Title: Black Clover Vol. 33
Author: Yuki Tabata
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 195
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: November 7, 2023
The Story
The battle with Lucifero has come to an end. As we all thought, Asta was able to overcome, but not destroy, Lucifero. It doesn’t mean that Lucifero escaped in good shape, though. When we return, Damnatio conducts an investigation into devil activity as far back as 20 years ago. He makes some startling revelations and reports them to Julius, the Wizard King. After this, both of them disappear.
We do a time skip to one year and a few months later. A ceremony is held for Asta as he received a promotion for his heroic deeds in dispatching Lucifero. Right when things settle down, a new devil appears by the name of Lucius but there is something familiar, yet unfamiliar about him. Lucius explains that he has taken control of all other supreme devils and all devils on any other level. He reveals his true power to be Soul Magic which allows him to transform humans into higher beings with power greater than a devil.
His goal is to “destroy” all humanity and rebirth them into perfect beings to bring about true world peace, a world in which he will rule over to ensure all harmony is upheld. Asta, of course, resists and so we head into a new arc where the world has but seven days before Lucius enacts his plan.
Characters
We take a couple of hard left turns when it comes to a couple of characters.
First off, in classic shonen battle fashion, Yami and Nacht who were on the verge of death were saved by a plot device. No one ever truly dies in these sorts of series anyway. However, as Yami was dying (yet not going to die), he received a certain love confession from a certain someone. It’s rather cute how it played out over the time skip, though. I know it’s not much development but I thought I would mention it because Yami reacted to it in a way that only Yami can.
Asta’s promotion was nice and long overdue. What I also like is the callback to the very first volume and reaffirming his rivalry with Yuno. Yuno was offered to come back home to the Spade Kingdom but that vow he made with Asta handed the Spade Kingdom a raincheck for now. With their vow to become the Wizard King renewed, it was nice to see the story return to that classic root that began it all. Speaking of Asta, we learned something pretty significant about him through Liebe’s memories. I’ll let you guys discover it but it was pretty interesting and explains a lot about Asta and his… unique… properties.
Then we got Julius, the Wizard King. Damnatio’s research ended up revealing some things about Julius. I won’t go into major details because of spoilers, but it allows us to see Julius in a new light that we didn’t think possible. As if dying and coming back younger was a feat of a character shift, the one he received here was probably the most radical one yet. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Final Thoughts
A very interesting volume. Although the “power of friendship” prevailed against an enemy of unimaginable power, it spawned a brand-new arc that’s pretty interesting. Considering that chapter 336 was titled “The Final Enemy” it makes one wonder if this series is coming to an end. Although, I can’t really say for sure since the manga is currently on hiatus in Japan. Japan is up to Volume 35 so we will probably get two more releases here in the US but given the hiatus, I’m sure these volumes will be spaced out. I mean, it took eight months between 32 and 33’s releases here in the US. I guess that’s better than bringing out 34 and 35 and having nothing to look forward to until God knows when.
In any event, I like where this is going and it really is looking as if this arc could be the last. There’s not really much to say on this one outside of a typical Shonen ending to the Lucifero fight and a bridge into the next arc. It’s a transitional book but what we received here was pretty nicely done. It’s probably one of the better transitional volumes in a manga series I’ve read if that says anything.
With that, I’ll catch you all in Vol. 34… whenever that may be.
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Viz Media
