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.

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THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

UNBIASED REVIEW TO BALANCE OUT THE HATERS

Are there many shounen clichés here? Yes. Is it a groundbreaking anime that will have the anime elitists praising the very ground the characters walk on? No. Is it still a fun, comedic, action-adventure/magical-fantasy and enjoyable shounen? Yes. I give this anime a 7, good on the MAL scale, because it is.

To start: Personally I don't think that cliches are all that bad if done right. There is a reason that cliches, or as we call them in the business "genre stereotypes" exist, and that reason is because they work, they are enjoyable, and people generally like them when done right, and Black Clover does it right. It is true that it's nice to see something break the mold from time to time, but without a mold to break in the first place, then nothing would be ground breaking. In this way, not everything is meant to push the boundaries of the anime elitist's groupthink (ironic I know), some things are simply meant to be fun, easy, enjoyable, and follow our expectations. Again, there is nothing wrong with a "mold" a "cliche" or "genre stereotypes" when done right and Black Clover does indeed do them right, so far. And finally TO BE CLEAR! In my reviews, I never judge an anime by another anime, I never compare the anime I am reviewing to other anime, and I immediately disregard ANY REVIEW that does so. Period. I always judge an anime on it's own merits as I see them. Anything less, to me, would be disrespecting the time, energy, and effort that the creators put into creating a TV show to entertain us, as well as disrespecting you, the reader, as you are looking for a review on THIS anime and not a list of my favorites, as you can check out my profile for that should you so choose. To put it quite simply, you, the reader, deserve an impartial analysis of this anime based only on this anime, and not how it compare to others.

Story 7, good: Interesting world and magic mechanics. I am eager to see how it plays out given the backstory about the wizard king destroying the demons and how it resolves itself with the fact that Asta (one of the protagonists) utilizes a demonic grimoire.

Art 7, good: Nothing really more to say here, it's pretty standard for a 2017 shounen.

Sound 7, good: Enjoyable opening and closing songs. The foley sounds are well done, and voice acting is good. Regardless of what the haters say I find Asta's voice and antics amusing rather than annoying (though this is just opinion, cannot be objectively verified, and thus everyone is entitled to their own. So I hold nothing against those who do find it annoying). Asta is a good counter point to his more serious brother/rival which brings us to. . .

Character 7, good: There is character development in this show, and the characters have a good motivation for doing what they are doing. The only reason that some don't like it is because it's been done before, but that doesn't make something bad. There is nothing wrong with a good underdog story when done right, and when you realize that they (Asta and his brother Yuno, the two protagonists) are not simply fighting for themselves, but fighting for their class of people (the poor peasants vs the rich nobles) their character motivations are very clear. I really do think that the reason the elitist haters hate this is because they are comparing Black Clover to other animes instead of on its own merits, because this character motivation is a very honorable one that makes sense given where our heros Asta and Yuno come from and the world they find themselves in. In other words, the world, story, and characters are all internally consistent which is exactly what you want to see in any work of fiction. You see, there is a reason that the underdog story and fighting for others is a genre stereotype. It's because people like it. The final character (and third protagonist) we will talk about is Noelle. Her story is different and interesting (minor spoiler), as she is a noble who (presumably) chose to join the worst/lowest of the magic knights squads. Unlike Asta and Yuno, her character and backstory is not completely revealed yet, but it appears that she too has something to prove, untapped potential, and may just end up developing into a noble who is worthy of the title unlike so many other nobles in this series, who seem to be just horrible.

Enjoyment 8, Very good: I give the enjoyment an 8 because all of these other good factors come together to craft a story that I can't wait to see the next installment of in the coming weeks.

Overall 7: No, this anime isn't going to be a game changer, or win any awards, but it is a fine addition to the shounen genre and if you like magic action adventure comedy fantasy shounens that are light and don't try to hard to be something that they're not, then you will likely enjoy Black Clover as I am.

