Black Clover

Black Clover is subjected to undue harshness due to comparisons to its predecessors mainly Naruto. The big three naruto, bleach and one piece have come to define the shounen genre, most new shounen unavoidable end up taking inspiration from them.

Overall
Black Clover is cookie cutter shounen with good artwork and fast pacing to ensure to make it a compelling/ entertaining read. Ideally, the score for it should 8.2 ish.

Story
The storyline is a simple linear progression of increasing stakes, with a battle-centric approach towards the narration. The plot is one dimensional with blatant foreshadowing, and the antagonists don't invoke a sense of crisis.

Characters
All characters are one-dimensional and lack complex personality traits to engage the viewers in their thoughts and dilemmas. The author has done a good job to have a diverse group of characters, as in most characters are given unique but one-dimensional traits.

The main character Asta is not someone you would root for he lacks the charisma a Luffy, Naruto possess. His power-ups are arbitrary(plot-armour) and the reader never feels the stakes in his battles, his victory seems certain because if he loses the story would end.

Every other character fails to have a meaningful impact on the reader as their problems are black and white, the backstories fail to connect with the reader as it seems too dark to be true.

Side Note: This is something I find very interesting, Can the MC lose?
This question is the crux of a story, the best-written characters can lose. The world can accept the consequences of their defeat. Poorly written characters can't the get power-ups in the key moment and overturn the tides.

Art
The art and the fights are the saving grace for the manga.

Enjoyment
It is an entertaining read, and honestly while shallow an example of shounen well done. If you want light-hearted entertainment, give it a go.

Despite all the hate that black clover gets as a series I personally can get some enjoyment out of it the ,art work is well done, admittedly it isn't going to be getting any awards but its still decent. Asta can get a bit annoying at the start but gets better as a character as the story goes on, but you have to sick with it for a bit at the beginning as the story is your typical shounen manga but starts to becoming better as it goes on. As it starts to define it's self some of the comedy in this manga though is great through my favourite character Yami as despite him being the leader of the black bulls he still doesn't take things very seriously. But the one of the down sides to this manga that Asta can get very annoying, though not as annoying as in the anime. But I would recommend this manga to anyone who can stick with its for a while.l

Look if you hate Shonen or can't stand plot holes and are into well written stories that follow a natural story structure Black Clover isn't for you. Black Clover breaks all of these rules and more. It starts out terrible introducing way too many under developed characters whose personality boils down to one cliche, however as the series moves on it dives into at least one or two characters backstory per arc and explains who and and why they are the way they are. The story moves at a breakneck pace giving the characters constant power boosts and escalating the power scale so fast It should have crashed and burned by now. However it hasn't in fact half the reason I keep reading the manga is out of the thrill knowing that at any moment this series could crash and burn in the most spectacular way possible.
My point is this. Black clover is a shonen series which aims to be as shonen as possible. The plot gets really intense too, for example in the latest arc every-time you think the current villain is about to go down, they get betrayed by an even bigger villain who's even more op then the last. Thats what Black Clover does.

If someone told me that this manga was created by a neural network designed by a company to study every shounen manga in existence and create a series for the express purpose of being popular, it'd make more sense to me than the idea that a living breathing person with any passion towards manga would create this soulless cash-grab.

Black Clover is the Frankenstein's monster of the shounen manga industry. Put under the scope, this series is nothing but festering monster with no individuality or spirit. Every element of this series has been siphoned from its contenders. The story, the art, the characters; nothing the mangaka creates seems to come from his own imagination.

Firstly, every aspect of the story seems to be borrowed from somewhere. Normally, I wouldn't place "originality" in such high esteem, as there are countless ways to do amazing things with basic concepts, and usually every creative would have something to offer to a pre-existing concept. Usually. Yet the plot of Black Clover is so painfully mediocre, so incredibly uninspired, that it starts to enter the realm of straight-up plagiarism.

Banking on the recent trend of under-powered protagonists who have to achieve their goals through determination (although, in contrast to the excellent way this trope is handled in BNHA by having the protagonist on a continuous growth streak whereby his determination lends itself to his powers, this series undermines the most fundamental aspect of this trope which made it popular in the first place by giving the protagonist an ability that requires neither strength of will or determination), drawing on old and archaic plot devices and starring characters who are so rooted in archetype that their every movement and every word is predictable to anyone who has any basic anime knowledge, makes this series feel like the ultimate "turn your brain off experience", which I'm assuming is the only way anyone has enjoyed this series in the first place.

The art direction also tends to fall apart when viewed with a discerning eye; besides the mediocre panel work, the lackluster character designs and overdone, generic fantasy setting, this series also lacks soul in the overall style itself. The style feels like dollar-store Fairy Tail, which in itself felt like dollar-store One Piece. The manga derives from so many series that on close inspection, after stripping off the layers and the patches stolen from other works, you begin to see that there's nothing underneath.

The best way to describe Black Clover, in one word, is "soulless".

WELL well well...First review. As a person i adore the Shounen tag as much as i adore my mystery and drama. The thing is it saddens me to see people compare 2 different manga/anime or call them ripoffs and stuff. You see here is my evaluation of Black Clover.

