Black Clover #1-9

Black Clover #1-9

Originally released in 2015

Written by Yuki Tabata

Art by Yuki Tabata

Black Clover is a series that appears to wear its inspirations on its sleeve.  Within the first few pages, we're introduced to the main protagonist Asta (a loud excitable kid), his rival Yuno (a calm kid with insane amounts of talent), and their desire to become the Wizard King.  It's a world where magic is a part of everyday life, and Asta is one of the only people, if not the only one, who can't use it.  It's like if you took One Piece, Naruto, and Fairy Tail, sprinkled in a bit of My Hero Academia, and put them in a blender.

Asta's inability to use magic could have made me like him - my favourite Naruto character is Rock Lee, who can't really use the chakra that allows people to use ninjutsu and cast illusions in that series, and he makes up for it with sheer hard work and physical training.  However, Asta's personality makes him more difficult for me to like than Lee.

Asta makes Luffy and Naruto look calm and restrained by comparison - almost every single line of dialogue that he has in the first few chapters is shouted, to the point where I was starting to feel bad for whoever voices him in the anime. (It took about twenty pages into the first chapter before he had a line of dialogue that wasn't being screamed, and even then, non-shouted dialogue seemed few and far between)

His friend and rival, Yuno, is more likeable than Sasuke from Naruto, though that's likely not saying much since I found it tough to like Sasuke, especially as the series progressed.  However, the author does a good job at showing why these two very different people would be friends, unlike in Naruto, where Naruto insists that Sasuke is his best friend despite Sasuke treating him with disdain early on and trying to kill him multiple times throughout the series.

When they turn fifteen, people receive a grimoire, a magic book that ties into their magic talent.  Yuno's book has a four leaf clover, showing that he has immense amounts of talent and marking him as a front-runner to become the next Wizard King.  Meanwhile, as Asta has no magic ability, he doesn't receive one... at first.

It's unclear why there's a delay in Asta getting a grimoire (maybe there's a more sinister reason behind it), but when defending Yuno, Asta gains a grimoire that allows him to use a sword that negates magic. Of course, the protagonist is going to have some kind of special ability, but so far, it doesn't feel overpowered - there are several moments where, if he makes the wrong move (like cutting a fireball in half), he'd still get hit by the pieces, so he needs to figure out how to use it effectively.

Asta and Yuno are assigned to squads of Magic Knights - Yuno gets his choice from any of the squads, and picks the strongest one, the Golden Dawn.  The Golden Dawn's leader, William Vangeance, wears a mask that covers part of his face.  If that, the fact that Asta and Yuno were abandoned at a church as babies on the same day as each other, and various other examples of mysterious masked men in anime/video games/movies are any indication, then I'm fully expecting that William is going to turn out to be related to one or both of them, and that he'll bear a strong resemblance to Asta and/or Yuno whenever he's unmasked.

Meanwhile, nobody wants Asta at first, though he manages to impress the leader of the Black Bulls, who are seen as the outcasts among the squads. This is where the Fairy Tail comparisons get stronger, as the Black Bulls bear a strong resemblance to the Fairy Tail guild, down to the penchant for causing excessive amounts of property damage.

Of the group, the most fleshed out is Noelle Silva, the female lead of the series.  She's from a royal family, so she has a lot of magic potential, except she has so little control over it that she's incapable of hitting a stationary target. She's uppity, but not to the extent that it becomes irritating to read about her, and she gets some good development over these first few chapters.

Even the first mission that Asta and Noelle go on bears some resemblance to the first big mission that Naruto's team goes on, with them having to save a village from criminals who use mist and ice abilities. However, there's a nice character moment where Asta comforts a pair of young kids who are mourning their grandfather, and his inability to use magic is used as a source of aspiration. The series has potential, though I hope it starts to feel more original as time goes on.