"Black Clover" Review

Hello again, everyone.

 

My apologies for always getting around to this much too late, but I always seem to be busy these days, testing Yu-Gi-Oh Decks online and doing chores and such.  And so, to my devoted followers out there, I say “thank you”.

Now, to my review of “Black Clover”.

In one of your standard “sword and sorcery” world, two boys named Asta and Yuno train against each other for the title of Sorcerer King, sort of the Hokage or King of the Pirates of this world: the strongest and the most respected, the best.  But Asta, for all his training, has no skills in magic whatsoever. Yuno is much better, at least at that, but Asta just wants it more.

One day, a disastrous situation with a wandering bad guy leads to Asta’s being chosen by a certain magic Grimoire, the major source/power item of the mages of this world.  But there’s a twist: this item gives him the power to negate magic, in the form of a black sword.  This, combined with his physical skills gained through training, seems set to make him an entirely new, different kind of Sorcerer King.

(And, for the record, the name of this Grimoire is the titular “Black Clover”.  They say it’s evil, but we shall, of course, see what comes of this in the fullness of time.)

On the day of the magic tests that select only the best for the different divisions of the kingdom’s Magic Knight divisions, Asta is selected and chosen for the black sheep of the four units, the Black Bulls, a colorful collection of eccentric characters (but aren’t they all?).

Yuno, of course, is selected to join the top Magic Knight force, the Golden Dawn.

Now, there are multiple kingdoms in this world, and multiple Magic Knight divisions.  One seems to be the villain force, while they pretend to the outside world to be working with the heroes.  There are also cruel experiments being done, I think by these villains, to create a new kind of magic soldier.

Asta makes for a great classic “Idiot Hero” trope, and his rivalry with Yuno is also pretty classic.  The use of English-y names and Japanese-y names almost interchangeably throughout the work is interesting, and this Yuuki Tabata character certainly does well at writing interesting people.  Basically, I’d say “Black Clover” is like “Naruto” meets “Seven Deadly Sins”, but with a bit more emphasis on action and less on political and science-y stuff like “Naruto” had.  The story is simpler so far, too.

Heck, even the magic in “Black Clover” is similar to “Seven Deadly Sins”.  It’s more like Seven Deadly Sins meets Naruto without the fantasy races (giants and the like), now that I think about it.

I love “Seven Deadly Sins”, but “Naruto” was only fun for a short time, before it got all intricate and political.  I could take or leave it, but I would seriously recommend “Black Clover”.