Well yeah i get it typical Shounen i will be the wizard king/pirate king/hokage/ the best hero.. but thats the story of like a lot of Shounen anime.. What makes the story of Black clover interesting is the whole idea of the grimoires, the character development, the amazing artstyle ( Just continue reading it blows your mind if you pay attention to the detail ) and many other things. For me i got hooked with the ''epicness'' of the fights, how stubborn Asta can be ( i relate sometimes ( THATS why Shounen exist so we can relate to their struggles ) ) and gosh that artstyle.

TL/DR this Manga is worth a shot in my opinion if you really like Shounen anime/manga. If your job is not that one of a critic, then just read it until it bores you.

10/10 in my heart, 9/10 on MAL

I read a lot of battle shounen manga. Actually, I didnt mind to have cliché plot. But when that cliché take to the extreme level, it become Black Clover.


story 5/10 : The story begin when the the main protagonist (Aster) dream to became the sorcery emperor. Nothing I didnt seem before and I find the goal is very weak. I take naruto as an example, naruto dream to became a hokage became he wants to prove others he is no trash and wish to reshape the ninja world. In Black Clover, it didnt explain much what the sorcery emperor do and what so important about sorcery emperor. The MP just wants to be the strongest so the wish to become the sorcery emperor and that is all.


character 4/10 : I'm going straight to the point, the only character I like in Black Clover is YAMI. His cocky personality very enjoy to read. Other than that, he also show off some cool scene during the fight. I wish YAMI is the MP rather than Aster. Talking about Aster, I'm suffering to read very scene his in it. This character has next level of cliché, I can predict every single dialogue he's about to say. And he non stop of yelling, OMG can you please stop yelling.


fight scene 7/10 : There I think this manga shrine the most is the fight scene. I must admit the fight scene in black clover is pretty cool. It is exciting to see how the MP fighting against the odds, when his opponent is stronger than him. It is good to have some casualties after the fight, it show how deadly their power can be. I think ill enjoy more if the MP didnt shout out some lame dialogue at the middle of fighting scene.


enjoyment 5/10: Black Clover is not a bad manga but is sure hell is a overrated manga. To me it is a mediocre manga, nothing new bring to the table just another typical battle manga. I only recommend this manga if you didnt mind the cliché plot and character. For someone who looking something more other than fight scene, you came to the wrong place.

This is Shounen, and I don't know how else to describe it. It hits every cliche within the genre and retreads a lot of familiar territory. It's almost insulting how simple this is. It's a good manga to introduce to a young reader that may want to get into manga, though I'd argue there are many manga better suited for that.

If you REALLY enjoy things like Fairy Tail, then I'd say you'd probably enjoy this.

If you don't enjoy that kind of thing, this is easily skippable. Nothing special is done here and most of the people that do get a big kick out of this are probably just starting to get into manga/anime.

It's very middle of the road, you'll hate it if you've read stuff like it before and thought it was okay, and you'll love it if you love shounen tropes and all the stuff that comes along with it.

Overall, I wouldn't consider it good, even within it's own genre. Maybe it's your guilty pleasure, and that's fine, but honestly it's not worth the time. I got frustrated with the cliches 100+ chapters in. People will say it's making fun of the genre, but it really doesn't feel like it and it doesn't make it any less of a pain to read in my opinion.

I feel like I went over the same point multiple times, but I really struggled to come up with things to say about this series.

5/10 completely average and pretty harmless. Fans of the genre will enjoy it, those tired of it will hate it.

Preface:

Black Clover, or as I like to call it "How I stopped Worrying and Read the Manga."

Black Clover was something I had avoid looking into, only reading one chapter in Shounen Jump's Weekly before the anime dropped. Watching the first three episodes of the anime made me hold disdain for this modern giant. And, so I continued to avoid it like the plague until reading about how superior the manga is. Then, giving up in my reluctance I read the manga. And, holy shit. It was epic.

Story: 7/10

Black Clover is just Naruto on steroids, premise-wise: a kid looked down by everyone trying to make a name for himself and prove everyone wrong. Asta is of course joined by a "too cool for school" rival, a bad-ass leader, and a quirky, fun cast of characters.

Well, Black Clover's biggest strength is its biggest weakness. It holds itself to the same faults as most shounen: incomprehensible power escalation, happy-go-lucky hero, and plot armor stronger than the Wizard King. However, where it succeeds makes up for where it fails. It's fast-paced, non-stop action and emotion give you no time to complain. By the time you finish one arc, you're on to the next as hyped as ever.

Art: 8/10

This is definitely one of the manga's biggest draws. I find the style of Black Clover to perfectly fit the tone of story, fast and exciting. There's usually so much going on with characters in constant motion leading to some amazing fight scenes and splash panels. Although it may take someone time to adjust after coming off a cleaner series, the artwork is definitely great and oozing with emotion.

Characters: 7/10

For the most part, they're fine. The Black Bulls are such a fun group of characters too see intermingling and grow with each other. The problem is for the most time, they're one-dimensional and only living out they're character quirk (eg. Charmy literally always eating instead of protecting the capital). One-note characters can work, and they do work in most instances. The characters come to life in fight scenes and times of great emotion, bringing huge passion to the reader.

