Manga Review! : Black Clover

I was introduced to black clover by what seems to be an accident . I was shuffling thru new released manga of the day on such site like mangapanda.com and mangasteam.com when a saw the cover for the first volume on the list of manga released . What really caught my eye was that it was from Shonen jump. I plead guilty to being sucked in by clever marketing . but none the less , the manga starts with two boys in what seems to be a Catholic orphanage one boy Yuno an expert in magic as he seems to be a protégé , and Asta a boy who had made himself the rival of this protégé and both having aspiration of becoming the Magic Emperor of their kingdom , the Clover kingdom. Now Asta unlike most children was born with no magic thus the story follows the typical underdog and his journey to reach the top and be referred to as the strongest. Now this initial introduction is where most of the criticism for this manga start. Many people have automatically tossed it aside as a blatant rip-off of Naruto. But in fact it's a story where it clearly displays the motto of most manga now a days , “to follow your dreams”. The manga continues to this grand library where all of the kids who have turned of age go to get there grimoire . Now the ceremony starts with an introduction and then the books from the shelfs fly out and choose their respective owners , Yuno was awarded the grimoire of the first magic emperor the four leaf clover grimoire and to hit the cliche on more time our protagonist Asta does not receive any grimoire resulting in him being made fun off and an outcast , from then a bandit tries to steal Yuno grimoire and as the fight continued Asta interfered and just as Asta was about to receive a fatal Blow a unknown grimoire appears and gives him a sword which can cut thru and deflect magic granting him anti magic ironically making his opponent a normal human just like he is.As the Story progresses he continues to proves people wrong and make unlikely friends like most manga's about an underdog now a days again hitting all the clichés. Now i will not continue to spoil the rest of the manga for you but just wanted to give you a small introduction and a brief summary of what's going on with the manga. Now i review manga with 5 key points each earning up to 2 points each . First let touch upon the art style , the art style reminds me a lot of the 7 deadly sins, the art style it's very western influenced by still have the japanese cultural influence in which you can clearly see in the eyes and most of the face. Now this art style is definitely one that isn't seen much in manga at least from what i've seen but it not fully original as you can clearly see the influence from the style of the 7 Deadly Sins Manga Series , so i will have to give it a 1 in art style. Next we will touch on the Plot of the Story again same as with the art style you can see he got his influence from many different manga series before it , but the plot is not to complicated and touches on a lot of points at the same time. It deals with segregation , fulfillment of dreams , underdog story , rivalry and the mystery with never knowing fully who's on what side of the law. And it touches on all these plots seamlessly. For plot i have to give it a 1.5 it's not as intense as like lets say attack on titan but it's definitely more compelling than that of Fairy Tail. The Characters again to not sound like a broken record but you can clearly see it has its influence from different manga series before it Yuno the strong silent type remind me alot of Sasuke from the Naruto Series and Asta the thick headed lovable simple minded character taking reference from Naruto to luffy from the one piece series, now other characters like Yami captain of the black bulls has a strong but firm personality commonly seen slacking off but in reality very wise individual who's trying to increase his guild's strength , this was most seen when he told Asta that he would sent him on a mission he didn't think he can handle . so even though the main characters have strong influences from other series , all the characters in general are very memorable so to conclude i give it a 1.5 as well. Now next is the main antagonist , this is where i feel the series really fails now with the main villain it's hard to tell who he is , at one point you get a clear indication of who it is a mage with light magic but as soon as he is defeated 3 more bad guys show up and turn out to be stronger and badder than him and make it seems that they work for the true leader or something along those line .Then you have the magic emperor who's always sneaking around his intention are very unclear through out the entire series so far, and then you have the leader of the golden suns who wears a mask and is always late at one point they even referenced there suspicion of his stating that he does not use light magic does he , and in one scene even shows the golden suns helping the group of bad guys with a stone tablet with gem embedded in it, so on this aspect it falls very short in clearly telling us who is the bad guy and who isn't , its all over the place with new bad guy being introduce every so often and it seems almost rushed . but it could be all part of the grand mystery and for that i give is a 0.5 . Just for the sense of mystery which i'm a huge fan of . Lastly the Environment this series is set in for me definitely plays a huge role in the story of the series and the experience of the manga , is it believable? Does it make you want to live there ? On this i felt the series hits on all points , the world is vast and unknown , it has a great system economic wise where mages work for the government earning money , it has its own story where those born with high magic abilities are like high class citizens and live in the capital while those without high magic live in the outskirts and use what ever magic they do have for everyday living like cooking and cleaning as well as having to live with the high class citizens taking down to them and showing a clear segregation between the outer slums and the capital city. It also seems to be filled with dungeons which house ancient magic and ancient knowledge expanding more into the mystery that is the world they live in, for me the environment of black clover is a solid 2 !

As For the final verdict

Art Style - 1 out of 2

Plot & Story - 1.5 out of 2

Characters - 1.5 out of 2

Antagonist - 0.5 out of 2

Environment - 2 out of 2

TOTAL RANKING OF : 6.5 out of 10 (Slightly Above Average!)

Closing Statement : Black Clover seems to have been released at perfect timing had it been release when the big 3 were still going on it would of definitely been tossed aside and never have gotten any spoitlight , i seem to pikc up some of the pieces left over from the ending os big series like bleach and naruto. i definetly recommend picking it up and a light read , and cant wait for it to get and a anime adaptation .