Black Clover

"If you flip the 10, it becomes a 01!" -Some Jerk

Let me preface this pre-review by saying this, I am in love with this series, but for all the wrong reasons. Black Clover, or, Black Clover as the gringos say, is the sophomore effort of mangaka Yuuki Tabata, and it is a far cry from his debut work, Hungry Joker. Hungry Joker had the unfortunate fate of being axed by the higher-ups at WSJ, thus is the fate of most new kids on the block who don't have a proper sense of what they are doing or are given little time to spread their wings. ... I'm not attempting to white-knight Hungry Joker or anything, but the politics at WSJ are as murky as the Academy Awards Committee. While it wasn't exactly a Dostoyevsky or Hemmingway, Hungry Joker on a conceptual level at least had a fun gimmick to play around with. Couple that with some pretty unique character models and a good sense of panel-work, it easily had the potential to grow into something much greater than it ever did.

I imagine Tabata's frame of mind when conjuring up the idea for his follow-up was one of both pragmatism and...a cheeky disregard for creativity. Black Clover is one of the most creatively bankrupt series I have ever had the pleasure of watching or reading. I am utterly convinced that Tabata wrote this as a cheeky retaliation/statement against the higher-ups at WSJ, and no amount of rationalizing or fanboying can change that perception for me. Black Clover is terrible, it's like the shonen equivalent of The Room except it gets away with convincing people that it's good. The only thing Black Clover is good at is highlighting how by-the-numbers this style of series can get.

Briefly touching on the technicals of this series, the voice acting is god awful. Asta's voice actor has one setting and one setting only, although that has been covered ad nauseam. He makes Junko Takeuchi's work as Naruto seem warm and inviting like Morgan Freeman. It is probably the only time watching a series that it actually elicited a physical reaction from me. Although, as a small caveat, if you attempt to watch this series from the perspective of someone knowing what they are signing up for, the subbed version adds an extra layer of grease to this disgustingly satisfying sandwich. I.e. if you want the genuine Black Clover experience, the voice acting is like icing on that cake.

The animation is in a middling ground of both extremes. It can be good when it wants to and it can also skimp on its budget when it needs to. I feel that Tabata's art style wasn't properly translated from panel to screen. I have conflicting feelings on the animation though. Had the source material been in more capable hands like Bones or Madhouse, I feel that it could've been leaning more towards "beautiful spectacle" territory as opposed to "beautifully terrible". So despite my compliments to Tabata's art style, the mediocre animation mostly serves to its benefit.

Now that the technicals are out of the way, I feel I shouldn't even have to harp all that much on the story and characters. If you've watched Naruto, if you've watched Fairy Tail, if you have even a basic knowledge of writing propensities when it comes to shonen and fantasy, you've already gotten a taste of Black Clover. The story is bereft of shallow gimmicks and instead opts to stuff itself full of cliches and archetypes. The overarching storyline and subplots all have parallels to other works and the characters all have doppelgangers floating around in some other manga.

So why the 10? Honestly, I'm not even really sure myself. They say that there are certain series that require you to take a step back or a dumbed-down open mind to enjoy. I don't even really feel either of those things are required to watch and enjoy Black Clover. I've seen what it looks like when it earnestly feels like Tabata is trying, and he has a lot of genuinely good qualities to the way he draws and writes his manga. In fact, I have no doubt that this series has the potential to grow into something greater than the sum of its parts considering that it hasn't been given the axe at this stage. Black Clover was not a labor of love or a passion project, that is apparent to me. From my perspective, Black Clover is a frustrated and rebellious statement on the current status of shonen manga and the politics that goes into publication. Because honestly, it takes a real genius to write something this stupid. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into it?

Whatever the case may be, Black Clover is my ultimate guilty pleasure and I wave that 10 with pride.

No long running show and fanbase has got as much disrespect as Black Clover(ok, Boruto probably has got more). Yet, the fans have stuck by it for years and as Black Clover’s story continues to surpass its limits, their loyalty is finally paying off.

Black Clover is a show that is in many ways the literal embodiment of its protagonist’s struggle. Asta goes from being the laughingstock of town to the literal saviour of the kingdom. During that internal journey, we also watched the anime gradually evolve and get better as time went on. Production qualities seemingly increased as the popularity increased as well. Asta’s journey ... is extremely satisfying and well written. It’s done so well in fact, that it feels like we’ve been on this journey right with Asta. Everyone loves a feel good underdog story. There’s been no bigger underdog than Black Clover.

For me, the mark of a well written series is how well you’re able to immerse yourself and truly feel apart of the story. When I first got into Black Clover a couple of years ago, I was easily able to binge the first 99 episodes which were out up to that point in the span of a few days. Episodes went by in what felt like a breeze. I found myself in awe at the quality of writing and the magical concepts used. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why so many people shit on the series or rated it lowly.

I’ve said numerous times that if Black Clover went seasonal, it would be one of the highest rated Jump Series. The story is better than MHA and JJK. What has unfortunately been the big bump in the road for BC is the inconsistent production quality throughout. At points, Pierrot have literally had to beg on Twitter for people to help out with episodes. Fortunately, the series is going on hiatus due to how close its getting to the manga, and I really hope Pierrot use this opportunity to make it a seasonal show after the movie. The long running anime model is dead, and doesn’t give animation staffs the time they need to make high quality episodes.

If you’re on the fence about watching Black Clover, do it. Yes, it has some inconsistent animation at times, but the story is genuinely the best in shonen. Loveable characters, an immersive world and amazing action sequences make Black Clover one of the only ongoing shonen that I enjoy. Black Clover gets 10 grimoires out of 10.

Black Clover is not for everyone, I’ll admit. It’s the trashiest to mid-tier Shounen series out there that manages to gravitate to a certain group of viewers with its cliches, tropes, and generic power fantasy. It lacks anything substantial or impactful. It doesn’t reinvent the Shounen wheel or elevates it. It’s a lackluster written series that exists purely for entertainment for people like me--who self indulges in battle shounen without a second thought--even if it’s the same type of blueprint that I’ve seen before, but with its own modifications. Thus, I don’t have any hate or resentment directed towards this controversial series. I simply can’t. ...

I’ve been following the series since its inception. I’ve read and re-read its source material and, I can say it does improve--for a Black Clover standard, that is. This series received hate, backlash, and terrible reception since the onset of its TV anime. And to nobody’s surprise, it’s the most hated series of modern Shounen--2014 and onwards, right after the era of the big three. If there’s any advice I can give for people interested in watching this series, it is to go into it for pure entertainment. Be open-minded, have low expectations, ignore the hate, and watch it for yourselves.

Black Clover anime started ugly. The pacing, sheer predictability, genericness, and the dreadful usage of Shounen tropes turned off people--understandably so. But for me, I loved it. I loved it not because it was good, but because it was the purest generic anime that was not afraid for what it was. It knows its production was constrained. It knows its plot and characters took “inspiration” from previous works with few tweaks here and there, and most importantly, it knows its target audience. With this, once the show solved its pacing issues, it quickly flew from arc to arc with hype moments after hype moments, and all I did was to turn off my brain and enjoy the shit show.

To provide some examples, after the dungeon expedition arc, Asta, Noelle, Yuno, and some other magic knight squad members were summoned for recognition medals. In that banquet, the show introduced more of its supporting casts. It demonstrated its power system, characters’ abilities, showcased some of its societal structure and prejudices, and then jumped straight to the Clover Kingdom’s invasion.

Throughout this invasion arc, it entertained me by never letting go of its accelerator. All the Magic Knight captains that were introduced previously got their moments to show off. Whether be their magic or personality, it showed all of it. The show then exploits each of its newly introduced characters to the limit by having them interact and fight alongside each other. The dynamics between characters such as Fuegoleon and Nozel, Asta, Yuno, and Noelle, Yami and Jack, provided the fun. It’s cheap, it’s lazy, but it worked so well for a braindead like me.

