Manga Review – Black Clover Vol 1 by Yuki Tabata (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Release Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1421587189
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Black Clover series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Young Asta was born with no magic ability in a world where magic is everything. In order to prove his strength and keep a promise with his friend, Asta dreams of becoming the greatest mage in the land, the Wizard King”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Black Clover shonen manga series. There are 20 volumes in this series right now and I received this as a Christmas gift.
Story (4/5): This is about teen named Asta who desperately wants to become the Wizard King but has no magic of his own. His best friend, Yuno, is much more successful than Asta and an awesome magic user. When the village goes to be granted their grimoires, Asta doesn’t receive one but Yuno gets a rare four leaf clover grimoire. Then strange things start happening and Asta finally gets a grimoire of his own that is very unusual.
Characters (4/5): Asta reminded me of a million other manga characters; he’s short, blond, and spunky…reminded me both of Naruto and Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist. Yuno is a bit different, much more tall, sleek and handsome. The side characters were okay but not well enough developed yet for me to comment on. I feel like strong female characters were lacking (my son and I both disliked the lingerie wearing, constantly drinking member of the group Asta joins). I did really enjoy the strange relationship Asta and Yuno have; it’s very complicated and intriguing.
Setting (4/5): The world here shows promise. It looks like an interesting fantasy world where most people have some magic and everyone is ruled over by the Wizard King. Pretty typical fantasy setting, but we didn’t really learn enough about it in this one volume to form a lot of opinions on it.
Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): The story and drawings are easy to follow. While the illustration isn’t absolutely amazing, it is well done and I had no trouble figuring out what was going on. This is definitely a higher quality manga.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a promising start to this manga series. Both me and my 13 year old son enjoyed this (it’s definitely aimed more at his age group). I would recommend it to those who enjoy shonen manga similar to Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, ones like that. I plan on continuing with the next couple volumes in the series to see where it goes.
