Boomstick: Asta, the anti-magical asskicker from Black Clover.
Wiz: Though you may be born bereft of the same gifts as your peers, there is nothing stopping you from achieving your dreams...
Boomstick: As long as you're a fictional character in a fantasy world! Haha, ah... I mean, as long as you've got your friends by your side, you'll pack a hell of a punch.
The penultimate episode of DEATH BATTLE!'s ninth season sees two unlikely shonen heroes pitted against each other. Though born without the powers that are commonplace in their respective worlds, these two underdogs nevertheless set out to defy the odds and achieve their dreams through their grit, determination, and the help of their friends. However, for Deku and Asta, only one can be powerful enough on their own to walk away from a death battle.
[This recap is a work in progress]
Wiz: One hero for all mankind.
After an advertisment for the second sponsor of BetterHelp online therapy, the analysis for both heroic underdogs is complete, and it's time for a Death Battle!
The animation begins in an arena during the semi-finals of the 26th World Martial Arts Tournament as the announcer introduces the semi-finalists, first being the 9th bearer of One For All, Izuku Midoriya, otherwise known as the hero Deku, who believes that he will need more than raw power to take down his opponent, the Anti-Magic Swordsman of the Black Bulls, Asta, who believes that all he needs to do is to hit the greenette hard enough to win. As the announcer tells the fighters to begin and fake buildings fill the stage, Asta and Deku charge at each other with the former about to strike him with a stab with his Demon-Slayer Sword...
FIGHT!
Only for the successor of the Symbol of Peace to quickly evade the attack before kicking him in the back of the head and being reminded of his teammate Luck thanks to Deku's speed, Asta initially struggles to hit the UA Student until he uses his senses to finally hit him. Capitalising on the opening, the Royal Knight draws his second sword, the Demon-Dweller Sword from the Five Leaf Clover Grimoire before unleashing a flurry of high-speed slashes that ends with him knocking Deku into one of the fake buildings.
While Izuku checks himself for injuries and realises that damage was surprisingly minimal, Asta tries to press the advantage further with a lunging slash, only for Deku to counter by using the Quirk of One For All's sixth torchbearer, Smokescreen, as he avoids the attack. As the formerly Quirkless hero develops a strategy to deprive Asta of his Grimiore, the fourth bearer's Quirk, Danger Sense goes off, alerting him of Asta finding him and causing him to leap out of the smoke.
Drawing his third sword, the Demon-Destroyer, and holding it between his teeth, the Anti-Magic knight performs his Black Hurricane technique, causing the wind to blind Izuku long enough for Asta to perform his follow-up technique, Black Meteorite. After striking Deku with his attack, Asta notices a black tendril attached to his leg, this being the Quirk of One For All's fifth bearer, Blackwhip, which Izuku uses to slam Asta into the ground. Asta tries to break Blackwhip with his Demon-Slayer to no avail, realising that his opponent is not using magic either before Izuku reels Asta in for a Detroit Smash which, while blocked by Asta, was only to attach more of Blackwhip's tendrils to the Black Bull's swords and allow Deku to take them away. After a second Detroit Smash, Asta draws his fourth blade, the Demon-Slasher Katana, from his Grimoire before being struck a third time, which the 9th bearer of One For All follows up by using his Froppy Style version of Blackwhip to grab the Five Leaf Clover Grimoire as he strikes Asta with one final Detroit Smash that sends Asta towards a building as he uses the Demon-Slasher to free himself from Blackwhip.
As Deku looks on with the Grimoire in his mouth, both it and Asta's lost swords fly towards their owner as the building he's in was sliced apart, revealing the Anti-Magic Knight is now in his Devil Union form as he expresses his annoyance at the repetitive attacks prior. Undeterred, Deku sends a fallen building toward his opponent who slashes it apart with no effort before telling him to give it everything he's got since he's going to do the same.
Deku releases the stored energy he had via the third bearer's Quirk, Fa Jin, to meet Asta as both heroic underdogs clash with each other multiple times, neither having a distinct advantage until the Royal Knight sends him towards the ground, bouncing off multiple buildings before landing. As he realises that there is no reason to hold back anymore, the successor to the Number One Hero unleashes One For All's full power as Asta does the same with Devil Union for one final clash, destroying the arena.