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Black Clover Review Episodes 1-20.
When Black Clover anime was announced in 2016 I was personally excited because I wanted to see another series from shounen jump get adapted into an anime. Psyern, Black Clover and The Promised Neverland were Shounen Jump Mangas that I wanted to see get adapted. However, as I looked deeper to the Black Clover announcement I started to get scared because for starters it going to adapted by Studio Pierrot who is notorious for having bad filler. The worst example of this was in Naruto Shippuden or as I now like to call it Naruto Fillerppuden wherein 2015 only 8 episodes were canon and the rest of the episodes were pointless filler to a point where main people such as self-dropped the series until the god-awful filler was done. Because of that, I lowered my expectation for Black Clover because it may end up being Naruto 2.0 in terms of filler.
Fast forward to October 3, 2017, I watched the first episode of Black Clover and HOLY SHIT Asta voice was so ear-bleeding annoying to a point where I had to turn off my computer monitor after 10 minutes because I couldn’t take it anymore. So I dropped the series until I saw a dub trailer for Black Clover on Funimation Youtube Channel and it was great. The voice acting was top notch and Asta sounded like a human being instead of a fucking car engine and a parrot. When the first two dubbed episodes of Black Clover came out I was happy that I can now watch this show more seriously but at the same time, I started noticing a lot of problems with this show. Many of them were fatal to a point where all my excitement for this show was thrown out the window where in the end Black Clover is a horrendously made shounen and am going to tell you why.

Story.
The story of Black Clover follows Asta who is an orphan who got abandoned at a church orphanage on the outskirts of the Clover Kingdom. Another boy named Yuno was also abandoned at the same time as Asta. They both got raised in the church orphanage however as time went by the stark difference between theses became apparent to a point where they don’t get along with each other compared to the childhood years where they were always together and this due to Asta not having any type of magic while Yuno is able to use magic with amazing power.
When they turned 15 Yuno received the four leaf clover grimoire from the grimoire acceptance ceremony while Asta didn’t get one. After the ceremony, Yuno was attacked by a person named Lebuty who want to takes Yuno grimoire. Asta tries to his hardest to fight Lebuty he was ultimately outmatched. When all hope was almost lost he finds strength by hearing Yuno voice and by unleashing his emotions and rage Asta receives a five leaf clover. He quickly defeats Lebuty and a few days later Yuno and Asta head out into the world, where they separate squads in the magic knights as well building a friendly rivalry to see who can become the Wizard King first.
This show as of right now is absolutely horrendous in every way possible.
Let’s start with the introduction to the story and world because episode 1 is the worst first episode I have ever seen in a shounen period.
Instead of establishing the world as well the story itself like every other shounen ever the first episode wastes its times with unfunny gags that introduces the two main characters as well the world in the worst way possible. It doesn’t help the show like info-dump information instead of you know SHOWING US the information visually. The worldbuilding kinda gets better as the series progresses but for the first couple of episodes, the worldbuilding was Akame Ga Kill levels of bad.
Also, I don’t think the director for this show understand definition of the word pacing because as from episode 20 this show has some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in anime. Almost every scene/fight in this show is dragged out to a point where it becomes boring to watch. As much I despise Fairy Tail with a passion the first 123 episodes had good pacing until the show stat itself with the filler arcs and the whole 2014 anime where the pacing became utter shit.
As the story itself, it’s very poorly written that is filled with tropes and clichés to a point where it becomes annoying.
Overall as of right now, the story is pretty shit.
3/10

