Manga Review – Black Clover, Vol. 5: The Crimson Lion King by Yūki Tabata (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Manga/Fantasy/Shounen
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC.
Release Date: February 7, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1421591254
Stand Alone or Series: 5th volume in the Black Clover series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3.5/5 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!
The mysterious terrorist group calling itself the Eye of the Midnight Sun has been repelled from the Clover Kingdom, but the damage done is great. One of the Magic Knight captains has been gravely injured and Asta’s been kidnapped. How will the Wizard King respond…?”
Series Info/Source: This is the fifth book in the Black Clover series, I bought this.
Story (4/5): This was much better than the last volume. The story makes some progress, although it still seems pretty piecemeal. In this volume Asta has been kidnapped by the Eye of the Midnight Sun and one of the Magic Knight captains is grievously injured. Asta is rescued by the Wizard King and goes out with his buddies to a mixer to celebrate. There he meets a nice young woman with younger siblings and he decides to spend his vacation with them. However, one night all the kids disappear and it’s up to Asta and his friends to find them.
Characters (4/5): A couple of new characters are introduced but it was much better than Volume 4 where a million new characters were introduced at once. I continue to enjoy Asta and his fellow Black Bulls. I also liked that the Wizard King is in this volume more, he is an intriguing character.
Setting (3/5): The setting really wasn’t the point of the story and takes place across some rather generic fantasy towns.
Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This manga is decently drawn and fairly easy to follow. Some of the fight scenes are a bit hard to follow but for the most part both the writing and drawing are on the higher quality end of your typical manga.
My Summary (3.5/5): Overall I liked this volume better than volume 4, but am still not a huge fan of this series. My 13 year old son loves these and I think this series is one that is much more aimed at that age group. I find the lack of cohesive story and the scattered fight scenes a bit disappointing. However, the drawing is decent quality and this is a decent manga series. It just seems to be using a lot of elements from other manga series and there isn’t a lot original here.
