#i also love yuno's design but it makes me depressed

[thechibilitwick]

trial..... uhm,,.. counting my fingers.... three

[ultraericthered]

Since I’ve been reblogging School Live...

It occurs to me that I covered my overall thoughts on it twice but never mentioned who my favorite character was. Out of the few characters the anime had, which one did I like best? The answer...

See more below the cut. Warning: includes talk of mental illness and how it’s depicted.

Yeah, I know that’s not particularly surprising or original a position to take, but the thing about Yuki is...she’s not well in the head. Which is to say she’s mentally ill. She is written as a very mentally ill person. It didn’t seem too bad initially since she was just lazy and even fairly moody back when she was regularly attending school, but witnessing the effects of the zombie epidemic breakout at school and watching schoolmates dying right in front of her eyes, even witnessing Kurumi brutally murder a zombified person with a shovel, left her deeply traumatized and emotionally disturbed. But it was the sudden, horrific death of Megu-Nee that set Yuki’s mind over the edge, leading to a notable change in attitude: wilder and more erratic behavior, existing traits like laziness and clumsiness worsening, self delusions, hallucinations, difficulty processing negative feelings like grief, falling out of touch with reality and with the feelings of those around her, and many bouts of anxiety, manic-depressive breaks, and severe ADHD (Attention deficient hyperactivity disorder). Yuki is not mentally well and it’s apparent to all of her friends who watched her retreat from reality into the fantasy of idealized school life she’d conjured up in her head. The summary on the back of the English Blu-Ray set even outright describes Yuki as “insane” as result of her trauma.

What’s exceptional is how she is framed and treated within the narrative. Aside from some very occasional unsettling moments designed to get the viewer on edge with skepticism and dread over what might happen, Yuki is not made out to be a scary, morally skewed, potentially violent and dangerous person. On the contrary, she’s outgoing, friendly, goofy, fun-loving, earnest, approachable and largely harmless in her delusions. She always means well, she always wants her friends to enjoy life and have a good time along with her. And her friends, even if they might rib on her or get annoyed by her from time to time, love her to death. They want to protect her, they want her to be happy, they want to live their lives with her. There’s even a part in Episode 11 where Megu-Nee tells her how cherished she is and how valuable a gift her smile and joy is to those around her. So this is a character written as a mentally ill individual who is told outright that she is valid. That she and all she brings with her is a treasure that holds value for her and the lives she touches. That her existence is invaluable, her personhood matters, and that her mind, her emotions, her state of being are beautiful things. That she improves lives just by existing and living life to the fullest. Yuki is a good person due to just being herself, mental illness and all.

Now obviously she’s got plenty of faults and errors that she needs to learn from, and her learning to let go and free herself from her own mental prison is at the heart of the narrative. But even afterwards she doesn’t exactly change. Her mental illness isn’t going to go away, it can only be managed. It’s no longer something she “suffers from”, just something she lives with. And that’s OK. Her friends are accepting and understanding of this as a factor of who she is, as are we. Even some of the best mentally ill characters of anime such as Yuno Gasai fall into the common trap of going full Horror Movie Villain due to being psychologically and emotionally damaged people prone to psychotic episodes and low on empathy for others, so that Yuki not only deconstructs the Cute, Clumsy, Lazy, Gluttonous Genki Girl trope via her mental illness but also subverts the mental illness cliches altogether makes her stand out to me as a great character.

[uozlulu]

Who are your favorite top ten black clover characters and ships? Talk about them.

This is both easy and hard. Like I have so many faves and ships, can I really make a top ten? Let’s find out

Ten top faves in order they came to my brain:

Asta - It was favorite character at first bellow really. I like that he’s got his own political philosophy which is more than some other Jump heroes in similar positions have sometimes. He reads very nephew I never had to me. I just really love loud, kind characters really. 

Noelle - I like that her powers improve and grow with her desire to protect others. She’s also set up for such a great character arc when all is said and done. It’ll be fun to see her continue to loosen up more and more as we go now that she’s with a family who loves her openly and unconditionally.

Yuno - He reminds me of my little brother so a lot of his interactions with Asta bring on a lot of nostalgia. I also like how there are layers to him even if they’re subtle. He’s clearly got some depression issues to work through. I’m looking forward to how he handles a manga spoiler as he deals with more and more with such things. 

Charmy - I like that she can be both funny but also srsbsns when needed. She’s always entertaining and there’s so much more we can learn about her as we go along. 

Mereoleona - She’s very loud and very interesting. Like does sense use her grimoire when she makes those fire paws? I think we’ve only seen evidence of her grimoire open once but maybe that was actually Fuego’s. I also like how she’s in a position in which she can reject the nonsense of nobility without us having to sit through some family estrangement drama.

Magna - I want to see more of him. He’s an interesting dad friend to Klaus’ mom friend and he’s also constantly struggling to make things work. He’s very, very relatable. Reminds me of my struggle with learning to spell and learning math post-pre-algebra. 

Charlotte - I love her. A constant contradiction. Confined by the etiquette of nobility and her own nerves while deep down having her teen crush phase ten years later than most. Really hoping the filler arc allows her to sort some stuff out not only for shipping reasons but I think that she’s kind of not quite done with her identity crisis so if she could get more of a harness on some of her contradictions or find a way to blend them together more smoothly that would be good for her overall. Would also love to see her and Luck figure out they’re actually (half?) siblings

Vangeance - Very relatable back story, and I am looking forward to seeing how he grows as a character now separated from Patri. Looking forward to what the filler arc is going to do with him. 