Characters.
If you thought the story is was awful than the characters are even worse as they almost all of them are bland, unreliable and unlikeable idiots.
Asta or as Noelle likes call him Stupidsta is a horrendous protagonist who is annoying and likes to scream a lot for no reason. As of right Asta barely has any character development apart from his sword getting new abilities. Asta is basically Naruto gone wrong. Screw this characters and his god awful screaming
Yuno is your Saskue clone of the series expects his bland and boring. Not much to say about this character, to be honest since he's about as interesting as watching grass grow.
The only character that I liked in this show is Noelle. Unlike Yuno and Asta she’s an original character that at the moment get’s actual character development. She may be bitchy at times but least she’s funny and pretty likeable.
The rest of the characters are all generic and as of right now not worth mentioning.
Overall apart from Noelle, the characters in Black Clover are a complete dumpster fire.
2/10

Visuals.
Clusterfuck is honestly the best way to describe the visuals of Black Clover. The show can be visually good at times with some good looking fight scenes but at the same, the show can be incredibly inconsistent and downright ugly at times to a point where it becomes visually unpleasing to look at.
It doesn’t help the fact that the show uses CGI which is eye-bleeding to watch due to poorly animated the CGI stuff.
I honestly wished the show simply had consistent production values.
As for the background scenery, its pretty decent and the use of colour palette for the character designs is okay at best.
Overall like I said this show is a clusterfuck visually and it ultimately mediocre at best.
5/10

Sound.
The soundtrack is generic shounen music that you all heard before.
All the opening and ending themes at the moment are pretty decent.

Now here comes the fun part of this review. The Voice Acting.
When people say that the worst thing from Black Clover is Gakuto Kajiwara as Asta in the sub. I mostly agree on that because it was honestly dreadful as most of his dialogue is yelling out loud like a freaking car engine. However, I don’t think it just Asta as I feel most of the voice acting in the sub from other characters feel rather bland and unnatural. The only seiyuu that did a good job is Yuuki Kana as Noelle. I hate to say the sub is pretty bad overall as most of the Seiyuus did a bad job here especially Stupidsta.
The dub, on the other hand, is pretty damm great. All of the English actors did a great job voicing each character especially Dallas Reid as Asta who is great and doesn’t sound like a freaking car engine when he screams.
Great job Funimation.


Final Thoughts as from episode 20.
I know it may be too early to judge from only watching the first 17 episodes dubbed from the time of the Funimation simuldub as well the other episodes subbed on Crunchyroll but this needs to be said. Black Clover is a terrible series that is poorly written to the core as well being an unoriginal piece of shit from day 1. The story is boring, badly written and no identity. The pacing was awful, the characters are bland, annoying and downright unlikeable. The visuals are mediocre at best, the soundtrack is forgettable and generic, and the Japanese voice acting is horrible. The only good thing about this show is Noelle and the dub than again having a good dub don’t make a show good. It only makes a beautiful looking piece of shit.
Is this the worst shounen series? As of right now no because Fairy Tail still exists. Black Clover may be a terrible series as of right now but it may have potential to be decent series at best then again Black Clover could betray us the viewers by being more preachy than Fairy Tail with its themes as well as adding bad filler in the second half or last quarter in the series completely butchering the source material. If that happens than Black Clover would dethrone Fairy Tail of the worst shounen series spot.
If you want to watch Black Clover than I strongly recommend watching it with friends for a better viewing experience because watching this show alone is absolutely miserable.
As for right now, Black Clover gets a 2/10.

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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.

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Short review about this show= Overall 9/10 (raiting fluctuates around 7-9) why? ez I just like medieval epoch with magic, dungeons, adventures, actions, some hide romantic= My era my dream world. (DONT forget read the bonus especially those which are gamers and like this anime).
Story 6/10 it means not good atm, becouse 50 episodes and I am at 23 episode and main story is still hiding somewhere, but main hero still surprises with its own character and adventures.
Art 7/10 I would like more detailed art, but..... the feeling that it would be 2002 year with art drawing style, but you can still watch if you liked like me (dungeons, comedy, actions, unexpected moments, magic).
Sound 8/10 music just almost in my taste and same with >sounds< (>Water magic I hear a water splashing sounds like real, fire like fire brrrrrr! Sword hitting sharp sounds and also ambience<).
Character 10/10 almost all heroes have history what very satisfied and for the rest I don't care.
Enjoyment 9/10 every day 2-4 episodes.
Overall atm 9/10 I dislik only abit art others like like like.