As the dust settles, Asta, now back in his base form falls to the ground as Deku remains in the sky, his right arm broken and believing himself to have won as the life fades from his eyes from pushing himself too far, only for Asta to be still alive, albeit heavily injured as he uses his Anti-Magic to impale Deku's already dead corpse with three of his four swords while he props himself up on the Demon-Slasher, leading to the announcer to state Asta as the winner of the semi-finals and reveals Asta's next opponent is the World Champion, Hercule Satan, who was watching the fight in shock before reasonably running off to avoid fighting the Anti-Magic Swordsman.
KO!
The embers that make up One For All are snuffed with Deku's tragic yet noble end; Izuku Midoriya had all the qualities needed to make himself a great hero, but when compared to the Black Bull Knight's tremendous battlefield prowess, his determination could only go so far. In fairness to Deku, the hosts bring up some key advantages he boasted in this fight. As Quirks are biological, Asta's anti-magic skills bore no effect, allowing Deku to keep the pressure up with One For All's vast array of Quirk powers. He was also the smarter and more tactical of the two, but that's where the buck sort of stops. In terms of raw power, Asta could scale to Patolli's attempt to vaporize the Clover Kingdom whereas one of Deku's best strength feats involves splitting apart a formation of clouds alongside Bakugo. When both feats' high ends are taken into consideration, the hosts determine Asta to be about 6 times stronger than Deku; as Asta's Anti-Magic must be equal in power to the attack he is countering, he could scale to the high-end magic attacks his opponents bust out against him. In addition, Asta could dodge light on instinct even while sleeping; Deku may have lightspeed reactions by reacting to Shigeraki's lasers, but Asta already outpaces him even in base form, with further transformations only widening the gap. However, the greatest disadvantage against Deku was ironically the One For All Quirk itself, as Deku's body would take heavy and possibly even fatal damage tapping into its full potential just to keep pace with Asta, whose own superior physical abilities lack most of such drawbacks. Ultimately, both young warriors were more than worthy of earning their heroic reputations, but Class 1-A's star student lacked enough in the tank to survive against his ashen-haired opponent.
Wiz: The winner is Asta!
"Deku VS Asta" contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Asta mentions Deku's speed could give Luck a run for his money. Both Deku and Luck are voiced by Justin Briner.
- Brains Versus Brawn: While neither combatant is lacking in the Super-Strength department, Deku is a considerably more strategic and analytical Genius Bruiser whereas Asta prefers relying on straightforward brute force. In this case, Asta's greater might earns him the win.
- The Day the Music Lied: Despite "Strongest Alive" having the choruses of two prior tracks associated with Izuku ("Mighty" and "Marvel For All"), the fight ends with Asta just barely coming out on top in the animation.
- Death or Glory Attack: Deku's final 1,000,000% Smash ends up being this, as Asta survives the blow and he dies from overexerting himself.
- Gag Echo: Asta, in sharp contrast to Deku contemplating his pre-match strategy, decides that he'll simply hit his opponent really hard during his walk to the arena. As the fight ramps up, Deku ultimately resolves to hit Asta really hard.
- Good Versus Good: A fight between two of shonen's most famous heroes.
- Heroic RRoD: While not the first time a combatant died this way on the show, Izuku is the first losing combatant to die because of this due to overexerting himself with One For All. This was pointed out to be a major disadvantage for Deku, as he would need to overexert his limits just to keep pace with Asta's superior physical ability, who lacks such a weakness outside of Devil Union and even then it's far less self-damaging.
- Running Gag: Boomstick comparing Asta to a jock that shoves nerds into lockers.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Hercule books it after seeing Asta's raw skill and realizing he stands no chance of beating that.
- Sequel Episode: The end of the episode reveals the battle to be one to Hercule Satan VS Dan Hibiki, as the tournament that Izuku and Asta were fighting in was the same one were Hercule beat Dan, with him set to be Asta's next opponent.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Deku was already dying from the backlash of his 1,000,000% Smash, but Asta decides to really make sure he's down for good by summoning his three BFS to impale him into the ground on top of that.
- Un-Sorcerer: Deku and Asta's main connection is that both of them were born without a natural supernatural ability that the majority of the world's population has (Quirks and Mana respectively).
- Went to the Great X in the Sky: After the battle, Boomstick claims Asta shoved Deku into "that great big locker in the sky."
- Wrong Context Magic: Because Deku's Quirks are biological, Asta's anti-magical abilities have no effect on them, as he realizes after failing to cut through Deku's Blackwhip with his Demon-Slayer. Fortunately for him, he's able to work around this.
