#a very yuno twist to thinking with portals

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There was a drawpile and I became curious about the animation tools so I drew up this silly little loop of @magnificentmicrowave's Yuno to try them out

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How Black Clover Conquered A Year Of Anime Storytelling

  When you have a show that comes out every single week with very few breaks, it's easy to lose a little enthusiasm for it over time. It can become a routine, rather than an event. And while there are plenty of anime series that run weekly that I adore, I must admit that sometimes, it feels less like an exciting part of my schedule and more like me just checking in on how a few characters are doing. You pop in, ask "Y'all okay?", and then upon finding out that no one has died and no big twist has happened and no fists have collided dramatically, you close the door. 

  But the last year of Black Clover has been different. 

  BLACK CLOVER SPOILERS AHEAD

  Starting in March 2019 with the Royal Knights Exam and ending in February 2020 with a fight with an actual devil, Black Clover had the equivalent of its Enies Lobby arc. For those that don't know, the Enies Lobby arc is the famed One Piece storyline that is often considered by OP fans to be the best ever, not just in the series but in all of manga/anime. It's not just big and beloved because a lot of huge events happen in it. Rather, it's because it takes a swing and asks the question "Does any of this really matter to you?" 

  And a lot of times, honestly, the answer is no. There's a betrayal or a major character dies or the plot goes sideways, and we just kinda nod and go, "Uh huh. That's what stories do." They don't make you value the series any more or any less. Enies Lobby is the rare exercise in "I'm gonna rip your heart open and yet keep you thrilled and excited every single week" that works. It takes everything that we love about One Piece—the found family and the love and the adventure—and puts it in danger. And by the end, when the Straw Hats are back together, we recognize "Oh yeah, these silly pirates really do mean a lot to me."

    Black Clover, with the assault on the headquarters of the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the resurrection of the elves and the "death" of Wizard King Julius Novachrono did something similar, taking the framework of what we enjoyed about the series and shredding it. The Black Bulls, the goofy team of underdogs that we could usually rely on to be a warm spot in the ever-growing intrigue and threat of Patry and his cohorts, were thrown into disarray. The heirarchy of Magic Knights crumbled, as characters were forced to fight former friends and with the demise of the Wizard King, we saw what it was like with no one in control. 

  Basically, the Clover Kingdom lost everything that had once made it a comfortable place for viewers to hang out in. It became a desperate struggle, not to return to normalcy, but to survive and eventually live in a place where normalcy was even an option. Plenty of series deal with villains that threaten the world (usually with some kind of portal or laser or intergalactic army,) but very few go "Okay, well, the world IS shaken up. The worst dreams have become reality. What now?"

    It pushed Asta, still relatively new in his big I'm-Gonna-Be-The-Wizard-King journey, to his limit and beyond, testing his innate goodness and need to forgive even the most troubled and seemingly evil around him. It took Captain Yami and thrust him into real, open mentorship. He couldn't just be the rough-edged dude that yelled at people when they interrupted him taking a dump and sometimes delivered bits of advice. He had to be the stable guy, the one who made everything seem okay even if it looked like it wouldn't be. It asked that Noelle be confident and to step up to the plate as someone who can defend others and added another dimension to Yuno, who suddenly wasn't Asta's gifted and unflappable "brother" for a bit.

    In short, it didn't just provide an adventure for the story's heroes, but a test. And that's what most great stories in the fantasy genre do. It's the Joker telling Batman that he'll have to "break his one rule" if he wants to stop him. It's Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker to accept that his former mentor lied to him. It's Luffy's partners leaving his side in Water 7 and Luffy saying, "No, we're a family. And families don't do this." For a year, I watched it and for a year, I was enthralled.

  Black Clover had one of my favorite years of any anime. It asked me if I really cared and it turns out that, yeah. I do. 

  What did you think of these arcs? Do you have high hopes for Black Clover's future? Let me know in the comments!

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  Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

  By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com