Black Clover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Clover is a Shonen that feels like it was written 12 years ago and has taken none of the lessons of its predecessors.

Most of my time watching Black Clover was spent watching it to mock it and laugh at how bad it is. Because this show is bad. Really, really bad. The nicest thing I could say about it is that it's painfully average and has one or two good moments but they're not worth sitting through the rest of this dreck for unless you can have a chuckle at it.

Story is bare bones Shonen plot. I wasn't exactly expecting a stellar and ... captivating plot for this kind of show but but it's clearly not trying that hard. It's a simple setup that allows for various fantasy missions, usually involving the villains and ending in big stupid fight scenes. It doesn't ever get too complex, the world building is pretty lackluster likely due to holding onto key information for twists later on such as why the Diamond and Clover kingdoms are at war. As is it's not hugely engaging and doesn't throw you for any loops or if it does try to fool you, it usually gives no buildup at all, or it kills the tension afterwards.

The art is awful. The animation has numerous errors in continuity and in lip syncing, the fight scenes lack good choreography and often resort to lazy shortcuts to avoid putting the effort in. There may be occasional bursts of good animation but for a series releasing an episode every week with no breaks, it's hardly a surprise. Studio Pierrot doesn't have the best animation reputation either.

The sound is bad. By now everyone has heard Asta's infamous screaming voice and whilst it does get better the further you go, it doesn't exactly become anything near quality. The music is pretty forgettable and none of the other VAs stand out or exhibit anything particularly good.

Character? What character? This show doesn't have characters, it has one note stereotypes and cliches that pretend to be characters. I'd say there's only two to three actual characters in the show, the rest are just one note cliches that barely emote and their interactions consist of them reminding you what their trait is before moving on to someone else. The protagonist suffers from this immensely, they try to go the 'boundless determination' route but it never feels earned and they hardly emote beyond that so it hardly matters all that much. At best, the characters are simply boring, at worst they're insufferable.

Like I said, the only enjoyment I get out of this show is ironic. It's just kind of entertaining to watch and laugh at for how much the show runners misunderstand about the tropes of Shonen anime and just throw them in there for the sake of them rather than giving them the time or buildup they deserve.

Overall, this show is a mess. I've been told the manga is better but I honestly don't care. Unless you want to get into Shonen and see one of its worst examples, steer clear.

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.

If Naruto and Fairy Tail had a child that would be Black Clover:

Asta is your typical loud shounen MC who doesn’t develop or have any depth. He’s literally no different than Luffy, Natsu or Seth.

BC is filled with one dimensional, gag ridden, underdeveloped caricatures. The BBs are literally defined by their few personality traits e.g. battle freak Luck, Sis-loving pervert Gauche, Henry’s dyslexic speech patterns, one- dimensional food eating Charmy. There’s only a few good characters in this show. Noelle being the best of them because despite her tsundere moments and being a love interest, she’s had the most growth, has a character arc entirely ... separate from Asta (unlike Yuno) and is consistently relevant to the story.

Yuno is a bland Mary Sue who spends more time developing offscreen and pulling powerups out of his ass than being a character

The dialogue is terrible and repetitive: “AsTa, iM gOinG tO bE tHe WizArD kInG”, “No YuNo, I’m GoInG tO bE WiZaRd KiNG!”

The villains are generic, undeveloped and have little to no motivations e.g. Fana and Beast man repeating the same dialogue: “DESPAIR!!, DESPAIR!! HATE HATE!!” Ladros was such a generic evil villain that he was forgettable.
The elves are ALL copy and paste of each other with no variety. I got bored of hearing elf #121 scream “I hate ningens!”. The Devil is the big bad guy of the first saga and yet he’s the most bland, one dimensional plot device of a villain I’ve seen since Zetsu. He has no motivations to do what he does, he’s literally “I’m evil because plot”.

The fast-paced pacing is NOT a benefit as fanboys would like you to believe. Instead of taking the time to flesh out the world or develop characters, the plot always opts to go straight for the fights which have no substance because there’s no emotional attachment to these characters.

