Black Clover Anime Review : Why I gave up
Episodes 1-23
Black Clover is a shounen anime about magicians and the main protagonist’s journey to become the “Wizard King.” The setting is completely fictional and has a medieval look to it. The main character is a boy named Asta, who is unique because he doesn’t have any magical powers, but still is driven to become a strong Knight and eventually the Wizard King. In terms of the content I’m interested in, action/adventure anime can sometimes be a hit or miss. I usually try to wait until I finish a show before giving it a review…but here are a few reasons why I’m giving up on Black Clover.
First of all (and I think a lot of people who have watched this show can relate to this sentiment), the main protagonist’s voice is extremely annoying. When he’s screaming, his voice has this weird guttural sound that’s grating to my ears. I understand the arguments that the character itself is supposed to be annoying and that the VA is capturing the spirit of a young and rebellious kid. But then in that case, I guess I’m not really loving the character of Asta or hooked on his journey.
Second of all, this show is falling into a seemingly endless cycle of “mission arcs.” A “mission” in anime is when the character starts a journey to defeat a minor enemy - almost like a short story within the overarching story. In every long anime series, it’s normal to have multiple story arcs (both short and long) to capture the growth of the main character. But I also got really tired of watching Naruto, Bleach, and Fairy Tail because I felt like I was just watching story arc after story arc, and there was no real purpose to it. Black Clover is starting to become boring to me for exactly the same reason.
In conclusion…
I think this show isn’t that addicting for me because (with a few exceptions) I’m generally not that big a fan of shounen anime. And I’m not really inclined to spend all of my free time waiting for the turning point when I get hooked. I have no doubts that Black Clover is an excellent and heartwarming story, because it has a huge fan base behind it, but for now, it’s not for me.