The other aspect of Black Clover’s storytelling is the seamless transition from an arc to another. If some terrorists brutally wounded a beloved character, the most logical route is for the main casts to go after them. And they do. If the vice-captain of the Golden Dawn is acting out of character, the most logical thinking is to seek out the true identity. And they do.

How do they do it? They do it by the classic shounen way: Tournament arc--my favorite aspect of mindless battle shounen.

But along the way, the show plants some seeds of suspicion--there’s something more sophisticated with the adversaries that the Clover Kingdom were up against. It’s these careful hints here and there that made the grand finale of Black Clover’s first saga a memorable one. And it is in my humble opinion that the first saga of Black Clover is one of the best of modern shounen. The finale wrapped up every plot point presented up to then, it concluded characters’ development until that point, and it answered every question along the way. Not to mention, the final plot twist was a phenomenon to be held.

Yuki Tabata’s writing isn’t anything revolutionary. He takes inspiration and does his own twists. He utilizes whatever skills he has got at his disposal and tells his own story within the Shounen genre’s confinement. And I enjoyed every second of it. I have no regrets.

As I aforementioned, Black Clover’s production was severely constrained. From the start, the anime lacked staffing--specifically, key animators and animation directors--and had an unsustainable schedule. Before the first episode of Black Clover even premiered, the Black Clover anime production team was given only 5 months of pre-production, for a long-running battle shounen. To put it into perspective, a 12 episode regular anime usually takes a year of pre-production. Thus, it’s no surprise that the animation in Black Clover declined significantly soon after it began airing. As that happened, it’s also reported that some of the staff working on the anime had gone through physical and mental exhaustion, which they eventually fell ill.

Now, why does it matter?

Well, it doesn’t--at least from a show’s quality standpoint. But then I don’t want to clown on Black Clover’s animation either because of this information. I know the animation and art are inconsistent; the consensus is that Black Clover’s animation is inconsistent. It can be mindblowing for a single episode, and then for the next 10 to 20 episodes can range from unbearable to mediocracy. I can list every single flaw of Black Clover’s art and animation, but then that would be repetitive since I’m sure those aspects have been talked about over the years. Lastly, I’m fine with it. I’m okay with its inconsistency in art and animation because I love this series. I grew up with it, I enjoyed it, and I’m willing to forgive its flaws.

If you have read this far, I just want to thank you for taking your time.

Score: 5/10

This is the first time that I'll be reviewing a long-running series, so spare the pardon if there's any for pleasantries. But without further ado..."Please marry me, Sister Lily! I won't give up until I've hit my limits!"

"If you flip the 10, it becomes a 01!" - Some Jerk a.k.a remember how Black Clover was despised by everyone?

Black Clover is one of the many myriad of Shonen shows that Weekly Shonen Jump has been banking on imitating the success Shueisha once had since the diminishing of the Big 3 (One Piece, Bleach, Naruto), alongside many other WSJ titles that have constantly received headlines for breaking ... sales and adaptations that make up the modern age of the anime landscape. Unfortunately, at a time when the Big 3 were all but fizzled out of the community's eyes, there was but one mangaka amongst the many other Shonen authors who were trying to get the attention of Weekly Shonen Jump to have their works publicized...his name is Yuki Tabata. Being a sophomore into the manga industry, his first work of the short-lived and then cancelled 3-volume long Hungry Joker was not received well, and if you know anything about the intense competition of Weekly Shonen Jump: "If your manga doesn't sell well, we will take it off indefinitely without trial. We have more titles that we are ever ready to sink our time and resources into promoting new material and publicity to the large population who are always ever hungry for more." OK, shame on you for the first try. But take a look at his second work...and yet it still doesn't sell when this came out in early 2015 when it was serialized in WSJ. But Shueisha at least had a good idea that while this work started off being blantantly and averagely similar to the Big 3 in terms of the story and plot, and so they released the first volume thereafter in June of the same year. And to say the rest is history is an understatement, because even in the Oricon charts, Yuki Tabata just couldn't do enough to maintain the growing popularity of his work, only selling within the Top 25 and not even cracking the Top 10, even after the anime adaptation came out (at least for the 1st year running). It's only through the sheer talent of director Tatsuya Yoshihara and his production team at Studio Pierrot that would propel this "then infamous, now famous" work into the greatest of great oblivion with the passing of time, that Yuki Tabata finally can breathe a heavy sigh and continue developing Black Clover into one of the many modern Shonen juggernauts that we know today, selling from the thousands to the millions.

I'm not gonna say that what Yuki Tabata did here was plentiful, the story plot was rife of a roller-coaster ride of the usual Shonen tropes and cliches that quickly garnered attention as one of the worst series to be published and then through Studio Pierrot's infamous low-budget visuals, another strike as one of the worst modern Shonen shows that aired back in 2017. Heck, I probably would not want to include what Black Clover is all about, you can refer to the MAL synopsis or even Wikipedia to read it. In a nutshell, think of the Big 3 and the main MC's aspiration of "I want to be <fill in the blanks of the usual Shonen archetype>", add in a fellow rival, and there you have it. It feels just as awful as any kind of minimalistic story from the start, and the usual shenangians from some heavy power fantasy action to the occasional comedy that just doesn't feel as cohesive, and that's not to mention the immense boredom that quickly sets in if you're not the type to stick around for just "one more chapter". Not gonna lie, the first thing that everyone will remember is the crudely annoying MC that is Asta, especially in particular towards newbie VA Gakuto Kajiwara at the time when he first debuted with Asta. Try to compare the criticisms from Day 1 of the anime to now, and most people will say: "I still remember the days when people hated his voice days after his debut on Black Clover. Although I also wasn't very fond of it too, I found it very funny later, gotta love him and his voice acting now." or "I used to think that he (Gakuto Kajiwara) did a bad job with Asta...I take back what I said. His voice matches Asta completely and it's not bad at all, I've gotten used to it overtime." We've come a long way, friends. To see a rookie VA on his first debut getting flamed for all the wrong reasons, to now seeing the light that no one can replace Gakuto Fujiwara for the long-term investment.

Overtime, we get to see the extensive character cast of Black Clover, and I'm still going to rely on my gut feelings here: each and everyone of them feels like cardboard cut-outs that are worth surmising to invoke the feelings of just blantantly plagarizing from other Weekly Shonen Jump works, and that's where Yuki Tabata can be faulted with trying to make do of the cliches and tropes of the Shonen genre that worked well at the time. The problem is with his way of execution of character traits that we've seen way too often to try lifting inspirations from one source to another, so much so that it becomes overbearing and full of cringe. Let's say Asta's rival Yuno. He's a skilled Wind Magic user, blessed by the gods to have magnificent power for OP prodigy powers, and as indicated by the magic books known as Grimoires: he's the four-lead clover magic user. Now tell me if any of those traits are lifted whether in and out of context of similar characters you might have seen throughout your read list of Shonen lookalikes. But as further evidenced, it's with the passing of time that helps distinguish each and every character to their types and whatnot, giving us the audience enough time to digest about what makes them tick and work, and appreciate them for their presence to the different progressing story arcs of the main series.

You know me, I'm very critical when it comes to studio productions, and Studio Pierrot to me, stands as one of the worst studios to ever exist, even if they adapt works that often lose out on the quality of the source materials that fans so desired to see on the small screen. Black Clover is no different with the stigma that Pierrot productions tend to have, and for 1001 good reasons. But once again, like I've said at the beginning, it's thanks to director Tatsuya Yoshihara for helming this long-running project that has seen its fair shares of highs and lows. Black Clover might've started on the wrong foot for being the similar case towards Studio Deen at being decades-old studios with variable quality, for the test of time stands between the production staff team to stand in the gap and make their efforts worth it, and the payoff was certainly worth it in the long-run that was only destined to run for the full length of a year, that subsequently got lengthened and amounted to 3.5 years worth of time that increased the hype with some episodes having the Asta trademark of "I will hit my limits!" that expressively shared the experience of sticking in the long-run. AND BOY, DO THOSE EPISODES DELIVER with at best 9-turned-10/10 ratings that even trended on Twitter. YES, Black Clover IS BIG in both Japan and the West, and with Crunchyroll being the biggest benefactor that this show has garnered the No. 1 top spot in 80+ countries, you can't certainly lie at where Black Clover is now with the insane popularity. To that I say, great job Pierrot for making me love a show that I now endear as one of the many Shonen long-running series that I can recommend.