Yami - He reminds me of my older sister in how he and Asta interact with each other, though my sister and I don’t you know how so much bathroom conversation >____>;;; (but that’s Jump for you). I’m hoping we get to learn more about him as we go along here. Also curious how many people in Clover Kingdom realize Yami is actually his surname considering Julius calls him Yami and calls Vangeance William.

Father Orsi - I’ve always rather liked him. In many ways he’s Asta and Yuno’s dad. I’m kind of hoping the current backstory subplot ends with that being acknowledged in some way kind of like how during the elf arc we had a lot of familial talk like Licht and Tetia getting married, Yuno being the reincarnation of their child, Tetia and Lumiere being siblings, etc...and had a plot point of Asta saving Orsi’s life while Yuno kept the threat at bay. Yuno especially is at a critical point that his part of the subplot could go in that kind of direction, which would be nice since Asta had the bigger father son moment with Orsi last time, but it won’t surprise me if by the time we get there it will be both Asta and Yuno who affirm that Hage is their home and the church and their squads are their families. 

Ten ships I enjoy in no particular order: 

Asta/Noelle - Asta’s still hopelessly devoted to Sister Lily and Noelle has only just discovered her heart can doki doki but I think they have the potential to grow and change together and become a really strong couple as that progresses. 

Yami/Charlotte - These two are very relatable. Does Yami know? I think he does, but I also think he can’t be 100% certain, which is very relatable especially since I too grow up as an “other” around my peers. Charlotte is also relatable because a lot of what she says out loud is some of my own internal monologue from back when I used to get crushes on people. It’s such a stupid mutual crush that could really become something fun if they would both just communicate and be themselves. 

Luck/Magna - They have a deep friendship and understanding of each other which could totally translate into something more if they wanted, which is always my jam. They also seem to know how far is too far when you factor out that they’re a hyper violent comedy routine at times, and that’s also nice. 

Yami/Vangeance - Makes me sad how little content there is for this ship especially after I filter out what I don’t want to see on AO3. Again you’ve got that friendship that could evolve aspect and they’re also two people Clover Kingdom sees as an “other” and had to prove themselves to get where they are. They both seem to have a love style that isn’t controlling given the love they show for their squads, which I think is what both of them need. 

Finral/Klaus - I know. I know. Everyone’s going “Where did that even come from?” and the answer is there is so little Black Clover fic when I saw a fic for this ship a while back I was like “Okay. Tell me more,” and it sold me on the ship. Both of them are kind of in a support position for their squads, they were both raised as nobles, and they both are kind of learning to let go of that nobility, though Finral has already let go of a lot of it now and Klaus is only starting to loosen up. It’s an interesting dynamic I’d like to see more of. 

Noelle/Kahono - Might have been me projecting a bit but when Kahono set up a double date designed to get Noelle and Asta together it reminded me of when I was in the closet back in middle and high school and fixed this girl I had a crush on up with the boys she liked alsfjldskfjaldkj. Also Kahono seems to have a lot of warmth and affinity for Noelle, and I think if they were able to interact more something could develop. They’d be very cute together, though I think Noelle likes her crushes weirder than Kahono but maybe Kahono has a secret weirdo side we just haven’t seen yet. 

Grey/Gauche - Do you ever like look at Gauche and feel that one gifset of Nick Furry burst forth? Yeah, so in a world in which he finally calms down a bit about Marie, he can be part of a ship as a treat. I like that they both can bring out sides of each other others can’t and I think they both have a lot of room to grow together as people. It would also be nice to see Gauche unwind a bit (though I think he’ll always be stuffy) and Grey open up more (though she’ll always be shy). They also seem like characters that wouldn’t overwhelm each other either, which is good because I think both of them wouldn’t respond well to more aggressive personality types. 

Charmy/Rill - We need to talk about how everyone Rill loves has handed him his ass. We really do. His butler did, Asta did, and now wolf!Charmy has. Just wait until sheep!Charmy hands him his ass, he’ll never look back. That said, that’s not why I like them. I like them because I think Charmy needs someone who will appreciate her and I think Rill definitely will as he gets used to her. I also think Rill needs someone who won’t put up with nonsense unless it’s the fun kind of nonsense and Charmy definitely would fit the right kind of chaotic energy. I also like ships in which the girl is just as capable of saving the boy (a la Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask) so again, like Asta/Noelle and Yami/Charlotte, I’m here for this ship. 

Leopold/Yuno - This stemmed from me thinking about how they would interact since strangely enough we’ve not seen them in the same place as the same time yet since Leopold didn’t participate in the Royal Knight Selection Exam. I would love to read some fics with this pairing but there aren’t a lot out there. In some ways it’s that anxiety/depression ship dynamic that I gravitate towards so it’s no surprise I’m curious how it would go. Maybe they’ll get to work together in the next major battle arc. 

Noelle/Nero - But like when Nero is in human form, you know? Again, it’s that anxiety/depression dynamic. I also think that while Noelle can draw on strength from Nero in battle, Nero can draw on strength from Noelle outside of battle because Noelle has that side of her that likes to care for people and has a lot of compassion for others even though she tries to cover it up by being tsundere. It’ll be fun to watch them fight alongside each other since they’re both going to be training in Heart Kingdom during the filler arc at some point.