Black Clover has the worst power system. It’s basic, doesn’t have definitive rules or limitations and is entirely plot convenient. For example, Noelle could acquire a new spell at the right time, which is exactly what she wanted because Tabata wanted her to. She’s done so with her battle suit. Yuno does it EVERYTIME. It doesn’t have well defined rules like FMA or HxH that are set in their power system so it’s rarely broken. BC’s method of learning new spells is entirely deus ex machina.

If there was a list ranking every shounen, then Black Clover would be at the bottom of the barrel.

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.

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.

Black Clover, or rather Mid Clover is one of the worst shows to come out ever. How this series has any popularity is mind blowing to me. It's like the people who like this anime have never seen anything other than the big 3 and Dragon Ball Z. Like please, watch anything other than trash shonen kids shows to realise how bad this anime is. Here is why it's trash.

Story: 1/10
What is there even to say about this. Take naruto's goal of becoming the hokage, replace hokage with wizard king and boom, there's the plot for the story. It's painfully mediocre and completely unoriginal. There's ... nothing bad with having an average or simple story, but completely copying other anime is where the line is drawn. Mid Clover really has no originality. It is so painfully mediocre, predictable and boring. All of that screaming Asta does would make you think he's powering up like Goku does, but he just screams for no reason.

Art: 1/10
The art in this show is terrible like everything else in Mid Clover. The characters look like they are drawn by kindergarten kids. It's the most boring art I have ever seen in an anime, even worse than Attack on Trash. The latest episodes are the worst,. The animation in Black Clover was always average, but it was at least bearable. In the latest episodes it legit looks like they stole the animation of the 1997 snake game. Like what the fuck was that. This show has disrespected and disgusted me with it's terrible art and animation.

Sound: 1/10
The music in Black Clover is not terrible but it's so overhyped. Every time someone talks about the new Black Clover opening being good, I trust them and listen to it since I always skip them. They're always the same mediocre openings.

Character: 1/10
This is the worst part about the anime after the story. Asta is a kid who just gets stronger and stronger like any shounen. His only personality trait is screaming. He's a dumb kid who is so incredibly mediocre that you could literally replace him with any shounen mc. Other characters like Yami are just there because they are "cool". Shounen fans think that a character is deep off of one little shitty flashback. Seriously you people need to watch some real anime. I'm an elitist genius intelllectual so I advice you to go to my profile and watch my favorites.

Enjoyment: 1/10
The first episode had my ears bleeding. The others had me falling asleep and just cringing at how bad and mediocre this anime was. How do you people seriously enjoy this crap? Need some tips on how to not fall asleep. Terrible anime.

Overall: This anime is garbage. Have you seen Naruto? Or maybe bleach? Then you've basically seen Black Clover. Do you struggle to sleep? Do you have insomnia? Then Mid Clover is perfect for you. I went from sleeping 4 hours a night to now waking up 6 in the morning thanks to this anime. Works even better than weed.

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 :)

ok, that is one of the worst animes that i have ever seen, is not the worst but even so it is very bad

at start, the story is full of conveniences, generic things and scenes that wanna be good and epic bot finally it has some interesting moments but it is only 10% or 20% off all story, its very simple and even sometimes its a little boring

The characters are so mid, there are some interesting or decent like zora, Asta, Nacht o yami but they are only a 10% of this history, the others are very simply and basic

The production is quite standrad, ... at least the music is good, the animetion sometimes are so bad and sometimes are nice, the best of this part are the openings, almos ever opening are very very good

I really wanted to like this one because I keep seeing cool battle scenes. I started reading this after Naruto ended and dropped it around chapter 100, couldn't remember why. Recently I decided to give the anime a chance and restarted from ep 1 this time. I just finished ep 60 and I have to say I can't force myself to sit through this anymore.

Every character is a very one-dimensional anime trope whose entire personality can genuinely be summed up in a single photograph of the character. One-dimensional tropes are fine in the beginning as long as the characters continue to grow in complexity and ... nuance but each time the author attempts to expand on a character the backstory or development is shallow and even hollow leaving you wishing for more interesting material to care about.