Even the music can't be understated. For as many as 13 sets of OSTs within the 3.5 year long run of Black Clover, we've definitely heard some "diamond in the rough" gems that we've gotten used to overtime, with many songs that really stick out to be the series' representatives when it comes to recognizing that it originated from Black Clover. Sound director Hajime Takakuwa certainly did wonders at what he does best, but for this one I have to give props to the many artists that have contributed cult-classic songs, from the OPs: Kankaku Piero's "Haruka Mirai" to Vickeblanca's hit songs "Black Rover" and "Black Catcher", and EDs: Itowokashi's "Aoi Honoo" to Faky's "four". These are just some of my top favourite songs from Black Clover, but there's just too many to list them, because most of them are bangers in their own right (with some just being decent at best).

Like what @Goober-fish has said: "Whatever the case may be, Black Clover is my ultimate guilty pleasure and I wave that 10 with pride." And I reverse the words of some jerk that said the sentence at the beginning: "If you flip the 01, it becomes a 10!" Black Clover may have started with being a score of 01, but looking at it now, it's definitely worthy of the 10 score in every possible way: the story that got better overtime with the characters, the insane Pierrot animation quality and right down to the fantastic OSTs that we are graced with to our pairs of eyes and ears.

Never have I thought that I will return from a hatred of a stigma to loving them for Shonen shows, and even if I or you have never watched the Big 3 before, Black Clover is EASILY the best recommended entry show for anyone wanting to dive into Shonen shows...that's if you can last all 170 episodes in one go. Thanks Black Clover, now it's no longer just a guilty pleasure, and I'm an addition to wearing that 10 with pride.

We used to have Big 3 when it comes to anime including shows like Naruto, One piece, and Dragonball. Throw Fairytail in there also. Now as those shows are going away we look to replace them and this show was supposed to be one of those shows hyped to the point it crashed streaming websites when it released. The thing is all this show has are the bad parts of the Big 3. The story also wants to be compared to them and since it is I'm going to compare them here.

The story is about a boy who can't use magic but through some stroke ... of determination and luck gets a powerful magic only he can use. I purposely manipulating this to sound like Boku no hero academia. Both main characters don't have something commonplace in this world just to get one of the strongest options somehow. Now we can compare it to Naruto, where all they did was replace Hokage with Wizard King as that is our main characters main goal to be the one over them all. Then you have Fairytail's magic elements on top of the fact he basically joined the Fairytail guild and yada yada yada. You have probably had these comparisons drilled into your head by now. All you need to know is this show doesn't do any of things nearly as well as the others except for maybe Fairytail that one is being debated by everyone. And before I move on when the second episode is filler that tells you this show isn't going to have good things to come. The pacing of the show is horrendous as it starts off super slow then starts moving very quickly and slows down again. They even negate some things turning some episodes into nothing but filler that added nothing to the characters development. (No saying it won't make you like a character more or not but objectively it adds nothing.)

The art is good. I don't love it but it's not bad at all the magic looks really good but that's the only thing I really like about it everything else I find around meh.

The music is all that special to me either. No songs still out to me as good or bad because I can't even remember them as it really isn't anything special. But there is one thing that I will get into with characters. The japanese voice actors are perfectly cast and that's not exactly a good thing. ( more on that later.)

Time to let loose the characters.
Asta is the main character of this story and like I said before he can't use magic but you need magic to pretty much do anything in this world as people without it are unheard of except for him. Honestly, all he knows how to do is scream at the top of his lungs I mean listening to him makes me want to blow my brains out. This makes Dragonball look tame and people joke about that all the time. You might grow numb to his voice over time or you might not, either way, you might want to seek out the dub instead. But he is determined although he can't use magic he trains his heart out all day working on his physical abilities and ends up with a grimoire something signifying magic in this world. But his is special as these books all have clovers 1-4 usually 4 being very impressive but our magicless protagonist gets a 5 leaf which means he as the power of the devil or something like that which lets him use a huge sword like another story we know that cuts down magic and negates it completely. Overall his character is super annoying and his ability just leaves me bored as this isn't the first useless main character is actually useful story and I would rather watch any one of those at this point.

The other main character I'm going to go over is our token overpower rival character Sauske... sorry I mean Gray, No Yuno, yeah Yuno. Yuno gets a 4 leaf is naturally good at magic and our main character uses him as a motivation get stronger. He is a rather emotionless character that looks up to Asta determination because he saved him this one time. I'm just going to cut it there and say this character means nothing to me.

The side characters (guild members.) can be very similar to fairytail, We have a chick that drinks a lot and wears rather lewd clothing like kana. a overbearing and energetic character like natsu. a powerful and serious like gildarts occasionally can be, etc.

Overall, unless you love shonen anime do not touch this with a ten-foot pole. Watch the shows this wants to replace instead at least you don't have to wait for new episodes. and you have watched them watch them again. This show has nothing redeemable so far maybe it will and I'm going to keep watching because I'm shonen trash. But so far this is a complete garbage can of a show. I'm not saying you can't enjoy this but it's really not good.

Black Clover has probably had the best and most significant turnaround in quality of any anime series I’ve seen so far, and it surely deserves all the praise and hype that it gets now as it trends worldwide more often than not, earning itself (in my book) the title of being a quality shounen series.

I think we can all agree that Black Clover started off quite poorly. Bad voice acting, bad animation, it was just overall shit. Having started later throughout the series’s release (around episode 120), I decided to stick around in the promise of it improving thanks to word of mouth by fans ... of the series, and it paid off. Little by little, episode after episode, I began to notice that more quality and care was being put into each episode. I began to enjoy this series more and more until I was up to date, going all the way up to the final episode, becoming one of my most anticipated series currently airing, alongside with One Piece and a few other seasonals.

Instead of writing 5 or 6 bullshit paragraphs to fill up space and to seem sophisticated and bash on about the series’s bad points, I’ll sum things up with a list of pros and cons, and it’ll be up to you whether you’ll heed my wisdom and watch the show.

Pros:
- All the openings are 10/10 bangers
- There are loads of hype fight scenes with excellent animation to match
- Some of the villains and protagonists are excellently written, fleshed out & compelling
- The power scale is balanced well and the characters progress smoothly as the series progresses
- Most members in the Black Bulls get a dedicated arc to flesh their characters out
- All the climactic fight scenes are hype as fuck (kept me glued to the screen)
- Not much fan service pushed in our faces like other shounen series, with exception of a couple of juicy scenes/ending card sprinkled in
- Yami Sukehiro

Cons:
- Asta’s yelling (though it stops around episode 15 or so)
- Poor animation (until after the first main arc, also due to being a weekly series)
- Some of the smaller villains are just pointless and badly written
- Most of the characters are your standard character tropes
- Not much relationship development as some of the characters are thick as lead or too tsundere and are afraid of rejection
- 17 filler episodes, though considered low for a long running shounen series
- The anime catching up to the manga and having to slow down by introducing an anime canon training arc (before the time skip occurs)
- The smaller character arcs go by too quickly

I could’ve added the point of it being “clichéd”, but that is a superficial argument that could be said about every and any shounen/action series you can think of.

Although it’s sad to see this show end for now, which is sorely needed as the manga needs to get far ahead, I hope this break will prove beneficial for future adaptations of this series if they decide to go with seasonal releases. I’m hoping the series will continue to work it’s magic (pun intended), as you cannot deny the wild success and popularity that it has endured up until now.

