Black Clover - Reviews

Lets start with saying that this is one of the worst upcoming series of the last few years. There have been shows that were plain trash and were loved because it was clear everyone was there for buts and boobs, this anime is different, it takes every  anime trope and missuses it to become popular. 

There is Asta he's a whiny and powerless version of Naruto. He screams, he cries and is basically just a small child in a 15 year old body. but we should root for him because A: he is the main character. B: He is a underdog and C: he is the main character

Then you have Yuno: the overpowered version of Sasuke. He is quiet, always looks at Asta and is OP as fuck, profiding the clove that Asta has to bridge. 

And then you have... other nameless characters who are there to laugh at Asta and cheer for Yuno. And strangly enough these nameless characters were more interesting than both of our main characters. Like there is this rich kid who bullies the main, at the end of the episode I wanted to know more about him than either Asta and Yuno, and he was the bully!

Storywise this is even a bigger disaster: It's clear as day that Asta is going to save the day literary every time he is going to appear on screen and we will meet a seemingly useless gang of misfits who are actually really powerfull and he is going to be the one unlocking this power.

All with the power of screeming!

I don't know why did people compare Black Clover with Naruto. It is more like Fairy Tail and Bleach, but much better. And I don't understand all the bad reviews either.

Black Clover is the best adventure anime you can get recently. If you want to see a pure trash, last year's UQ Holder was. I had a high hope for a fun adventure in that series, but it turned out to be a horrible meaningless ecchi. Yet, Black Clover restored my love in fantasy.

Asta is not your avenge shonei protagonist. He's very balanced. Not hothead like Natsu, or a pervert like Naruto. He's energic, passionate, dumb yet reasonable.

And his rival Yuno is not your asshole Sasuke. Under his cold apppearance, he cares deeply to his friends.
And the best part of this series is, we don't have to eat tons of shit ecchi or harem. Good job.

OK, let me just say I definitely disliked this anime at the start but I was wrong! Yes it has a slow start but it gets better and better . I have not read the manga so to me the anime is a good story. I'm sick of incest and nudity I want a real story line and this one has it! It might not be for everyone but I suggest to give it a try😀

Action, shounen, and some serious voice acting, Black Clover certainly knows how to ring fall in with style. As the fall’s newest release is unabashedly shounen, fully embracing the usual tropes (i.e. all of them) while giving Naruto and Fairy Tail a good run for their money. It might be generic as hell, but Black Clover knows exactly what it is and makes no qualms about it. The problem is a lot of people will probably do otherwise.

The main issue with Black Clover right now is not so much its concept and world, but how they are being presented. Yes, this means Asta (Kajiwara Gakuto). Newbie voice actor or not, the kid’s, erm, “special” style of screaming will definitely grate on a few nerves and probably induce permanent hearing loss half a continent over unless quickly changed. His long, drawn out words and excessive over-acting are not as funny (as probably intended) as annoying, a wasted opportunity to positively define his character for the actual story to come. Seriously, can you blame poor Lily for that beat down? Frankly I don’t think she hit him hard enough (or maybe she hit him too much—food for thought). At least Yuno (Shimazaki Nobunaga) comes across fine, although with few lines so far and a very stoic attitude, it’s going to be hard keeping Asta’s lungs in line without some conscious effort on the part of our sit-up champion. Or a ball gag, that would work too.

On the story front, however, Black Clover is likely to find better success. It’s nothing special at face value of course, between a generic magic system, some dark past set to return, and the built-in societal problems to overcome, but these series never relied on their uniqueness for staying power. Black Clover’s strength instead will likely derive from the rivalry between Asta and Yuno, as their wildly different personalities and stark difference in power offers ample opportunity for serious growth and development. We already have a surprisingly strong foil already between Yuno’s quiet and menacing personality and Asta’s assertiveness, and with a tangible goal (becoming the Wizard King) designed to constantly bring them together, it shouldn’t take long for the difficulties to start. Probably have to get through the generic introductory baddies and usual world building first, but I wouldn’t ignore the possibility of a decent tale of personal discovery hiding under Black Clover’s hood, especially once the first arc gets going. After all, our chatterbox apparently just found himself in possession of a demon and one hell of a sword. With eyes like that, you know it’s about to get real.

