Title: Black Clover Vol. 6
Author: Yuki Tabata
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
The Story
I hope you like caves because this entire volume of Black Clover takes place in one! What started off in the last volume as a filler story, quickly transformed into a continuation of the main plot. Asta and Gauche came face to face with Licht, one of the higher ranking members of the group known as The Third Eye. Licht came after Sally and her monster were defeated by a combo attack from Asta and Gauche, who is finally starting to realize that Marie isn’t everything.
Yami, knight captain of the Black Bulls, shows up to help fight Licht. Yami ends up defeating Licht when the top three ranking members of The Third Eye show up, only to be countered by more magic knight captains showing up. Everybody just has this natural affinity to find this one and only cave in the middle of nowhere! Licht’s seal is broken during the fight and he’s about to unleash a power that nobody could stop.. unless you’re the Third Eye’s highest ranking members. They seal Licht and use spatial magic to transport him away. Asta, after surpassing his limits, faints and wakes up at the Magic Knight headquarters where they want Asta to use his anti-magic on some captives that might lead to them finding out the truth behind The Third Eye.
There really wasn’t much story in this chapter as it was just one great battle. You did get to know your enemies a little more, but that was more or less character building than it was story building. They did hint towards what Asta’s grimoire is and how it should belong to the master of The Third Eye. Licht kept telling Asta to give it back so it seems like we finally have some motivation as to why they attacked the capital two volumes ago. I don’t see why they attacked Feugoleon, though, as it seemed to have nothing to do with retrieving Asta’s grimoire… unless that will be tied into a future volume. Guess we’ll have to wait.
Characters
One thing I liked was Asta’s “power up” in this volume. It’s pretty hard to give someone with no magic power a boost in strength, but they found a way… by kind of ripping off Sage Mode from Naruto. So Yami talked to Asta about Ki… the ability to sense your surroundings and read the flow of energy. Kind of like how Naruto gathers nature energy for Sage Mode. The difference here is that Asta can use this to predict attacks and counter them. He learns to do this and is able to take down Valtos, one of the members of The Third Eye who came along with Licht. It’s simple and it makes sense for Asta’s character. It makes me wonder what other kind of non-magic power ups he can gain throughout the series.
Yami’s character shines through here, although I’ve seen this character type so many times before. He’s the laid back, yet cocky type who is insanely strong, but always makes light of the situation. He kinds of reminds me of a brasher version of Marian Cross from D.Gray-man.
Gauche received some development as well in this volume, but it was very predictable. He learned the power of teamwork and how Marie isn’t everything. This turn of heart made him begin to respect Asta. Speaking of which… I like how just a couple of volumes ago, Silva praised Asta and gained his respect and now he’s back to looking down on him. Continuity issues much? Maybe it was the hair braiding comments… who knows, but it seems the respect is already gone… until Asta ends up saving the day, again. Wish this series would make up their mind with Silva… does he respect Asta or not?
Final Thoughts
It was a fun volume of Black Clover if you like mindless battling. The fights were pretty typical of a shonen series and it just seemed like power up after power up happened in the form of stronger characters just seemingly appearing from out of nowhere. I was honestly waiting for The Wizard King to show up and just annihilate both friend and foe, just for the sake of doing so. It was a bit difficult to see people just pop out of the woodwork for the sake of escalating the battle, but in the end, it was still just another paint-by-the-numbers shonen escapade.
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Viz Media