Black Clover is a solid 8/10.

I hate this show. It’s horrible. Don’t watch it.

The story is a horribly crafted compilation of clichés I’m 65 chapters in and I still don’t know anything about the world. What is magic? How does it work? Why sometimes a grimoire is needed to do magic and sometimes not with no apparent reason? Why mana usage is only relevant sometimes and others is completely ignored? How does mana work? How is it used to do magic? The kingdom has 2 kings the normal king and the Wizard king, what do they do? Which one rules over the other? Is the wizard king just the head ... of the knights? At one point they state that the society is merit based but they treat Asta and Yuno like commoners constantly regardless of their achievements just to make some characters look like assholes. And a lot more inconsistencies like Asta’s power and how it’s underestimated despite it being the most OP power of the show because he can LITERALY CANCEL ALL MAGIC IN A WORLD WHERE MAGIC IS THE CENTER OF SOCIETY. I could go on but I would be here all day.

The art is simply the worst I have ever seen, the animation is generic at it’s peak and horrible most of the time.

The sound design is horribly irritating and I’m not even talking of the voice acting the sound effects and the OST are annoying as hell specially the silly trumpet theme they play at every poor attempt at comedy.

Every character is a waking cliché with little to o development and some of them just change their personality dramatically just for the sake of the plot. Asta is just the good for nothing shonen protagonist that wants to be the best in the world but has a disadvantage that has to overcome which isn’t necessarily bad but it’s so poorly executed that it makes it infuriating just to watch. Noelle is just the proud tsundere that is insecure in the inside. And the side characters are just a joke repeated over and over, Yami is always taking a dump, Vanessa is drunk and half naked Charmy eats a lot Luck wants to fight and so on, some of them have had flashbacks explaining why they do this things but they are so generic and boring that they only make it worse.


It personally amuses me that this pile of trash is being broadcasted in TV at it’s current state and absolutely no one says anything. This show is a waste of time, don’t throw away hours of your life like I did.

Black Clover has received tons of hate and criticism, so my role here is to make it clear; why someone should go for it or ignore it. Of course, there are many flaws, but it is undeniable that some things were handled well for a battle shounen anime.

Starting as an adventure of two brothers who dive into the world of magic, Black Clover introduces us to a world full of colour, battles and a big number of characters. But aside from that, Tabata Yuuki tries to deliver political and moral messages in his own way. The main arcs revolve around pacifism, trust, hope and positive ... energy; the villains are the complete opposite, thus the protagonists will either end up changing their mind or destroying them. In addition, the hierarchy and political systems are interesting in this one; the satirical presentation of the kingdom’s king, the arrogance of higher-ups and the – unfair – rankings and labels of the Magic Knight squads.

One of the biggest minuses is the power system, how the main characters suddenly gain unreal power and defeat their villains. But the battles are mostly used as fan service and the result includes a moral message that watchers do not care about, and it is not their fault. Although there might be good meaning behind all the fights, it is not easily spotted.

The main reason people like me do not like Black Clover as a whole (don’t get me wrong, some parts are likable), is the ridiculously repetitive comedy, which is not even funny to begin with. Many characters are mostly used for comedic purposes and have their own comedic patterns, and this approach ruins the character part too in this show - even if there are a few exceptions and some good character backstories (Zora, William and some more). And it is not surprising that everyone has heard negative comments about Asta and some main characters, because their repetitive behaviour may end up irritating. In terms of Black Clover comedy, there’s also Petit Clover, which is the short chibi scene at the end of each episode. Fans of chibi anime may check Mugyutto Black Clover too, a short ONA with a good opening song…and nothing more.

The animation is nothing special, but it is colourful and leads to an enjoyable experience. The kingdom’s medieval setting, the different forms of magic and the squad colour patterns are the pros, while the lack of details and spectacular animation are the cons. Mixed feelings on voice acting too, since there were amazing performances and awful ones too. Some of the most noteworthy ones are Suwabe Junichi’s as Yami and Koyama Rikiya’s as Dante.

Soundtrack for dessert, because my words about it can only be sweet. Starting with an amazing combination of OP and ED - kankakupiero’s Haruka Mirai and ITOWOKASHI’S Aoi Honoo – Black Clover never disappointed us with its exceptional opening and ending songs. Many of them are listed on youtube playlists, even by people who have never watched the anime. The battle OST is decent, and the only soundtrack that is poor is the goofy / comedic one, but I don’t take it into consideration since, like I said, the comedic scenes in Black Clover are bad.


To sum up, as far as I’m concerned Black Clover has definitely not been a bad experience overall, but not a good one either. Sometimes it was fun, though the writing and execution lacked a lot and could have done much better. If you ask me if Black Clover is one of the worst shounen anime like many people say, though, I would reply that I’ve seen much worse, and this is the main reason I wrote this review. Any questions and discussion topics will be gladly accepted, feel free to text me.

Thank you for reading!

Black Clover, possibly one of the rockiest starts to an adaptation there is. Once you hit episode 13 or so however, the show becomes this train barrelling at full speed, and god damn it works.

Why? It's not hiding what it is.

Black Clover is a generic, campy Shonen series that has done EVERYTHING you have already seen if you've watched a good amount of Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. But the execution. Black Clover has single-handedly made me enjoy Shonen again, and that's a tough thing to do because I lost almost all interest once Bleach got the axe.

What are some simple reasons of why it ... works so well?
1: Simplicity- think of Hunter X Hunter, but in reverse. Where Hunter X Hunter succeeds in fleshing out it's world to the highest possible extent, Black Clover ignores a ton of world building rules, and just grabs you along for the ride, and it's a good ride at that. Why have this major winding plot when you can just watch 2 rivals duke it out to be the Wizard King?

2: Soundtrack/OPs/Voice Acting(Sub)- Well, while for the first 13-15 episodes Asta's voice actor is decently unbearable, if you manage to stick with the show it is one of the best character performances I think I've ever seen. Every single character (unless they are an irrelevant side character) is oozing personality, and the voice actors definitely help here. When it comes to soundtrack, all 7 openings are absolute bangers, and look incredible too. There is no shortage of artistic liberty here. And then when you get to the soundtrack, this is a massive room for failure, but it succeeds, there are so many tracks and they're all incredibly memorable. Just hearing Yuno's theme is still insane, the show is auditory bliss.

3: Fight Visuals- The bread and butter of a Shonen, with shows like Mob Psycho, One Punch Man season 1 and Bungo Stray Dogs (Yes, they're not Shonen but they are benchmarks) showing me what fight scenes really can be, I was scared if Black Clover would ever live up to anything like them. Episodes 49 and 63 say everything, honestly. (The standard visuals are good, nothing spectacular though.)

Black Clover SHOULD NOT be good, it does nothing to separate itself from what already exists, but the clear love that the manga has been written from and the team behind the anime shows what can happen if you nurture a series to its maturity. I love this show, and I'm incredibly excited to see what will happen with it in the future.

Let me make it perfectly unequivocally clear that this anime, Black Clover, is a gargantuan pile of hot hot salty garbage. It is also perhaps one of the most successful unintentional comedies it has ever been my pleasure to enjoy. Or is it intentional? After 41 episodes, I still find myself unable to say. That, ladies and gentleman, is the magic of Black Clover.

Story:
Imagine the most basic Shounen anime ever. Congratulations, you have just imagined Fairy Tail. Now make that just a little more seedy, and you have just gotten a good handle on what Black Clover is like. Fairy Tail but with ... more violence and sexuality.

The Clover Kingdom is a country that is ruled by a Wizard King and maintained by his Magic Knights. In dinky little bumblefuck village of Hage, two orphans named Asta and Yuno dream of becoming Magic Knights and one day the Wizard king. Yuno is a magic prodigy, Asta is completely devoid of even the smallest shred of magical power. But of course that is no impediment to a main character, and soon he acquires a sword that is able to totally cancel the magic of anybody else. The two rivals set out on a competitive dick-measuring journey to become Wizard Jesus.

