BLACK CLOVER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionBlack Clover
ONA ComedyMugyutto! Black Clover
SPECIAL ComedyBlack Clover: All Mahou Kishi Kanshasai
SPECIAL ActionBlack Clover: Jump Festa 2016 Special
SPECIAL ComedyPetit Clover Advance
MOVIE ActionBlack Clover: Mahou Tei no Ken
NOVEL ActionBlack Clover: Abareushi no Sho

REVIEWS

• 

  ChristianoGaray

  85/100
  If you enjoy a sincere, exciting, adventure anime with characters wielding unique magic, then Black Clover is for you!

  A magical world where every 15-year-old is given a Grimoire, a book containing spells and enhances the wielders natural magical talents, and the kingdom is protected by the best of the best magical users.
  This is the world of Black Clover!

  The Clover Kingdom is home to many different forms of magic with a huge variety of skill and power. The kingdom itself is divided into three sections: The Noble, think the most stuck up elitist country club you can think of. The Common section, the are of the nation where most of the people who idolize royalty and their powers. And the Forsaken section, in the anime’s own words this is where the common folk live. The Noble area is in the middle of the nation and the common area surrounds it and the Forsaken surrounds both.

  It’s in the Forsaken area that the series starts. In small town with a run-down church and a demon’s skull on the horizon. We find out our two protagonists were left as infants at this rundown church to be raised by the priest. Even as infants there are extremes in their personalities. Yuno is the quieter and more reserved of the two and Asta is the loud mouthed, heart on his sleeve buffoon.

  As the two infants grow up these personality traits are just one of the reasons that Asta and Yuno are treated so differently. As a theme perception and how people are treated based on that runs very strongly through the entire series. The nobility and royalty as a whole look down on anyone that wasn’t lucky enough to be born into one of their families. Folks that live in the common area understand their place, and because of that never let any one under them forget. The common folk are farmers, trades people, or labourers and as their magic is a drop in the ocean compared to noble magic power, Commoners are often treated as animals.

  Asta and Yuno are on opposite ends of the magical power scale. Yuno is seen to be a genius level mage that can rival royals. Asta on the other hand can’t manage a basic spell. When it comes time to get their grimoires the two go to a nearby town where there is a ceremony in a library for all the 15-year-olds in the area. Yuno is chosen by an especially powerful grimoire which prompts a couple of noble kids to voice their distain for this low-born scum getting such a powerful Grimoire. Their views on Commoners are only exemplified when Asta is left standing with open arms and no Grimoire, which is essentially unheard of.

  Asta doesn’t let much get in his way to become the Wizard King, the most powerful mage in the entire clover kingdom only second in authority to the king of the nation, so even though he doesn’t get his own Grimoire he still shouts to everyone that will listen that he will be Wizard King. He does it so much that it gets a little old. Black Clover has more than a few things in common with Shonen Jump’s massive series Naruto, and Asta’s entire personality seems cloned from Naruto and than had the volume turned up. It’s not an entirely negative point though. There’s a reason Naruto as a series did so well for 15 years, and Naruto Uzumaki’s determination and sincerity was always a bright point of the series.

  Asta has the best and most annoying qualities of Naruto, but it’s almost always perfectly balanced by the supporting cast. Yuno is Asta’s rival from day one, and although there are more than a few comparisons to be made about Yuno and Asta vs. Naruto and Sasuke, the most refreshing aspect of Yuno and Asta’s relationship is that they aren’t begrudging rivals. Instead they are brothers that always push each other harder to achieve their dream: To be the Wizard King, and protect everyone they love. These two orphaned boys from one of the smallest villages want to become Wizard King and although they know nobility will more than likely have more power and have more chances to sit on the throne the only person that made stand in their way is each other. From episode 1-to-50 no matter their challenges they have faith the other will pull through because neither of them will let the other get ahead.

  It’s the relationships that set this anime apart. They aren’t particularly nuanced or complicated. Many of the characters have become jaded due to one thing or another in their lives, but coming across Asta reignites their passions. Asta’s determination and confidence starts to seep into the insecure people around them pushing them to new levels of strength. Even Yuno changes expectations every time he makes a move.

  The production values don’t start super high in the first 10 episodes. Background characters don’t have faces drawn in, the landscapes are basic fields with a few trees, and buildings are basic rectangles with little detail. This was to make it cheaper and most likely easier to animate in the beginning before the series proved its legs. There is a marked difference by the time the 15th episode rolls around. More varied character designs, fight scene become incredible frenetic and exciting, and city scenes become incredibly unique and lively. It’s worth paying attention to the details just to see how interest in a series can really change how it looks.

  Black Clover is setting up for a long run as an anime. By episode 50 the most we know as the viewer is the name of the enemies. We don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing, where they came from, who works for them, or even what their ultimate power is. Not to mention the secret surrounding Asta’s mysterious power and Yuno’s unique Grimoire. The pace isn’t even that slow! An arc of two or three episodes will end with some wind down, but more often than not we’re already getting hints of what the next mission/adventure will be.

  The series is available to episode 48 dubbed in English and up to episode 50 Sub-titled (as of writing this on September 25, 2018). The English voice over is quite good: The actors are enthusiastic and give lots of energy, but have a good handle on the quieter intimate moments. There are a few characters that stand out in a bad way because they sound more cartoonish than most, looking at you Nash. More than likely this is an issue that crept up due to the pool of talent available. It may have been as simple as taking anyone available for a character with only a few lines of dialogue, or a voice actor who does lines for a main character may need to change their voice a lot to make sure there isn’t any sound a like.

