Black Clover Introduces New Anti-Devil Group to the Anime

Black Clover has officially kicked off an original arc for the anime with the newest episode, and has introduced the main foe going forward with a new anti-devil group known as the Devil Banishers. After spending the last few weeks of the anime establishing how Asta and the others have begun their preparations for the coming battle against the Spade Kingdom in six months, the anime has begun a completely new arc to fill in more of the gaps left by series creator Yuki Tabata's original telling of the story in the manga. The anime will be branching out into a new type of conflict.

Many of the foes thus far have been ones that Asta and the others could simply overpower to defeat, but that's not going to be the case with the new arc kicking off in Episode 142 of the series. Because this time the enemy isn't a Devil or an enemy mage from a different kingdom, this time they will be facing off against the disgruntled people of the Clover Kingdom.

Episode 142 establishes that this is the six month training period before the Spade Kingdom's attack, and sees a weakened Clover Kingdom grappling with what to do. But while we have seen how the Magic Knights responded to the destruction of the Clover Kingdom during the Eye of the Midnight Sun and Elves' invasion, the newest episode of the series revisits the regular citizens who don't have that kind of power.

The episode introduces us to a small group of people who have mana, but it's nowhere near enough to be impressive in fights. With their homes and families utterly destroyed from the Elf invasion, they turn their attention to the Devil that caused all of their problems. After Asta was put on trial for the public, it made him their target.

Soon they form the Devil Banishers, who go on to kidnap Marie and Nero for their involvement in the past fight with the Devil. They were going to capture Asta too, but Noelle managed to save him in time. He's not looking so great, however, as one of the Devil Banishers' sedatives instantly knocked him unconscious.

Black Clover often does not take the time to breathe and really sink in how traumatic some of these battles can be, so the anime is once again reminding fans that the Clover Kingdom has its own fair share of non-fighting citizens who feel some way about what happened to their country. It's going to be interesting to see how this conflict resolves!

But what do you think of the Devil Banishers? Think that them being so outclassed by the Magic Knights will be an issue? How do you even think this kind of battle can end? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!