Asta: The main character's personality is a marriage of Naruto and Rock Lee(with little more than the worst of both of them), and the offensive repertoire of Kenpachi Zaraki(he has two attacks). I'd say he is overly optimistic but to be real, he hasn't taken a single L this entire show. He has no business defeating anyone he's fought, and yet he comes out on top every time. His training does not appear to be anything besides push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and swinging a sword from above his head to the ground. This would be entertaining if the show used this trope in a comedic sense like One Punch Man does, but it seems to be as serious as a Naruto Talk-no-jutsu, BELIEVE IT!
While his swordsmanship is mediocre, his ability is unique in this world. His swords have the ability to nullify any and all magic. And in a world where magic is everything, this turns out to be pretty overpowered. With nothing but physical strength and a pair of magic-nullifying swords he is able to defeat enemies said to be many times more powerful and intricate as he is. None of his injuries amount to anything at all. Even the time his arms are diagnosed as irreparable, he quickly and easily regains the full ability to use them within days, using an instantaneous healing spell from the Queen of Witches.

Yuno: The other "main" character, or rival, is written pretty unremarkably as well. The quiet, pretty boy who is astonishingly overpowered thanks to fate, joins the best group due to his God-given abilities. Basically he's a more quiet Asta. Interestingly, he has yet to turn "evil" but with the amount of tropes in this show I wouldn't be surprised. The only time he ever does anything interesting is when Asta is involved. Contrary to Asta, everything comes easy to him as he gets power-up after power-up which isn't exactly a bad thing but we never see him earn any his power. He just re-emerges in the story stronger or more recognized than ever(like Gary Oak) This is a bigger problem with the whole show.

The supporting characters are not as generic but quite one-dimensional. I will not get into all of them as this is getting long but 1 major issue is that virtually every female character in the series is the same person: outwardly mad at a man but secretly crushing on him*yawn*.

The animation can get good at moments during fights but a shocking % of the budget must go to animating comedic moments that are repetitive and stale by episode 10 at the latest. These moments of good animation really only seem to happen when we are watching a fight between two characters vastly superior to the main characters in strength. An 'Ooooo' 'Ahhhhhhhh' approach. Sadly none of the main characters moments get the same level of animation as the Big Boys fighting.

I need to go to the gym at this point so I'm going to stop this review here. To summarize there is nothing that this show does that is remarkable and you can certainly find many anime out there that do every one of these tropes better. I mean I'm 60 episodes in and I don't care for anyone. By episode 60 One Piece had told far less story but made you care infinitely more about the world, the journey, and it's characters.

Allow me to speak on behalf of all the people who enjoy watching an anime. The main character Asta is probably one of the most cliched characters created. Not to mention he is super annoying in the fact that almost every sentence he says is screamed. It makes it an awful watch for someone who is actually trying to just enjoy anime. The story is decent however the character makes it a hard watch. Until an episode comes where Asta shuts up with all his yelling then this anime is only going to become garbage. I personally do not enjoy this anime, and do not ... see how or why it is getting 52 episodes. If they wanted a good story they would spend more time focusing on the brother of Asta, Yuno. Whose character definitely seems more interesting and less annoying.

Black Clover...what happened??
You were supposed to be the next big shounen, to fill the void Naruto left, to kill my time until Boku No Hero Academia season 3 came out, to make me feel better about Dragon Ball Super's unexpected demise, to push shounen forward as a genre. You were supposed to be my weekly ritual. Black Clover should have and could have been a lot of things, but it saddens me to say that it is none of those things and beyond. This show is flawed on a very fundamental level, it is no doubt trying to replicate the feeling of Naruto but it ... does that so shamelessly that it reeks of unoriginality, this is a forgettable and irredeemable show not worth anyone's time.

