#but asta and the black bulls are all fantastic and they all have great backstories

[intheticklecloset]

hai nym!! i loved your black clover fic! ive never seen black clover, would you recommend it? (i mean i assume so since u write for it fdjjd) i really like leo and especially yuno in your writing ☺️

YESSSSS OMG IT'S SO UNDERRATED 🤩🤩🤩

Especially now that MHA is over, if you're looking for something with similar vibes but fantasy instead of superpowers THIS IS THE ONE!!! The anime is superb and the battle scenes are NEXT LEVEL OH MY GOD and the found family and the friendships and the EVERYTHING!!

Leopold is a major side character (if that makes sense) and Yuno is one of the two protagonists and admittedly they don't interact much but my friend Squiggily kinda got me on the YunLeo train so here we are 😂

Seriously though, Black Clover has been the best thing I've discovered since Big Windup and I HIGHLY recommend it! 😍😍😍

[mintbrownieangelfish]

Can I talk about Black Clover for a second?

It is chalk-full of almost every shonen trope you can think of, and then some. Rivalry, underdog protagonist, “I’m going to become the best [insert occupation here]”, a somewhat-harem, magic/elves/curses, tournament arcs, band of underdog misfits... seriously, in the 140 episodes I have seen so far, there are a ridiculous number of tropes. The first 20 episodes were forced onto me by my family, which is the only reason I watched the show. I shouldn’t like Black Clover.

But I do. Because it’s great.

Even though it is one of the most tropey shows I have ever seen, it pulls every single one of them off to the point where I'm glad they were used. 

I was expecting our protagonist, Asta, who is magic-less, to have a All-Might moment where he gets magic given to him for his determination or something. But guess what? He actually keeps being magic-less for the entirety of the show, and if he were to receive magic his much-more-interesting power of antimagic would be completely worthless. See, antimagic can nullify pretty much any spell thrown at him. His only power is cancellation. Logically, if he somehow got magic, either his sword would just suck it up and make him woozy or he just straight up wouldn’t be able to use it. Also, since he’s magic-less, he is a blind spot of all magic-sensing villains, and that is a major advantage he’d lose. His sword is ridiculously heavy to the point where only Asta’s 2000-pushups-a-day routine makes it usable. The show rewards him for his hard work without taking away his ‘disability’ (not having magic is unheard of in this world). 

 The rivalry between Asta and Yuno is fantastic, genuine, and actually a sign of respect. Yuno is a magically gifted kid who grew up with Asta. Him singling out Asta as his rival, instead of any of the other magically-gifted members of his squad, is a bro way of telling Asta that he is still Yuno’s biggest threat. That’s serious validation for Asta. Even though Asta doesn’t have any magic, even though almost no one else believes he become the wizard king, Yuno thinks he can. He admires Asta’s tenacity and knows that if anyone can become a wizard king without magic it would be him. That is good kush right there and if any of yall know any other shows with good rivalries (besides Haikyuu, I’ve already seen it) then please hit me up.

The Black Bulls (Asta’s Squad) is the best band of misfits I’ve seen in a long time. The interactions are rofl levels of hilarious and they are a major reason I love this show so much.  All the characters are distinctive enough from the get-go that you can get their basic temperaments, but every single one gets development over time, and they form their own friendships/rivalries/backstories. The leader of the group, Yami, gives off the vibes of a tired uncle who’s been saddled with 10+ kids but still takes care of them because ‘there’s no one else and these idiots need it’. Gordon, a creepy-looking guy, talks so quietly (minor spoilers ahead) until like episode 90 that the other Black bulls can’t understand him. He just wants to make friends but as you can imagine that doesn’t go too well when no one can understand you, leading to some great comedy and satisfying eventual payoff. Again, all the characters have stuff like this. It is one of the uniquest bunches of characters I’ve ever seen.

I could go on for a LONG time, but this is getting big, so tldr: black clover is surprisingly good and if you want to sink your teeth into a long show that’s currently airing, this is a great one for well-written tropes and good characters.