Manga Review – Black Clover, Vol. 4: The Crimson Lion King by Yūki Tabata (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Manga/Fantasy/Shounen
Length: 184 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC.
Release Date: December 6, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1421590233
Stand Alone or Series: 4th volume in the Black Clover series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In a world of magic, Asta, a boy with anti-magic powers, will do whatever it takes to become the Wizard King!
Asta is a young boy who dreams of becoming the greatest mage in the kingdom. Only one problem—he can’t use any magic! Luckily for Asta, he receives the incredibly rare five-leaf clover grimoire that gives him the power of anti-magic. Can someone who can’t use magic really become the Wizard King? One thing’s for sure—Asta will never give up!
Complete chaos has broken out as the Clover Kingdom capital comes under attack by a group of mysterious terrorists. Asta and the other Magic Knights join the fight in order to protect the innocent civilians, but what exactly are the terrorists after?”
Series Info/Source: This is the fourth book in the Black Clover series, I bought this.
Story (3/5): In this volume a mysterious group of terrorists attacks the Clover Kingdom and all the Magic Knight must join forces to fight them. I thought this volume was a bit of a mess. We are introduced to what felt like a million new Magic Knights and, towards the middle of the volume, every other page was introducing us to a NEW MAGIC MOVE!!! There really wasn’t much story progression or character development at all. This was pretty much one long battle between the terrorists and the Magic Knights.
Characters (3/5): As mentioned above you see a ton of new characters in this volume from all the different bands of Magic Knights. While our favorites do show up quite a bit, they are surrounded by a million other characters that aren’t well developed at all. It was too much, too fast and hard to follow.
Setting (3/5): The whole story takes place in the capital of Clover Kingdom. It was an okay setting but pretty typical fantasy.
Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): While this continues to be one of the better drawn manga series, I really thought this was a bit scattered. We are jumping between multiple groups of Magic Knights that we haven’t met before and it gets very confusing at times. There isn’t a ton to read here because almost the whole story is one big confusing battle.
My Summary (3/5): This was my least favorite volume of this series yet, so far I have continued to buy this because my 13 year old son really enjoys them. I guess if you enjoy shounen with a ton of chaotic fight scenes and new magic moves shouted out on every other page you will really enjoy this. I thought both the story progress and character development were really lacking. I also thought the fight scenes were hard to follow at points. I have volume 5 to read, so I plan on reading it, but not sure I buy any more of these after that point.
