History Manga / BlackClover

* UnskilledButStrong: Most non-humans, like elves and devils, have immense amounts of mana, so their spells are way stronger than the ones humans cast, and in the case of Devils, can easily overwhelm foes using superior physical strength. This also applies to Dante, Vanica and the dark disciples. A common flaw of these entities is that are very confident of their powers, so they don't really bother strategizing against opponents and tend to just overwhelm opponents upfront, which can be taken advantage by human tactics. Averted for Patry, Rhya and [[spoiler:Lucius]], all who are tactful enough to strategize against opponents in and out of fights.

** Devils generally don't take human opponents seriously, believing that they're just playthings to them. Justified since they have immense mana reserves and some of the strongest magic in the series, and they're nearly impervious to most conventional magic. This means that they often don't count on the possibility that a human can kill them. Several [[spoiler:supreme devils, including Lucifero, paid for it dearly by underestimating ones like Asta or Noelle.]]

** In the long run, Patry's plan to commit mass genocide against Clover Kingdom's royals for the elf tribe massacre 5 centuries ago ends up being [[spoiler:a horrible mistake]]. Contrary to Patry's beliefs, [[spoiler:Royals did not kill all the elves in Licht's wedding; Zagred did. He used a magic tool to siphon mana from the elves to Clover Kingdom royals and killed them using his own magic amplified to make it as if Lumiere betrayed them. He also cast the spell that reincarnated Patry in the body of Vangeance, not Licht.]] [[spoiler:Zagred did all of this to grant himself the ability to wreck mass havoc, and every sacrifice and misery Patry inflicted against the Clover Kingdom was unknowingly used to empower Zagred to the word devil's glee.]] Furthermore, it's later shown that [[spoiler:the elf tribe wasn't even fully wiped out, and Tetia's descendants prospered in Elysia.]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: The Black Bulls as a squad are this trope. They are seen as the worst magic knight squad and have a reputation for causing a lot of trouble. But after Asta joins and lights a fire under everybody's asses they end up coming in second place in the annual award festival and were instrumental in helping defeat [[spoiler: Zagred.]]

* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: [[spoiler:The Word Devil, Zagred, shows himself when he uses the last magic stone to create his body. He reveals he was behind the elf genocide and cast the reincarnation magic, then easily defeating the previous BigBad Patry.]]

** When several reincarnated elves attack the Clover Castle in chapter 179, one of the elves, Baval, doesn't attack Mimosa when he spots her, instead telling her how she should give up and the elves will kill everyone and leaves. In chapter 182, Baval re-appears, only to introduce the Shadow Palace to the heroes, low-rolls his Dice Magic and flies towards the Shadow Palace. When Mimosa and Asta find him inside there however, he was found on the floor unconscious. Baval was later [[spoiler:revealed to be possessed by Zagred via author's note, and his non-confrontation act is likely because Zagred's priority is to reach the Shadow Palace, so he had no reason to attack Mimosa or the other heroes at that time.]]

** Devils generally don't take human opponents seriously, believing that they're just playthings to them. Justified since they have immense mana reserves and some of the strongest magic in the series, and they're nearly impervious to most conventional magic. This means that they often don't count on the possibility a human can kill them. Several [[spoiler:supreme devils, including Lucifero, paid for it dearly by underestimating ones like Asta or Noelle.]]

** Devils generally don't take human opponents seriously, believing that they're just playthings to them. Justified since they have immense mana reserves and some of the strongest magic in the series, and they're nearly impervious to most conventional magic. Several [[spoiler:supreme devils, including Lucifero, paid for it dearly by underestimating people like Asta or Noelle.]]

** The Black Bulls get this a lot, especially Asta and Noelle, the former for his lack of magic and peasant origins and the latter for being the ChewToy of the royal family and being forced to join the group because of her PowerIncontinence. The Black Bulls are actually amazingly powerful, but their rowdy, quirky nature gets in the way of people noticing that. Gifso quickly realizes his mistake of judging the Black Bulls by their rankings once they show themselves to be tougher than he expected when they overcome all his challenges at the Underwater Temple, several of Vanica's Dark Disciples learnt it the hard way and even [[spoiler:''Dante'' lost to them in both of his fights against them]].