Unfortunately most the side characters aren't so lucky. Although they're given great quirks and some presence, some of them are just one-note. Golden Dawn is full of incredibly stereotypical characters aside from Yuno and Vengeance as they're given a lot more room to work with.

The villains face the one-note issue the hardest. I can genuinely only describe each of them with just one word and it'll cover them perfectly.

Big casts can work, just look at One Piece. Although I love the characters, objectively they're just not strong enough to hold their own without the plot moving at a million miles per second.

Big casts can work, but a single quirk or just a stereotype doesn't make a character.

Enjoyment: 9/10

It must have been impossible to tell, but Black Clover has rammed its way into my heart.

Despite all its faults, I find it charming and exciting. Easily beating MHA in its current state in terms of my enjoyment. I picked it up and binge-read the manga. Everything was just so cool and passionate. My blood boiled whenever a fight was going to start or when Captain Yami did literally anything.

But as much as I enjoy it, it's not perfect.

Overall: 7/10

Black Clover is a shounen, so that's an immediate no for most people. Especially when its so by the books. But picking it up is sure to change your mind with all the fun you'll have with it.

Because, that's all Black Clover is. This manga is just a bundle of fun.

I'm not one to write super long reviews or go into much detail so I will just mention what my main problem is with the manga series as a whole. My one problem is that filler story arcs, that you would typically see written into an anime adaptation of a manga series, are specifically written into the plot of the manga. I don't understand why Yuki Tabata has made this decision. Maybe it's to give him more time to flesh out his own thoughts but regardless of the reasoning I find it frustrating to be reading the manga and then all of a sudden we're going to have a dating chapter or a trip to a hot spring.

While there are some elements built into these "filler but not filler" arcs that move the story along it seems very cheap to use these tropes within the plot of the manga itself. I've seen reviews of certain episodes of the Black Clover anime adaption that reference it being "a filler episode" only to turn around and tell them it's actually not filler and the entire scene was really in the manga to begin with.

It's for this reason that I give the manga, overall, a 7/10. It's good but since this manga isn't supposed to be in the slice-of-life genre I don't expect to see mundane scenarios written directly into the plot. Save that stuff for the anime and please don't pad the story-line of the manga.

Edit: As of chapter 172, I still rate this a 7/10 but for a different reason than mentioned above. There is very little to no padding going forward after chapter 100 or so. With that said, the reason why I keep this a 7/10 is because of the art design. Without spoiling anything there’s a certain arc that kicks off around chapter 120 that is non-stop action/mayhem. While the story is exhilarating, it is very hard to follow the action i.e. can’t tell who hit who and can’t tell which person is speaking. It’s minor but was enough of an irk for me to get frustrated while reading. All in all though, the way the pacing is going right now I would 100% check this series out.

Story: Too much emotional entanglement, a bit cliche.

Good worldview building! Would give 7.8/10

(typical shounen HAREM story!! Every girl seems to fall in love with mc, which i personally dislike a lot, ruined my enjoyment while reading)

Art: Very decently detailed, and so is the storyboard planning. Not much outstanding features.

Enjoyment: ... The sterotype of the mc (main character) character chrait just makes me upset. Optimistic, energetic, never willing to give up, kinda brainless.

If he lived in a more relistic world without his "Plot Armor" he'd die within 3 chapters.

Never watched/read naruto, but the plot is just shonen ╮(￣-￣)╭
xd they always say things such as "power of friendship" "never stop believing yourself" lol

(this review may be subject to edits)

In all likelihood, you'll find out if you will or won't like the series pretty early on. While I could pretty aptly describe this story as Naruto's story in Fairy Tail's setting (which will either doom or endorse the series for someone), its probably worth going more into detail.

4/10
The story is exactly what I said it was; its Naruto's story, down to the orphan loser who can't do anything right, who has a rivalry with the prodigy everyone respects. That said, the setting is very akin to Fairy Tail, with a rambunctious group (I don't THINK its a guild) of wizards forming the hero's home/family. This is not necessarily a criticism or a praise, its just a statement. I'm honestly not entirely sure about the conflict, since it lacks a lot of focus, and we're not so much shown the conflict as we're told it. Perhaps looking back I could tell the story, but as things stand, I still only barely understand the story. The reason I gave it a 4 instead of lower though, is because what I do understand, I sort of enjoyed. While I know almost exactly what's going to happen, I sort of feel that way with all shounen, and its the watching it unfold that's really entertaining.

7/10
The art is actually pretty good. Maybe nothing to jump out of your seat for, but still better than average. The strengths lie especially in the designs, and while they're not One Piece levels of creativity, the artist is clearing having lots of fun with these designs.

5/10
You've definitely seen this characters before. I only really remember a couple of the characters, and that's it. Those three characters are Asta, Noelle, and Yuno, if only for the tropes they fit into. The rest of the characters are pretty one note, and if you asked me, I couldn't tell you the other characters or what they're like. At the very least I could do that with other mainstream shounen. If nothing else, I like what the characters can do; I'll admit, I haven't seen those kinds of powers before, and I'm interested about what can be done with them.

6/10
However, despite all my criticisms, I actually kind of enjoyed of this story, for a relatively simple reason: I enjoy these tropes and cliches. I enjoy the rowdy, dumb protagonist, and the fantasy world they create. Its enough to keep my attention on the series for the foreseeable future...

