Black Clover is a traditional shounen anime that is more traditional than most modern shounen today. Instead of the more seasonal arcs produced like My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer, it stretches its storytelling to be yearlong. Unfortunately, the need to air every week really hampers the production quality, leading to inconsistent animation. There will be thoroughly outstanding battles such as Episodes 63, 84, 91, 92, and Episode 100. However, more often you’ll find stiff characters and disproportionate models. Sometimes there also will be inconsistent character placement. Two characters who were a foot from each other in a closeup are a few yards away in the wide.
Outside of various quality inconsistencies, the stretched storytelling can also be cumbersome. The first 3-5 minutes of every episode retells the Tale of the First Wizard King, followed by a recap, then ends with the opening intro. Despite that, the show will still replay the last minute or two of the previous episode before we see new material. If you remove all of that with the outro and post-credit snippets, each episode is about 15-17 minutes long. I understand that having a continuous production schedule forces the team to cut corners, but if I had been watching this week by week, I’d be utterly annoyed by how little actually happens in a single episode. If, in a perfect world, the production team was to pace the show normally, everything that happened in 102 episodes could’ve been done in 70 or less.
Continuing with the negatives, the show’s major plot points are astoundingly similar to Naruto. That isn’t to say that the story is less enjoyable, but when I’m constantly thinking “just like in Naruto,” I can’t help but feel disappointed that the creator couldn’t pen a more original story within the context of a really interesting world. I won’t go into more detail for the sake of spoilers.
Character-wise, I admit that Asta completely won me over. I watched the dubbed version of the anime, and I must give props to Funimation for a fantastic dubbing. The voice actors nailed the delivery and it was mostly because of Asta’s voice actor, Dallas Reid, that I grew to like the character. As loud and obnoxious as his character may be, Reid found a perfect balance that never became too grating and did an excellent enough job with the humor to make me laugh more than a few times with his delivery. Christopher R. Sabat is a pleasure as always as Yami, Captain of the Black Bulls.
To return to the storytelling aspect, I do wish that the story challenged the main character’s ideals. So far, Asta’s determination only wavered in Episode 01. Every challenge he has faced since has been purely physical. Nothing has really challenged him to the core, forcing him to question his own ideals and aspirations. As a result, Asta hasn’t shown any development at all as a character, which I feel is necessary for compelling protagonists. He is a model of determination and heart for sure, but not compelling.
The side characters are a hit and miss. They’ll begin as one note characters, have a character development arc, then return to being one note characters. Finral, and Vanessa of the Black Bulls are the standouts so far. Each have a great character arc and are essential supporting players in two major action set-pieces. The rest of the Black Bulls, outside of Yami, have yet to stand out as much as I would hope by this point in the show.
My greatest fear with the anime, is that it won’t know when to quit (which I guess is entirely dependent on the author of the manga). With the overarching plot looking to reach a fever pitch in Season Three, I can’t help but think this will turn into a prelude for something bigger, which will turn into a prelude for something even bigger, and so on and so forth. With how little can happen per episode, dialing it back to one a week after I catch up may make the show unbearably slow. As much as I have enjoyed the show despite its flaws, it doesn't have enough to keep me compelled for years and years to come. (At least as of Episode 102)
