Black Cloveris still way too underrated for a shonen series that has lasted this long. Sure, a lot of the foundational aspects ofBlack Cloverbear similarities to other shonen likeFairy Tail, Naruto, orMy Hero Academia. But, that’s not exactly a unique occurrence in shonen, and nobody can dispute its quality, at the end of the day.
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Now, when using the word “quality”, that’s in regards to the original manga and the anime adaptation by Studio Pierrot, with each one excelling at different aspects. But what exactly are those aspects? And which format reigns supreme?Comparing the two is a pretty common practice for fans of the genre, so let’s do it again withBlack Clover.
10All The Obvious Differences Between An Anime & Manga
First and foremost, obviously, the anime and the manga are different in all the standard ways one would expect, such as being well…animated in comparison to still images. But, more than that, the anime is able to give the characters their own voices, has jokes unique to it, and much more.
They’re two very different experiences, even if both are built on the same content. Again, this is all common sense, but it needs to be said when comparing the two mediums.
9The Pacing Difference
Then there’s the pacing of the anime adaptation. Usually, an episode of an anime is adapted from 2-4 chapters of a manga, it’s quite rare to see an episode adapt a single chapter. But, forBlack Clover, the very first arc, known as the Magical Knights Knights Entrance Exam, takes more episodes to tell animated than it does in the manga!
This, along with a few other factors, played a large part in so many people falling off theBlack Cloveranime early on. Thankfully, they quickly fixed it for future arcs, but never completely, as there are still specific events or fights that take way longer than they have any right to.
8The Visual Language & Flow
Some mangaka have such a mastery of their craft that they can portray a complex fight easily on paper using visual language. In particular,Naruto’sMasashi Kishimoto andMy Hero Academia’sKohei Hoshikori are very adept at using visual language to their advantage,especially during fights.
But, Yuki Tabata, the mangaka forBlack Clover, deserves more credit too, as a lot of the compositions for the battles in the manga are straight-up beautiful and easy to understand. The anime does a pretty decent job of matching this during big fights, but for the moment-to-moment quality, the visual flow of the manga is much better than the anime.
7The Anime Has More Moments Of Specific Characterization
While the anime does spend a bit more time on events, that isn’t always a bad thing. Anime-lovers are always wary of the dreaded “filler” content, but when it expands more on characters that were previously underutilized, filler can actually be a useful thing, as long as it’s done correctly.
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And,Black Cloveractually doesn’t have much filler at all, especially compared to something likeNaruto. Rather, it just sprinkles some extra scenes here or there that give characters like Gordon or Sekke more characterization earlier in the story.
6The Art Quality Of The Anime Isn’t As Consistent
One big complaint of the anime adaptation forBlack Cloveris the consistency.There are some anime that are known for their unique visuals, but shonen series don’t tend to fall into that category. Some fights, like Yami vs Licht, are so incredibly well animated and dynamic thatsome would argue, likeDBZ, they’re better in the anime than in the manga. But, on average, the quality of the illustrations in the anime ebbs and flows.
Sometimes, Asta is so off-model he looks like a different character entirely, and other times it’s a 1-to-1 translation from manga panel to animated still-frame. It’s nice that Studio Pierrot makes sure to put the work in for important moments, but it’s clear that the quality ofBlack Cloveris less than stellar on average. Who knows, this could easily be due to how much this animation studio has on its plate. Remember, this is the same studio that animatedNaruto, Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul, and many more shows, after all.
5Asta’s Iconic Screaming
This was an early complaint towards the anime that quickly became a way to tell if someonehad givenBlack Cloverthe “three episode” treatment. Once the anime adaptation started, people almost immediately noticed how often Asta, the main character, was screaming to the sky or just yelling his dialog instead of speaking it.
And, since the early episodes are hyper-focused on Asta, this problem was even more grating than it should’ve been. Thankfully, Studio Perriot obviously got the message from the fanbase that this was an issue, and quickly fixed it moving forward. But, it never completely left, Asta is undeniably more irritating as a character than he is in the source material, though much less so than he used to be.
4Some Anime-Only Exclusive Content
The constant looming fear for any anime adaptation is that they’ll eventually catch up to the source material. That’s why there are so many series that only getting adapted once they’ve passed a couple hundred chapters. Even then, in many of those cases, the anime still manages to catch up to the manga, simply because it’s also weekly but goes through the material 2-3 times as quickly.
Think ofFullmetal Alchemist(notBrotherhood), orNaruto’sconstant filler to give the manga time to catch up. Well, that happened toBlack Clovertoo with it creating its own “anime-canon” arc around the 130 mark. So, just be ready for some of the later parts of the story to not necessarily match up to the manga 100%. Also, while the ending of the anime does play into the manga’s story, it’s not a 1-to-1 situation.
3Visualizing The Different Types Of Magic
Creating a visual language that people instinctively pick up on for something as fantastical as magic is difficult. For one, the artist has to give each spell impact without making them seem too underpowered or overpowered. Second, if possible, spells should look a bit “out-of-place” like they don’t belong in this reality.Series likeJujutsu Kaisen, Mushi-shi,orDemon Slayer,tend to do this very well. Thankfully, both theBlack Clovermanga and anime pull this off too, but in different ways. In the manga, Tabata has a certain way of drawing each type of magical style. Anti-magic or darkness magic like Asta’s or Yami’s are completely black and smoky. Then, nature magic like Roselei or Mimosa has a lot of individual lines.
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Lastly, water magic, like Noelle’s, is filled in grey with speed lines to show the water’s movement. And this is just to name a few. The anime also uses all this visual language in the different spells, but they also have movement and sound they can play around with as well. Plus, Studio Pierrot relies on CGI for certain spells, and that gives it this extra “out-of-place” vibe to it.
2The Camera Movement & Compositions
One of the biggest benefits for a mangaka in relation to an anime team is the lack of consideration needed for transition. If a mangaka draws this beautiful action panel of two characters fighting, they just have to worry about how to draw the next “stage” of the fight, like going from point A to B. However, an anime adaptation (at least a good one) usually has to include all the movement characters would need to get from panel A to B.
Obviously, if the animation studio doesn’t want to be buried in mountains of extra work, they find inoffensive shortcuts to use. One thatBlack Cloverrelies on is “zooming in” on the action a lot more to lower their workload in terms of character illustration, movement, and backgrounds while still staying mostly faithful to the source material.
1The Time One Would Have To Invest
Lastly, let’s talk about the time investment required for an anime and for a manga. To be blunt, it’s almost always shorter to read something than to watch it, but that difference in time differs from show to show. For example, inDeath Note, there are so many words on each page (granted, those words are necessary) that it almost takes as long to read a chapter as it would to watch an episode (in a 1-to-1 manga to anime adaptation situation).
But,Black Cloveris a shonen manga, meaning it primarily focuses on action, and has a lot of episodes. Therefore, one chapter of a fight between the Wizard King and Licht that takes 10 minutes max to read translates to an episode and a half, which is about 3x the amount of time. For those who don’t have the excess time to invest in a 150+ episode anime, try reading the manga instead, it really will save a lot of time.Or, at the very least, pick a series that’s a bit more binge-able.
