The Mycenaean

Anime is booming right now. With shows like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, and Fire Force coming out left and right, fans can enjoy any type of show.

One of the newer shows is Black Clover which is an action filled anime but weaves in comedic scenes and romance scenes to create a very well-rounded show. It first aired on October 3, 2017 and released weekly episodes every Tuesday all the way until March of 2021. 

With a total of 170 episodes, Black Clover has tons of phenomenal episodes filled with crazy animations, breathtaking fight scenes, and meticulous character development.

The World of Black Clover

In the world of Black Clover, magic is everything. The royals are the ones with the most magic, and the peasants have the least magic. There is a lot of discrimination between the groups and the people with the least magic are constantly disrespected and mistreated by their higher-ups.

Everyone has at least some sort of magic, whether weak or strong. They learn to hone this magic into spells with a grimoire, a book that wizards use for spells, that they receive when they turn 15. A typical grimoire has a three leaf clover on the front. In the series it is stated many times that the leaves stand for faith, hope, and love. A four leaf clover is rarely ever seen, but is told to contain luck. A five leaf clover, on the other hand, contains a demon.

There are four kingdoms in the show, the Clover Kingdom, the Diamond Kingdom, the Heart Kingdom, and the Spade Kingdom. However, the majority of the show takes place in the Clover Kingdom. 

In the Clover Kingdom, there is both a King and a Wizard King. The King is royalty who had his role passed down and is supposed to be the ruler of the Kingdom, however, he is a self-centered idiot who does not do much during the show other than make himself look dumb.

The Wizard King on the other hand, is a well respected leader who obtained his role by becoming the strongest wizard in the kingdom and being well-respected by his peers. The Wizard King is in control of the Magic Knights, who are essentially the army of the Clover Kingdom. 

The Magic Knights are very selective and only allow a few people to join each year. This makes the Magic Knights an elite force of powerful wizards who protect the kingdom and are highly praised by the citizens. There are several squads within the magic knights: The Golden Dawn, The Black Bulls, The Silver Eagles, and the Crimson Lions, to name a few. 

The Plot

Asta, the main character of the show, is a boy born with no magic at all. Asta was left along with his friend Yuno abandoned in front of a church when they were just babies. Asta is extremely loud, energetic, and rambunctious, while Yuno is calm, cool, and collected.

Although Asta was born with no magic, he worked harder than anyone else trying to prove that even though he was poor and had no magic, he could do anything he set his mind to. However, Yuno was born with a tremendous amount of magic, and would constantly look down on Asta for being useless.

Even though the two boys have completely different abilities and personalities, both of them want to become the Wizard King more than anything in the world. 

When the two boys went to receive their grimoires, Yuno received a four leaf grimoire, but Asta received a five leaf grimoire with anti-magic swords. These swords would propel Asta to becoming an absolute powerhouse.

As the story progresses, the two boys make it into the magic knights — Asta joins the Black Bulls and Yuno joins the Golden Dawn — and work their way up the ranks. Asta and Yuno face strong enemies and life-threatening situations constantly on their journey up the ranks, but they still have a long way to go.

What Makes Black Clover So Good?

Black Clover has so many amazing components that make it stand out in comparison to other shows. 

To start, even the intros are phenomenal with songs like “Black Catcher” hyping up the audience before the episodes.

The animation is out of this world. During the fight scenes, the animators do an amazing job capturing the high speed action and emotions with 2D animations. 

The writers do a great job creating stories for every character in the show. Even side characters get backstories and episodes solely for exploring their past, their motives, and their dreams. They do a beautiful job displaying the development of each character as the story progresses.

There is so much depth to the show–that it is amazing the producers were able to release episodes weekly for over three straight years. Each episode is meticulously designed and blended together to create a wonderful show.

Black Clover is available on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu, but Hulu only has the first 51 episodes. Recently, the producers announced plans for a movie sometime in the near future, although there has been no announcement of a release date as of right now.