** [[spoiler:Zagred is one in the first saga, he’s the one who tricked the humans to mass murder the elves, given that the elves' deaths led to Patry's reincarnation and his becoming the BigBad of the story.]]

''Black Clover'' is the second major serialization by Tabata, whose first major one, ''Hungry Joker'', was cancelled because of lack of popularity, despite its good reception with readers. ''Black Clover'', unlike its predecessor, has been able to acquire a large number of readers. It is localized by Creator/VizMedia and the English version of ''Shonen Jump''. The story went to hiatus for 3 months in preparation for its GrandFinale after 331 chapters, and resumes serialization at July 27.

* TimeSkip: There is a six month time skip after the Clover Kingdom allies themselves with the Heart Kingdom to prepare for war against the Spade Kingdom. This has the Magic Knights train to become stronger during this time period, with some going to the Heart Kingdom to learn the kingdom’s unique rune arrays to strengthen their magic.

** Chapter 332 consists of [[spoiler:an inauguration celebration for Asta's promotion as a senior magic knight. It's mostly light-hearted unlike the heated battles in the Spade Kingdom Raid arc, but when Asta was bantering with Sister Lily, a man resembling Julius but with black hair and a Spade uniform, ''Lucius Zogratis'', suddenly drops right next to Asta, congratulates him for making this far, then tells him that "this is the end".]]

''Black Clover'' is the second major serialization by Tabata, whose first major one, ''Hungry Joker'', was cancelled because of lack of popularity, despite its good reception with readers. ''Black Clover'', unlike its predecessor, has been able to acquire a large number of readers. It is localized by Creator/VizMedia and the English version of ''Shonen Jump''. As of present, the story spans 331 chapters and is currently on hiatus in preparation for its GrandFinale.

** In Chapter 332, the chapter is [[spoiler:an inauguration celebration for Asta's promotion as a senior magic knight. It's mostly light-hearted unlike the heated battles in the Spade Kingdom Raid arc, but when Asta was bantering with Sister Lily, a man resembling Julius but with black hair and a Spade uniform, ''Lucius Zogratis'', suddenly drops right next to Asta, congratulates him for making this far, then tells him that "this is the end".]]

** In Chapter 332, most of the chapter is [[spoiler:an inauguration celebration for Asta's promotion as a senior magic knight. It's mostly light-hearted unlike the heated battles in the Spade Kingdom Raid arc, but when Asta was bantering with Sister Lily, a man resembling Julius but with black hair and a Spade uniform, ''Lucius Zogratis'', suddenly drops right next to Asta, congratulates him for making this far, then tells him that "this is the end".]]

* DiskOneFinalBoss: The Dark Triad have one hell of a showing in their first appearance, dominating our heroes with the power of their bonded demons combined with and enhancing their own, formidable magics. Come the rematch, [[spoiler:and ultimately only the little brother, Zenon, is a true challenge thanks to turning himself into a demon. The other two are dispatched with relative ease to make way for the ''true'' villains; the demons themselves]].

* OurElvesAreDifferent: The elf tribe look like humans with pointy ears. They had immense magic power greater than most humans, able to use magic stones and forbidden magics, and were worshiped as gods. As a result, humans began to fear and desire their power, slaughtering them and stealing their magic power centuries before the story. [[spoiler:Their leader Licht suspended their souls to eventually reincarnate them in human bodies.]]

** Early on a spherical magic item is seen in Hage near the skeleton of the demon that the first Wizard King defeated. [[spoiler:It's later revealed to be an invention created by the first Wizard King and Secre. And Julius has been storing his Time Magic inside it, using it to revive himself as a 13 year old when he's fatally stabbed by Licht.]]

* CastingGag: It's not the first time Creator/LydiaMackay, Vanessa's English voice actress, has voiced a character who has issues with her mother, as she previously played Ultear Milkovich in ''Manga/FairyTail''.