It is the prototypical hero's tale, a young determined country bumpkin rises up against all odds and becomes OP as fuk very quickly. Lots of fights, some playful with friendly rivals and some against crazy people who can make lizards out of jelly, ensue. It is comforting in its simplicity and derivativeness. Nothing that requires you to think for a second.

Art:
Started off completely terrible. Really boring and bland, and kind of lazy with a lot of repetition. As the show went on it started to improve dramatically, to the point that the fights in the later arcs actually look really cool. Even the look of the slapsticky comedy moments improved over time, although they still look shitty enough to be lovably awful. The art is a small part of what makes this show such a campy gem.

Sound:
Oh boy. Here we go.
There is one central element of this show that simultaneously makes me hate and love the fuck out of it; it is what both repulsed me and kept me coming back for more. There is no way around it. The voice of the main character, Asta no last name, is the single most annoying sound that it has ever been my pleasure to endure. It is so mind mindbogglingly irritating, it haunts my dreams at night. If it is a genuine attempt to do a serious voice worthy of the protagonist of a long running Shounen battle anime, it is the single worst performance since Ashley Simpson did that hoedown on SNL. If it is an intentional joke, either by the voice actor or the director, it routinely makes me laugh so hard I cry.

Asta screams 100% of the time. He thinks his biggest curse is that he has no magic, but it is really that he has no inside voice. This cat quite literally ends most of his sentences with WHHHAAAAAAAAAAA! Swap him out for Waluigi, nobody would kind the difference.

The music is mostly average, but the OPs have been getting better and better. The first was eminently forgettable, but they have improved to the point where I watch them every time. The endings are universally not worth the time.

Characters:
From the get, the first thing we learn about this world is that everybody sucks. They are all maddeningly childish, most of the time they are being huge dicks to each other, nobody has any concept of personal space, nobody behaves like a human being in the slightest. While this pissed me off royally at first, I have reached a level of Stockholm Syndrome with this show that has left me rather warmly disposed toward almost everybody. Asta is a total spazz, screams all the time, is very dumb, an has no consideration for other people's feelings barring the rare times he can pull himself together and focus. His sword cuts through anything, it is Kryptonite and everybody else is Superman and also made of paper. Yuno's crazy-strong power is air, and that is fitting because he is also completely invisible as far as a personality goes. He wants to beat Asta and become wizard king. It is the only thought he has ever had, it is the only emotion he has ever expressed. Also there is a girl who is there named Noelle, who has water powers and confidence issues and likes Asta and that's about it.

Side characters are so aggressively quirky that I kind of expect to side with any villain who manages to do a nice thorough job of murdering them all. I do have to admit that I kind of love them for it though. Special shout outs to Charmy, a chibi whose magic is to conjure sheep and who is basicaly moe-blob Gluttony from FMA, Luck, a sociopathic child made of lightning and bloodlust, and Sally the mad scientist evil girl who makes salamanders out of Jelly.

Enjoyment:
Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? I really should rate this show a 2 overall, because objectively it is poorly made, annoying, and is covering ground that has already been much more competently trodden by a million shows before it. But the amount of fun I had watching Black Clover leaves me giving it a 10 in enjoyment and an overall 9 for the experience I had following its story's devastating fall down the world's longest flight of stairs. I laughed harder watching this than at anything I can call to recent memory. It is so hilariously inept that is really should be seen and cherished for the shiny, polished turd it is.


In conclusion, if the phrase "so bad it's good" means anything to you at all, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not watching Black Clover. As Asta always screams, his magic is not giving up, and I am so glad he inspired me not to give up on Black Clover just because it was terrible. I am eternally grateful that he did, and my life is richer for the experience.

Now, to finish in true Black Clover style, WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

This past season of anime has been full of adventures, romance, and a bit of strangeness, with the likes of Attack On Titan, Horimiya, and now Redo of the Healer as we have drawn curtains on this action, comedy, shounen adventure show “Black Clover”. This particular anime has stood out as an example of hope during the gloomy snowy days, since it started giving an adventure shounen with a different type of storytelling it’s been quite the journey of 170 episodes. “Black Clover” is an anime series that has been written and illustrated by Yuki Tabata, if you liked “Fairy Tale” then I’m sure you’ll ... love this show as well as for rooting for the underdog characters this show is the one for you if you’re into that.
The show began in 2017, the first few episodes showing the character and protagonist Asta, a brash yet modest peasant without any powers nor capabilities, making do somehow in the society that totally depends on magic for their everyday life usage. In a world where magic determines your rank and social class is not new as we’ve seen in many shows like Fairy Tail, Konosuba, and many more that have come and go but his determination seeks to become the Wizard King despite his position in humanity.

Story ~ 8
Two orphan children, Asta and Yuno are left as babies near the doorstep of a church on the outside border of the Clover Kingdom. The story surrounds the boy Asta, a young boy who’s ostensibly is born without magical powers, while he tries to gain magical powers and the talent to control them. Moved by a desire to become the succeeding wizard king, a consultant character to the clover kingdom, the two protagonists develop a friendly competition. The different features, like humor and the heartwarming moments that this show has helped to build the show from the ground up and build a solid status for the show making it a shounen heavy-duty.

Animations ~ 6
The show in itself isn’t flawless. The animations fell rusty and can be missing consistency. However, all of that can be justified due to the financial issues and creating episodes for almost three years weekly. The only break the show ever took until now was due to the pandemic. Unlike other long-running animes, Black Clover has only had a minority of filler episodes, but some episodes just outshine radiance like the 63rd which is probably the best-animated episode of the show according to me which showed the ultimate dealings with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the reincarnation of the elves. Even though some of the episodes have been phenomenally uncertain and exquisite the animations could’ve been way better.

Sound ~ 8
The music for Black Clover has been always uplifting and up to the point that you can listen to it on repeat. The show has had 10 openings throughout the entirety of the show it’s a bit hard to choose from these 10 which have been the best because the songs were great, but if I had to choose a few I’d say Black Rover from Vickeblanka and Black Catcher from Vickeblanka have been my favorites.

Characters ~ 7
Asta is that one guy who’s an underdog who’s in the world of magic but does not know magic. He’s a little simple yet humble and loud protagonist who strives to excel even though his hindrances Yuno on the other hand is enormously talented and a natural when it comes to controlling magic and its incredible use. At the age of 15, both boys set out to receive extraordinary books called grimoires which help each conduit their own power. The characters are persistent and crave the hunger to change to become better than they were before to become a man that can overcome all. Throughout every character goes to the phase to transform into a newer self and becoming a new person altogether. This show does not go on easy on character developments as one has to perceiver long to change into someone they want to be.

Overall ~ 8
Though this anime had made a bad impression on me while it was just beginning because of Asta’s strident temperament and a methodic set up, those who’ve stuck with the show have grown to like it to some extent eventually. By now, this show will often be considered a contestant among the likes of Ao No Exorcist, Soul Eater, Naruto, Bleach, and My Hero Academia in the shounen genre. The show's charm has grown slowly climbing the stairs of success so much that it is close to impossible for an anime fan like me to not come across it. Reviews about a show break or make a show, but for me, the expression of the anime has changed drastically from not even being interested in the show to yeah I’ve got to watch the next episode I can’t wait. It’s unavoidably popular now, which helps it to qualify for the Jump’s “Big Three” now and the show just keeps on giving.
From being just an average shounen genre show to being Crunchyroll’s “Most Popular Anime of Winter In 2020” capturing the top 20 most widely held titles and the top most popular anime ranked in UK, Canada, Mexico, Russia, France, and Germany. It certainly isn’t for every anime watcher over there and it starts slow as well until its 20th episode as well, but trust me it gets great, the character developments, the animations, if you’re looking to watch something new in the shounen genre this could just be your cup of tea.
The show became wonderful.

