I play a lot of D&D, and read fantasy fiction in my spare time, so any anime that has wizards and fantasy settings I’ll at least give a shot to. I’ve been hearing about Black Clover for a number of years now, but really never gave it the time, especially with the basic comparisons as being another sort of series in the vein of One Piece, but with wizards instead of pirates.
The comparison I was to find is quite fair, but honestly I enjoyed the ride the first season provided, so I went with it. The series takes place in a world (trailer guy voice), where magic is usable by just about anyone. Enter into the world two children Asta and Yuno. These 2 were left at a church orphanage as children and have grown up together. They both aspire to be the greatest wizard in the land, the “Wizard King”. Unfortunately, for Asta he has proven to have zero magical ability, while Yuno has found extreme magical prowess. Regardless, Asta has worked hard on a physical level to become more powerful as he prepares for a ceremony where he may be able access to “grimoires” magical books which will allow him the powers he so desires.
The first volume opens with a lot of world and character building and getting through the early episodes is a bit of a slog. After that things pick up rather quickly, and we’re thrown into a world of magical excitement and adventure. As Asta’s powers grows he begins to get recognition, there are even dungeon crawls! While I wouldn’t say the series itself was perfect, I found myself compelled more and more to watch these in chunks as I got more into it, and was actually disappointed after the initial 50 were over. I’ll admit I’m excited to see what is in store in the next seasons.
Black Clover Season 1 is presented by Funimation in a solid 1:78: 1080p AVC encoded transfer, colors are solid, as is line detail, and I did not find much in the way of issues. Audio is presented with English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 HD tracks and sounds fantastic. Extras include 10 episodes commentaries, and a slew of behind the scenes featurettes RECOMMENDED!