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There is a lot to comment on in the world and entertainment media has always been one of the best channels for social commentary. Anime is no stranger to its potential to discuss social issues. silent voice was iconic for portraying the real-life effects of bullying and various aspects of mental health problems.
Psycho pass commented on the criminal justice system and crime as a whole. utilities black clover can join a select number of anime with highbrow posts about social issues. The series tackles the themes of cultural bias and systematic inequality, but is it doing well and dealing with it? Let’s find out.
What are bias and inequality?
Cultural prejudices can be seen as prejudices towards or against a particular group or individual. It’s been seen in some form in shonen hits like Naruto, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and others, usually focused on the main character. The same can be said for black cloverwhere most farmers or less magically inclined individuals experience prejudice.
Systematic inequality can be more challenging to address and resolve because it is on a macro scale compared to individual bias cases. With systematic inequality, there is a system that unfairly benefits certain groups more than others. In black clover, the scales have swung to those with greater magical ability. Magical ability and power can be closely correlated with real world economic status. The least magical cities of the series are also the poorest and least respected.
A common stance for tackling prejudice or systematic inequality is to rise up against it and prove it wrong by success. Another is to recognize it as a problem and try to transform the system itself. black clover focuses on the first pose, although it also tries a bit to change the system.
These tokens are not for arcade machines
There are three core characters who start out as regular farmers, but then fight to get the acclaim they deserve, while countering bias. The show uses them as low-status symbolic characters to show viewers the world through their eyes. Asta, Yuno and Zora all start out as farmers who are looked down upon for their humble beginnings. Asta has absolutely no magical ability, Yuno has insanely skilled magical ability, and Zora is somewhere in between. Each of them has different experiences based on how the world reacts to them, their power and their backgrounds.
Asta is constantly smashed by noblemen or even relatively common peasants who have higher levels of magic than him. He works hard to excel in other ways, and he also gets lucky by acquiring a demonic anti-magic power. He is essentially the proverbial “rock” for most magicians’ “scissors”, but like typical shonen protagonists, his real strength is boundless willpower. Even after showing how powerful and capable he is, it takes a long time for him to dispel some of the prejudices that are aimed at him.
Yuno starts out in the same way as Asta in his economic and social status as they come from the same village, but things change quite quickly for him. Once he shows his power to one of those biased haters, they change their tune.
Zora is a bit different from Asta because the bias against him is more for him because he’s just a farmer, because he’s not powerless. Like Asta, the prejudice against him doesn’t disappear once he shows his power, but he still doesn’t face prejudice as much as Asta does.
The winds of change
So far, the series still has a long way to go to fully resolve the Clover Kingdom bias, but it’s getting there. Some prejudices about farmers who are less able or deserving of less respect have disappeared. Much of that is due to Asta, Yuno and Zora sweeping the floor with nobles during the royal knight selection exam. From the beginning of the story, attempts have also been made to diversify the magical knight roster with peasants. The wizard king, Julius Novachrono, even personally visited Zora to convince him to become an official magic knight.
As everyone knows, diversification is one of the greatest antidotes to implicit bias and systematic inequality. Next up would be education, of which there hasn’t been too much of it in the Clover Kingdom. It should also be said that Noelle, one of the unpopular Black Bulls squad and an originally biased individual towards farmers, has come a long way. When Noelle was first introduced to viewers, she turned out to be a very narcissistic person with gross prejudice towards farmers. She believed that nobles, like her, were superior to them. Since then, she has looked very closely in the mirror and accepted her implicit bias.
Continue to progress
black clover tackles implicit bias and systematic disparity better than many series with those themes or similar. Admittedly, the series can be heavy handed with the messages at times and tends to make their peasant status a big part of Asta, Yuno and Zora’s identities. Still, their character arcs involve rising above their peasant status to achieve what they know they deserve, so it’s not unreasonable. It would still be nice to see society black clover put more effort into changing the system itself, as implicit bias is just the beginning.
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