  Black Clover is an entirely enjoyable anime with a lot of energy and flash! It isn’t completely unique taking inspiration from some magnificent series like Naruto, Dragon Ball, and Berserk with some great success, but there are times that they aren’t inspirations but crutches for the series to lean on. The real secret to the series is even though there is a clear main character, Asta is more a catalyst to make things happen in the world and not the only being that can make the things happen. If you enjoy a sincere, exciting, adventure anime with characters wielding unique magic, then Black Clover is for you!

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• 

  Shibou

  65/100
  The problems of the Black Clover Adaptation

  While Black Clover is a rather great shonen and good manga, the adaptation takes away from the value, animation mainly. The animation team, which is pierrot, is known for pretty mediocre adaptations. The format they chose for the adaptation is a weekly format, which won't necessarily stop until either cancelled or the part of the series they're covering ends for a while, much like Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. This format isn't necessarily good because it doesn't allow for more time to be spent on animation like a seasonal adaptation does. Take My Hero Academia for example, because the anime is seasonal, Studio Bones not only has enough time to focus on other series once it's done, but it also allows for the animation to be in greater production value for when the adaptation is scheduled to air again, but with the weekly format it cause tons of problems. Such as the need to outsource to other studios which sometimes could be beneficial and other times end up making the animation look like, for lack of better words, complete dogshit. Now i'm not saying the adaptation is completely bad, it has it's high points, but those high points are over shadowed by the amount of low points. The pacing was made to be slower then the mangas(i.e the first couple episodes)so while the manga would be fast at covering the events, the pacing in the anime is often slower and may or may not add filler. One thing i also won't to nitpick is episode 63, which is also the episode where Asta and Ladros fought. The episode was phenomenal in my opinion, it had ambition and great animation effort. Where it fell flat however, lies within the amount of time they had to work on it, the episode was rushed and there were many things unfinished due to the lack of in-house animators and Yoshihara having to use his special connections to push out a rather ambitious episode, the ambitious vision Tatsuya Yoshihara had wasn't able to be completely realized due to pierrot's lack of concern for the BC team, i don't know if i should phrase it like that but that's how it is just about, Pierrot has too much going on right now and in my opinion should switch to a seasonal format for it's adaptations rather than long running, it helps out with animation effort and production value and quality. It makes sure animators aren't overworked and have enough time to work on each episode accordingly, and makes sure the manga keeps a good distance from the more recent chapters so we don't get 100+ filler episodes just to finish 1 arc, that is a problem that Naruto Shippuden suffered from greatly from during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Now i won't lie, this adaptation has a ton of negatives but don't let that deter you from a rather great series, it does have it's really well animated episodes, such as 1, 2, 4, 17, 34-35 49, 63(in my opinion), 80-84, and the more recent 91 that aired today. Is the adaptation bad? It has it's downpoints but isn't entirely bad, is it good? It takes a while to get used to the bad animation but becomes tolerable once used to it, i just want new fans going in with what to expect, or to read the manga instead. Hopefully this long ass essay helps any newer fans. Please correct some of my points if any of you find something to be false or disagree with it. Just know that bad animation shouldn't deter any of you from an otherwise good series.

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• 

  AniBlade

  70/100
  Thoughts on Asta and Yuno (+Noelle) after Black Clover Episode 93

  I got to say Black Clover Ep. 93 was awesome. I wish most of the anime would have been like/similar to this but eh, I'm no the one making the anime. There were other episodes like this tho. I believe the story and the world are really great. The animation is off and on; sometimes it's really bad and sometimes its really good, but for the most part its alright. The visuals are good to me, the scenery and character design are good as well. I would say the main problem for me in the entire show is probably the characters themselves. Don't get me wrong, they all have good character development but its their usual personality thats off-putting especially recently.

  Asta is like Naruto but annoying and less likable. They have a similar backstory, goal and personality, but Asta is just a worse version. Asta passes the trials he goes through way too easily. The time he could lost the use of his arms forever by a curse, he instantly brightened his personality with no one's help or guidance and claimed that he will never have the thought of giving up again (I know this was a deep moment in the manga but in the anime it wasn't) and when he awakened his powers and wasn't comsumed by the power because of that same ideology was fitting since he already conquered that never giving up mentality, but it was still too easy for that to happen when overcoming a strong presence such as that with mentality (but again I don't really know what that presence was for sure). I know Asta went through depression and sense of failure that one time in the beginning when he didn't receive his grimoire yet and he completely gave up, but that's the only time he seemed to be completely lost and it was really short. It wasn't enough of time to get the feeling of strong sympathy for him when it lasted less than a day.

  Yuno is a character who's trying to be cool (maybe a Sasuke to a Naruto type of thing) but his character development isn't that great and tbh its kind of dull. We haven't seen much of his struggles or efforts in getting stronger, but when we do see it, it looks like he gets instantly more powerful without any signs of how and when the fuck did that happen? It's the same with his desire in becoming the Wizard King which barely shows compared to Asta who explodes with it. It's like Yuno is only the pressure and motivation for Asta to be become the Wizard King and he isn't actually aiming for it or if Asta doen't get it, he's just the backup. Isn't he suppose to be the second protaganist or was he just the sidekick character who's just a close friend and rival to the MC?

  Noelle isn't a good tsundere; in fact it's a bit annoying and lame when she acts like that. It's obvious she likes him, I think everyone else knows. but doesn't say anything except the oblivious MC like always. Charlotte is a way better tsundere since, she doesn't show she likes Yami that much, but you can tell by her actions like the one time at the festival. Even Vanessa could tell she was a rival because of her womanly instincts.

  The rest of the character are fine, some are great but Asta and Yuno have some personality issues that make them not-so-great of a main cast (Noelle is just a bad tsundere, but she alright besides that).

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