Bonus- Bandai Namco Games will release a game called BLACK CLOVER: QUARTET KNIGHTS Sep 14, 2018 on PC/PS4= if you will get hangovers until ends black clover 50/50 episodes then this game is the removal of a hangover.

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I dont know why this is given a 6/10. Like ever since the first couple episodes I loved this show! With all of Asta's badass moments it just fuels me. I love anime were the mc is just so badass and everyone thinks so too. Too bad thats not what everyone thought in the beginning but it does get better especially the recent episodes. Just give this show a chance and watch it the whole way through. Its just so cool how the mc has the power to negate all magic!!! And in future episodes everyone is going to know that and either think of him highly or eventually fear him when he gets more power. All I'm sayin is that most people need to give this show better credit and imagine the future of this anime and how far it will go. This anime is definitely in my top 10 favorite out of about 100 anime I've watched. And it will stay there if this show continues to show the greatness and power of Asta. I'm pretty sure the makers wont screw it up and make him weak. He might still be neglected to everyone who hasn't seen him in action for being strong for a while, but soon he will be seen as the True Wizard King!!

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It makes sense some people are annoyed by the main character in the first couple of episodes. He is very noisy for some of the series. but overall the characters are interesting and the scenes are mostly interesting or comical. I am hooked!

The Main character is relatable to an extend, i would not be as energetic. but i would feel likewise.

The plot is interesting and seems to always go forward. not many things are happening for no reason.

The environment and the design is of very high quality and the fighting scenes are either short or very high quality/ impact full.

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"

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What I don't understand is why some people give this anime so much shit. They talk about how it's unoriginal and the same thing as Naruto. Honestly, who cares! An anime doesn't have to be original. In my opinion, it should just have a good story, characters, and animation in general, which Black Clover has! There is a reason why animes like Naruto succeed, it's a story platform that works and appeals to the audience. To me, this show is the ideal shōnen anime and everyone should give it a chance. So everyone who gives this show bad ratings should just stop their whining and deal with it.

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People were already shitting on the show before it was even fully out. The first 13 episodes or so are pretty boring/trash but everything has been progressively getting better.

Episode 17 was amazing. That is turning point of the show. I guarantee that people should watch up to that part of the show and they will see how amazing and how good it is.

During episode 17, the animations were significantly better along with a whole lot of other things so watch all the way up to episode 17. If you like it, I told you so its good. If not then i really suppose its not for everyone aye?

Guess there really are extremely picky people in this world.

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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!

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(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.

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As of writing this review I have only seen up to Ep.10, mild spoilers may occur containing information up to that point.

TL;DR: The story is nothing unique but is still solid. Characters and the fact that Studio Pierrot are the ones adapting this are Black Clover's biggest flaw. Black Clover, despite these flaws I do still find very enjoyable though.

It's disappointing to see how lowly ranked this is and some of the stupid reviews that just call it trash. Yes, Black Clover has many flaws (just as any anime have flaws), simply based on these flaws i took a guess at what studio made it, and to no surprised I was correct. Studio Pierrot strikes again with its bad adaptations!

Characters (5/10) Mediocre
The main area of Black Clover's flaws lie in its characters. This is not limited to Asta and how he yells approximately 37 times per episode, but nearly all the characters with some sort of gag. What I mean by this is they use and reuse the same jokes with each character to the point where it is no longer funny. Some anime struggle with having every character act differently, this one however greatly over-dramatizes each character with the same jokes.

This however by no means makes it a terrible anime, in fact Black Clover has quite a few of those moments that get you excited and make you want to watch the next episode. Moments like when you first see the demon behind Asta and him using his sword, and when Asta gets his Magic Knights cloak had me pumped and super excited.