5/10
...but despite all of that, I can't give this series anything higher than a fairly generous 5. Hopefully I'll be able to give it a lower score, but for now, I have to give it that.

Story:
Originally, I really enjoyed the story of Black Clover. However, as I continued to read on, my enjoyment lessened each time whenever the author writes himself into a corner and 'cheeses' his way out of it.

Is Asta getting his ass kicked? Throw him through a wall where he just so happens to find a magic sword, that has no rhyme or reason for being there, that will help him win.

Black Bull's base being invaded by strong opponents and no one is strong enough to stop them? Introduce a 'secret' member of the Black Bulls that was there 'the entire time' help fight back against the invaders. Even though there wasn't even so much as a hint of his presence in the previous chapters.

The story feels like it's being written on the get-go with no long term planning at all, and it really suffers for it.

However, there are a couple things I do like about the story. The pacing compared to other Shonen series is brisk, which is a nice and welcome change.

And the story seems to be quite self aware of its own flaws and does try to make up for them in other ways, even if it falls flat doing so sometimes.

Art:
The art isn't bad, it certainly does its job and at times can be impressive.

Characters:
They have their moments but as many others have said before they feel like they've been written in such a way just to check off every Shonen character trope in existence, which I am inclined to agree.

Many characters are also subjugated to the Piccolo effect, where after they have their moment in the spotlight they rarely ever become relevant again.

Enjoyment:
It was fair. It certainly isn't the best manga or novel I've ever read but it certainly isn't the worse.

Overall:
Well if you can overcome the flaws that I've pointed out and you enjoy Shonen, then go ahead and read it.

"My magic is never giving up!"

To the untrained eye, this manga might seem like the epitome of a generic shounen, action manga. But the truth could not be further than that.

Black Clover is an unparalleled work of art. It is the first of its kind, setting a new, insurmountable standard for all other shounen manga to come. If I asked you to name the best shounen series you have ever read/watch, the most likely ones that come to mind are One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, and Fullmetal Alchemist. However, all of these series have one huge flaw - rereading the chapters will never feel the same way again. It is not uncommon to hear "fans" of these series complain about how they wish to wipe their memories clean just to be able to experience the series for the first time once more. Fortunately, unlike all these so-called "masterpieces", Black Clover does not face this issue.

The story revolves around a character called "Asta", who wishes to become the wizard king. However, Asta does not possess a single ounce of magic, but luckily, he pulls out an anti-magic sword out of his rear end, which allows him to defeat mages with much ease. To amateurs, this might sound like an amalgamation of One Piece (pirate king) and My Hero Academia (quirkless), but little do they know that this was intentional. This was the only way to allow Yuki Tabata to walk a fine line between an absolute snoozefest and a really engaging story. This was the only way for Yuki Tabata to meticulously craft a true mediocrity of a story.

Black Clover has a cast and story so mediocre that readers will most likely forget everything that has happened in the previous arc. This would then allow readers to re-read the arc again as if this was their first time experiencing it. This magic could not have happened if the story was too boring, because readers would not be able to finish reading the current arc, and it could not have happened if the story was too engaging, as readers would retain some memory of what happens in the story.

My only real problem with this series is the fact that each chapter is released on a weekly basis. Because of this timing, readers will only be able to forget what happens in the previous arc, which meant that readers will re-read the previous arc every week. Had the chapters been released on a monthly basis (or at least a biweekly basis), the timing would force me to re-read the entire manga every new chapter, which is what every reader truly desires.

Tabata-sensei: "My magic is achieving true mediocrity!".

10/10

It's still going through a good amount of growing pains and the author has a lot to learn in my opinion. It's by no means perfect story telling wise but I overall quite enjoy it.

It might have started out vaguely similar to Naruto as some suggest but it quickly goes off into becoming something much more on its own. Are some of the themes and occurrences in this store cliche? Sure... But cliche can be fine by me if it's done well-enough and is somehow still enjoyable and this is.

If we're talking about the art; it's goddamned superb. I love this series' artwork. I have feeling part of what will eventually sky-rocket to global success will be its unique and lovely artwork.

Arbitrarily numbering how I feel about a series is a bit annoying although if I truly had to do so I'd go with a 7 out of 10 score. It's a good series and enjoyable but not great by any means buuut I do feel as though it has a lot of greatness in its future. Naruto-One Piece-Bleach level success, in my humble opinion, is not a long-shot.

Story: 3/10
Black Clover follows the action/adventure shounen manga type to the letter. It follows the style of a main protagonist and friends raising their skills in a particular art in a special group to achieve a goal. In this case, Aster (the main protagonist) and friends join the magicknights to try and become the next sorcery emperor.

I wouldn't call that premise as a cliché as it is far too used, more of a genre. The clichés come after.
1. Main protagonist (MP) seems to have no talent, but has a hidden talent that makes him the messiah.
2. MP's friend is a genius yet cares deeply about MP.
3. MP and friend have the same goal.
4. They are both overpowered.
5. Every girl characters seems to fall in love with MP.
6. MP is super confident and goes against all the norms of civilization.
7. Almost every character has a dislike for the MP until they learn how awesome he is.
8. MP never gives up.

