#FEATURE: Thank You, Black Clover. It's Been Great

“#FEATURE: Thank You, Black Clover. It's Been Great”

"It's surprisingly good. Try it out."

I got that message on October 15, 2018. It was from Peter Fobian, the Crunchyroll Associate Manager for Social Video and it was in regards to Black Clover. I was looking for something to watch, having earlier that day finally caught up with Boruto. I, a man who's loved stories about good, spiky-haired boys that enjoy yelling and fighting since he began watching One Piece a decade earlier (and the adventures of the eternally loud Ash Ketchum a decade before that) wanted another anime to satisfy that insatiable need. And so Peter gave me Black Clover, and for that, I am grateful.

Asta, Black Clover

Black Clover is an anime with a reputation that preceded it. Just like before I dived into Dragon Ball, I heard copious, COPIOUS jokes about people spending hours charging up (it really wasn't that bad). I'd been made aware that Black Clover was apparently tough to get into because Asta was loud. He shouted too much, every word coming from his mouth filtered through a teenage screech. But isn't that a shonen main character thing? They yell their attacks. They yell about their dreams. They yell just to be heard. It's not exactly a super subtle brand of person. And there's something kinda beautiful about that, about beating your chest and shouting against the world. Not declaring it your enemy but making sure that it knows that you're up for anything it throws at you.

And when I finally watched it and heard Asta be more excited than, well, anyone…it wasn't that bad. Here was this weird, optimistic kid, desperate to prove to a universe full of magic that his non-magic existence mattered. I'm not trying to write a Criterion Collection booklet essay about why Asta's yells thematically work for the character, but they do. Whether he was being insulted for his lack of magic or for his low-class upbringing, Asta copes with it partly by being the loudest in the room and the most passionate. You can demean him however you want, but he'll always keep pushing and working and trying and yelling.

Black Clover

Anyway, Peter was right. Black Clover WAS surprisingly good. The Black Bulls were immediately lovable, this collection of outcasts that formed a little found family. Captain Yami was (and is) infinitely cool, a father figure whose approval means so much to his team. The confidence that he has in each of them is inspiring because he sees so much potential — potential that the Clover Kingdom society seems eager to trample down and hide. The world of Black Clover is chock-full of classism, with the rich and the powerful being so easily willing to discard others and their own. It's how a royal-like Noelle Silva ended up among the Bulls. She has a kind of promise that her elder siblings aren't willing to admit or understand. But Yami does, and so he pushes her and Asta and the rest to be better. Because they might never prove their worth to the upper class, but they'll at least prove their worth to themselves.

I recently wrote about this, but the way magic was implemented in Black Clover was an ever-increasing treat, rendering the battles both interesting conceptually and in actual practice. The work of series directors Tatsuya Yoshihara and Ayataka Tanemura only got more confident with time, much in thanks to their talented line-up of animators. Action sequences became more dynamic and emotional scenes overflowed with atmosphere. The big moments, those that manga readers wait for and anime fans beg them not to spoil, became more and more impressive. There are few series in general that just get better and just keep surpassing their limits, but Black Clover is one of them.

noelle

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't include the Black Clover openings, of which there isn't a single bad one. There's a playlist of them over at the Crunchyroll Collection YouTube page. Today seems like a good day to have them on in the background.

Tuesday's are gonna be weird without a weekly installment of Black Clover. Nothing lasts forever, though, and I'm truly excited to see what its story can accomplish in movie form. So I guess it's goodbye for now, Black Clover, goodbye and thanks. Thanks to Yuki Tabata, the creator of the manga, for delivering a fantasy narrative that's so effortlessly enjoyable. And thanks to all of the animation staff and freelancers and voice actors and writers that worked on Black Clover for the past few years. Your efforts are more than appreciated.

Take it easy, Asta. Or don't. You probably won't. We'll see you again one day regardless.

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

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