I don't know what happened, but the anime to me is a complete joke. I enjoyed the manga alot, and to be fair i did like different things like the art and how everything was animated, that wasn't bad. However the sound, the progression, transitions were all disgusting for what this could have been.

Sound
- it felt like the voice actors came cheap and they picked whoever offered to do it. It sounded terrible it didn't feel like most of the voice actors even fit with the characters
-The sound gets irritating as well from basically how bad it all played out. Especially if their shouting ... or screaming is annoying, ASTA.
-music decent, wasn't bad
Progression
-There is no feeling of progression that you typically see in these types of shounen animes where the main character grows with experience. we're just left with some kid who bring out some swords from a book, feels like the real progression are left with the side characters.
Transition
-this mainly ties in with the sound, but adding onto their terrible voice acting the way it shifts lines from character to narrator to character is stupid, i hate it.

Story- it's your typical generic shounen type of setting of hoping to achieve something great with hard work and overcoming obstacles. It is not a bad type of story and has alot of potential to be interesting.
Art- The magic looked really cool, the fighting was well animated and smooth.
Characters- generic but interesting characters, tsundere good for nothing rich girl, naruto like attitude big sword wielding kid, OP do it all magic rival, etc. yep, not that bad.

Enjoyment- really low, the voice acting just totally strips any type of immersion. you start to get into it "maybe it's not that bad" terrible voice acting, bad transitions, and Asta annoying screaming "nevermind"

Black Clover has taken 2 years of my life. Was it worth it? Probably not, but it has yielded some interesting things to think about.

Its biggest crime is that the author can't write characters for shit. Stupid two-dimensional characterisation prevents it from being something greater. Cool moments occasionally make their way through hours of rubbish comedy and boring sequences led by paper-thin characters repeating their one personality trait over and over again. Let me share with you a drinking game I've come up with, where you take a shot everytime one of these things happen:

1. Asta is impressed by something
2. Noelle says a cartoonishly typical ... tsundere phrase
3. Noelle has family issues
4. Luck wants to fight
5. Gordon creepily talks about friendship
6. Vanessa drinks or talks about drinking
7. Charmy eats or talks about eating
8. Charmy is head over heels for Yuno
9. Yuno's fairy is head over heels for him
10. Mimosa is head over heels for Asta
11. Gauche is head over heels for his sister (...)
12. Finral hits on girls or talks about hitting on them
13. Charlotte is head over heels for Yami
14. Sol calls Charlotte "sister", which results in the latter getting annoyed
15. Sol hates men
16. Nero lands on Asta's head

With this, you can actually have some fun, as these things happen so often you can get hammered in the span of a single episode! Well, you get my point now.

While the plot itself does have some intense and fun-to-watch moments — such as the battle between Black Bulls and Vetto, Asta's special powers awakening (vague to avoid spoilers), the climax of the elves' scheme (same here), or Yami's poop jokes (funniest shit I've ever seen) — it is all incredibly infantile and lacks depth. The characters' motivations behind a plot point can be so shallow that at some point I legitimately viewed Black Clover as a collection of over-exaggerated parables, painfully mawkish to allegorically demonstrate the values beneath and make sure that no one misses them. And I almost accepted it because Black Clover's values are really positive and motivating, even if trite.

That's also why for a while I developed another theory that Black Clover's world is like a family - a family in which there are flaws you grow to accept and cherish the ensuing highs. For some time, I had somehow accepted the shitty things and started perceiving even the filler sequences as family time as a result of spending a lot of time with the characters.

But I think I got manipulated by Black Clover into refraining from criticising its repeated flaws, lmao. That's just bad writing. Good moments are placed within hours of either poor humour that oversimplifies the characters to the point of them seeming as caricatures, or tiresome fight scenes consisting of repetitive cant and a random clusterfuck of spells and attacks at which my brain turned off. You also can't accept lack of nuance as an intended measure — as is the case with the LOTR books, for example, where everything is set in stone and the story unfolds like fulfilling a destiny — just because it's long-running. I wonder if that's what the majority of shounen giants suffer from, baiting the audience into forgiving the flaws for an interspersed cool moment or two.

I also want to mention the last arc specifically because I think it needs individual treatment. The build-up to it is literally just one big filler that is justified by "training". Another thing are the plot twists. They have overall been quite random, forcing their way into a previously established landscape and flipping it on its head as a cheap solution to a problem. But the one with the emergence of a new character in the last few episodes is just taking the piss, you know what I'm talking about.

There were moments when I had fun, I can't lie. I also like the core ideas behind a lot of the stuff here. The poor writing is just inexcusable, though. It feels to me as if Black Clover was straight-up disrespectful towards its viewers, even if with good heart all throughout.

Black clover is really underrated on MAL. Let me explain befor you judge. The story starts a lot like naruto and fairy tail but thats only the start.

Black clover is about a boy who is really special. He has no magical power in a magical world. Just like the guild he will join he is strange. The story is about people who have strange personalitys or powers and overcome it or even use it as an strength.

There are guild members who cant control their magical power (even when the power level is really high), are addicted to fights and can get really violent because of ... that, are shy as fuck, can only use defense magic, have an unhealthy crush on their sister, are just lazy to do anything, are left alone, cant stop eating, cant stop drinking...

The characters of black clover are really unqiue on their own. So there are many ways to combinate them and they do it pretty well.

At the start of the show you will maybe think its just another underdog show with a MC who was born poor and weak and becomes the strongest in the world with working hard. No, you are totally wrong. Its about characters who are special and work on their problems. Yeah Asta wants to become the wizard king who is the strongest wizard in the country but does he want to become wizard king because he wants to be the strongest and beatt everyone? No! He wants to become wizard king give the church where he grew up more money and help them.

Than to his rival: The guy was often compared to saske from naruto. He isnt... Not a single bit. He is the only one who aknowleged Astas power from the start on and believed he could become wizard king. Does this sound like the I-hate-everything-Saske from Naruto? Hell no! He wants to become wizard king because Asta inspired him.

The power system of the magic is really cool so far. Its about the wizard books and they use the 4 elements water, fire, earth and air but also combinate them in really diffrent ways. Than there is the demon race with unknown power and asta probably gets his power/clover from somewhere there. Than there are 4 levels of strengths of the wizard books. Astas rival has the 4th level book. Than there are later implemanted gods of elements who choose the strongest of each one element. Next to this there are magics you cant really put in the 4 elements its not clear until now why they are there but they are rarer as fuck and really strong. Its mutch better as the power system in fairy tail.

So is it as good as naruto, one piece or bleach (I didnt watched bleach yet)? No, but it could be in the future. Is it as good as fairy tail? Yes, it is and you can compare them.

Black clover is definitly worth watching. Dont let the haters go in your mind. The start of black clover is not that good. You can compare it there like dragon ball super and boruto. The start of them is really not good but it gets better with the time.

This anime definitely doesn't deserve an 8+ score. I hate myself for watching 170 episodes of this garbage. The plot is garbage. The characters are copy and pastes from other shounen anime, but they have somehow managed to screw that up also. Dialogues keep repeating far too many times, it's nauseating. After a dozen episodes you can guess pretty well what the characters are going to say and do in a given situation. Power of the protagonist is a literal cheat code. They have taken all the tropes of shounen anime and made them worse. The characters and the plot is so boring. Can't decide ... what the worst thing about this anime is, because there is just so many things to choose from.

Please save your time and watch something else.
Don't be fooled by the score. This anime sucks ass.

(Spoiler Free!)
Hello there! I just want to say but this is the first review I have ever done.

I am going to make this a quick review and to start of, I want to say to the people who hate on this anime because of the main character's shouting, you are stupid. As generic as Black Clover is, it is still very enjoyable and I am going to continue watching each new episode as it airs.