Story (6/10) Fair, Enjoyment (8/10) Very Good
The story itself so far is pretty basic and doesn't stand out as unique, its just a typical but solid story and world, but as mentioned above does have big moments which make me really enjoy it.

Art (7/10) Good, Sound (7/10) Good
The art style and sound track are nothing special and pretty normal but tie into whats going on well, the OST is not good enough that I would listen to it in my free time.

Aside from the characters, one big complaint I do have though is that you are treated to repeated scenes prior to the opening that just goes over the setting or what happened in the previous episode, this basically makes me feel like Studio Pierrot was lazy and stalled out 40 or so seconds of content and new animation every episode. They also reuse a picture of Asta twice in the opening, while some may find this silly, it just makes me feel like the studio was lazy and simply tried to limit the amount of work they had to do.

On a side note, I believe having Asta be able to do more than just swing his sword would make the anime much better, since I dont see him growing or changing as a character. Maybe if he learned a spell (but of course he cant use magic so maybe the sword/demon would come into play and increase his physical capabilities or something.) At one point in the anime, they mentioned that when a magic user matures, grows emotionally, or so forth they will "unlock" new spells from their grimoire, I would like to see something like this for Asta's case.

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This anime is very good.
Whatever you have heard, you should ditch it.
The way I see life is this: you don't experience anything without an initiative.
Whether that initiative be wrong or not, you should at least give it a chance.

Overall:
This anime has a lot of potential. Me personally, I would give this anime a 8/10 so far in its current state. If it follows the manga to an extent, and improves on its characters emotional stances, I will recommend it to other people. With all that happens in the manga it will be an interesting ride, for anyone willing to watch it. However people thinking this is the next Naruto, you are in for a ride. No, Black Clover has its own unique stances on the trying to accomplish becoming the Wizard King. In Black Clover Yuno and Asta are having a competition in who can become the Wizard King first. Yuno doesn't discriminate against Asta because he has 0 magical ability like the others, because Yuno knows all the work and effort Asta has put into his dream. Asta works towards a goal even though he doesn't have the status to do so.

Story:
I would give the story a fair 6/10 though that's being harsh. Considering I have read all of the manga to the current release. I look forward to watching the anime through and through. I don't know what you've heard, but nothing bad has happened so far, we have an interesting story getting set up and from the reviews I have been seeing, people act like all anime has a 100% unique story line. Yes, I can understand how easy it would be to set up a story that is 100% unique but having an evolving main character is very difficult in its own right. Considering this, the anime itself follows the manga pretty well so far, and if it continues it will most likely get more and more people to come watch it.

Art:
I would give the art a 6/10 and that's being lenient. I personally love the art style of the background, environment, characters, etc. However I do not like how they set up the way the abilities look. When you come across them, they seem abstract and as if they are cut from something else. This being said, I get past it and love a good story. Considering I watched another anime not giving names with even worse special fx.

Sound:
Sound fits well, sounds good however there is delay you can tell in some spots. I give it a 9/10.

Character:
Character development is going to be a huge factor in depending if this will become a good hit. I loved the personalities of the characters in the manga, however I hope that occurrences like in episode 16 don't happen too often. When one of the somewhat cutoff main characters(Luck) has a somewhat touching event and brushes it off like it was some sort of stupid happenstance. It bothers me very highly. I don't know if that was a fluke or some sort of, "meant to be" scenario. However,I guess whatever, and that was my only issue while watching so far.
I give character development a 9/10.

Enjoyment:
In the end this is the only thing that matters. The enjoyment of an anime. I love Black Clover so far, I hope they make it to the current issue its at in the manga. So many good arc's they can mess around with. Good character development, good everything. The anime seems to tie in with the manga so far with some filler content on the way. As well gives us viewers something good to look foward too after a long day at whatever the heck your doing for a day job.
I give it a 9/10.