** A huge problem with the Magic Knights is that a huge portion of these aren't really good people. Most of the major ones such as the Silva and Vermillion families want to help their country, but others such as a huge chunk of the Purple Orcas or the Golden Dawn are just elitist nobles and {{Royal Brat}}s. Standouts include Gueldre and Xerx, the former who set up for the fall of his squadmate who would later become the StarterVillain and became an accomplice of the Eye of the Midnight Sun for rare magic tools, and the latter attacked an old lady who begged him for help to find her missing granddaughter, because he was too tired to do it only to be attacked by Zora. Even amongst the aforementioned Silva family and Golden Dawn, there are several throughly nasty jerks such as Nebra Silva, Solid Silva and Langris, although they were later revealed to be {{Tragic Bigot}}s and mellow out.

*** Although Dante has high expectations for Yami's fighting power because he's an Arcane Stage, he didn't expect Yami to actually wound him to the point that he had to [[spoiler:use his second magic to heal himself.]] He's impressed, calling Yami magnificent, and looks forward to them continuing to fight. However, he has no such regards when [[spoiler:Magna and Jack the Ripper confront him; he smugly tells Magna to hit him with anything under the impression that the "lowly" peasant knight can't hurt him, only for him to cast a spell that drains away a large portion of magic power and forcing both of them into a fistfight. Magna comes out victorious and he turns into a grosteque humanoid abomination that gets beaten again within several frames.]]

** Dante has this in ''[[StealthPun spades]]''. He's so filled with himself that he tends to underestimate his enemies. Fittingly, on both instances he gets [[spoiler:defeated by them, the second time even in the most [[UndignifiedDeath indignant way possible]] that it's nothing compared to the no holds-barred beatdown to his ego]].

*** Although Dante has high expectations for Yami's fighting power because he's an Arcane Stage, he didn't expect Yami to actually wound him to the point that he had to [[spoiler:use his second magic to heal himself.]] He's impressed, calling Yami magnificent, and looks forward to them continuing to fight. However, he has no such regards when [[spoiler:Magna and Jack the Ripper confront him; he smugly tells Magna to hit him with anything under the impression that the "lowly" peasant knight can't hurt him, only for him to cast a spell that drains away a large portion of magic power and forcing both of them to fight each other with their fists. Magna comes out victorious and he turns into a grosteque humanoid abomination that gets beaten again within several frames.]]

** The Black Bulls get this a lot, especially Asta and Noelle, the former for his lack of magic and peasant origins and the latter for being the ChewToy of the royal family and being forced to join the group because of her PowerIncontinence. The Black Bulls are actually amazingly powerful, but their rowdy, quirky nature gets in the way of people noticing that.

** Gifso quickly realizes his mistake of judging the Black Bulls by their rankings once they show themselves to be tougher than he expected when they overcome all his challenges at the Underwater Temple.
** Although Dante has high expectations for Yami's fighting power because he's an Arcane Stage, he didn't expect Yami to actually wound him to the point that he had to [[spoiler:use his second magic to heal himself.]] He's impressed, calling Yami magnificent, and looks forward to them continuing to fight.
** While Lucifero held Zagred in regards as a high-ranking devil, he views Asta's anti-magic devil as low-ranking and less of a threat. Ironically, [[spoiler:Zagred was defeated by Asta with the help of Yami, Yuno, and Secre. However, Asta is still defeated by Dante, who only uses 60% of Lucifero's power. Until Asta teams up with Yami and makes a bargain with his devil, giving him his arm and using its increased anti-magic to help defeat Dante.]]

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The Witch Queen, despite being one of the most powerful villains and an almighty ruler of the Forest of Witches, doesn't seem to know that Vanessa's Red Thread of Fate magic can be formed only from the bonds between her and the Black Bulls, whom she considers her family.

** The [[spoiler:devil Zagred]] was the one who caused the elf genocide, [[spoiler:convincing the humans that the elves wanted to harm them, and cast the reincarnation spell, with Patry as his unknowing pawn the entire time.]]