It’s finally time to take a look at one of the greatest manga titles of all time. Black Clover is one of those titles that you just wanted to keep on going and going for as long as possible. It definitely lasted though so at the end of the day I was pretty satisfied. It has earned its place among the premier Shonen Jump titles like Bleach and Naruto. You’ll want to get on this series as soon as possible.
The story starts by introducing a boy named Asta who was born without any kind of magical abilities. This puts him in a really tough position because in this world magic is everything. People learn to treat people like dirt from a young age based on how much magical energy they have. It’s essentially unheard of to have no magic power. What makes this even worse is that Asta’s childhood friend and rival Yuno is a prodigy with incredible amounts of magic. Asta chooses to fight on though and gets recruited by the Black Bulls. They are a magic guild for misfits and all have some kind of quirk. Now Asta will finally be able to make some friends and can also learn to master his special skill, anti magic.
Now I know what you’re thinking, isn’t anti magic a bit of a cop out? The short answer is yes but it’s worth it because otherwise it would be difficult to show exactly how Asta can hold his own against all of these powerful foes. Anti magic works just like normal magic and can effectively do anything but the biggest draw is that it can cut straight through magical attacks. It essentially nullifies all of them with a direct hit. You can see how valuable this ability is now right?
Of course it wouldn’t be a great ability if the user couldn’t keep up. Fortunately Asta spent his entire life working on his physical abilities to make up for the lack of magic. As a result he can move faster than most and his physical strength continues to impress people throughout the series. Asta tends to win most of his encounters and absolutely crushes those who are obsessed with their magical abilities. If you use them as a crutch then you will definitely be in trouble.
The series has a classic Shonen Jump tone to it so you can expect to have a lot of fun here. There are consistent themes of improving yourself and never giving up. That’s a big part of Asta’s character after all. He never gives up no matter how rough things get for him. Even when he is painfully rejected and has his friends turn against him, Asta continues to fight. “I’m not done yet” becomes one of his catchphrases and it works well. A lot of Shonen leads tend to have unbreakable wills but I would say that even among them Asta tends to stand out. He just takes this to the extreme and it works incredibly well. He’s a big part of why Black Clover is so good.
A top tier series will come down to having an amazing main character after all. You need to have someone you can root for and that is Asta in a nutshell. He is a super well rounded character and is always inspiring to follow. Asta also hopes to be the Wizard King someday so you can expect to see him yelling about that quite a lot. It’s always good to have a central goal and Asta never wavers in it.
There is a pretty big cast of supporting characters and we’ll definitely be getting onto those shortly. Before that I also have to talk about the amazing artwork here. This is one of the absolute best ones that Shonen Jump has to offer. The artwork is strong and has a lot of detail throughout. Each fight scene really works perfectly and this is the kind of story where the chapters absolutely fly by as a result. There is no title that can easily crush this one in the art department.
Clover also does a great job of mainly avoiding fanservice. That is the cast for a lot of the modern Jump titles but is still always worth mentioning. For a title this long it’s not going to be at 0 of course but it’s pretty close to that in the grand scheme of things. The series also isn’t afraid to have some romance but I wouldn’t say it’s one of the strongest titles in that respect. They were actually building up a pretty decent plot with Noelle and Asta but didn’t really close the deal there. In a way that’s a good thing since Asta always had she’s for Sister Lily instead. You probably don’t want to go down the rebound route there so I suppose it makes sense.
As with any long running series there will be some plot threads that don’t feel resolved by the end. This feeling gets magnified when you are reading weekly and then chapter by chapter once it stopped being weekly because you’ll see people commenting about the plots they couldn’t wait to see. This includes some demons that don’t really get closure or backstories that aren’t delved into. It’s going to always be rare to complete every plot in a long series like this though and I was satisfied overall. The series ends with a big battle that I had been waiting for throughout the series after all. If I had any regrets, it is just that we never got to see the big 3 all team up for a fight. Asta, Yuno, and Noelle are consistently shown as a power trio but never actually team up against an opponent in the end. I did think that was a missed opportunity.
Okay now let’s get into the characters. Yuno is the big rival in the series and works as a very subversive kind of character. At first you expect he will turn evil at some point or grow jealous of Asta as the lead goes higher in the ranks. Instead Yuno is supportive throughout the series and it’s why I consider this to be one of the healthiest rivalries in all of Jump. Yuno is the kind of rival you would want to have in real life because he will help build you up instead of knocking you down.
