So there's a new show on Toonami, and after four episodes, I guess I'll say something about it. I do like the show, or at least the premise and energy behind it, but it is very slow to open, although I suppose 7th Moon opens slow too, so I shouldn't judge.
Black Clover takes place in the Clover Kingdom where everybody can use magic and basically it takes the place of technology so people use it to handle just about everything and one's life is decided by what magic one is capable of, and the highest honor is to prove oneself worthy of becoming a Magic Knight, the kingdom's military. This situation is particularly hard on Asta, the only person in the entire kingdom who actually does not have any magic at all, and sadly has the most ambition and heart of anyone. It would be nice to say his attitude makes up for his lack of ability, but in this case, it doesn't quite work, at least not until he gets his grimoire and his unique power of an anti-magic sword which levels the field for him because when he fights his sword cancels out any magic and reduces his opponent to having to fight as powerless as him, but since he's actually developed physical strength to make up for his lack of magic he usually has the advantage at this point. Four episodes in and this has only been relevant twice, Asta hasn't even figured out exactly how his power works, he's just excited he got a grimoire. Everybody thinks he's a loser, until he proves himself in a surprise move, but then they think it's just a stroke of luck, everybody except Yuno, his lifelong friend and rival. Yuno is the polar opposite of Asta, he is a prodigy of wind magic and everybody is sure he's going to be the next Wizard King, but Yuno sees something in Asta and knows better than to count him out. Their rivalry is pretty friendly, they grew up together and respect each other, but Yuno has realized that no matter how little anyone thinks of Asta, no matter how hopeless he may seem, he's the most likely to beat him for Wizard King and they have to give it their all to decide which one it will be.
I like the setting, but I realized the premise was a little too familiar, a little too Naruto and Sasuke, or even too Goku and Vegeta. It wasn't until now that I noticed the trope of best vs the worst rivalry, but I noticed this one may have a different take on it. I may be reading too much into what I think is foreshadowing, but Black Clover began with a story about the Wizard King who defeated a demon, and then Asta gets the original Wizard King's grimoire while Asta gets the five leaf clover grimoire in which the fifth leaf is said to hold the devil. Perhaps it's nothing, but I have this nagging feeling that Asta will release the power of the demon and the friendly rivalry will end up re-enacting the ancient battle. I could be wrong, but in either case getting to watch their parallel journeys may be interesting enough to be worth watching so I'm sticking with it.
Speaking of rivalries, a big battle is coming up, the battle Dragon Ball fans have been waiting for since the American television premiere, Goku vs Vegeta, by which I mean voice actors Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabbat. So last weekend there was an episode of Dragon Ball Super premiering on Toonami which featured two Vegetas and Chris "@VoiceOfVegeta" Sabbat was hyping it on twitter as is his obligation as a voice actor, and now beyond a shadow of a doubt an absolute nerd level EXPERT. Then Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku, decided to tease and taunt him on twitter and it escalated, literally overnight. The first post was on Saturday night, by Sunday evening, Chris had issued an official challenge to take on Sean in a game of "Dragon Ball Fighter Z" where they will play as their respective characters, simultaneously asking Funimation and Bandai, their employers behind the english dub of the game, to get behind this as an esport event. Fans went for it and Funimation decided it was cool enough they were in for it and now it has been announced that January 25, the fight will happen and it will be streamed on YouTube, Twitch, Funimation and wherever else they can get someone to agree to back this up. So I will be watching along with the rest of the fandom while two voice actors play a video game to decide who is better, Gok or Vegeta. All I want to know is will there be epic trash talking in character?
No comments:
Post a Comment