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Asta is a peasant in a world where privilege is decided by magical might, and he’s the only person on Earth with zero magic power. At a coming-of-age ceremony when young people obtain their grimoire (a magical book that gives its owner the ability to cast more complex spells), Asta unsurprisingly fails to summon one. However, he is soon chosen by a grimoire marked with the infamous five-leaf clover. In Asta’s world, they say that the fourth leaf contains luck and the fifth contains the Devil.

Now armed with anti-magic from his cursed grimoire, Asta is recruited by the Black Bulls, a Magic Knights unit with a drunk, a flirt, a bloodthirsty battle maniac, a royal who can’t control her magic and a captain whose idea of “pushing past your limits” includes a fight to the death with a villain who can control light. Asta will need a lot of hard work and even more luck to become the pinnacle of this magical kingdom: The Wizard King.

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The Inevitable Allure of Battle Manga

When talking about manga and anime, there’s a certain genre that’s unavoidable. I’ve made a couple of posts trying to skirt around it, trying to promote titles that fit outside this genre in an effort to show the vastness of anime and manga. But not this time. This time we’re discussing the genre that many English-speaking fans consider synonymous with Japanese comic books. Let’s talk about battle manga.

As a refresher, battle manga is a subgenre of young adult action comics featuring themes of friendship and hard work. Influenced by wushu films and wuxia literature, battle manga features over-the-top fight scenes with varying degrees of fantasy elements. These fantasy elements can include exaggerated versions of real-life martial arts, magic spells and even cursed items that send souls to a realm of eternal torment if you lose a children’s card game.

This is by far the most popular type of manga with international audiences. Some examples of battle manga include the cultural juggernauts Naruto and the Dragon Ball franchise. If you take a look at Fountaindale’s most circulated titles, you’ll see the likes of One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer towards the top of the list, all of which fall under this genre. But not all battle manga are equally famous.

Black Clover isn’t exactly obscure. The series ran in Weekly Shonen Jump for eight and a half years before shifting to the seasonally released Jump Giga, where it’s set to reach 10 years of publication. There’s an animated adaptation from the same studio that adapted Naruto and even an animated tie-in movie on Netflix! So Black Clover is a reasonably successful series whether you measure that financially, artistically or in terms of popularity. Still, compared to the mainstream success of its forebears and contemporaries, Black Clover has not received nearly as much appreciation. Which is a shame! Black Clover has a lot going for it. It’s one of my favorite battle manga series, and I’m hoping that by the end of this post, you’ll be willing to give it a chance.

Unapologetically Cliché

Black Clover has a lot in common with its predecessor Naruto—too much in common if you ask some anime fans. And I get why some people think that way. Asta and Naruto are both loudmouth kids with no talent but a lot of spunk and the power of demonic possession on their side. They both have a taciturn yet gifted rival and a potential love interest with a short fuse. The similarities in the first few chapters are so numerous that many people in the anime community disparagingly referred to it as “Irish Naruto” when it debuted on American television.

And I understand that knee-jerk reaction. However, as a result, a lot of people didn’t give the series a fair chance. While the series borrows heavily from its predecessors to get the ball rolling, Black Clover doesn’t take long to establish its own identity.

I’m not going to tell you this series is original, per se. In many ways it revels in its genre. Black Clover is unapologetically full of tropes, and Asta can almost feel like a parody of the archetypical dummy-with-a-heart-of-gold protagonist popularized by Goku in Dragon Ball. But I find the cliché nature of the series to be a feature rather than a flaw. This series commits to the bit with such unironic sincerity that I find myself moved by its simple messages of perseverance and friendship more than I otherwise might have been.

Asta’s relationship with the misfits of his Magic Knights unit, the Black Bulls, is truly endearing. In other manga, the protagonist tends to make fast friends with others. That’s awesome in its own way, but in Black Clover, the people around Asta have to warm up to him, often overcoming their own prejudices and personality flaws in the process. The members of the Black Bulls are mostly selfish, emotionally damaged adults who struggle to establish healthy relationships with others. In their time with Asta, however, they are each inspired to be their best self.

