Yuki TabataCritiques

Welcome to the first recap of this series! OMG I LOVE IT SO MUCH CAN I HAVE IT ALL NOW?

More specifically I love Master Yami. And Noelle. And Yuno. And Asta. ok look this book was so much fun ok? I got a little teary-eyed in the beginning, cause gosh Asta and Yuno had rough lives, but then they got to the Magic Knight's academy and SO MUCH FUN.

Art work is eh at times (typical shonenjump fantasy) and there's some humor I didn't care for, but overall a lot of fun. Also I think it proves that persistence gets you everything. Work hard. train hard. be positive and help your friends.

Series Info/Source: This is the fifth book in the Black Clover series, I bought this.

Story (4/5): This was much better than the last volume. The story makes some progress, although it still seems pretty piecemeal. In this volume Asta has been kidnapped by the Eye of the Midnight Sun and one of the Magic Knight captains is grievously injured. Asta is rescued by the Wizard King and goes out with his buddies to a mixer to celebrate. There he meets a nice young woman with younger siblings and he decides to spend his vacation with them. However, one night all the kids disappear and it’s up to Asta and his friends to find them.

Characters (4/5): A couple of new characters are introduced but it was much better than Volume 4 where a million new characters were introduced at once. I continue to enjoy Asta and his fellow Black Bulls. I also liked that the Wizard King is in this volume more, he is an intriguing character.

Setting (3/5): The setting really wasn’t the point of the story and takes place across some rather generic fantasy towns.

Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This manga is decently drawn and fairly easy to follow. Some of the fight scenes are a bit hard to follow but for the most part both the writing and drawing are on the higher quality end of your typical manga.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall I liked this volume better than volume 4, but am still not a huge fan of this series. My 13 year old son loves these and I think this series is one that is much more aimed at that age group. I find the lack of cohesive story and the scattered fight scenes a bit disappointing. However, the drawing is decent quality and this is a decent manga series. It just seems to be using a lot of elements from other manga series and there isn’t a lot original here.½

Series Info/Source: This is the fourth book in the Black Clover series, I bought this.

Story (3/5): In this volume a mysterious group of terrorists attacks the Clover Kingdom and all the Magic Knight must join forces to fight them. I thought this volume was a bit of a mess. We are introduced to what felt like a million new Magic Knights and, towards the middle of the volume, every other page was introducing us to a NEW MAGIC MOVE!!! There really wasn’t much story progression or character development at all. This was pretty much one long battle between the terrorists and the Magic Knights.

Characters (3/5): As mentioned above you see a ton of new characters in this volume from all the different bands of Magic Knights. While our favorites do show up quite a bit, they are surrounded by a million other characters that aren’t well developed at all. It was too much, too fast and hard to follow.

Setting (3/5): The whole story takes place in the capital of Clover Kingdom. It was an okay setting but pretty typical fantasy.

Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): While this continues to be one of the better drawn manga series, I really thought this was a bit scattered. We are jumping between multiple groups of Magic Knights that we haven’t met before and it gets very confusing at times. There isn’t a ton to read here because almost the whole story is one big confusing battle.

My Summary (3/5): This was my least favorite volume of this series yet, so far I have continued to buy this because my 13 year old son really enjoys them. I guess if you enjoy shounen with a ton of chaotic fight scenes and new magic moves shouted out on every other page you will really enjoy this. I thought both the story progress and character development were really lacking. I also thought the fight scenes were hard to follow at points. I have volume 5 to read, so I plan on reading it, but not sure I buy any more of these after that point.

Black Clover is a fantasy story following a boy named Asta. In his world, almost everyone has magic in them, but Asta has none. His friend, Yuno, however, is a magic prodigy. Despite Asta's setback, he doesn't falter in his dream to become the Wizard King. Though Asta has no magic, he still receives a grimoire, a book people get that has magical spells for them. He then sets out with Yuno to the capital. There, he takes the Magical Knights entrance exam to join a Magic Knight brigade. Though all the odds were against him, Asta is accepted into a Magic Knight brigade, which starts his journey in becoming the Wizard King.

Personally, this isn't the best story I've seen. Still, I enjoy it. The characters are likable and well-built. The story itself is unique as well. The world is also well-built and very creative. I really did sympathize with the main character. Since he was an outcast, and his friend was very skilled. I've read through most of this series, and I think Black Clover handles its action and battle scenes very well.

Series Info/Source: This is the third volume in the Black Clover manga series.

Story (4/5): I enjoyed this a lot more than the 2nd volume in the series. This volume wraps up the dungeon delving story arc that started in vol 2. It was well done and there are some interesting new developments in the story.

Characters (4/5): This book continues the strange frenemy relationship between Asta and Yuno. I enjoyed some of the other characters that were developed and really liked that we didn’t have a ton of new characters added. It was fun to get time to follow and know all the characters that were added in volume 2.

Setting (4/5): I really enjoyed the magical dungeon setting that part of the story takes part in. It was also fun to see the characters journey to the capital city.

Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This was well written and easy to follow. Some of the fight scenes are a bit muddled and it’s hard to see what is going on. For the most part though, the drawing quality is on the high end and this is easy to follow.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I am enjoying the series. My 13 year old son absolutely loves this series, so I will continue reading it since I am gradually buying the books for him. It’s a fun fantasy shounen series with a lot of action and magic.

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Black Clover series. I bought this book.

Story (4/5): The story was fine. In this book Asta and his team of Black Bulls are ordered by the Wizard King to a mysterious dungeon to retrieve powerful relics. However, mages from a rival country show up and the Black Bulls and Golden Dawn are forced to work together.

Characters (3/5): Many new characters enter the story and I am starting to have trouble keeping track of them. There wasn’t a ton of character development either. However, I did enjoy one of the encounters between the Wizard King and Asta.

Setting (4/5): The setting of the dungeon was fun and it was interesting to visit the markets. Aside from that this remains a fairly typical fantasy-like setting. The dungeons remind me a lot of the Magi manga series.

Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): I felt like things were a lot more disorganized and hard to follow in this book. Fight scenes are a bit muddled and we jump quickly back and forth between scenes without any way to tell that the scene has changed. I also am not a fan of how every fighting method is given a called out name and blingy picture. I know this is done in a lot of shounen, but I have never been a fan.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall this was a mixed bag for me. I continue to enjoy some parts of the story and Asta as a character. However, I felt like there was too much going on in this volume...too many new characters, the action was hard to follow, and too much switching between different storylines. I plan on reading the next volume but may not continue after that.

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Black Clover shonen manga series. There are 20 volumes in this series right now and I received this as a Christmas gift.

Story (4/5): This is about teen named Asta who desperately wants to become the Wizard King but has no magic of his own. His best friend, Yuno, is much more successful than Asta and an awesome magic user. When the village goes to be granted their grimoires, Asta doesn’t receive one but Yuno gets a rare four leaf clover grimoire. Then strange things start happening and Asta finally gets a grimoire of his own that is very unusual.

Characters (4/5): Asta reminded me of a million other manga characters; he’s short, blond, and spunky...reminded me both of Naruto and Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist. Yuno is a bit different, much more tall, sleek and handsome. The side characters were okay but not well enough developed yet for me to comment on. I feel like strong female characters were lacking (my son and I both disliked the lingerie wearing, constantly drinking member of the group Asta joins). I did really enjoy the strange relationship Asta and Yuno have; it’s very complicated and intriguing.

Setting (4/5): The world here shows promise. It looks like an interesting fantasy world where most people have some magic and everyone is ruled over by the Wizard King. Pretty typical fantasy setting, but we didn’t really learn enough about it in this one volume to form a lot of opinions on it.

Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): The story and drawings are easy to follow. While the illustration isn’t absolutely amazing, it is well done and I had no trouble figuring out what was going on. This is definitely a higher quality manga.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a promising start to this manga series. Both me and my 13 year old son enjoyed this (it’s definitely aimed more at his age group). I would recommend it to those who enjoy shonen manga similar to Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, ones like that. I plan on continuing with the next couple volumes in the series to see where it goes.½

3.5 out of 5 stars

Lately I’ve been trying to read all of the manga that have been sitting on my shelves unread for months (or longer). Shonen Jump titles come first as it doesn’t make sense to only be reading half a magazine every Monday. So, today we’re taking a look at Black Clover Volume 1 by Yuki Tabata.

Black Clover is a fantasy shonen series that follows Asta, a fifteen year old orphan who is determined to be the wizard king. Of course, that’ll be difficult seeing as he can’t actually use magic. Along with his childhood friend, Yuno, he embarks on a journey to become a knight and, eventually, the Wizard King. This is the classic story of the underdog, the story of a boy who is apparently powerless in world where everyone has magical ability and power is everything. It is a story of friends, rivals, with the same goal who will inevitably clash at some point on their parallel journeys to become king.

One of Black Clover’s biggest positives is its pacing. The first volume moves, covering what would normally be multiple volumes in many other cases. What I assumed was going to be set up as a sort of miniature tournament arc was over within a chapter. The story never felt rushed, either, merely to the point and never straying from the plot.

Despite enjoying this manga and continuing with the series, I must say that it is very derivative. Character’s appearances and personalities fall well within common shonen tropes. The plot, events, characters, everything are extremely trope filled and stereotypical to the genre. It feels like many things that have come before, and, to be honest, many manga to come.

So why am I continuing with the series?

Honestly, while the entire manga does revolve around shonen stereotypes, it plays them off well.

Black Clover knows what it is. It knows it’s a shonen series. It knows its audience, and caters to their expectations without drawing things out. If the pacing was slower or if the story lost focus with, for example, multiple subplots, I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to continue with the story if I wasn’t already a subscriber to Weekly Shonen Jump.

But as it stands, this was enjoyable. Yes, it’s fairly apparent what direction the story will take. And yes, we’ve seen extremely similar characters before. Black Clover embraces that, though, and plunges full steam ahead, plowing through what would usually be at least two volumes in many other similar titles, especially older ones.

So, yes. If you like shonen manga and don’t mind the plethora of tropes I’d suggest picking up at least the first volume of Black Clover. It might not be my favorite Shonen Jump title, but it’s certainly enjoyable. I’m interested to see if this series continues on the same path or breaks from the typical shonen mold at some point. Only time and a significant amount of catching up on previously released volumes will tell.

This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.