He did grow up together with Asta so it was nice to see that this didn’t suddenly get thrown down the drain just because they became rivals. Yuno continued to be friends with Asta at the same time and it was just a great dynamic. Every time Asta would get a power up, Yuno would answer with one of his own. In general I always felt Asta was a bit stronger thanks to anti magic being a full counter to magic but they were both super powerful. Yuno has that cool air about him that always guaranteed him a high spot in the ranks.
Then we have Noelle as the main heroine of the series. Initially she was unable to control her magic powers which is part of why she was in the Black Bulls. She technically always had a great amount of magic power but without control it would just make her a danger to everyone. As the series goes on she has different people help her out with this and she makes a bunch of friends. It’s a very classic kind of character arc that works really well. I was especially glad to see her keep pace with the other characters all the way through to the end of the series instead of getting left behind.
Her fighting style was a lot of fun with all of the super speed. Speedblitzing tends to be one of the most enjoyable fighting styles to watch and this was no exception. Noelle’s backstory was also handled extremely well from start to finish. It was just the right amount of emotional without being over the top and had great closure by the end as her mom even got brought into the picture.
Acier is mostly a flashback character until the final arc when a bunch of the old characters get brought into the present. It’s not exactly her usual personality but the spell does a good job of keeping their humanity with a new set of moral guidelines. As a result it feels like we still really got to see Acier and her brilliant abilities. That was a lot of fun and Clover is one of those titles where the previous generations could actually hold their own against the modern ones.
Just look at the original Wizard King who continues to be one of the most powerful characters even in the present. He was able to handle one of the original devils and briefly returns to fight another one. He was a lot of fun and I wish we could have seen more of him. It’s hard to juggle every character though so I need to be satisfied with what we got. His assistant Secre also ended p getting a pretty good role in the present. Her locking abilities were really good and could work in more combat situations than you may have expected. She was a fun addition to the team even if she came in a bit later on as well.
Black Clover also had a fully operational legal system at the ready with Damnatio judging criminals. He shows up more than once and is not a fan of Asta. He feels like the anti magic stuff is too far outside of the norm and has to keep the lead in check. It leads to one of the best moments for the Black Bulls as they roll in to save him. I liked Damnatio as an antagonist even if I can never see him as a hero. His sense of justice is far too rigid and ends up being a detriment all of the tie. If he had been at least a little reasonable that could have been different but he never ends up helping. With allies like that, who needs enemies?
Now lets go through the magic knight squads. Nozel is the head of his group and is also involved with Noelle’s backstory. He’s her older brother and does not treat her very well at all. The series tries to walk this back a whole lot later on but it was too late for this guy. I’ll say that the series did a pretty good job of making each character very layered. In many other titles he would have been a one note bully but that wasn’t the case here. Outside of the Noelle context he was a well respected captain and consistently portrayed as a hero. This fault was just big enough where I certainly was not going to be rooting for him anytime soon.
It doesn’t take away from his strength, the guy is definitely a beast in combat. You want him on your side in a fight without a doubt but it would be hard to call someone like that your comrade. This is a criticism you can have for a great deal of the characters. To an extent they all buy into this corrupt system or at least don’t try to overturn it. Even Julius who by and large appears to be a kind wizard king doesn’t upset the status quo. It’s not like this would be an easy challenge but Asta and many others had to put up with a lot of grief that shouldn’t be there. Whether Asta or Yuno became the wizard king, you could count on them changing the status quo completely.
I suppose leaving the kingdom is one way to avoid the issue. Mereoleona is one of the most powerful characters in the series and ultimately she chose to just live in the wilderness. She prefers to be around the beasts and this also helped her to become one with energy. Once she shows up, all of the other fire characters quickly became inferior by comparison. She really stole the show in each fight and was definitely a fantastic character. Mereoleona may have entered the game later than a lot of the other characters but left an immediate impact. I also just tend to really like aggressive characters like her.