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I am not finished with this series however I am actually really enjoying it so far. I've noticed from other reviews you either love it or hate it. This show is about these two orphans who grow up in a small village in the Clover Kingdom. This world is full of magic and people are usually born with it. However, Asta one of the main characters is born with no magic and struggles to keep up with the others as he grows up. Yuno is the other orphan that was born with magic power and alot of it. These two are always competing and both want to grow up to become the wizard king. The most powerful wizard in all of Clover Kingdom. As the story continues, Asta continues to never give up with all the obstacles that he faces along his journey as well as Yuno. I think this show is quite entertaining and it made me want to keep watching. The characters care about each other and so far there has been significant growth in several of the characters. I definitely will continue to watch this show to see where it goes and how it ends!

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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.

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In my honest opinion I believe people are being way too harsh in rating this anime. It also isn't fair to compare it to other anime. (Side Note: it gets better the longer you watch in my opinion)

It has a similar story base to anime like Naruto. HOWEVER it has a COMPLETELY different take on it. I believe that is necessary to this particular type of anime to have a good story. Have a character who struggles and a rival. See what limits they can surpass.

I like the magic concept. And I like the time frame it is taking place in.

The art is different than what I usually watch. I enjoy the difference.

The sound is alright. Yes there is a ton of yelling. But you see that in a lot of different anime. (Also I am pretty sure if I was draining myself of magic and utilizing it all at once I would probably scream too)

I like the different types of characters. They are all pretty unique. You also get a taste of almost every type of personality all in one anime.

All in all I enjoy this anime and am excited to see how the whole thing plays out. And if you are they type of person who DOESN'T NEED TO COMPARE EVERY ANIME TO A DIFFERENT ONE. I highly recommend this one.

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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.

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Story 1: Rushed, tacky and completely cliche without anything new or fresh or exciting. It seems interesting but truly fails to deliver anything.
Ar 7t: The art style is nothing you haven't already seen before, not bad, but nothing special.
Sound 4: As far as the soundtrack goes almost the same applies to the art, except it is far more mediocre. At least be thankful it blends into the background so you don't even notice it.
Character 1:
Asta, "AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH".

Enjoyment 1: For there to be enjoyment, one must experience joy in even the slightest degree...I did not. I really wanted to enjoy this, and I searched hard to find something I could cling to, but this anime just didn't provide anything to keep me going.

Overall 2: If you can somehow manage to get over the voice acting and the complete lack of a decent plot, then you might enjoy watching colors move around on the screen, since there isn't much else here.

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Black Clover has a large problem that seems endemic to the Shonen category in general, it spends entirely too much time trying to make things easy to understand. Whenever anything happens on screen, the exact way you should feel about it is conveyed by dialogue specifically addressing it. Rather than building up context to form a straightforward underdog protagonist, the writers would rather just have enough people say it in enough circumstances for us to believe it to be the case. Like, Asta did not just pathetically get rejected by a girl that he likes for the Xth time in a row, he needed to do it in front of an audience that kept reminding him all the different ways he was pathetic, and how Yuno was way better than him at everything. Asta is not just hellbent on becoming the Wizard King, he is constantly screaming at nobody in particular why he feels this way. The villain character is not just a villain, they have to lurk menacingly, say vaguely menacing things, then outright explain that he is a deplorable person before he does evil things.

I could keep going, but I think my point should be clear by now. These scenes feel like they are happening to complete a narrative rather than something that could actually happen to a real person. Because every scene has no faith in the viewer to be able to interpret events without being told what to think about them, the viewer cannot assume the scenes to be anything more than what they declare themselves to be. This is particularly dangerous for an introductory episode since this is supposed to be what convinces us that the characters and the world are interesting enough to be worth exploring.

I will continue watching Black Clover, but I'm already convinced that this story is not for people who like good storytelling techniques. I feel like despite the hype, Black Clover is setting itself up to be an extremely forgettable series. Not horrible, but definitely below average

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