Black Clover Chapter 180 Review by Emperor SprigganThis week's chapter starts with a color cover, portraying Jack, Yami, Nozel and Fuegoleon in it. A clear indication of the events that are currently ongoing in the manga, with all 4 of the Captains currently engaged in battle.
On Page 1, we follow up on what happened last week with Finral, Yami and Jack arriving to where Langris was with the King and the Vaude family. Finral's father remarks on how Langris's magic is absurd and there is probably no one else who would be able to cancel out Jack and Yami's attacks like what Langris just did. The defensive abilities of his spatial magic were impressive. At this point, Finral tells Fione and his father to leave the place and leave the rest to them. His dad protests, saying that there is no way someone from the Black Bulls would be able to handle Langris. Finral then retorts saying that whether he was the courier of the Black Bulls, and Langris the Vice Captain of the Golden Dawn, none of that mattered at this point. The fight he was having was as Langris's older brother. Yami appears behind Finral's old man, telling him to not look down on courier boys. He proceeds to throw him through the portal Finral had created. He turns to Fione and tells her she needs to leave too. Before she exited the palace, she told Finral that he needed to come back safely. The Black Bulls member replies he will be with Langris when he sees her again.
The King then says that he also wants to be let out of there. Seeing as his earlier attempt to show his magic failed, there was no more reason for him to linger. Finral makes a portal for him to teleport through, but before the King can get into it, Langris uses his magic to shut down Finral's portal. The two siblings have similar magic types after all, making them the best counters for each other. The younger Vaude brother then says that he needs to shave the King up into smaller pieces, and at this point we see Jack charging up his magic.
He uses an attack named Insane Ripping, firing several slashes at Langris. The attacks slice up the wall behind Langris, none of them even coming close to scratch him. Besides him though, there were two portals activated, and Jack realizes Langris warped the attacks behind him to protect himself. Langris then duly asks whether they were seriously still trying to kill him. At this point, he then activates his magic and tells Jack and the others in the room to learn their place. The spell he fires off at this point is reminiscent to the one he used in the Royal Knights Exam when he was fighting Finral. Yami is surprised at how Langris is able to use so much high level magic at the same time, and the Golden Dawn Vice Captain states if even one of those hit them, they'd be dead.
Finral uses his own Spatial Magic to defend against Langris's attacks, before realizing he can't dodge it all completely. He then shouts at Jack and Yami and tells them they should dodge the attacks he couldn't defend against. Yami retorts, asking him who he thinks he's giving orders. Nonetheless, the Black Bulls Captain uses his Dark Magic to defend against Langris's magic. Jack also uses his magic to evade the attacks, before Yami charges up another Dark Magic attack. He fires it at Langris, the attack named Dark Shrouded Avidya Slash. Langris, alert to the danger, fires off one of his spatial magic attacks and the two magics collide in mid air.
As Yami descends, he realizes that there is no way they can get close to Langris with his level of defensive magic. Finral's magic wasn't strong enough to nullify his younger brother's, so in order to defeat him it needed to be done in an instant. And for that to happen, they needed one more attack, Jack's. The Green Mantis's Captain had the ability to imbue his blades with the properties of whatever he cut. So if he cut Langris's magic, logically speaking, his blades would also acquire the same spatial properties as the magic. Hence making him the perfect counter to Langris's magic in that room. As if also realizing this, Jack slashes through a few of Langris's portals, succeeding at slicing them in half. Langris is shocked, and Yami is elated, referring to Jack as a genius perverted freak.
The two Captains then proceed to attack Langris at the same time with their respective magics, this time Jack using an attack that had similar properties to Langris's magic. Similarly to before however, the Golden Dawn Vice Captain manages to defend against both attacks, and Finral is left shocked. Langris then fires back at the Captains in similar fashion to before. Jack is able to cut through the attacks this time, and Yami is also able to dodge and avoid any damage from landing on him.
Langris thinks to himself how he was shocked that the two Captains were able to break through his defence, but in the end it wasn't enough. They fell short of beating him completely. The two Vaude brothers face off, and Finral seems helpless since his Spatial Magic is inferior to his brother's and there's no way he can attack or defend properly. The Black Bulls member regrets being unable to defeat his opponent, and the strain off facing off against his brother causes him to bleed a little from his mouth. His younger brother prepares to finish him off for good, shouting at him to return to nothingness. At this point, Jack and Yami appear beside Finral, both of them charging at Langris in point blank range. The Golden Dawn Vice Captain realizes that earlier, his older brother had abandoned defending himself in order to teleport his allies to safety. However, it was too late.
The chapter ends with Langris telling his older brother to die, while Finral tells his younger brother that he will save him along with the other Royal Knights.
Final Verdict:Similar to a majority of chapters for the arc, this chapter was heavily battle focused. Previously we had Noelle as the primary focus, this time it's Finral's. Gotta say, I really like how the author is handling these battles. He doesn't spend too much time on each, giving them adequate pacing and focus and having epic magic clashes. On a smaller note, Langris is one of my favorite characters in the series, and having him back makes me genuinely happy. Yami has always been badass (He isn't exactly one of my favorites, but his battles are epic, no one can deny that). Jack continues to prove that he's Black Clover's version of Nnoitra mixed in with Zaraki Kenpachi.
Overall Chapter rating: 8/10To comment and discuss, please head to our Black Clover Section!
