Title: Black Clover Vol 8
Author: Yuki Tabata
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: August 1, 2017
The Story
There wasn’t really a story for the eighth volume of Black Clover because the entire volume focused on the battle between everyone and Vetto, one of the leaders of the Eye of the Midnight Sun who uses Beast Creation Magic. We might as well call him Despair because that seems like the only word he knows how to form sentences around!
I do have to say that Yuki Tabata did a great job conveying just how powerful Vetto was. Mere magic couldn’t touch him and even Asta’s anti-magic was rendered useless thanks to his high levels of awareness. The Black Bulls were easily beaten until Noelle shows up. It was heavily foreshadowed in the previous volume that she would be able to control her power and control it she did by summoning a water dragon that ripped half of Vetto’s body clean off! While I felt that Vetto would be defeated right then and there, Tabata pulled a Tite Kubo and caused Vetto to come back even stronger ala Captain Aizen. He grew a third eye and began using Mythic Beast Creation Magic to grow his body back.
Finral and Vanessa show up and begin to use their Spatial and Thread Magic in conjunction with Asta. This triple team causes Vetto to lose track of Asta’s movements and the final page shows Asta delivering, what can be assumed to be, a killing blow to Vetto. We’ll have to wait until Volume 9 to find out what the final outcome of the battle is. Speaking of the battle, the game they had to pass had its rules updated. Whoever could defeat Vetto would clear the game so I guess this means that they will be walking away with the magic stone after this?
This is where Black Clover shines, honestly. Yuki Tabata does an amazing job with the battles and this one is no exception. It was non-stop action from opening page to closing page and if you are a fan of some good, multi-staged shonen battles, the this volume should satisfy you nicely!
Characters
There wasn’t much character development here since the volume was mainly focused on the action.
I like the fact that Noelle is stepping up and is finally able to control her magic. When she puts her power behind it, she can command the sea god to do her bidding, putting her power level WAY up there. I think with some more training and finesse, she will become an amazing mage. This also helped boost her confidence, which was an area she was lacking. Maybe now with this confidence boost, it’ll make it that much easier to reach her goals.
The other little hidden gem was when the volume took a detour to catch up on Gauche and Grey’s battle. After they won, Grey couldn’t maintain his transformation magic any longer and his true form was revealed for the first time. Turns out Grey is a girl and she is easily embarrassed to be seen in her true form. Pretty interesting twist and I’d like to see how they handle her character from here. Hopefully, it won’t just become a running gag in the series and they do something interesting with it.
Final Thoughts
Volume 8 of Black Clover was the first volume in the series I have enjoyed in quite some time. As I previously mentioned, Yuki Tabata can pull off some amazing battles and this volume displayed that perfectly. I just wish the story elements could be more unique and not so cliched. The paint-by-numbers storytelling is really hurting my interest in the series. Readers shouldn’t have to trudge through that just to get to an entertaining battle. Every aspect of the story should be interesting and there are better ways to tell the same exact story here, but I guess if it prints money then why not just do it? Heck, this series is getting a television anime, so he must be doing something right.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