All of these lead to a somewhat predictable outcome in story (the MP will win), but the fun thing about shounen mangas is reading how it happens. And that is in my opinion the greatest flaw of the manga, everything happens because the MP is 'super awesome'. There's normally a progression in skill at the start of shounen mangas, where the protagonist, even if with hidden unique talents, starts weaker than many others and evolves while beating only those at his current level. Hierarchy in skill is thrown out the window in this manga, as the MP defeats everyone evil that appears in front of him, no matter how much more experienced and powerful they are. He gets beaten to a pulp, but always manages to fight back and win. It brings no fear or real expectations of the MP getting in trouble when all he has to do is yell louder and then he can get out of the problem.

So far it's in its early stages, so the story hasn't evolved into something major.


Characters 3/10

Aster - the Main Protagonist.
Most of the problems I find in the manga seem to come from the main protagonist mostly, as he is a cliché himself. Loudmouth that never gives up and isn't useless only because of his special talent. Chick magnet because he says what every reader is thinking, yet never notices that they are attracted to him. Thought as a joke by everyone, even the super gifted and experienced, who then get super surprised when he's not normal. Even with all the clichés there doesn't seem to be a backstory as to why he behaves as he does (so far at least).

Juno - best friend of MP
The super genius childhood friend. This is actually the character I have least against. He doesn't have much of a backstory as well, but all the bad characteristics of Aster don't seem present in him. On the other hand, that is also his downside. Besides being the genius, there doesn't seem to be much else besides being the MP's best friend with the same goal. Not much depth to him.

"The Titan" - The 'teacher'
The only experienced person that noticed that the MP is special. Of course he's the one that everyone hates, but actually has a good heart, he's just very tough. Another cliché really. It’s author made it clear from the moment the character was introduced that it would be like that.

Noelle - The clumsy girl
Super rich, super snob girl, which is clumsy with her gift, yet still looks down on everyone else, including the MP. That is until because of him she is able to start not being as clumsy. Clearly she falls in love with him.

In all, they are mostly shallow as well. I would say two dimensional characters that don’t evolve or behave in any way meaningfully.


Art: 6/10

Can't say I dislike the art, yet I don't have much to comment on. I am not intrigued by it, appears to be standard shounen artstyle. I can't say I know much of art in manga (I'm more of a story type), so I'll leave it at that.


Enjoyment: 3/10

It's... really disappointing. Quite predictable, the plot doesn't seem all that interesting, the interactions between characters are repetitive, the dialog as well, the direction it's going seems to be downhill, as most mangas get worse with time, this one should as well, yet it started not all that good.


Overall: 4/10

This manga is decent for those starting out reading mangas. They would learn the tropes of what a shounen manga is fairly quickly. For those that already read things like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail, The Breaker, The Seven Deadly Sins, and so on, I don't believe it would be anything special.

This is my first review so please keep that in mind :)

The problem with all of these reviews is that they mention something else like Naruto or they give input at only like 30 chapters in, which is minuscule compared to where the manga is at right now. Obviously, it might not be up to par early on with other more completed series but with time it definitely gets better.

This manga honestly has its ups and downs with the story, enjoyment, and overall action that takes place. During reading, I kind of got bored at around chapter 160 but it was honestly worth it to pick it back up again. This manga demonstrates the battle between grit and sheer willpower, versus innate ability. On one side you see Asta who puts hard work into everything he does in order to improve. And then on the other side, you have Yuno who is loved by magic and has tremendous innate abilities. The constant pursuit of who is stronger at a certain time really gives depth to the character development and their reason for fighting.

Also, the constant ability to find a new villain doesn't make this manga stale when compared to others. There is never a "need" for the characters to go out and find a villain, nothing seems forced to happen all for the sake of the plot advancing is essentially what I'm trying to say.

Overall, I'd definitely give it a read because it will only get better from here, especially with this new arc.

TL;DR- Both good and bad, has character depth, gets much better as time progresses

This manga is too good. (I am fully caught up so take this into account)

It starts off pretty bland and seems like every other set up."MC is weak and underestimated but then destroys everybody", but Asta's abilities are super powerful and his own lack of experience is his weakness. The story is about Asta learning from his rights and wrongs, giving the story an amazing sense of progression.

Tabata Yuuki is an amazing artist and it shows. The manga is littered with amazing double page spreads that are bad*ss and make the fights a concentrated dose of hype. The reveal of new abilities and characters always look amazing and makes even the smallest power ups look incredible.

The characters are where the story isn't as strong but it's only in the fact that some of the cast is bland. As new characters are introduced a lot of them are given their time in the spotlight but as the pacing of the story is very fast they only shine for about a few chapters. They aren't forgotten about though as they make appearances again every once in a while and mostly all of them have they're stories wrapped up as of chapter 197.

I usually end up losing my mind at the double spreads because they're so cool and add that hype factor to the fights. Usually manga fights are pretty boring aside from a special few but Black Clover always has meaningful and cool looking fights. They have some pretty real consequences and the as characters actually die in this shounen or if a new power is revealed (Obviously not every fight has risks or a new power reveal as the opponents are weaker at a single glance and are just there for the character in question to flex their power and show how much they've improved ) . They leave you at the edge of your seat because of this and keep you engaged.

