Anime I Love: Black Clover
The righteous, wild, and kinetic series Black Clover reawakened my love for shonen anime.
Coming off of Naruto: Shippuden, my faith in shonen anime was dimming. Naruto: Shippuden is marked, in my mind, as a great lead character surrounded by a mid series. This franchise is hobbled by supercharged villains with few obstacles in their way, haphazard lore, a self-involved rival that is more boring than the fandom will admit in the form of Sasuke, and a level of misogyny so profound it forecloses intriguing avenues for the series to travel. At the very least you’d think the fight sequences would be fire but they’re kneecapped by strange narrative decisions, poor structuring and a lack of kineticism. There have been many shonen anime I’ve loved with the second adaptation of Hunter x Hunter and the mid-90s gem Yu Yu Hakusho coming to mind first. But in watching Naruto: Shippuden I wondered, if this is considered a part of the Big Three for American fans of the genre, what does that say about shonen anime as a whole? What does this say about its American fans and what they value narratively? Is it even possible to utilize the well-worn archetypes and tropes of shonen anime in a way that feels fresh?
My boyfriend suggested we watch Black Clover, a shonen anime whose adaptation began in 2017 and abruptly ended mid-arc with episode 170. The manga is coming back so there is hope the anime will return too. But even though Black Clover has yet to finish its story, it is such a blissfully fun and emotionally impactful shonen anime it is worth the commitment. Black Clover demonstrates that the work that came in the wake of Naruto learned to avoid the pitfalls of its creator Masashi Kishimoto and create a richer narrative foundation in the process. Created by Yūki Tabata, Black Clover plays out against the backdrop of a world in which magic is real with characters carrying gleaming grimoires that house their spells but a crucial currency. The most coveted grimoire being the four-leaf clover one that the first Wizard King owned and used to defeat the mammoth demons who once tried to force this world to its knees.
But the power levels in this world vary greatly. The more powerful you are with your magic the closer you live to the capital of Clover Kingdom; with the most powerful being the wealthy royal families of the kingdom. (Clover Kingdom is just one domain in this world. There are nearby kingdoms that correspond to playing card suits like the Diamond Kingdom and Heart Kingdom.) Classism is an important thematic terrain in the series. The royals are, with rare exceptions, cruel, selfish, narcissistic, and abusive. Training and betterment is nowhere on their minds given that they are all born with such mighty skills in the first place they don’t see any need for pushing themselves beyond their limits. In a world where using magic is as commonplace as class aggression and breathing, Asta is a remarkable outlier. He has no magical abilities at all. None. Zilch. Zero. Which has made him an easy target in this world.
One of the smartest decisions Tabata made in writing the manga was to fashion Black Clover as a true ensemble centering on the co-leads of Asta (voiced by Gakuto Kajiwara) and Yuno (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki). Asta and Yuno may not be related to each other by blood but they are brothers nonetheless. Both boys were discovered by Father Orsi as newborn babies at the poor church in the poor town of Hage on the very outskirts of the kingdom. Both boys hope to become Magic Knights, the highly coveted team position of warriors who defend the kingdom and protect its citizens. This is merely one goal along their greater shared quest of becoming the Wizard King, a role currently inhabited by Julius Novochromo — a mage with powerful time magic with a penchant for disguises and cheery curiosity. Asta and Yuno are a study in contrasts. Where Asta is the only character in this world with no magic, Yuno is a powerful user of wind magic. Where Asta is a short-as-hell loud mouth, Yuno is a more coolly collected prodigy. At first blush, Yuno seems to be cut from the same brooding hot boy cloth as Sasuke from Naruto or Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho. But he’s neither self-involved nor all that brooding. In actuality, he’s kind, committed to his friends like Asta, and highly motivated when it comes to bettering himself while protecting a kingdom that looks down on poor people like him. In the opening episodes of the series, Asta’s unsurmountable willpower is established as the two brothers travel deeper into the kingdom to get their grimoires (who choose them not the other way around) and compete to be a part of the Magic Knights. But while Yuno garners the coveted, gilded four leaf clover grimoire, Asta leaves empty-handed initially.