Fuegoleon is the actual captain of the fire crew and while he is strong, he doesn’t tend to appear a whole lot. He is written out of the series for a large chunk after losing an arm and even by the end never catches up to Mereoleona. He still looks good though and has more honor than most of the other characters. I also really enjoyed his speech about how there is no shame in being weak, only in remaining so. As with most things in life, there are ways to improve if you put in the effort and he only judges those who never try to improve.
He had a protege named Leopold who was initially set up as another rival to Asta but then ended up vanishing for most of the series. I feel like he was originally meant to have a bigger role and then something happened. I still enjoyed his character and he’s a solid fighter to have around but never quite lived up to his full potential. Partially because of how quickly he was written out, I would not say that he ended up being one of the stronger fighers in the series. He got a last second power up but I didn’t really buy into it.
Then we have Mimosa who likes Asta but she has a lot of competition in this series. I’d say the only issue she runs into is also a lack of screentime. We just don’t get to see her very much and most of her scenes are about Asta. We needed to see more of her motivations and character moments to really get her up the rankings. I ended up preferring Lily and Noelle but at least Mimosa did her best to improve her battle abilities so that she could help Ast out. She ultimately means well.
Now lets talk about some of the Black Bulls. We’ve got Gauche who has a gag about being really close to his sister. I’d say that gag tends to get overplayed right away. The anime would actually try to liven things up and get him to be a bit funnier but in the manga he tends to be one note. Gauche is very strong but from the Black Bulls he tends to be on the weaker side in terms of personality. He actually tried to murder Asta early on for very petty reasons which was really hard to come back from. Certainly not impossible but it was a rough first impression.
Then there is Charmy who has a big backstory based on the lore but we never fully get to see it. I think there were bigger plans for her as well. Her power set is pretty fun though. On one hand she is a berserker and on the other she can bake a lot of tasty food which can completely restore a person’s magical power. In short, she is an incredible ally to have in a support role. She’s someone you can really count on and is just a lot of fun.
Finral is a character who started out a little rough but got a lot better. He starts off with a bit of a doomed romance and tries to ignore these feelings by being a huge flirt all the time. He has a tragic backstory with his brother as well and so there was a lot on his mind. As the series goes on he gets to have more serious moments. His teleportation abilities always had a lot of potential and he got to fully realize them by the end of the series. Finral is a character with no shortage of character development and it was nice to see him improve. It’s not like he’s one of my top characters by the end but without a doubt I can say that he improved in a major way.
Then we have Gordon who unfortunately gets the short end of the stick when it comes to screentime. We never see much of his backstory and he never gets a definitive solo fight. His poison abilities seem to be pretty handy but we just don’t get a lot of exposure to it. Maybe the author had trouble thinking of how to have the poison users fight. He mumbles a bit too much for me and lacks confidence but he’s not the only one in that boat. Grey is another member of the Black Bulls who is super shy.
I was expecting Grey to get more to do as will but that never ended up happening. I suppose even for a series as long as Black Clover there would be some characters who just don’t get to have a ton of screentime. Nothing to do about that I suppose. Grey was a nice enough character but I did want her to show some more confidence by the end. In a series like this about determination and teamwork you really want to see each character go out of their shells by the end.
Nacht is a Black Bull who showed up near the very end but had no confidence issues at all. He is quick to talk smack to the other characters in fact and never wavers there. I liked his shadow powers and he made for a nice wild card. He wasn’t afraid to smack talk the captain and stir up arguments among the group. As one of the original members that just comes with the territory so nobody could really stop him on that front. That’s always a fun way to have a character get into the dynamic. He really brought something fresh to the group.
Then we have Luck who was one of my favorite members of the group. He started to get power creeped a little by the end but for the most part was always ready to fight with everybody. He uses lightning based powers which come with a lot of speed and savagery. Always an incredible combo to have in a fight and he always spurs the other characters into training even harder. He’s a really cheery guy and was also one of the first ones to treat Asta equally. Luck never cared about ranks and such, he’s just not that kind of guy.
His bantering buddy Magna was also a fun character. Now I admit that I always found Magna to be rather weak so I don’t take him too seriously in a fight but he actually gets some pretty big wins in the series. Again I kind of shake my head at those a bit but a win’s a win. Magna’s an old school kind of guy who believes in respect and duking things out fairly. He’s a fun character to have around and tends to get rage baited by Luck a whole lot. He’s one of the central pillars of the group so the team wouldn’t be the same without him.