Overall, I find myself addicted to Black Clover and read the new chapters as soon as they drop and painfully wait until I can get that next new chapter. At the current chapter (197), the story is in full throttle and has me yelling about how hype the fight or character is. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS SH*T BECAUSE IT'S TOO GOOD. Also, if you're coming here from the anime and you're scared about the quality, don't be.

I think Black Clover is one of the most "mistreated" manga in the community I've seen, because when I started reading it I did not have much confidence and I presented myself quite secpetico (in fact, I only started reading the manga because I saw that Asta will appear in the game Jump Force and wanted to see why they allowed it in the game), but while reading the manga I received a pleasant surprise, Black Claver is not at all as I had been painted and, even without having heard many bad things from the , I would still say that it is a good shonen of fights (in case you ask, I have already seen several shonens, Dragon Ball, Bleach, Katekyio Hitman Reborn, Hunter X Hunter 2011, among others, but I have not seen Naruto, which is who else compare). Now I will start the review.

And by the way, this review will have many spoilers, I review this review already being in chapter 188.

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Story:
Many will probably say that the story of Black Clover is not original, that it is a tracing, an exact copy of the plot of many Calisic and mythic shonens, but for me those people are totally wrong, it is true that history is not the strongest Black Clover, not even far, its story is simple, but perfect to achieve exapndir their world and thus create a construction more than decent, the theme of king wizard and the great demon that seem to be the most important lose considerable importance throughout the manga (although the essence of the events is still there), but in my opinion at the beginning the story was not being explored too much (even today it still leaves much to be desired), probably that is the reason why many criticized history beginning in Black Clover, but with the passage of time Black Clover was able to expand its history enough.

One of the reasons why history manages to advance at a good pace due to the general importance of all the sagas; the saga of the dungeon in which Luck is presented for the first time serves to introduce the diamond kingdom and to observe a little the growth of Asta and Yuno in a few weeks, the same is repeated with all the other sagas, when Asta just met Gauche was when the plot moved, all the bases for an acceptable story had already been presented (especially complementing it with the previous saga), I remember when I started reading Black Clover I thought it would be a manga that would not have much attention, a kind of "Fairy Tail" (although I must say that I like Fairy Tail), but in one of the first sagas shows how, strategically, the enemies are able to cut an arm to Fuegoleon (this event is in itself notable changes in characters such as Noelle, Leopold and a little in Asta), so the continuity and events in each saga leave me more than satisfied. I could say that this is one of the aspects that have evolved most throughout the series, even the saga of the elves (which are now) seems the apex of everything that the author planned throughout the manga, it is possible that their turns are cliches or quite predescibles, but they are constructed along so many chapters that they can be acceptable, it is better that to make a totally forced turn and without logic.

Since I made it clear that the plot of this manga happens in a very frenetic way and that the story little by little has evolved well I must also say that the world explored in Black Clover is not very big, the story takes time to narrate his story in good shape, but he does not take much time to explore his world, in about 100 chapters has not revealed much about other kingdoms that made the kingdom Trebol, only the Diamond Kingdom has been known, but has shown very little of him (at least Mars could serve as a reference on the diamond kingdom), the manga takes time to solve the mysteries and move forward with the current enemy, but the bases are inculcated and it would be a waste not to explore more of their world, I hope that after this saga they focus on the other kingdoms, that can give many curious things (especially now that the magician died and that there seems to be a time skip, it's a perfect opportunity).

I honestly believe that this is what the manga manages best, the characters, it's funny, because normally people try to fit all the characters in this series in a superficial way in a stereotype of a character to always call it cliche, that's why, here I will take my time and explain the characters more thoroughly.

First I have to say that Asta is, as most people know, a "stereotype" of Shonen protagonist, it is because of this that most catalog it as a simple garbage, I will not be pretentious, I also thought the same, no I dislike the protagonist with a hidden power, since that has the potential to create epic moments and, although it also fits the possibility of power ups, but that if controlled can create a great opportunity (you could say that something like that happens with Deku in BNH), this was achieved in part, but on the other hand Asta often pulls out power ups, the manga talks about strong feelings generating new spells, but most times that is an excuse to create convenient endings, but in certain moments of the story it is seen how Asta changes over time, when Asta was injured after defeating Vetto at the end he discovers that, although he was not born with the blessing of having magic, he was born with the blessing of to have friends, that was the first time that Asta I cry and for me it was a very well achieved moment (especially by the dialogue of all the Black Bulls).

The other members of the Black Bulls suffer the same, they are almost always labeled as cliches, but the exaggerated and extravagant personality of all the members makes the chemistry that occurs between them be, in my humble opinion, very ingenious, of the shonen I've seen few are those who have such a charismatic team and I love watching (especially if we combine this with comedy).

Magna and Luck are the most crazy of the group and always maintain the mood, just that makes their friendship is the most startling, provided they fight each other always manage to monopolize the scene in a very good way (in the dungeon, in his battle against Vetto and when Magna confronts Luck, that moment in particular I consider him the best of the whole manga), their friendship is reinforced by flash backs in the middle of the fighting without removing the tension, the only drawback is that Magna is not learning the same amount of attacks and Luck is exceeding it a lot, but in general the group is balanced, since each one knows how to use his power and knows what tactics to take advantage of in a combat.

Another character who has handled well is Finral, the past with his brother is probably the most work and is credible due to the setting of "nobility and plebeians" that has the manga, the problem of Finral is treated more in depth in the saga of the tournament and not only that, the manga takes advantage of that opportunity to show the love that they have among the whole team, since the battle against Vetto, Finral knew how to improve and from there it was changing, I am talking about that battle because that is easily the best of all the manga, not only because that was the first "serious" battle that Asta has (since the other matches even served as a warm-up since in many battles he always had a stronger ally, Yuno and Yami respectively), In addition to demonstrating for the first time in the manga how teamwork works, Finral in that aspect was very useful and knew how to take advantage of the situation, but the fight against his brother is the best, not only because It would be a new technique, if not because you could see a Finral fighting for himself and with clear motivations, in my opinion his evolution is one of the most remarkable.

The characters continue, there are many who recently had prominence, as is the case of Henry, Gordon and Grey, it is true that these characters (except for Henry who is new) were being very wasted, they had personalities and designs that could be attractive for a lot of public, but when the enemies went to destroy the base, they showed a great determination, I do not know why, but I am moved by the simple image of Gordon and Grey, the shy ones, shouting that they would not let their base be destroyed and that they They can defend what they want, many will say that their past was not deepened, and that's true, in a battle like that they could not beat the battle by putting very long flashbacks, so I hope that they will soon deepen with these characters, since lately they have seemed geinals to me.
On the other hand there is Henry, there is not much to say about him, his past was short and all his background they added some comedy, but that did not get him to take it seriously, I consider that Henry has great dialogues, not because he talks about friendship and how much he loves his friends, it is because of the context of his story that most of his dialogues make an impact on the spectator, that is why this character has a lot of potential (in addition we must add that all the current battles where they have been, they have been very dynamic and with an impeccable teamwork).

Vanessa and Gauche are characters to whom they have devoted a saga to try to explain them a little better; Gauche is treated like a madman by his eagerness to spend time are his little sister and Vanessa is treated as a very loose woman (almost like a whore), but Gauche in the saga where Litch appears for the first time, is taken more seriously and the manga stops making jokes about his sister to delve into the reason why he loves her so much, explaining this way because he joined the Black Bulls, being explained in a way that does not seem that Gauche is just a character of joke, Vanessa is the same, in the saga of the witches is where you can see the reasons for his personality so crazy, it is true that in these sagas Asta leads most of the battles, but that does not take away the fact that is explained more in depth to other characters in the group, so the methodology that makes Black Clover to focus on secondary most of the time hit the target, showing flash backs of a perfect duration to avoid misleading or out of tune s battles, group battles where you can see the resolution of the secondary and sagas that always try to focus on someone more than Asta.

The last important personages would be Noelle and Yuno, both are an archetype very common in the shonens; Noelle the waifu of Asta and Yuno your rival, the input is not bad, the idea of ​​putting this type of character in a manga, and you can usually evolve the characters, in order to have a chemistry, and be able to create situations very well cared for with a little effort, that is precisely what happens in this manga, Yuno being a rival of Asta often serves as a natural incentive to the protagonist, creating a vision of progress to be compared both and note that both have a amount of power very similar, Yuno, despite starting as a very used archetype, has managed to manage in the series, not because we can see much of his work too, as if it were a second protagonist, so we can see 2 realities of the Kingdom Trebol; the reality of the best group (Yuno) and that of the worst group (Asta, although later they become the second best), Yuno manages to evolve throughout the story in a disguised way, at first he shows himself very skeptical towards the Kingdom Trebol and even only cares to ascend and fulfill his dream, but then learn to work as a team and value their colleagues (that is much more in the saga of the tournament).
Noelle is almost the same, but increased, Noelle is easily the character that has evolved the most in the history, meaning that she is treated like trash by her brothers and that her place is to be in the Black Bulls, where she always She says that the biggest rubbish in the whole kingdom has gone, but despite everything, Noelle knew how to improve her skills over time and stopped being the shy girl who thought she could not compete with her brothers, right now is where Noelle is demonstrating greater conviction and where you can see the fruits of having to train to achieve your goals, I would say that Noelle is the one with the most "normal and justifiable" power ups (I'll talk about that later), since Noelle has always been the one that trains the most (when Mimosa speaks with Noelle, Mimosa says that she always saw Noelle train and in the saga when they go underwater), Noelle often serves for comedy due to the romance of Asta, this arises so naturally what e the comedy does not seem farfetched or monotonous.

I can talk about many other characters, but I already talk about how much I love the main ones, they make the world feel more alive and their personalities combine and impact each other, creating a great atmosphere in the team, the same happens with interactions with other characters, such as what happens with the harem of Asta, being always used for comedy or characters such as Yami, despite looking like a simple character and typical character who plays the role of boss, manages to teach everyone Black Bulls to find their way to fight and always serves to cause comedy in combats without looking stupid.

One point that I will agree with many is about the excessive power ups that the manga presents, and yes, most serve to create transcendental moments in the story, but it is no excuse that the spells are learned when experiencing feelings strong, many shonen sleeves present power ups, so for some it may be passable, but it is a fact that Black Clover is often helped by the script.