While certainly not the strongest of openings, Black Clover does have enough in place for a decent shounen adaptation—if it can smooth over the rough patches. Provided the voice acting can improve and the use of 3D is kept to a minimum (seriously, those chains look a lot like Hand Shakers), I don’t honestly expect anything other than a fun bit of action entertainment. Plus with this likely being Studio Pierrot’s new multi-cour shounen production, I highly doubt we won’t see any improvement once the show kicks into gear. For good or bad it’s a new wave of shounen, and Black Clover is helping lead the charge.

Ep2 update 10.10.2017/

The second episode takes time to cover up a few of the pilot's mistakes. Most of the episode is a flashback that parallels the present-time situation and serves to explain and defend the characters' traits and motivations.

I enjoyed this episode much more than the first, and raised the sectional and overall point values accordingly, though the narrative and character design still feel lackluster and poorly devised. 

The biggest surprise in this episode is the realization that the MC's VA isn't awful. The character is actually designed to be frustratingly annoying and unlikable, and the VA is just doing their best to portray the qualities the mangaka chose. Their cadence and pitch were much better executed here, and though still annoying, ended up coming across as professionally so rather than just jarring and haphazard. 

Again, I'm impressed by the stills and background artwork. Whoever is doing that work should get a hefty bonus. The quality of the backgrounds actually outstripes that of the characters by a great deal. Part of this might be because I find myself wandering around the screen more than usual given how dry and disengaging the actual plot is. I really can't say that enough. This show is boring. 

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I'm writing this upon finishing the first episode. 10.4.2017

I thought this was the most anticipated anime of the season, but I'm not able to find much of anything from fans on social media following its release. 

I get the feeling that this is because being an avid anime fan teaches you to be patient and lenient on pilot episodes. Experience tells us that many shows take a while to become polished, and with all of the media hype preceeding Black Clover's release, it would be impossible not to draw connections between it and Naruto, a now mega-juggernaut in anime history. That said, I'm a bit upset. With all of those factors already in mind, I approached Black Clover's release with very low expectations, and was still blown away by some of the choices the production team chose to make. 

The cliches in this anime would have been forgivable if they were handled with more subtlety or if it was made clear that they were satire. Nope. The episode ends with the team's best efforts to give you chills, and it absolutely falls flat after the preceeding 20 minutes. 

Story/ I'm not here to give spoilers, but there's a reason I gave this a "1". Watch the first episode yourself and decide whether or not the lazy, formulaic approach of the author is forgivable. It felt as though they'd taken all of the most cliche tropes in anime history, tossed them in a blender, and served up the chunky vomit-like soup that oozed out. It's an amateurish and sophomoric approach to storytelling, and, from this team, it feels condescending. 

Animation/ I have a few personal dislikes that would cause me to deduct more points here, but I don't think they belong in an objective discussion of quality. What did stand out here as genuinely good were the backdrops and scenery. The world-building via imagery was imaginative and thought provoking, though of course nowhere approaching the level of other works released recently [Looking at you Made in Abyss]. The character design lost a couple points for, again, being formulaic and unoriginal. 

Sound/ The performance by the MC's VA is one of the most over-emphasized and gratingly annoying things I've ever heard. It makes me grateful for the original japanese dub of Goku, and I don't think anyone has ever genuinely felt that way. The overinflection by the show's so-far lead antagonist has also set a glaring precedence for future VAs to butcher the villains in this show, which will make their characters unbelievable and the upcoming conflicts feel trivial. There were times when I thought I was watching a fan dub. 

Characters/ Nothing redeemable. The backstories are poorly delivered, the dialogue is offensively amateurish and poorly written, their motivations are practically plagiarized, and none of it is funny. 

This episode felt like one of those knock-off low budget kids movies that are worse and more expensive than the originals.

My sad suspicion is that they'll be able to make us feel sorry enough for the characters that we overlook the sloppy narrative, character design, and production choices long enough that by the time the protagonist spontaneously matures into someone we can identify with, the community will have collectively decided that our standards are low enough to accept this as a worthy addition to the genre. 

Good luck folks. I hope you can enjoy it more than I did. It looks like this may be a cold winter. Hopefully Shokugeki no Soma will keep me warm. >.<