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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

(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.

This is my first review.
I personally wanted to write a review because everyone demerits this series.

Story: 8+1=9
An orphan lad with no specialties except hard work thrives to achieve his goal. Neither his dead father is a hero nor he has support from powerful people. Only person that acknowledge him is his childhood friend and rival with very special abilities.
+1 point because I personally like anime, movie or anything when 'start with a goal and how it is achieved' theme.

Art: 8
The manga is very good but anime follows a dull color theme, which may or may not satisfy everyone and some mistakes to.

... Sound: 8
I never watch intro and likes but BGM is good. Though at first you may feel annoyed by protagonist's loud voice, I feel it is necessary bcoz he psychs himself by shouting and all. Gradually you will get used to it.

Character: 8
Characters and script are intermingled in a way that they complement each other.

Enjoyment: 10
No fillers and some arcs may start as personal training or vising friends to pass time and turns into a good adventure.

Overall: 9
After I watched 51 episodes immediately went for manga and read 175 chapters. Does it need any other example to say this anime is good?

Black clover = new gen one piece

I'm pretty much an old guy who have watched too many animes/read manga from childhood. Shonen is my fav genre from childhood and I grew up reading weekly shonen jump magazine.

In my era berserk, ashita no joe, hajime no ippo, kinnikuman, slam dank, fist of the north star, trigun, dragonball, dragon quest dai, akira were the absolute best shonen stuff (there were many though). That was the best era *nostalgia*

Ok ok...

When one piece and hxh was serialized in wsj, one piece was trashed like anything and probably the most hated manga of that time. The reputation ... was worse when anime started and hxh got appreciated due to the best power system (I see too many hxh toxic fanbase now). But slowly people began to look at one piece and here we are today one piece is the king of shonen jump rn

This is where all the cliché, tropes began and many manga started to look at above anime for inspiration

This is where a new era began like naruto, bleach, fairy tail, hitman reborn, death note (most unique), hikaru no go, d gray man and many more.

Like for eg: Naruto took inspiration from hxh and dbz

Naruto, bleach and death note became the mainstream

(You maybe thinking where I'm going with the review hehe)

Now after all these stuff ended (mha, black clover, promised neverland, demon slayer, jujutsu kaisen, chainsaw man, dr stone) became the staple of wsj. I didn't care much about any manga at that time, but chainsaw man look fascinated to me

When black clover anime arrived in 2017, people hated black clover like one piece and trashed asta for that cringe va. People didn't look past few ep and thought it was just a rip off of naruto. I decided to give it a chance and black clover actually became my fav shonen anime out of the crop


Black clover strength lies in worldbuilding, team battles, story(not as generic as you think), characters which got development unlike other animes. Black clover took inspiration from berserk and some tropes for first few ep but became its own thing. Also the music(ost/op/ed) are all bangers

Black clover weakness is slow pacing and inconsistent animation (studio clown gave staff, budget to boruto and outsourced many ep of black clover resulting in bad drawing)
Also there is pressure every week as black clover is animated weekly unlike other seasonal anime

Black clover worldbuilding is also better than naruto (lot of plotholes) and power system is second to nen power system.

People are actual sleeping on this due to hate bandwagon of 2017 but black clover deserves soo much more. I have read the manga now, so I know dark triad arc will change the destiny of black clover


I personally think black clover have the same aura as one piece and will become incredibly popular once the animation become godly. Every arc builds up to a greater arc and there are soo much possibility to create a story like one piece have. Also the vibe of crew is similar to magic knight and guilds in black clover.

The most underrated thing of black clover is foreshadowing and rivalry (there are many incredible rivalry and asta/yuno was a breath of fresh air to it)

I absolutely recommend this anime even though I'm pretty much old now. This is the best classic shonen of new era

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.

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.

What a long journey of a story. From a kid who has no magic to becoming a formidable Magic Knight, there's no story that's refreshing like Black Clover.

From the beginning, we start off with a very slow, and boring introduction. It's really boring to start. Asta is annoyingly loud. There's not much story progression. It feels like you're watching every other shounen anime but worse. But even with this boring, start, we do see the embers of a wonderful story.

The story develops very nicely throughout the story. We go from becoming Magic Knights, to defeating many enemies to save the Black Bulls, Clover Kingdom and ... the entirety of humanity. The changes are paced well enough to be familiar, but also enjoyable and easy to watch. With characters that develop well, and amazing fight scenes, it's a great plot with great characters.

A world of magic, and a kid with no magic and his rival, a kid with amazing magic, begin their journey for Wizard King. There's no telling that Asta and Yuno's rivalry feels similar, but also refreshing. Sure there's the no power vs all power dynamic, but their interactions with one another smooth out and develop in a uniquely Black Clover way.

Characterisation throughout the series is very deep. From a squad full of delinquents, to the powerful elves and the deadly devils, there is always something that feel refreshing with characters. All of the Magic Knights and their squads have refreshing personalities and traits. The enemies all develop and grow; maybe they'll realise their faults, maybe they'll demise Clover Kingdom - it's all there. From comic relief characters. to serious contenders, there is a character for everyone here.

The soundtrack and music choices here are some of the best. It's known that Black Clover has some of the best, A+ anime openings and endings, and each and every one of them has pumped me up for every episode. The score is also highly commendable - it's action filled, and supplements the plot very well.

The artwork throughout the series has never been it's strong point. You can feel that Pierrot just gave up some episodes. Some feel unpolished. Some of the art is amazing. But even with the terrible art, it definitely doesn't detract from the experience.

Black Clover is such an enjoyable anime. Yes you have to get through the boring first 28 episodes, but that initial investment is highly worth it. The development, characters, music, lore, and world are some of the most refined and refreshing of all shounens, and a great show just to enjoy.

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.

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!

Just one word for this Anime

"Awesome"
I am is enjoying this anime, story, chara, voice, sound, art i like these all.
Well, i dont know why the rating is low.

In fact if you hate the art of this anime, That means you are "new" to watching anime. What about people, who watched anime in 19 ** until now.
What I regret is, the rating is very low.

I hope in future the rate will be more than
... 8* rate.
its so very good anime. Well, i tired writing the text.
This anime has a good story in it

Well i'am just want to appreciate this anime :)

The best anime 2017-2018, this is a masterpiece. While you can see some obvious inspirations from naruto, bleach or even fairytail, it is still very enjoyable. I get the same feeling like when i watched naruto for the first time and then followed because of it being too awesome, or like wathing bleach in the arrancar arc, couldn't stop watching it. The plot is very intriguing, you can't stop from watching it, waiting for the next episode every week.Most of the characters are a bit developped, almost no characters are left aside. Overall 10/10, the next successor of Naruto IMO!!!!!!!!!

This anime is great. i don't know why the rating is only 7.1 instead of 8... if you want a anime like fairy tail, one piece, etc then its the best you could find. I loved this anime from the start. so i give this anime 8.5 out of 10. I like the anime which contain magical power and in this anime we find something new that a man can become power in the world of mage without magic also. It have funny part, emotional as well as action, motivation. So, it contain all the thing that an anime rating over 8 contain.