Black Clover Review: Tropes Are Tropes Because Tropes Work

Black Clover should be a horrible manga by all standards. The art isn't the best in the world, they're constantly introducing new captains that should have been introduced, when all the captains were stated to be in attendance. The main character is basically Naruto. It's trying to do this harem thing but not go all the way because some of the characters are like 15. A lot of the characters are obvious rip-offs of other famous manga characters. There's even a Cana from Fairy Tail clone. Wait, this is Shaman King with magic instead of spirits. Yet, I still love Black Clover.

Black Clover centers itself on Aster, Asta, Astra or whatever his name is going to be that week. Aster aims to become the Wizard King, the strongest wizard in the land. However, he has one problem, he doesn't actually have any magic. In fact he has anti-magic, that's right he has so little magic it negates other people's magic. But, through training hard and not giving up he manages to become a Magic Knight on his way to Wizard King, believe it. I

I'll be honest, the plot is a little generic. The idea of a group of friends, or a guild getting together to fight the forces of evil has been done hundreds of times already. Then there's the idea that not giving up means you can beat any opponent is kind of silly, until you add the power of friendship. There's a group of bad guys who want to take over the kingdom and occasionally bad guys from other countries throw a wrench into the plans.

The characters for the most are just rip offs of other characters. However there are some really enjoyable ones like Yami The Black Bull's captain, Juluis the current Wizard King, Luck a goofy kid with too much bloodlust and a few others. There's really not much else unique going on.

Black Clover is basically just a bunch of manga tropes thrown together and as you read it you say to yourself "This so unoriginal, but I can roll with it." Every arc taking place you'll be able to relate it to something you've read or watched before. Like right now, the team is participating in a group of one on one battles and the team with the most wins advances. So we haven't seen this done to death yet? Togashi alone has done it multiple times in every manga he's ever written.

Black Clover isn't really original in any sense. It basically plays on all the tropes it possibly can and tells a generic story. However, tropes are tropes because tropes are popular and that's a trope in itself. Black Clover just does a good job in bringing you those tropes. So even if you've already read or watched something like it, you keep going along with it because it's not bad, it just isn't original. But you don't have to be original to have your work enjoyed by tons of people, just ask Drake.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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