There is also Vanessa who has powerful abilities as a witch. She can effectively rewrite reality but it does take up some energy. So she isn’t completely invincible but ends up being one of the more powerful characters as a result. I was not expecting to see this kind of ability in one of the heroes so that was pretty cool. She got her own mini arc which is more than some of the other characters can say and ends up being a main supporting character throughout the series.
There’s also Henry but he gets a really small role due in part to how late he joined the crew. Even once he is around, the guy doesn’t appear much since he can’t really be outside. The only way for him to survive is by staying within the Black Bull hideout which limits the amount of screentime potential that he has. I wasn’t a big fan anyway but he definitely has a tragic story. It’s hard to imagine how difficult it would be to have to always be indoors.
Then we have Zora who joins up a bit later in the series but is also a lot of fun. He really likes sticking it to the nobles which is a good way to get revenge. They certainly put his family through a lot after all. While Asta’s form of revenge may be to just live his best life and prove everyone wrong, Zora likes to take more direct revenge. He’s a fun character without a doubt and always a lot of fun to root for. He’s far from being one of the more powerful fighters but makes up for it with his trickery. Zora is also a very loyal ally that you can count on and fits in really well with the group.
Finally we have the captain Yami. People often joke about how he feels like the main character of another series. He gets a lot of power ups as well as a whole lot of lore. He knows all of the big players and remains relevant in all of the arcs right through to the end. It’s easy to root for Yami and he just makes for a really good character. Asta manages to surpass him by the end but until then Yami gets his share of end arc bosses. We also have a super awesome team up with him and Asta against one of the demon triad. It’s always important to have a good mentor figure and Yami absolutely fits the bill there.
He may have set the standard a bit too high for the captains as none of the others can really catch up to him. Dorothy is one of the captains who doesn’t get a lot to do. She has dream type powers which are certainly handy but not quite as formidable or invincible as the other captains. Dorothy never gets a really big fight where she can show her stuff so that was disappointing. Pretty much all of the other captains got more to do.
Take Jack for example. As Yami’s rival this guy gets several fights to himself. I personally never thought he was powerful enough to be Yami’s rival but his swords are sharp. That’s essentially his whole gimmick, he has the sharpest swords possible. It’s hard for any of the other fighters to really keep up with him in a straight fight but since Jack has no other abilities there are a lot of ways to hit him from a distance. By the end Jack started learning how to cut intangible things so that would help a lot but it was almost at the literal end of the series that he got this power.
Charlotte is a strong captain as well and she has a bit of a romance plot going on with Yami. He tends to act oblivious the whole time but you can tell that it’s an act for most of it and he just likes to give her a hard time. She is relatively powerful but is another character who we didn’t get to see fight as much as you’d like. In a way her most impressive abilities showed up while she was evil or losing control. In theory she is way more powerful now but there just weren’t enough big villains to go around. She still got enough fights to show her overall strength as a captain though.
Rill is one of the lucky captains since he gets a full blown fight with Yuno midway through the series. That was a super good battle and showed the kind of abilities that you would expect from a captain. I’d say that Yuno still had the slight advantage overall but it was an extremely close fight. Rill’s ability to draw whatever he wants is a super versatile ability. Drawing tends to be broken in most titles after all so this one was no exception. Personality wise he can be a bit too much like a kid but is not bad overall.
Then we have Vangeance who gets a whole lot to do. He has powers over the trees within nature and is fairly strong. I was never super impressed with him but he is portrayed as being incredibly powerful. Perhaps I ought to put a little more respect on the trees. I was never a big fan of the guy but his role within the series is a good one as it spurs on a whole lot of other plot developments. I also thought he had a pretty cool mask.
Finally you have the Wizard King himself. Julius has powers over time which is absolutely impressive. Definitely the kind of abilities that make him more powerful than almost anyone in the verse. There is really no weakness to this ability and the only way to overpower him involved hostages. One thing I really appreciated about Julius was how ruthless he could be. He had absolutely no mercy towards the villains and would obliterate them without a second thought. His first priority was always to protect his kingdom no matter what.
It was to the point where there were many theories about how he was actually evil. I get it, Julius has that kind of aura about him but sometimes you need that in a hero. He keeps the villains on guard and makes sure that the title of wizard king is one that is feared by all villains. That’s exactly the guy that you want at the helm of your kingdom. For that reason the author had to use different tricks to keep him out of the front lines most of the time.