Black Clover's story is the definition of basic, it introduces a derivative shounen setting, a world of magic where the more mana you have the stronger you are. So far the story arcs in this show are forgettable and bland, they serve as exposition for the large land of the Clover kingdom. There's a good amount of flashbacks which attempts to flesh out characters and make them more empathetic but goddamn is it just so badly done and overall kinda cheap since it comes out of nowhere and feels pretty irrelevant. There's a big problem with the narrative, especially since the protagonist, Asta is endowed with probably the most overpowered ability in shounen history, it requires no mastery, it doesn't carry any risks, it doesn't introduce an intrigue as to the origins of such a rare ability, it's just there as a bat for Asta to wield making fights uninteresting since it has the overpowered ability to repel all magic and makes the fights last not more than a minute or so since it entails sword bashing everything, requiring no strategy. The protagonist is way too strong rendering even respectable "magic knights" and well-feared villains of the Clover kingdom useless in front of Asta this not only makes fights pointless but also will no doubt be a detriment to the protagonist's character development since he doesn't need to evolve beyond a sword-wielding barbarian.

Black Clover's animation and art seem cheap and unbecoming of a modern show, especially since it only has a limited amount of episodes, you'd think more time would be put into making the show look beautiful but goddamn there's no effort put at all in presentation. It has washed out and muted colors making any landscape look drab and forgettable, the art style is a bit rough in my opinion, it might be a stylistic choice but it doesn't captivate me in any way. There is seemingly no animation work done at all for this show, as I already mentioned, the fights are short and require no strategy or hand to hand combat it entails sword bashing a bunch of badly rendered CGI stuff for maximum 30 seconds, so there is no need for complicated movement animation and zero sakuga animation. This is extremely disappointing especially for a battle shounen where fights are supposed to be highlights. The most animation you'll see are recycled walking animations, most of this show is filled with close-ups for talking.

Sound design is decent, you can hear clangs of swords. Soundtracks are forgettable for the most part except for one piano piece which plays at the climax of each fight.

The characters in this show are one-dimensional clichés that don't build on this genre at all. Asta is a loud annoying brat complete with a never give up attitude and a simpleton that knows nothing of strategy in combat, he's not smart at all and is way worse than most shounen protagonists, like even Goku and Luffy aren't really smart and so dense but when it comes to combat they are geniuses, Naruto wasn't really even stupid. Yuno, his brother is introduced as his rival but it doesn't make sense since they don't even try to compete with each other and Yuno doesn't really act as his rival at all, they are more like friends, I don't know why he's even introduced because they do their own thing and no one really affects the other. The side characters are just one cliché after the other, wholly forgettable, I barely remember their names. Black Clover isn't a shining example when it comes to character writing, it's derivate of other shounen shows but somehow does them a lot worse.

Overall, a terrible shounen show that shouldn't have been even hyped up to begin with, it reeks of unoriginal and derivative writing, an uninteresting, overpowered and rather stupid protagonist in a group of walking cliché side characters that are mostly irrelevant and lazy animation work. This show is irredeemable. I am surprised it is rated so high as it is.

In my opinion, Black Clover is a fairly overrated anime which has major issues in many different aspects of its production. Having watched it until it's completion it was a huge disappointment for me, considering that the original idea sounded intriguing. I've also heard the manga is much better (though at the time of writing I've not read it), so I'm rather miffed that they studio put this low a quality into what probably was a fairly decent series.

Worldbuilding: 2/10

While the writers of Black Clover did create a somewhat extensive world to work with especially when it comes to the magic system, the application ... was overall underwhelming.

The entire universe only consists of four countries, and the relations between them tend to be very basic. We know the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom are at war, and we know that the spade kingdom is struggling for resources, but we've never really gotten to see enough to completely understand why they would be willing to literally abuse and mutilate children in order to gain more military power. Blatant terrifying acts like that only hold weight if we are able to really spend time with some exposition about the country as a whole. That being said, we only learn about the Heart kingdom extremely late in the series, and we know perhaps even less about it than the Diamond kingdom. Why would the Heart Kingdom isolate itself if it objectively had more military might than probably the Heart and Clover kingdom combined. Granted that it seems to be run over an absolute monarchical rule, It doesn't make sense that all of the ruler's have been benevolent for some reason. That goes against the most blatant weakness of authoritarianism, which is that it is extremely prone to corruption. And the spade kingdom is barely mentioned at all until the very end of the season when it becomes the capitol of the dark triad.

