Black Clover is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata. The story centers around Asta, a young boy seemingly born without any magic power, something that is unknown in the world he lives in. With his fellow mages from the Black Bulls, Asta plans to become the next Wizard King. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since February 2015, and has been collected into 25 tankōbon volumes as of July 2020. The manga has been adapted into an original video animation produced by Xebec Zwei, which was released in 2017, as well an anime television series produced by Pierrot, which also premiered in Japan in October 2017. The manga series has been licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, while the anime series is licensed by Crunchyroll and Funimation.
Plot
The series focuses on Asta, a young orphan who was raised from birth after being abandoned at the doorstep of an orphanage in Hage village along with his fellow orphan, Yuno. While everyone is born with the ability to utilize Mana in the form of, Asta is the only exception. He tries to gain magical power through physical training. Conversely, Yuno was born as a prodigy with immense magical power and the talent to control wind magic. Motivated by a desire to become the next Wizard King, an authority figure second to the king of Clover Kingdom, the two youths developed a friendly rivalry. Yuno obtains a legendary four-leaf grimoire held by the kingdom's first Wizard King. Asta, despite his lack of magic, obtained the mysterious five-leaf grimoire, which contains mysterious elf swords and rare anti-magic. Afterward, he and Yuno each join a Magic Knight squad as the first step to fulfill their ambitions. Through the story Asta embarks on various adventures, as they make a name for himself throughout the Clover Kingdom. Both characters strive to one day hold the title of Wizard King.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata, Black Clover has been serialized in Shueisha's manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since February 16, 2015. The manga is Tabata's second series in Weekly Shōnen Jump: his first series, Hungry Joker, was launched in the magazine on November 12, 2012, where it ran for 24 chapters before being cancelled in 2013. The chapters have been collected into tankōbon volumes by Shueisha since June 4, 2015. In total, there are 255 chapters and 25 tankōbon volumes. On February 9, 2015, Viz Media announced that they would publish the first three chapters of the series in their Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine as part of their "Jump Start" program in North America. On March 30, 2015, they announced that the series would join their weekly lineup, beginning with chapter 4 on April 6, and publishing at an accelerated rate until the chapters were current with Japan. Plans to release the series in print were announced during their panel at New York Comic Con on October 9, 2015. Shueisha began to simulpublish the series in English on the app and website Manga plus in February 2019.
Spin-offs
On February 2, 2018, a gag manga spin-off illustrated by Setta Kobayashi titled Asta's Journey to Wizard King launched in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump. The manga has been collected in one tankōbon volume. On September 30, 2018, a manga based on the video game Black Clover: Quartet Knights launched on Shōnen Jump+ app on October 7, 2018. The manga finished on April 12, 2020. As of October 3, 2020, it has been collected in twenty-four tankōbon volumes.
Anime
An original video animation produced by Xebec Zwei that is based on the series was shown at the 2016 Jump Festa between November 27 and December 18, 2016. It was bundled with the 11th volume of the manga, which was released on May 2, 2017. A second original video animation was shown at the 2018 Jump Festa. At the Black Clover Jump Festa event on December 18, 2016, an anime television series adaptation by Pierrot was announced. It is directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu writing scripts, Itsuko Takeda doing character designs, and Minako Seki composing the music. The series premiered on October 3, 2017, with the first two seasons each consisted of 51 episodes. Season 3 premiered on October 1, 2019. Crunchyroll is simulcasting the series, while Funimation is producing an English dub as part of its Simuldub program as it airs. Adult Swim'sToonami programming block premiered the English dub on December 2, 2017. Sony Pictures UK and Funimation released the first part of the series on home video in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with subsequent parts released by Manga Entertainment. Universal Sony classified the first part of the series for release in Australia and New Zealand, on behalf of Funimation, with Madman Entertainment releasing subsequent parts. The anime has been broadcast without any major interruption until late April 2020, when it was announced that future episodes would be postponed based on studio production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The broadcasting and distribution of episode 133 onward was delayed and in its place, the first episode of the series was rebroadcast on May 5, 2020. The series will resume on July 7, 2020. A short original net animation titled Squishy! Black Clover, produced by DLE and directed by Tsukasa Nishiyama, began airing on dTV on July 1, 2019. The opening theme song for the short is "POSSIBLE" by Gakuto Kajiwara and Nobunaga Shimazaki, under the name "Clover×Clover". Crunchyroll made the short available internationally on December 31, 2019.
Video games
At Jump Festa 2017, a video game, titled Black Clover: Quartet Knights, was announced for a 2018 release on PlayStation 4 and PC.. It was developed by Ilinx and published by Bandai Namco. It was released in Japan on September 13, 2018, while the western release was on September 14, 2018. A mobile game called Black Clover: Phantom Knights has been announced. It was released in Japan on November 14, 2018. On December 6, 2019, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that the game would be released on January 16, 2020. Asta is featured as a playable character in the Weekly Shōnen Jump crossover game Jump Force.
Reception
Manga
Sales
Volume 1 reached 23rd place on the weekly Oricon manga charts, with 38,128 copies sold; volume 2 reached 17th place, with 61,918 copies; volume 3 also reached 17th place, with 80,462 copies; volume 4 reached 13th place, with 93,866 copies; volume 5 reached 15th place, with 108,503 copies; and volume 6 reached 11th place, with 118,783 copies. As of January 2019, the manga has 7 million copies in print, and 9 million copies as of October 2019. As of April 2020 Black Clover has 10 million copies in print
Critical reception
Reviewing the series for ComicsAlliance, Tom Speelman described the premise as "what if Harry Potter was a knight and also kinda dumb?" He recommended it for fans of Naruto and Fairy Tail, noting its similarities to the former series as well as to Bleach. He praised the author's ability to invigorate stock characters. Henry Ma of Ka Leo O Hawaii praised the series' humor and art, noting that the latter was "very nice" and was similar to Fairy Tail. However, not all critics were positive, with a board of comic book writers at San Diego Comic-Con listing the manga as one of the worst from 2016.
Anime
In November 2019, Crunchyroll listed Black Clover in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s".