I don't really want to go too in depth into talking about the story, but I will say it is very good, it is not amazing but it is ... very good.

For characters, I do think that so far it has some good ones. A huge complaint about the anime for Black Clover is the main character Asta and his consent shouting. Like I said, if you are hating on this anime just because of that then that is very low. I find Asta as an interesting and hilarious character. I do hope to see most of the other characters and Asta get character development.

The art and animation for the anime is pretty decent too, Studio Pierrot are doing a good job there.

I haven't really got much to say about the sound, but it is very good once again. The first opening and ending songs to the anime are very nice too.

So far I am enjoying this anime a lot and I do recommend it. Just be prepared for it to be pretty generic, but trust me it is still enjoyable. Asta's shouting is easy to get use to, it was only in the first episode where I thought the same thing.

In conclusion I give Black Clover a 9/10
Story - 8
Art - 10
Sound - 9
Character - 8
Enjoyment - 10

I will not be making a full review when the anime finishes.

I have no idea why lots of people rated this animation with low scores. I love all of this animation. I think this kind of animations , we can see other animations like this. I mean animations with main powerful character like SAO etc. No doubt I love it. But only the thing I hate in this animation is Astra's voice. It's kind of annoying beccause he always shout every time, but it's just a little bit mistake of this animation. But overall is good.

We can see growth of main characters in the ways of mind and skills. They can improve their skills potentially. This ... isn't weird because this kind of animation tend to express this moment.


Finally, i'm sorry for bad grammar.

I think it's time I wrote a review of Black Clover. At the time of writing, I've watched a horrendous 108 episodes. I've really given it my best shot.

Here's the short of it: Black Clover is an anime for people who don't watch much anime.

Black Clover really, badly wants to be one of the big boys. You've got a bit of Naruto and Fairy Tail, even One Piece influences. I haven't watched much of the extremely long-form shounen series, with Naruto being the only one I enjoyed and completed, so I'm sure that there are influences from others as well.

There is a whole cast of ... major characters and a world full of unique side characters that really is the strength of the show. Unfortunately, the characters are mostly one dimensional, with very little complexity behind their motivations.

The art is pretty atrocious most of the time and it's clear that the anime is on a tight budget. Some of the best most important scenes of the anime were completely ruined by some of the worst animation I've ever seen.

In my eyes, the sound is the most important part of modern entertainment. People really don't even notice it, but it makes all the difference. I strongly believe that Black Clover could be three or four times better if it had a good soundtrack. The music is absolutely atrocious and I don't know what they were thinking. As a side note, although it didn't bother me as much, the main character is extremely loud and annoying, pretty much all the time.

If you want an example of how important music is, go watch an intense scene of Naruto, and then go watch one of Boruto. Then go watch the Boruto arc where they go back in time and all of the music is switched back to the original anime. It's a stark and obvious contrast.

That brings us to the most important part of any anime. The story. Bad news, the story of Black Clover is boring. Yeah, there's a big twist in episode 115 that changes the meaning of the last 70 episodes, but it's not big enough to make those episodes worth watching. The story arcs are usually focused on uncovering one of the major character's powers or dealing with their 'struggles'. But the arcs are very simplistic and don't have a lot of depth to them.

The only positive note about this anime is that there is little filler. Things move pretty fast although some of the arcs were too long for what they were trying to accomplish in my opinion.

Black Clover is hamstrung at every turn by it's poor animation, boring story, flat characters and appalling soundtrack.

HOWEVER, you're also going to read a lot of glowing reviews. I strongly believe these are coming from people who don't watch much anime and don't know any better. That or young teenagers, maybe even children. If you fall into any of these categories and don't have more refined (or jaded depending on how you look at it) taste, then this anime might actually be for you.

Black Clover has quite possibly made me a professional autist... if I wasn’t already one before.

DISCLAIMER: Read the review at your own risk, be wary of not spoilers, but the possibility simply reading this will have your body next to my grave after the light of our souls are extinguished by the cultists. The approaching critique will shatter your mind harder than Sister Lily’s did in our favorite Black Clover doujins.

Let’s not drag things out any further or else it’ll stay much too canon to the show’s pacing and likely piss off the limited attention the fanbase has for anything good enough writing to qualify ... as a literary work. First and foremost, let’s start at... the show’s start. Were it up to the aforementioned fanbase, the start may vary from zero to twenty, or from zero to ninety episodes. Some may say it really doesn’t start until it’s somewhere near one hundred twenty alternatively known as the arc starring the Elven tribe (the reincarnation arc), and gains one more shocking layer of writing called “connections” to add coherency into the bootleg long-running shounen copy, raising the complexity to generous 1 out of 10. You may ask what to make of everything before?

“It’s just a little slow and starts off on the wrong foot.”

This, you might hear from a delusional fan that mumbles to form a proper sentence as he chokes on whispering to slight his favorite c*ck sleeve of a show. Consequently, such little negativity may have you bamboozled into thinking to watch one of the more recent and fresh long-running shounen’s readily available on your screen to gouge out your eyes, ears, brains, and heart for much else. The show resembles ASMR were it the ear-splitting screams of a pre-pubescent boy every time he seeks to conjure up more than a single fucking brain cell throughout the entirety of the monstrosity. The brilliant argument-annihilating and most certainly surprising response to this particular attack goes toooooooooooooo:

“youll git USED too after round 30 or 60 episodes to Asta moan, bro.”

You may notice the degradation of a fan’s lingual proficiencies in the struggle to defend Black Clover’s Omniscience. No, it is not the show that shall change to be nicer to its fans. It must be the viewer base, drowned in the sea of garbage repeatedly until your hidden masochistic urges emerge. This show, the one that had access to a voluminous plethora of content to kick-start itself decides to include filler in its first six episodes or half a cour to the average Anime watcher. The quality of its production value varies harder than the mood swings of a heroine featured in a highschool romance. From the MS Paint drawings we sketched in our spare time thoughtlessly to a few seconds of the rare well-angled shot in the forty hours I’ve witnessed. These above-average scenes you may find bombed in all of your searches when, god-forbid, questioning its art. Asta is, after all, a certifiable short-tempered muscle midget. But that isn’t what the antagonists are afraid of in the first sixty episodes. No, not at all. It’s them pissing about in wonderment for the sixty-ninth time that they find out the little fucking goblin protagonist’s got Anti-Magic. Tails between their legs, they’ll scurry in fear now that they’re practically useless. And may I comment that the subject of the show’s power system is conspicuously skirted everywhere? It’s fucking terrible, by the way. I’m sure you’d guessed by now. Faulty “real-world” logic to cover unbalanced diarrhetic scales of magical power.

In the end, I suppose it’s actually around a three to a four out of ten right now. Personally, as the average anime-watcher and my expectations tricked by the seductive lure of shounen and the show’s fans, I waltzed straight into watching. Only to be raped like one of the heroines in the Hentais that embody a tornado of cum, piss, and shit obliterating their consciousnesses ever so slowly. Therefore, I’ve given it a (I’m sure my score must surprise you) one out of ten. Most people seem to judge only by its latest arcs. Which are better but don’t raise the show’s score past a four. The show’s openings are pretty nice if there’s merit to be had. Otherwise, it’s a veteran all-rounder that had properly followed the 101 guides to be a shitfaced long-running shounen written and directed by the fantasies of a four-year-old's version of literary elements, such as character interactions and dark turns. I’d doom the show to be watched only by the most desperate of long-running shounen cultists if I should have the sudden urge to troll them. I’ve heard that it’s manga is a little better, so try to check that out. Apparently, the show only magnifies everything bad in the manga by a dozen. Expect only proper logic in Black Clover’s Anime quinquennially.