But Black Clover is a series adept at reversals and reveals. As Yuno is targeted by a thief eager to sell his coveted grimoire, Asta gains a grimoire with a mammoth sword with a far different set of capabilities: anti-magic. It is with anti-magic that cuts through any magical properties, his incredible strength from training his body when he had no magic to rely on, and his sheer tenacity that Asta is able to save Yuno. No other person in this world can wield anti-magic. What once made Asta’s life hellish — his lack of magic — is the very reason he was able to garner anti-magic and wield it so beautifully. I won’t go deeper into Asta’s abilities since why and how he was chosen would spoil those new to the series. But I will say, watching Asta, Yuno and their compatriots grow in skill leads to some of the best battles I’ve seen in shonen anime in which the boundaries of color, movement, and framing are pushed to new heights. In shonen anime, friendship is a crucial thematic element and community is vital. But there are often times when shonen will rely on these tropes without earning them. Consider how important the friendship between Sasuke and Naruto is to the way Shippuden plays out. But do you ever see any warmth from Sasuke toward Naruto? Does he ever truly apologize for joining the terrorist organization of the Akatski? Do we ever truly witness a soulful bond between these boys or are we told about it to paper over the fact that Sasuke doesn’t seem all that invested in anyone beyond himself?
After saving Yuno’s life, they each prove themselves in the tournament and join ery different Magic Knight teams: Yuno is wanted by all of them but settles upon the most high-profile and awarded group, the Golden Dawn. While Asta is handpicked by only one squad, the Black Bulls, known as the freaks of the Magic Knight guard who are always in last place. Asta is a potent lesson especially in light of the fraught sociopolitical and ecological climate we exist in. The state of the world is calling on all of us to ask ourselves, what is this moment requiring of me? What actions can I take to infuse care into the environments and communities I move through? Asta consistently comes up against overwhelming odds. But his undaunted determination and refusal to give up in the face of the impossible isn’t utilized to frame him as exceptional, like other shonen leads, so much as inspirational. Asta is a reminder to hold onto hope in dark times. The way he moves through the world is also an important example of the need for community. You can’t change the world alone. Asta and Yuno function as friendly rivals who motivate each other’s growth whilst being driven by the same vision to be protect their community and fashion a better kingdom that isn’t undermined by oppressive hierarchies of power.
In Black Women Writers At Work, the 1983 interview collection edited by Claudia Tate. Toni Morrison said something particularly instructive about clichés, that one of my readers named Moses mentioned. “A cliché is a cliché because it’s worthwhile. Otherwise, it would have been discarded. A good cliché can never be overwritten; it’s still mysterious. The concepts of beauty and ugliness are mysterious to me.” Black Clover takes the tropes we expect in anime and uses them to its advantage in order to deftly explore the interior lives of its ensemble cast. The Black Bulls are a ragtag group of outsiders who are made fun of, looked down upon, and generally expected to suck at whatever they’re meant to do. But when Asta joins the team, it’s as if the missing piece that would motivate them all toward betterment and care has been fit in the right place. Asta’s enthusiasm and determination is infectious leading everyone on the team to consistently continue leveling up and work together splendidly. So, let’s break down the team.