As for the magic system, although it might appear to be extensive at a first glance, it's only complex at face value. Yes, there are different types which can counter each other (which in and of itself is a rather basic concept of a magic system which includes types), but the overall adaptability and application of each power is limited heavily on a person's grimoire. The extent to which they can use their powers and their special abilities are specifically limited to spells written in the grimoire. And their powers are only ever used at face value, no one is stretching exactly how far they can take their powers and using that to develop new ones. And although we see people 'train' or try to develop emotionally, the correlation to them getting a new spell is non-dependent. The character isn't developing their powers themselves, the new spell just appears out of thin air, and the character had no say whatsoever in what the power does. It's extremely uncreative and really does a magic system injustice, especially considering the potential it had to be good. Imagine if through training you could write your own spells in your book. Or if we saw powers being adapted in uncanny ways like Finral's portals being used to easily accelerate objects.

Plot: 1/10

The plot in the anime is rather generic and cliched especially for shonen which is already oversaturated as is. We've seen it so many times, a character doesn't have any powers, but then it turns out he either has some huge innate power, or inherits the power from something. Examples of this are Fire Force, My Hero Academia, I could go on. Some of the arcs were interesting, personally I enjoyed the fairy arc with Licht the most out of all of them. Honestly if it had ended there my score might have been higher. However with the introduction of the demons as antagonists the quality just went down. The demons became an escape from proper pacing and power scaling.

The pacing of the series itself is fairly decent up to the end of the first demon fight. I'm saying that purely in terms of new plot though. The amount of flashbacks and narration is an obvious attempt at trying to stretch the length of the series as much as possible. new plot doesn't start until 6 minutes in most episodes. If you count the outro as well that's about 8 minutes of the show doing absolutely nothing. considering 24 minutes episode times that's only a 16 minute actual episode length, which is ignoring that flashbacks in some episodes might take around half of that time (especially nearing the end of the anime).

Before the last arc of the anime (dark triad), the timeline skips an entire 6 months, during which time most of the characters have apparently become ridiculously overpowered. And then we're thrown suddenly into fights with a ton of new enemies which we had not seen before and have no emotional connection towards, and somehow they are just as powerful, or even more powerful than asta and the commanders. Not to mention, 3 episodes from the end a new mentor is introduced.

However my biggest gripe, is that the series ended.... WITHOUT THE FINAL FIGHT. Yes, I know it's getting a movie sequel. But still. A 170 episode buildup, and we get a corny ending about how they are going to get stronger and defeat the dark triad. Yes, I'm getting a little emotional here, but seeing the ending really upset me. It really upset me.

Characters: 1/10

I of course don't mean to say that all of the characters are bad, but unfortunately most of them are extremely 1 dimensional and based on cliches. Asta has one goal, and one goal alone. He's unrealistically optimistic, and he never goes through any substantial character development. Most of the time, the show portrays him as completely perfect. Maybe not in physique, but in character. People who throw any actually valid criticism at him about his mantra of 'never giving up', even when realistically he ought to have died several times over are generally thrown under the bus at some point. That's essentially the definition of a Mary Sue. Why would I like Asta when he essentially is constantly screaming, and believes that if he swings his sword faster, and rushes at his enemy in a slightly different way than before, and for some reason the writers say that it ought to work. There's no way people would enjoy Asta if he was a person in real life.

Yuno isn't that much better. He has the exact same goal as Asta, and the two are said to be in a rivalry over it, Yet we don't actually see much of a rivalry. Maybe this is a mistranslation of the original Japanese meaning, but rivalry generally implies conflict and a distaste towards the rival which we don't see. Another problem is Yuno's power scaling generally happens off screen, so we generally don't have any emotional connection with him. This is further amplified by the fact that he's portrayed as being stuck up and somewhat elitist. And I don't want to spoil the fine details of the plot but there are some very very cliche explanations for Yuno's past which is a letdown because it was hidden from us for most of the series.

As for the Dark Triad, their personalities are probably the most one dimensional out of all the villains in the series. They embrace evil for the sake of evil. One is a megalomaniac, one is a narcissist, and the last is a masochist. If you've seen it you probably already know which characters I'm referring to. Their underlings have the same one-dimensional personalities (often time relating extremely obviously to the actual power they have like the tongue dude being a pervert). But the largest problem is we only get to see them extremely late in the series. They don't have time for any character development at all, Especially when compared to Licht.