Black Clover is your cookie cutter fighting shonen, which was heavily promoted as the KING OF SHONEN ANIME because the industry really wants your money. It’s nothing more than ideas from older shows. Naruto wants to take part in the Hunter Exam, gets chosen by a Shinigami Captain, and enters the Fairy Tail Guild, so he can become the Pirate King. Despite occasionally doing some things better than its predecessors, such as having boy protagonist who was ACTUALLY training for years to be strong as opposed to be given the ultimate power right away like in My Hero Academia, it’s largely typical and by the ... numbers. The protagonist still relies on some demonic power he was given out of nowhere for not dying five minutes into his first mission. So yeah, it’s still another one of those stories that give the ultimate power to losers just for the sake of bottom tier empowerment fantasy. That wouldn’t be a problem for most casuals, since it was never aiming to be more than easily digestible, but the early episodes were a slog to get through. The first impression you get from the main characters is a boy who screams nonstop and wants to force himself on a nun. Right off the bat you get pedophilic antichristian deviance with a lot of terrible screaming, which alienated a big portion of its potential audience.

So, the protagonist is your Naruto clone, who begins seemingly weak and lacks something for making him sympathetic to the viewer. He remains an obnoxious loudmouth with no redeeming qualities until a lot more characters are introduced into the show for mitigating the suffering via comedy and other types of personalities. And by other types, I mean making most bad guys to come off as one-dimensional evil freaks, just for making the obnoxious protagonist to seem heroic in comparison. They are always acting like bullies or sexual deviants or coward rulers, just so Naruto Clone can jump in and tell them how mean they are, thus getting the moral high ground despite being a nun rapist.

So this Naruto clone (some call him Asta for some reason) has a rival, like all shonen do, but there is no reason for the rivalry to exist. The emotionless pretty boy (some call him Yuno) grew up with Asta as if they were brothers. They are super friendly with each other and constantly save each other in the battles, so you see no actual rivalry going on. It’s like they are best buddies, but call each other a rival for the sake of ticking the square on the must-have list of shonen clichés. A similar issue appears when Naruto clone gets chosen by the Black Bulls because of his attitude instead of his skill at magic. It’s like hiring the guy who directed and played in The Room just because he has guts. Anyways, Naruto clone goes to a guild where everyone is as annoying as him. They all have one-trait personalities and are defined by one gag, which they repeat as often as they can. For example, there is a guy who is obsessed with his 5 year old sister. She’s the only person he talks about in the whole damn manga, and even has nosebleeds whenever he looks at her. Eventually, these Pokémon like characters get fleshed out once they do various missions later on, but their personality remains the same one liner and their power ups are mostly the result of willpower instead of some sort of tactic.

Anyways, the main appeal is obviously the action, which at certain highlights can be pretty awesome because the animation is not the typical lazy crap studio Pierrot does all the time. But for about 80% of the duration you are stuck with subpar animation that makes the show to be completely passable in terms of entertainment compared to Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen. Even so, there are battles that can last for dozens of episodes and which seem to be epic because of their duration, but to the most part they are a waste of time since they come down to spars between minor characters. No joke, there are parts where you can skip twenty episodes and nothing will be lost since it’s just nobodies fighting nobodies (I’m looking at you, people in the magic tournament, and you who got possessed by elves, and the rest of you who were given powers by the Dark Triad).

And even when you get to the finales, which are the good parts of the fighting, you still get typical magic conveniences that always trigger when some nakama is in danger. The battles lose most of their impact when you know it all comes down to ‘whatever dude, it happened’. For example, there is a part where all you see is this: one bad guy teleporting in, attacking, getting blocked by a good guy who also teleports in, powers up, attacks, then another villain teleports in, and so on and so on for a dozen times. It’s literally like the imaginary wars children are playing, where they make up attacks and the one being attacked says why it doesn’t work and how he counters it with more imaginary attacks. As for the end of that battle, the villains just teleport away, aka the exact same ability they have been using for several episodes that allows any battle to begin and end in whenever way the author wants.

The resolutions feel very cheap in general. Examples include:
-A bird comes out of nowhere and gives a macguffin to the good guys, who didn’t even know the villains were looking for.
-A sprite that appears out of nowhere and saves the good guys with hax magic, just because.
-They expose a traitor amongst the captains. The traitor is someone we haven’t seen before and know nothing about, thus his reveal means nothing to the reader. The method they used for exposing him was magical mind reading, which makes the reveal to feel easy and cheap. Also there is a second traitor within the same group and for some reason they don’t find him, despite having the ability to mind read him as well.
-Yummy (easily the best character in the show) is trapped inside an unbreakable barrier. What does he do for escaping and for saving his teammates? He… breaks the barrier with a new power up and easily saves the day. No tactics whatsoever.
-Naruto clone has his arms disabled by a curse and there is nothing that can heal them. What does he do for still being useful? He finds a witch and she cures him. Just like that.
-How do you stop a crazy woman that wants to kill everyone? You unlock your hidden familiar out of nowhere, which resets the plot however it wants, so anyone who gets killed is instantly returned to life. As deus ex machina as it gets.
-What do you do after the wizard king gets assassinated? Nothing. He returns to life on his own. Such a shame; his apparent death was the most tragic scene in the whole show.

Anyways, you are not supposed to think when you watch this show, because if you do nothing makes sense. It’s a dumb action flick for ten year olds, so don’t bother asking why they are sending rookies in S-difficulty missions. Oh, hey, here is a dungeon that can potentially destroy the world with the artifacts stored inside it. It’s super dangerous and only the strongest wizards must go there. Which is why we allow the worst guild to send its worst members who never work as a team, nor are that strong. Don’t forget to get molested by a plant that looks like a vagina, but do forget to use the magic barrier you asspulled out of nowhere in the previous arc. In the meantime, the rest of us will do absolutely nothing, and we won’t even give you a promotion for saving the world. Yeah, that’s how you prove how serious the situation is.

Eventually, Naruto clone gets a promotion. Not for saving the world, but for getting captured with magic while he can counter magic. And he gets it from the wizard king himself, who is the strongest mortal in the whole show, but never does anything in the missions because that would make everything to run on easy mode. The first time he eventually does something is for saving the protagonist and for giving him a promotion, which is followed by the protagonist forming a large harem of fangirls and lots of episodes about girls in bikinis or naked in spas. Because that is how empowerment fantasy works.

After the promotion, the show becomes far more predictable, as it’s just the Naruto clone constantly being taken over by his hidden demonic power, which obviously they want to make you think it will lead to him killing his friends. And obviously it never happens, because it’s a show for kids. He always regains control and always befriends his enemies and always gets more powers that make him look more and more like a demon. And the show never forgets to give us double standards, such as that he has no magic, despite having the most powerful magic, or that he never gets rewarded for his actions, although he is one of the strongest in the kingdom. He even goes as far as telling you the moral message of the whole show comes down to: You are nothing special, and that is what makes you special. I am not joking; this is an actual quote in the story. The author is literally promoting loser mentality. Being last makes you the best of the worst, well done.

Anyways, I wouldn’t mind all that so much if the show wasn’t coming off as pretentious. And it did. It kept shoving this anti-racism message down our throats and we were supposed to take it seriously when the presentation was as childish as it gets. Supposed, humans hated elves and that led to a big war, only to be proven it was just some demon brainwashing them into acting like that. There is no free will involved, which means there is also no depth to the theme as well. What anti-racism? It was brainwashing all along! And what a great way to solve the conflict by having both the elves and the humans to be teaming up against a one dimensional evil demon that is laughing like an idiot and even outright called everyone a fool for falling for it, just to make it even easier for the audience to hate him. Oh, and all the hatred the good guys were feeling towards the elves and the assassin of the wizard king are erased from existence, because thereafter everyone is friendly to each other and act like they never harmed anyone.

As a whole, Black clover is a pile of mediocrity. It just rehashes ideas of earlier shonen and does nothing special with them, thus forever being stuck at a demographic for ten year olds. Plus it looks subpar 80% of the time and the protagonist is a screaming idiot who wants everything to go his way because he is not special... and that is supposed what makes him special XD.