Then we had some other magic knights who weren’t captains but still had a pretty big role. First up is Langris who really goes crazy during the tournament arc. The whole Black Bulls team had to go in to shut this guy down. There were extenuating circumstances as he usually isn’t that crazy but it definitely made for a really intense moment. Langris also has an incredibly cool ability where he can destroy anything in his line of vision. It’s a rather broken ability to be honest. I can’t say that I ever became a fan of his as the guy is too petty but he made for a good villain.
Alecdora is one of those magic knights with a pretty good design but his role in the series is as small as can be. I suppose you can’t win them all. It was still nice to see the guy though and it helped as a way to flesh out the other guilds. Klaus is another guy who didn’t have a huge role but this way Yuno had more real teammates at his side. Asta quickly gained his respect over time which was also good. Klaus isn’t a particularly strong fighter otherwise.
Sekke is one of the main comic relief characters of the series and to be honest he never really gets past that point. His abilities don’t have much potential in the first place and it’s not like he trains all that much. For that reason it’s actually a good thing that he didn’t improve much because it wouldn’t have really made any sense. He was funny at least and so he does serve his purpose. If he wasn’t funny then that would have been a problem.
Sister Lily is a fun character from the introduction arc. She gets more of a role in the climax than you would expect. I was super satisfied with how her character arc went. She never betrayed her own values while still getting to show off her amped up abilities. There wasn’t a lot to do with her character but that makes sense. She never overstayed her welcome in this way while still helping Asta to move forward.
Other early characters like Kahono and Kiato didn’t get much to do later on but were still instrumental in the opening. Without them around as encouragement the heroes wouldn’t have done so well. They also ended up being fairly memorable despite pretty much being one shot characters so that’s impressive. Keep in mind that there are plenty of other characters throughout the series but it’s hard to cover everyone who shows up. I mainly stick to the really big characters.
There is a clan related to Yami’s backstory near the end for example that has a bunch of members. Most of them don’t really stand out though because they really showed up during the end game. Ryuya was the leader and definitely has one of the bigger roles. He was really good at staying 4 steps ahead even if he didn’t get to fight much. The one with the big combat role was Ichika instead and she was fun to have around. Definitely a bit of an emotional fighter but always keeping pace with the others. I would have liked for her to have debuted a bit earlier so we could have had more banter with her and Asta.
Then we had the bigshot members of the other territories like the Witch Queen and Lolopechka. The Witch Queen felt like a character who would have a bigger role later on but that never really happened. It’s too bad because there was a whole lot of potential right there. Her curses were the real deal after all but it’s hard to say how well she could fight hand to hand. Lolopechka was definitely less of a fighter but had powerful retainers like Gadjah to fight in her stead. I was never a big fan of Lolo but Gadjah was fairly solid. He also came a bit late but was a very stoic character who served his purpose.
Finally there was Liebe who served as Asta’s partner demon. This guy showed up really late considering that most demon partners tend to be around from arc 1 in these kinds of titles. He still ended up being very likable right away. He had a very emotional backstory and just works well with the banter. The only weak point here is his lack of screentime since he really could have stood to have had more screentime.
Now lets go into the villains. First up we have Revchi and Rades who showed up really early on. They were honestly pretty decent as far as intro villains go. Revchi helped Asta really find his fighting spirit while Rades worked as the classic insane kind of villain. It would have been nice if he could fight more instead of hiding behind his zombies the whole time though. Summoner villains usually don’t have a whole lot of long term impact because they fold once you get lose to them.
Then we have Mars who showed up as another strong villain. He actually gets a decent amount of backstory and appears a bit more than you’d expect. I wasn’t as big a fan of his as I expected though. I think he just returned a little too late and should have gotten way more to do throughout the story. It would have worked way better for his character. At least he wasn’t a total oneshot like Ladros. That guy did not end up making any kind of an impact by the end because of how briefly he was around.
The villains from the midnight group were all pretty fun. Vetto probably left the biggest impact because of his spectacular fights. I also just really like it when characters are fighting head on like that. He just moves faster and faster as he adapts to his foes and never relents. Even by the end of the series I would say that he was one of the more fun villains. Simple brute types can really wok well like this.