That being said, I'd say Licht was my favorite character because he at least seemed to have more than one motivation for his actions and ideals, and you couldn't just lump him in there with the notion that he was completely evil. Although, the same can't be said for his minions.

There are plenty of other side characters I could talk about as well, but the cast is so broad that it would be impossible to get into all the details in this already long review.

Art/Animation: 3/10

When the anime tries, it does well. Still scenes look pretty decent, the animation quality is nice. However, in the fight scenes, where arguably the most effort ought to be put in, the quality greatly diminishes. Lazy fails to describe it enough. Ground ceasing to have any texture whatsoever. Characters loosing some discernable features occasionally. It completely breaks the atmosphere of the fight scenes. This problem becomes much worse in the later arcs of the anime.

Sound: 5/10

Of all things, the sound gets rated the highest I'd say. Mainly because the music wasn't that bad. Sure it was somewhat generic in terms of compositional style, but for the most part the music matched the mood of the scenes, and the production quality was up to standard. It's forgettable, but it serves its purpose.

However the voice acting for asta in particular wasn't that great. I know a lot of other people have mentioned this but his screaming is just ear-grating and there is no real point to it at all.

Overall: 3/10

Unfortunately I just can't recommend this show to a new viewer. It has extensive flaws in many aspects of production that just ruins its potential. It relies heavily on cliches, and generic plot devices to drive the story forward, and the ending is extremely anti-climatic. If you decide to watch please keep these points in mind. Don't go into it expecting an innovative shonen or a great plot.

If you think that you can enjoy this anime as long as cliches don't bother you, think again. There's a reason cliches exist- when done right, they work. The problem with black clover is there literally nothing there OTHER THAN the cliches.

The characters are very hollow, 1-dimensional and completely unrelatable representations of your usual cliches. Not one character brings any unique flavour to the anime. They are merely sock puppets repeating the same lines every episode, who were made only to complete the typical character checkboxes to get the series funded. You have to watch this for many episodes to really ... appreciate how dreadful they are, as nothing has changed in the 22 episodes released so far. THEY STILL RINSE AND REUSE THE EXACT SAME 1-liners AS THE FIRST EPISODES.

The voice acting becomes uninspired as there is no reason for the voice actors to become invested in these excuses for characters. The back stories are shallow, the main character is as bland and boring as you could imagine with a dreadful screaming voice used for 95% of his lines.

The art and animation gets worse with every episode- to the point that poorly drawn stills are used for "action" scenes in what is supposed to be the CLIMAX fight of the arc. Frames are reused on loop to save time and money. The fights are terrible and poorly conceived. I recommend the viewers save their own time and money and stay away.

Black Clover is a Japanese fantasy shounen manga series, which was written and illustrated by Yuuki Tabata. The series is published in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump magazine in Japan, and Viz Media is publishing it in their Weekly Shonen Jump digital anthology magazine in the US. At the Black Clover Jump Festa event on December 18, 2016, an anime television series adaptation by Pierrot was announced. It is directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu writing scripts, Itsuko Takeda doing character designs, and Minako Seki composing the music. The anime premiered on October 3, 2017.The series was initially listed as running for 13 episodes, ... but was later expanded to 51 episodes, which is one of the mistakes this review will center on, but later about it.

Asta, a kid living in poverty is determined to become the next Wizard King of his country. The problem is, in the world where magic is everything: it determines your position in society, Asta has absolutely no magic at all. However, his determination to become top 1 in the kingdom helps him get into the kingdom's elite defense forces, the Magic Knights. He, together with his brother, start their journey to become the most respected, as well as the kingdom’s most powerful man.

