Black Clover has an anime adaptation courtesy of Studio Pierrot and it’s already gained some traction within the community both positively and negatively. In Black Clover an orphan named Asta was born without the ability to control or use magic in a world where the opposite is the norm. After his childhood friend and rival Yuno becomes quite skilled in magic, he and Asta await the arrival of their grimoires, which furthers their magical abilities. Initially unable to receive one, Asta is able to summon a rare and unique grimoire which saves Yuno from near death and the two join separate Magic Knight squads in an attempt to best one another in the magical arts to become Wizard King.

Black Clover is a 2017 shounen anime series, it is produced by Studio Pierrot and licensed by Funimation. It is currently available on DVD & Blu-Ray in English.

Editor’s Note: A Blu-Ray review copy of Black Clover Season 1, Part 1 was provided by Funimation in support of this review.

Asta as he appears in the anime adaptation.

There’s not too many manga franchises which has made quite the splash as Black Clover has, at least not none of recent memory that come to mind. It’s only three years old and already has a 51 episode (scheduled) anime series ongoing, along with a second season set for October, a video game currently in production and tons of merchandising. Not too shabby for a series that hasn’t even reached the “half a decade” point in it’s run. The first set of episodes are kind of tough to get into, especially if you’ve come from a Naruto fan background, but over time I think Black Clover’s anime adaptation will eventually work itself out in the long run.

Asta & Yuno as they appear om the anime.

THE GOOD: If you can get over the initial rough patches as it branches itself out, you can kind of see why Black Clover eventually evolves into what it has become as a franchise. Granted the territory often feels too familiar, but it does find its own footing with a unique story and some solid world and character building as it progresses.

I don’t think it’ll take all 51 episodes of Black Clover’s freshman season to find it’s mark, but it does improve as it goes on.

THE BAD: In a rather rare case, I highly recommend the English dub over the Japanese audio at least for the first few episodes as the voice acting, specifically Asta’s in particular will annoy the absolute hell out of you. The early bits of the season feels a little too carbon copy of Naruto and that’s sort the problem with being inspired by Naruto’s story. It seems like creators who take that route just follow the basics instead of making the best out of why the aforementioned series became such a big deal. My Hero Academia is seemingly the only series that comes to mind which uses the Naruto formula correctly out of the gate.

I highly recommend watching this dubbed over the Japanese subbed, 100%, thank me later.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Though not perfect a slow build for Black Clover does eventually grow on you. It probably still won’t be for everyone with so many series that are similar to it’s style and tone coming before it, but it’s definitely at least worth checking out even if you don’t plan on sticking around for season two, or even season one’s end. Otaku Dome gives Black Clover Season 1, Part 1 a 70 out of 100.