The Black Bulls are led by Yami, a sword and dark magic wielding mage from a foreign land. His gruff demeanor belies his caring nature for the team. Also, he’s hot as fuck. There’s Gordon, who looks like a creepy 90s goth, who yearns for connection with his other teammates but can’t seem to raise his voice above a whisper. There’s Finral, a royal emotionally abused and disrespected by his family who prefer his mean-spirited younger brother who is the vice captain of the Golden Dawn squad. He utilizes portal magic. He begins the series more interested in flirting than magic and known to be a coward but soon enough reveals his mettle, surprising even himself. There’s the fire wielding commoner, Magna. There’s the battle obsessed, unerringly cheery Luck who wields electricity and a horrifying backstory centering on the mother he could never please. There’s Gauche, who really got on my black ass nerves at the beginning given his weird fixation on his younger sister despite his admittedly useful mirror magic. There’s Grey, a woman so anxious she uses her transformation magic to present as everyone but herself. There’s Charmy, whose love of all things food and decision to make herself look younger than she is can lead to her being underestimated. Which is a mistake for any foe to make given she’s pretty much unbeatable once you learn more about her powers beyond the cotton magic she initially utilizes. There’s Noelle, the youngest of the revered Silva royal family who was mistreated by her siblings to the point of abuse and struggles to control her powers. She hides her sweetness and crush on Asta behind a veneer of haughty glamour you’d expect from a royal in this world. Finally, there’s Vanessa who hails from the Witch Forest and uses thread magic. She’s flirty, saucy, and hides her sorrows behind binge drinking. She gets a power-up so major deep into the show that she is damn-near untouchable now.
When Black Clover begins it seems as if it will follow the gendered configuration that’s more familiar in shonen anime in which women heal and men fight. This was a big problem in Naruto in which characters like Tsunade and Sakura were sidelined to be healers while their considerable strength was downplayed. But while Black Bulls members like the abused royal Noelle (voiced by Kana Yūk) are only able to do defensive spells due to her inability to control her great power, the series uses this as a great jumping off point for discovery and growth rather than a limitation. What was a narrative prison for female characters in Naruto, proves to be a fertile opportunity in Black Clover to disrupt and complicate typical shonen archetypes for its female characters. There are many amazing female characters in the world of Black Clover. I would go as far as saying the most powerful characters in this world are women. All of whom are wildly different with their own unique personality, backstory, and overarching desires. But there are three I want to highlight in particular that demonstrate how Black Clover excels at writing female characters and playing with commonly held anime tropes:
For example, Kahono from the Underwater Temple is a fun side-character whose effervescent personality and encouragement are crucial for Noelle’s self-discovery. Kahono could have been utilized to further spoil Noelle’s crush on Asta. But Black Clover treats the crushes girls have on the unaware Asta as a cutesy but mostly superfluous attribute. These young girls are defined more so by their goal to protect their communities and desire to become better with magic more than anything else.
Sister Theresa Rapual is an outlier in shonen anime. How many shonen anime characters can you think of that are women north of 65 years old who are defined not by their age but their hard-earned skill and ass-kicking talent?
My favorite character in the show is the one everyone agrees is the most powerful: Mereoleona Vermillion. She is known as the “Uncrowned, Undefeated Lioness” who takes on the role of captain for the Crimson Knights when her brother is attacked by the genocidal organization, the Eye of the Midnight Sun, who seek to destroy Clover Kingdom entirely. With awe-inspiring fire magic, Mereoleona is a bruiser. She’s fierce, tough, funny, and intimidating as hell. She’s a woman who threw aside the standing that came with being a royal from a powerful family to live in the most dangerous regions of this world to train against wild beasts. The class hierarchy of the Clover Kingdom is bullshit to Mereoleona. But in watching her encourage Noelle, whose dead mother was a good friend and sparring partner of hers, there is a graceful dimension added to the character. In doing so the narrative frames Mereoleona as a mentor to Noelle, Asta and the other up-and-comers. She’s a woman who relishes a battle and cares for those in her orbit with unmatched intensity. She encapsulates what makes Black Clover one of the most stunning shonen anime series I’ve had the pleasure of following: Archetypes and expected narrative tropes are reinvented, complicated, and remixed with aplomb in order to explore the horror that comes with class divisions and the beauty that blooms when your communal connections are what you value most.
If you enjoyed this newsletter and want to show support, my Venmo and Paypal are @/angelicabastien. This is meant to be a brief introduction to the series, if you’d like further writing on Black Clover and anime in general let me know! I am always open to hear what y’all would like to see more of in this newsletter. Thank you for engaging with my work and I hope life is treating y’all gently.
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This was so amazing to read, and I hope you write about more anime!! Would love to hear round-ups and other recommendations for anime shows that have women characters who are more thoughtfully developed.