Sally has less of a combat role since she prefers to do her experiments. I felt like this series didn’t have a whole lot of room for the mad scientist type though so her role was not nearly as big as you would expect. Fana also had a lot of potential with her flame abilities but didn’t get to fight for too long. To make up for that she does have a full backstory though. I thought it was handled pretty well. She still left more of an impact than Valtos. I mainly just remember the guy for getting punched out by Asta. Definitely not someone who is really ready for close quarters combat like that.
Then we have “Licht” who makes for a really good end boss. The guy gets a lot of twists and developments but really was portrayed as a great threat. His abilities are light based which means that they move incredibly fast and are hard to react to. Ultimately this is a character who probably should have died in his arc because the elves never get much to do after this. I felt like there was no point to bringing them back. Same for Rhya who was a really good villain initially and then ends up just being around.
It’s a cautionary tale of why you shouldn’t keep villains around unless you really intend to keep on using them. If you don’t, then letting them end off in a bang is really the way to go. You can make that case for someone like Adramelech who showed up later as well. His character never gets a real conclusion so he could have just been defeated in an earlier fight. It might be that his role was always meant to be very subversive but as a reader I can’t say that it was very satisfying. Letting him be taken out of the picture earlier would have been a good idea.
The demons all tend to leave solid impacts though. Lucius is the final villain of the series and he has a great design. His motivations are pretty fun and there is just a lot that you can do with time based abilities. Towards the end of the series he probably monologues a little too much which buys the heroes time to defeat him. He should have taken them all more seriously but alas that is how a lot of villains end up being defeated. They just believe in their abilities way too much while discounting the powers of the heroes.
Dante is a villain with a cool design but he does fall down somewhat over his goals. Being girl crazy is a trait that will really never help a villain out. Far as I’m concerned it just makes him look really petty the whole time. He was really powerful so I enjoyed his fights but the guy has the weakest personality out of the triad. Vanica is vastly superior with how much set up we got for her vs Noelle. She was also one of those villains who just wouldn’t stand down. Long after the human part was gone, her devil continued to fight more and more.
She was also crazy in all of the right ways that just made her a lot of fun to watch. You’re guaranteed to remember her by the time you’re done with the series. She left an impression and had enough power to back it up. Same with Zenon who continued to fight hard for a long time. His bone powers are really cool and his victory over Yuno was one of the pivotal moments in the series. Yuno is someone who is mainly untouchable for a large chunk of the series so seeing him get beat like that was crazy. Zenon is probably the quietest member of the trio but perhaps the most powerful. I’d say that’s pretty debatable though.
The devils like Lucifero and Megicula were also really solid. Lucifero did become a bit of a meme within the community with how much the heroes were talking down to him though. I think that’s almost unavoidable when you are around for too long though. If you haven’t taken care of business in a few chapters then people are going to clown on you. That’s just a natural effect but his fight was still super cool. The devils all had a lot of aura to them and kept the heroes on the back foot. The same goes for Beelzebub and Zagred.
There were other devils around who were really powerful as well including some that never got to appear in the end. The series just had to wrap up before it had time for them. We still got a ton of content out of this including a whole time skip for the final arcs. Black Clover is ultimately a series that had an incredible run and I was glad to be there for it. There’s naturally a lot more to be said for the series but I’d say that hits all of the main beats.
Black Clover has a tournament arc, the devils arc, and an invasion arc. As long as you like these classic Shonen setups then you will love the series. It handles them all extremely well and the build up is completely unmatched. There is really nothing to dislike about the series and everything to love. It really embodies all of the best traits of Shonen Jump titles and dials them up to 11. I’ve written several editorials about how amazing the series was as a result of this and I could picture myself writing more in the future. Maybe one day we’ll even get a sequel series.
Overall, Black Clover is an exceptional series and one that I would absolutely recommend. You’ll be able to have even more fun now since you can binge the whole series without having to wait week to week. The final chapters in particular were rough since you had to wait months for the next installment. I’ll always remember this one fondly and it’ll be hard to any future title to match this one. This was a top 10 manga of all time after all and I don’t see it getting knocked out of there anytime soon. The anime is coming back in the near future too and I’m expecting another high tier production like last time.
Overall 9/10
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