Black Clover Episode 163: DANTE, YOU SIMP!
Black Clover’s Episode 163, “Dante vs. The Captain of the Black Bulls”, has finally aired and, boy, was it a doozy! The bright lights were definitely on those two characters but other individuals definitely had their own share of the limelight. As the anime has already displayed all of the epic battle scenes, this review will focus more on the analysis of the new details made known to the audience and some possible predictions for the upcoming episode.
This particular episode has covered Chapters 244-245 and 247-248. We’ll briefly discuss what happened to Chapter 246 and why it was omitted from this episode.
Quick Recap
Here’s what you’ve missed in the last episode:
Dante Zogratis, the leader of the Dark Triad, attacked the Black Bulls’ base with the objective of capturing Yami Sukehiro with Asta, Gauche, Grey, Vanessa, and Henry as its only line of defense
Upon witnessing Vanessa Enoteca’s magic, Dante reveals that she is an arcane stage mage
Dante and his Gravity Magic was too overwhelming for the Black Bulls and had no trouble dealing with them
As Asta tried to defend the base and his comrades in his black devil form, Dante tried to kill Gauche in front of him in an attempt to enrage Asta and bring out his full devil powers
With Gauche in critical condition because of Dante’s attack, Asta went berserk and went toe-to-toe with Dante
You can check out the full review of the previous episode here.
The Arcane Stage
Princess Loropechika explained the system of Magic Stages which ranks a mage’s magical power on a tier system with Stage 9 as the lowest and Stage 0 as the highest. However, there are certain mages whose power goes beyond the highest tier and are classified under the “Dark Tier” as Arcane Stage mages.
There was no specific explanation with regard to how a mage is classified under this group but we do know that they are capable of vanquishing the devils.
As it currently stands, the only Arcane Stage mages are: Asta, Secre Swallowtail (aka Nero), Yami Sukehiro, Julius Novachrono, William Vangeance. Now the most recent addition to this list, thanks to Dante’s generous sharing of information, are Vanessa Enoteca and Grey. (Yup, you read that right, shy-shape-shifting Grey)
Now the question all of us should be asking is how does Dante know that these mages are in the Arcane Stage? Judging from the episode alone, all it took was for him to witness their type of magic and he immediately knew. And on top of that, knowing that these mages are capable of defeating devils, there’s not even the slightest indication of worry from Dante. He even wants them to be his girls!
The Devil is in the Details