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Black Clover is a Japanese fantasy shounen manga series, which was written and illustrated by Yuuki Tabata. The series is published in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump magazine in Japan, and Viz Media is publishing it in their Weekly Shonen Jump digital anthology magazine in the US. At the Black Clover Jump Festa event on December 18, 2016, an anime television series adaptation by Pierrot was announced. It is directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu writing scripts, Itsuko Takeda doing character designs, and Minako Seki composing the music. The anime premiered on October 3, 2017.The series was initially listed as running for 13 episodes, but was later expanded to 51 episodes, which is one of the mistakes this review will center on, but later about it.Asta, a kid living in poverty is determined to become the next Wizard King of his country. The problem is, in the world where magic is everything: it determines your position in society, Asta has absolutely no magic at all. However, his determination to become top 1 in the kingdom helps him get into the kingdom's elite defense forces, the Magic Knights. He, together with his brother, start their journey to become the most respected, as well as the kingdom's most powerful man. How one should assess a story-line that crawls with clichés and unoriginality? While it is not a bad thing, it is not a good thing either. Many anime series have done this before, but the problem here is that putting all these overused clichés together is a very difficult thing to pull, because you will have to get rid of these clichés and make your work original. There should always be something your viewers will remember you for. Black Clover, however, does have originality about its story-line, but it is not enough to call its story-line original. Those who are not new to the industry will have a 'I have seen this already' feeling, when watching Black Clover. And at some point it gets somewhat annoying, because you already know what is going to happen. Of course, it is not the only negative side this anime has, there are far too many, I would like to touch upon another thing, which ruined this series. As I have already mentioned in the first paragraph of my review, the series was initially listed as running for 13 episodes, but was later expanded to 51 episodes. This is the biggest mistake this anime has made: you are being shows far too many unnecessary details and nothing really happens. Black Clover has only enough material for 13 episodes. With 13 episodes it would not be that bad as it is right now. For any anime that has magic as its main theme, I would hope for a simply flawless, charming animation that will make my heart stop beating for a second. Black Clover's animation is sometimes fluid and dynamic, but it happens not as often as one would love to see. Indeed, the dark color schemes of the animation help promote the idea of the type of the world full of darkness and evil, and it is really awesome, however, character designs leave much to be desired. There is also nothing to comment on the sound. It does not have any memorable music pieces and voice acting is just... listen to Asta's voice actor and you will know. It is like you want to relax and you constantly hear 'Leeroooooy Jenkiiiins', which drives you mad. To my big disappointment there is nothing original about any character in this anime, even supporting characters are full of clichés. The main duo of this anime resembles Dragneel Natsu and Fullbuster Gray: their design, their ideals, their attitude towards each other, they are very similar. And not only do the main characters have clichés, but also the whole supporting character cast: there is absolutely nothing original about them. Imagine Dragneel Natsu constantly screaming with no reason, imagine Kamijou, Touma ability to nullify magic, and finally imagine Luffy, wanting to become the pirate king. Bingo, that is the whole concept of Black Clover. Awful, what a disappointment! Even after 27 episodes this series is still bad. As it has already been mentioned many times in my review, there should have never been 51 episodes; this anime has enough material for 7-11 episodes. Okay, even 13 episodes will do. But, for some reason, the creator decided to make it 51 episodes. In result, most of the time you are being shown some absolutely pointless and unnecessary scenes, with jokes that are just dramatic because of the fact that they are absobloodylutely not funny. On top of that, this series is absolutely unoriginal; it has bloody nothing to offer its viewer. However, this anime is great for kids and for those who are totally fine with clichés and are able to literally 'turn their consciousness off.' This is a number one quality to watch and to finish this anime. I, alack, do not have it and I will have to give up on it after watching the 27th episode today. All in all, I am sad to give this anime such a low overall score, but I have not found anything good, anything original about it that will help me appreciate this series, there is nothing good about it. If you want a good battle-shounen, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, and Fullmetal Alchemist are ready to help you. Black Clover, however, is nothing but a guide on what you should not do to make a good battle-shounen. Grade-
Overall (sub): 1
Story: 1
Animation: 5
Art: 6
Music: 5
Voice acting: 7
Enjoyment: 2