Men and Women, Shoulder to Shoulder

My favorite member of the Black Bulls, and one of my favorite aspects of Black Clover overall, is Noelle Silva. Coming from one of the two royal families that rule over the Clover Kingdom, Noelle has immense magic power, but she has no ability to control it. In theory, she’s one of the strongest mages in the series, but in practice, she’s no different from Asta despite being on the opposite end of the social hierarchy. But just as Asta grows into his own power, so does Noelle.

Early on it’s easy to tell that Noelle is Asta’s love interest, the heroine to his hero. Heroines in battle manga tend to serve a supporting role and sometimes not even a big one. The ones who do get to fight alongside the main characters are often on a much lower power level than the male lead, or their narrative arcs are underdeveloped compared to even tertiary male characters. The supposed explanation for this is that battle manga is aimed at boys, but I’ve seen just as many male readers rail against this practice as anyone else. Readers, regardless of gender, want to see strong women beat up bad guys. Thankfully, Black Clover delivers.

Noelle is everything I’ve ever wanted from a battle manga heroine. She has a compelling arc, overcoming her traumatic past to become a powerful and confident mage. She keeps pace with the hero and his rival, gaining power-ups and new abilities at roughly the same rate as them. She’s defeated some of the most powerful enemies in the series. She’s afforded a respect that most media aimed at boys doesn’t always give girl characters.

Noelle isn’t the only cool female character in Black Clover. Mereoleona stands tall as one of the most powerful mages in the world. She would probably be the person in charge if she wasn’t such a wild and free spirit. Yet her relationship with Noelle’s deceased mother reveals a softer side. Meanwhile, Charlotte is the cool and intimidating leader of the Blue Roses who brings her enemies to heel with her brutal thorns. Her little crush on Yami, the leader of the Black Bulls, adds a bit of cuteness to the character without taking away from how hardcore she can be. The women of Black Clover are all well-rounded, multi-faceted characters capable of showing both strength and vulnerability.

A Blend of Epic Fantasy and Eldritch Horror

Yuki Tabata’s art is inspired by other successful battle manga artists such as Tite Kubo of Bleach fame and, of course, the late, great Akira Toriyama. Like Toriyama-sensei before him, Tabata-sensei does an excellent job of seamlessly blending simple facial features with highly detailed figures and clothing, giving these big-eyed cartoon characters a powerful presence. It’s a feature that’s not exactly rare in comics, thanks to Toriyama-sensei’s immeasurable influence, but I don’t think everyone appreciates just how difficult it is to blend these styles.

Similarly underappreciated is Kubo-sensei’s talent for horror. The early chapters of Bleach indulge in these horror elements, with each enemy being uniquely terrifying in both their design and the existential threat they pose. The horror of Bleach‘s Hollows (corrupt spirits with supernatural powers that devour the souls of both living and deceased humans) often lies in the cleverness of Kubo-sensei’s twisted and horrifying concepts. The Devils of Black Clover, however, are more straightforward.

There’s nothing new or fancy about the Devils in Black Clover. They’re not a twist on the concept or a subversion of your expectations. These are straight-up biblical Devils rising out of literal Hell, and Tabata-sensei draws them as such. The Devils are reminiscent of medieval depictions, with gaunt figures and a wide, unblinking gaze. The slight difference in art style makes the Devils seem out of place in the world that they have invaded. When a Devil appears, you get the chilling sense that this thing should not be here. And the Devils are a rare sight, adding to their mystique and terror. While enjoying an epic fantasy about hard work and the power of friendship, you’ll never know when you’ll get blindsided by an eldritch horror from beyond the veil.

Final Thoughts and Further Reading

Black Clover is the kind of series that opts to perfect the mold rather than break it. It revels in the best tropes of its genre, building a great sense of camaraderie between Asta and his fellow knights while showing the fruits of his never-say-die attitude. It addresses some of the common flaws of media aimed at boys by putting women characters on equal footing with men. And it features some of the most visually terrifying villains by juxtaposing fun action manga with biblical horror. It’s an awesome series, and I hope you’ll check it out.

For more Shonen Jump manga with cool women characters, check out the blog post where I talk about Akane-Banashi! For more battle mangas that lean into the genre’s tropes, take a look at Fairy Tail and Edens Zero, both from author and artist Hiro Mashima. And for more battle manga with horror elements, I highly recommend Yu Yu Hakusho, an earlier series from Hunter x Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi!