#OPINION: How Black Clover Revitalized a Tired Trope

“#OPINION: How Black Clover Revitalized a Tired Trope”

A few weeks ago, I read a piece on Slate lamenting the fact that a huge number of onscreen magical battles end up just being people dueling with the same basic laser beams. And honestly, I agree with this take. Magic in fiction is often treated with a kind of boundless abandon, something free to be explored and wielded in a way that's only limited by the creator's imagination. And then, for some reason, when it comes time for the REALLY important moments, it's two people standing about 20 feet apart, aiming their hands and staffs and wands at one another until one of them falls down. Or disintegrates. Whichever comes first.

Luckily, we have Black Clover. I've written before that series creator Yuki Tabata obviously enjoys mixing and matching magical powers, seeing which ones work well together and which ones clash in interesting ways. It's likely why he decided to have Asta use anti-magic. That kind of power would play off the other characters' abilities better in the long run, more so than if he'd just given Asta a few vague, RPG-friendly spells and let 'im loose.

Asta, Black Clover

This feature becomes an obvious asset for the series from the onset, with the first appearance of Asta's powers against Revchi's chains lending him to a sort of horrific mystery (not to mention that displaying "chains" as the ability of the first bad guy is an immediately refreshing decision when so much offensive magic in fiction strictly revolves around more elemental things). However, it takes center stage when the Black Bulls debut in full and we see them team up to take on villains. These duels only get more interesting with time as well, with early battles like Noelle's Water Magic defending people from Heath's Ice Magic evolving to Asta using Gauche's Mirror Magic for help with Baro and Sally, to the undersea fight where various mini-teams of Black Bulls take on Vetto.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that there's an ever-expanding amount of specific types of magic that warriors can use. From the aforementioned Chains Magic to Ash Magic to Beast Magic to Wing Magic to Wraith Magic (which reanimates corpses), it ensures that the battles, while often escalating in stakes, don't follow a general pattern of anime power scaling. Depending on the magic at play, the latest fight won't necessarily have the biggest explosions. Thus the climaxes of battles are often built around wrapping up the specific arcs of the characters involved, with their control over their magic abilities at the time representing their growth. This is by no means a new thing in storytelling or anime, but it does ensure that a Yami fight doesn't feel like an Asta fight, and a Yuno fight doesn't ever feel like a Noelle fight.

Yuno, Black Clover

The best example of this? The Magic Knights Captains' Capture the Flag game episode is an anime installment that I've refused to shut up for months about:

What helps this battle is that it's a contest rather than powerful characters attempting to maim or kill one another. This means that they have to inherently use their powers in a way that plays the game and provides obstacles. They can't just launch their most deadly attacks to win. They gotta be smart and (relatively) subtle, because otherwise who's gonna defend the Clover Kingdom?

However, I think the peak of it probably remains Licht's battle with Julius Novachrono, with the former's Light Magic taking on the Wizard King's Time Magic. Not only is the general arc of the battle interesting — Licht's cockiness quickly turns to panic as he realizes that Novachrono's far too fast for him, leading him to slow Julius down enough for the killing blow by diverting his focus toward the lives of everyone in the Clover Kingdom. The way the two powers collide is both visually dynamic and clever, proving that moving at the speed of light gets you nowhere if your opponent can dictate how fast that light is.

Again, this is not the first anime to approach magical systems this way, even if it's not called "magic." Fullmetal Alchemist's "alchemy" is similarly interesting. As is the Nen system from Hunter X Hunter. If you want more great magic, check out something like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is fantastic and absolutely won't make you feel terrible sometimes. I simply point out Black Clover because I'm glad to see another example of interesting magic at work, something that thrives on creative settings and match-ups and keeps each battle and character feeling distinct. Gimme as much of that as you've got.

What do you think makes Black Clover so special? Let us know in the comments!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

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