How one should assess a story-line that crawls with clichés and unoriginality? While it is not a bad thing, it is not a good thing either. Many anime series have done this before, but the problem here is that putting all these overused clichés together is a very difficult thing to pull, because you will have to get rid of these clichés and make your work original. There should always be something your viewers will remember you for. Black Clover, however, does have originality about its story-line, but it is not enough to call its story-line original. Those who are not new to the industry will have a ‘I have seen this already’ feeling, when watching Black Clover. And at some point it gets somewhat annoying, because you already know what is going to happen. Of course, it is not the only negative side this anime has, there are far too many, I would like to touch upon another thing, which ruined this series. As I have already mentioned in the first paragraph of my review, the series was initially listed as running for 13 episodes, but was later expanded to 51 episodes. This is the biggest mistake this anime has made: you are being shows far too many unnecessary details and nothing really happens. Black Clover has only enough material for 13 episodes. With 13 episodes it would not be that bad as it is right now.

For any anime that has magic as its main theme, I would hope for a simply flawless, charming animation that will make my heart stop beating for a second. Black Clover’s animation is sometimes fluid and dynamic, but it happens not as often as one would love to see. Indeed, the dark color schemes of the animation help promote the idea of the type of the world full of darkness and evil, and it is really awesome, however, character designs leave much to be desired. There is also nothing to comment on the sound. It does not have any memorable music pieces and voice acting is just… listen to Asta’s voice actor and you will know. It is like you want to relax and you constantly hear ‘Leeroooooy Jenkiiiins’, which drives you mad.

To my big disappointment there is nothing original about any character in this anime, even supporting characters are full of clichés. The main duo of this anime resembles Dragneel Natsu and Fullbuster Gray: their design, their ideals, their attitude towards each other, they are very similar. And not only do the main characters have clichés, but also the whole supporting character cast: there is absolutely nothing original about them. Imagine Dragneel Natsu constantly screaming with no reason, imagine Kamijou, Touma ability to nullify magic, and finally imagine Luffy, wanting to become the pirate king. Bingo, that is the whole concept of Black Clover.

Awful, what a disappointment! Even after 27 episodes this series is still bad. As it has already been mentioned many times in my review, there should have never been 51 episodes; this anime has enough material for 7-11 episodes. Okay, even 13 episodes will do. But, for some reason, the creator decided to make it 51 episodes. In result, most of the time you are being shown some absolutely pointless and unnecessary scenes, with jokes that are just dramatic because of the fact that they are absobloodylutely not funny. On top of that, this series is absolutely unoriginal; it has bloody nothing to offer its viewer. However, this anime is great for kids and for those who are totally fine with clichés and are able to literally ‘turn their consciousness off.’ This is a number one quality to watch and to finish this anime. I, alack, do not have it and I will have to give up on it after watching the 27th episode today.

All in all, I am sad to give this anime such a low overall score, but I have not found anything good, anything original about it that will help me appreciate this series, there is nothing good about it. If you want a good battle-shounen, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, and Fullmetal Alchemist are ready to help you. Black Clover, however, is nothing but a guide on what you should not do to make a good battle-shounen.

Grade-
Overall (sub): 1
Story: 1
Animation: 5
Art: 6
Music: 5
Voice acting: 7
Enjoyment: 2

Haha, I can't really write this review without laughing.

We can start with the fact that each episode has a massively long prologue (the same for every episode), has 3 minutes dedicated to repeating the previous episode, 1 minute dedicated to a spin-off, a long halfway-through animation, 30 seconds of next episode preview, and of course an OP and ED. Each episode only introduces maybe 15 minutes of actual content, and even those few minutes is just very little actual content stretched out as long as possible through meaningless dialogue, the characters repeating their catchphrases, crappy animation of generic side characters, or some other technique.

This just ... gets progressively worse. I have never seen something as blatantly lacking in actual story as this.

I don't think I even need to comment on the characters. They're all bad, and annoyingly so. And I don't mean simply that they resort to tacky anime tropes. No, its worse than that. Their tsundere is the most boring, typical tsundere copied off of the most overused tsundere template, and not a shred of originality was added.

The animation is dreadful. Way too often they resort to CGI to render spells, but it's obvious that no effort was invested to at least make it blend with the rest of the art (or even make them more than just spheres or generic projectile shapes). The sound effects are also the most typical ones, by which I mean it's clear that they use the same sound over and over for most of the magic.

Haha, and it pains me to say this: at first I somewhat enjoyed the show, but over time you just feel like you've sunk deeper and deeper into the mud.