#and Noelle… (but I don’t think we had seen a lot of her yet) 😅

[acacia-may]

How did you become fan of Black Clover?

Oh what a fun question! Thank you so much for asking! 😄💖

I apologize for all the ramblings. It is not really as long of a story as I am about to make it out to be, but it turned out pretty wordy so I've put it under the cut... 😅

So I actually didn't watch or read Black Clover until last year (believe it or not 😅), but my younger cousin had been absolutely obsessed with the series for about a year and a half at that point and would not stop talking about it. 😄 He had a contagious enthusiasm for it, but I just really didn't think it was for me (since my cousin and I usually have wildly different tastes) so I kind of put his recommendation that I should watch it on the back burner.

At a certain point, I reached that strange, 'in between series' malaise where you're ready for something new but not something you expect to get that invested in, so I asked a friend of mine who has seen a lot more anime than me (and helped me get into the genre in the first place) if she had ever heard of Black Clover because my cousin was talking about it non-stop. She had watched the first few episodes, and said it was pretty good. She also did a much better job of explaining the basic premise than my cousin's "There's this guy named Asta and he's awesome. And this other guy named Yuno and he's awesome too! And they all have magic and that's really awesome!" (I love my cousin, but he just wasn't giving me a whole lot to go on there 😂), so I thought 'Sure, why not? I'll give it a try. Maybe put it on in the background as some casual viewing.' 😁

I'm not sure if this goes without saying or not but I was really endeared to the series in the beginning because Asta is so much like my cousin--all that "Let's GOOOO!!" energy and everything he says would absolutely end with an exclamation point. They're even around the same age! 😄 I just remember thinking, "No wonder he loves this show so much, he is basically the main character," but, of course, he's not introspective at all so when I asked him, "Hey do you think you're like Asta?" He was all confused and answered something like, "What? [pause] Asta's cool! His anti-magic is awesome! I like Liebe too!" in true Asta fashion 😂). And I really loved Yuno from the get-go, too. They were such great foils for each other, and I really liked their brotherly bond. I was still definitely in that 'aw it's cute. I'll watch an episode here and there' casual watching stage though and not imagining it would become such a favourite of mine.

But then of course, they bring all the Black Bulls in...

I suppose for this part of the story it's important to note that I usually watch anime with my younger sister (she's been mentioned in my posts a lot for that reason 😁), but she wasn't interested in this one so I was on my own. I think it was in episode 9 or 10 that I just stopped watching--literally paused partway through the episode deciding that she just had to see this. (She loves those anti-heroes with chaotic energy types of characters). I've got a screenshot of the text actually because the irony of it all makes me laugh. Also, feel free to have fun trying to match up my makeshift names for the Black Bulls based on that tiny bit of information I had about them in the beginning... 😂

(I promise I know all of their names now! 😂 And would probably pick better descriptors for some of them now that I know them better… Also silly, naive little 2021 Acacia thinking this series wasn’t anything “life changing”… yeah, things have changed a lot since then… 😅)

The Black Bulls made this series for me and over time, I came love each and every one of them (some took longer than others 😅)! I affectionately called them "The Island of Misfit Toys" (or more often just the "Misfit Toys")--because the squad is a home and a place to belong for this lovable band of chaotic misfits with punk energy who all love each other like a big dysfunctional family despite their issues and personal struggles. [It's also where the name of my blog comes from 🥰].

Truthfully, I was not expecting to like Black Clover nearly as much as I did in the end, but as soon as they hit that sea temple arc, I really got hooked and felt the story was truly something special. I was interested in it before, but my sister and I binged the whole underwater temple arc of the anime in one day. It was really the point where I got extremely invested, and it’s still definitely one of my favorite arcs in the series to date! I have been super attached to Black Clover ever since! 💖

There is probably a lot more I could say, but I've rambled enough and am cutting myself off for now since this is already super long. 😅

If you or anyone else would like to share how they got interested in Black Clover, I'd love to hear it! 💕 Thank you again for the ask! 🥰