@Seth
Okay so I just read the chapter, and I think I can say pretty confidently that Liebe, aside from his stupid name, is probably a top 3 Black Clover character to me. Yeah, I like him that much after only one backstory chapter lol, and I’ll explain why:
Tabata pretty uncharacteristically subverted expectations with this character, majorly. And that is something Tabata isn’t really known for. Black Clover is a very generic manga in terms of the story choices that Tabata makes. It’s not really an “original” story in the slightest, and it’s usually predictable in almost every single way. Don’t confuse me, Black Clover is not a
bad manga mind you, it’s just very predictable and by the numbers.
Liebe (and I guess Asta by extension?) is really the first time that I felt like Tabata did not take the generic Shonen route and actually truly made Liebe himself and Asta one of the most unique Shonen protagonists.
See, I was expecting Liebe to secretly be a Lucifero-tier Demon, stronger than Zagred and secretly poised to conquer the entire Demon realm himself. There was going to be some bullshit reason as to why Lucifero had never heard of him, and Asta was basically going to be a dark Yuno-some secret child of destiny who was going to become the Wizard King not because he actually worked harder than everybody else around him, but because he-like Yuno-was genetically blessed and born into some ultra-powerful lineage right from the start, even being possessed by one of the most powerful Demons to solidify him as being this OP. At least, this is what I thought was going to happen.
A lot of Shonen writers are vein in this way, it’s not good enough for them to have their main characters reach the top of their respective series just through sheer hard work and determination, but they’ve also got to be children of gods or some other bullshit for fan-service. Like Luffy for example, his journey seems really tense at first, until you find out that he’s basically destined to become the Pirate King because of his relation to Garp and Dragon-it seems impossible that Luffy won’t reach the top of the verse with a familial line like that.
But
no man, for the first time in Tabata’s career, he actually shocked me here. Not only is Liebe not some Uber tier Demon, he seemed to have been an absolute bitch-tier Demon who is frankly lucky that he wasn’t bullied to death for how weak he was. Even knowing how much power he lacks, he still has an ambition as grand as “destroying all Devils,” which I think is absolutely awesome. This is literally a bitch-tier Devil with ambitions of destroying the entire Devil Realm-and he might just do it lol.
Not only does Liebe work as a character in his own right, but by making Liebe a very weak Demon (at least in terms of his birth, not necessarily his growth and current power), Tabata actually ensures that Asta himself actually embodies the entire ideal of this manga-Asta is not a child of destiny who was born into a family of legends and possessed by a god tier Demom, but he is literally just some common peasant who is lucky that he’s even possessed by a naturally weak Demon at all, who stands a legitimate chance at becoming the Wizard King through
sheer hard work and determination.
In one chapter, Tabata saved Black Clover in my opinion. Just imagine if Asta were like Naruto-the Son of a Hokage, reincarnate of literal gods and personally trained by the most powerful Shinobi’s and sages just because he was a god-descendant. Tabata would’ve killed Asta and Black Clover along with it, and
this is really where I was 99% convinced this manga was headed..
Sure we don’t know who Asta’s father is, but assuming he wasn’t a Wizard King tier character and was a commoner like Asta’s mother or something (please Tabata, don’t make Asta’s dad some legend), but as things stand right now...this is the single best chapter in the entire manga.
Liebe is Top 3, and Asta might be as well. Tabata’s best chapter imo.