The antagonist of Black Clover is interesting, Litch manages to interest me for several reasons; share body with William, his way of expressing himself towards humans with a very "special" form of hatred (Litch seems very intelligent and despite everything always speaks in a very metaphorical way towards humans, making cynical comments like his companions) , has the light element that proved to be very powerful (assassin to the magician king), it is not that his motivations are great, since he wants to take revenge on humans, but his background and his past makes everything make sense and adds an aura of mystery to Litch, he has had a whole chapter of reflection where he shows how happy he was, so much that he believed in humans, but in the end the humans ended up betraying him. A unique and charming design like the majority of Black Clover characters, it catches my attention to know how to develop their past more deeply.

Battles and art are very good, and talk about how the characters are combined in groups to make dynamic battles and unique, this combining with the facial expressions that the author manages to capture (when faced with Vetto, when Asta finds out that his friends will help him find a cure for his arm, expressions of terror of all when the elves took possession of the bodies of many companions), the faces that Mr. Tabata achieves seem extremely accurate and reflect the feelings of the characters very well either in battle or out of battle, the attacks of the characters are drawn in an agrdable way, but a bad point of his art is confusion when drawing attacks, many movements that he draws look so rare that they are difficult to distinguish (that's less for me), outside of that the approaches he makes to the cities or towns manage to transmit the space they occupy and at a glance it shows the state in which it is, m Many details when it comes to making scenarios makes me really appreciate your art.

I would say that this is the best example of how you can use the cliches in your favor, mold them and manage to create a story with charisma and personality, many mistakes have improved over time, Asta has evolved and often requires the help of their peers to defeat stronger enemies, so it is not a very powerful protagonist to ruin the tension, the female characters are not only for the Asta harem and they are no longer just fan service, female characters like Mereoleona are clear proof of that, making a character memorable and know how to get epic moments in addition to presenting decent battles (or even Noelle and Vanessa that have been improving over time), this among many things has made me not regret having read Black Clover, probably many do not agree, but Black Clover easily surpasses Boku No Hero Academy or Nanatsu No Taizai (especially NNT that I consider that its quality has gone down a lot), I'm proud to give an 8 to Black Clover, and enjoy many of its chapters.

The Black Clover manga is a very good series. In my opinion, I think the manga is way better than the anime. When I first started looking into Black Clover, I read the first volume of the manga. I saw a few episodes before reading the manga, but I never tried to watch the Black Clover anime up until some time after I read the first volume of the manga. When I read the first volume, I thought the art style seemed really good. The action scenes also seemed decent. However, I did not know what was in store for me if I had continued reading the manga before starting the anime. As the story goes, a young boy named Asta and his foster brother Yuno both aim to be the Wizard King in their kingdom known as the Clover Kingdom. As they aim to become the Wizard King, they find themselves taking on missions within their assigned Magic Knight squads. These missions have them taking on rival neighboring kingdoms as well as a mysterious organization that seeks to overthrow their kingdom.

In comparison to the manga, the pacing of the Black Clover anime is a little slow. The animation in the anime can also vary in quality at times. As for the Black Clover manga, the fight scenes are drawn out well. The pacing of the story keeps you from getting bored. Of course, I'm not at all saying that you shouldn't watch the Black Clover anime. In my opinion, it just seems like the anime doesn't do a good job of showing how good the author's art style is. I also feel that the characters personalities are a little more exaggerated in the anime compared to the manga. While the characters have some eccentric traits, I don't think there as exaggerated as they are in the anime. While the characters in Black Clover may represent some typical Shonen characteristics, I feel like that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the story. My recommendation for you if you want to get into the Black Clover series is to read the first few volumes of the manga. I'm not saying that you have to be a devoted manga reader to enjoy Black Clover. However, I feel like it will give you a good introduction into Black Clover if you want to see the anime. Some mangas typically range between $7-$10 depending on the types of manga you buy as well as the sites you purchase them from. Depending on which way you want to approach the Black Clover series, I would highly recommend looking into it if you're interested.

Calling Black Clover a knock off Naruto is a pretty shitty review plus its an incredible disservice to such a great manga

The goals of the main character Asta is probably where similarities end with Naruto or Bnha for that matter since while Bnha is more of a slower burn show that puts an extreme emphasis on character relationships and a meticulous planned out plot/story alike with other series like Attack on Titan

on the other hand

Black Clover simply takes a completely different approach rather that it is FAAASSTTT paced instead of taking a meticulous approach to the story rather it wastes zero time and always keeps the reader interested as hell in the story with fights and world exploration and while some may call the series "Standard" i honestly think thats what makes it so great is that it doesn't bore readers to death with setup and boring info dumps rather its like your running with the characters really fast I'd have to say though that even when it does have fast paced-ness to its story it honestly knows when to slow down the action and dialogue.

Its pretty standard going in but it ramps itself up in quick bursts and succession that keep you interested and delivers great highs and lows

The Art is perfect for the type of series that it is and the medieval magic knight aesthetic
and overall the individual panels are really packed with gorgeous line work and stellar backgrounds it also manages to capture such impact in blows or strikes

in summation 8/10 solid story, characters, and art the fact that its really fast and enjoyable with the fights and pacing make it a really good binge read