proclaimed to be a prince of the Spade Kingdom which draws some suspicions but, overall, they take the news rather well. Yuno is selected so he heads off to go train with Langris!
Most of the training takes Asta and Nacht to a hidden realm within a noble’s house. There, they are to perform a demon-binding ritual to vastly increase Asta’s power. Time is of the essence so they need to complete this in just two days. Nacht draws Asta’s demon out and tells him he needs to defeat it. Here, we learn the demon’s name is Liebe and we get a bit of a backstory on him. Predictably, Asta wins the battle and forms a unique pact with the demon… which is then put to the test when Nacht tells Asta to use his new pact to beat him. With time running out and Asta not getting anywhere, Nacht pulls out a trump card to end our volume.
Characters
Asta, Nacht, and Liebe were the stars of this volume. Asta hasn’t changed much personality-wise; however, him wanting to form a friendship pact as equals rather than a master/follower pact seems right up his alley as a character. Doing so did put him at a disadvantage which he now has to work through in over to topple Nacht in his final test.
Liebe, on the other hand, was recognized by Asta as not having any killing intent despite making it vocally clear that his intentions were to take over Asta’s body. Liebe hates the devils all because of his past and what happened to his mother Licita. It ties in nicely for the purposes of this story arc but what happens when the Dark Triad are eventually defeated? Will there be more devils to fight? If not, then wouldn’t it be rather odd for Liebe to continue lending Asta his power since his goal will be met? Either it’s short-sighted storytelling or there are seeds being planted here for something much bigger.
Nacht is the kind of character that means well but just comes off as a complete and total jerk. He’s very forward with his words and has a certain arrogance about him but everything he does is for the greater good. I’ve seen this character archetype before; however, something about Nacht just makes it really entertaining.
Final Thoughts
We have a bit of a lull here before our next big battle but I don’t think we’re going to get fully underway in Vol. 28. Asta still needs to power up and finish his training, and unless Yuno’s training happens “off camera,” we still need to see how much he’s going to grow as a character. In addition, we also got a bit of a glimpse with some of our friends who were last seen eating an explosion in the Heart Kingdom. I didn’t want to give everything away in my review but let’s just say a former story arc spills over and they end up getting some training from the unlikeliest of sources!
So, as I said, the theme of this volume is “Let’s Power Up Time!” (at least that’s how I imagine it would be shouted in Japan!). I can clearly see that continuing into the next volume followed by another grand battle which will probably take us to Vol. 50 to conclude (I joke but these major battle arcs do span across several volumes).
It was nice that they revisited Yuno’s story in this volume since they left it out of Vol. 26. We didn’t get much more from it other than the other Magic Knight Captains learning about his newfound royalty. Seems as if we’re going to get a slow burn in just bits and pieces but that’s fine. Asta is back to taking center stage and after he was put on the back burner for a bit, it’s only right that the spotlight shine down upon him once again!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
