Yuki Tabata’s Black Clover has successfully dominated the worldwide anime stage since its premiere in 2017. In recent years, the manga itself has become a bestselling book series with over 15 million copies in print. With its recent introduction of the Spade Kingdom Arc, the anime has drawn even more fans to the world of elves, devils, Magic Knights, and Grimoires. Although it’s currently on hiatus, Black Clover has consistently provided fans with new episodes every week for the past four years, which is a long time for an anime.
Whereas most anime take breaks between seasons, Black Clover never seemed to take its foot off the gas as it slowly cruised through four seasons without stopping for refreshments. The only time it actually took a break was due to the Coronavirus outbreak in March 2020, which understandably slowed down production for a lot of people in the entertainment industry. Even then, Black Clover powered through and resumed airing its episodes in July of 2020 to finish its fourth season on March 30th, 2021.
What is Black Clover?
For those new to anime, Black Clover centers around Asta, a young orphan who is left to be raised in an orphanage next to his fellow orphan, Yuno. Living in a fantasy land where everyone is born with the ability to use Magic, Asta was born without magical energy and instead concentrated on developing his physical strength to compensate for his weakness. On the other hand, his friend Yuno was born a magical prodigy with enormous magical energy and innate talent to use wind magic.
Hoping to make something of themselves and bring pride to the orphanage, the boys aspire to join the Magic Knights⏤a somewhat militant army of Mages who protect and police the Clover kingdom⏤in the hopes that one of them becomes the most powerful mage in the land, The Wizard King. The objective helps to develop their relationship into a friendly rivalry. The two participate in the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony, a special event where all of the children living in the land receive their grimoire (or spell book) for the first time. During this coming-of-age occasion, Yuno receives a legendary four-leaf grimoire, a rare kind of grimoire that is only bestowed upon the most powerful of Mages. Meanwhile, despite his lack of magic, Asta is chosen by the rare and mysterious five-leaf grimoire, one containing blackened swords that exudes equally rare anti-magic.
Now officially deemed upcoming mages, Asta and Yuno both apply to the Magic Knights. After passing the entrance exam, Yuno gets chosen by the Golden Dawn, a prestigious Magic Knight Squad under Captain Vangeance, a Mage that many in the kingdom believe will become the next Wizard King.
On the other hand, Asta gets chosen by the Black Bulls, a rough-around-the-edges Magic Knight Squad considered the worst in the Clover Kingdom. Led by the equally abrasive Yami Sukehiro, Asta and the Black Bulls embark on many adventures as they uncover hidden magical treasures, covert plots against the kingdom, and origins about their members that they never knew before.
Throughout its four seasons, Black Clover has brought a lot of development to its characters as ties past and present events together in a neat little bow that’s rich with impressive storytelling. From the true source of Asta’s Anti-Magic abilities to the extermination of the elves, the anime has provided a deep and complex world that has kept fans thoroughly invested in the series. After watching it on a regular weekly basis for the last four years, you could say that fans have partially grown up with Asta and the rest of the Black Clover characters.
When the series premiered its last episode on March 30th of this year, fans understandably became worried that the series would fall into the same abyss as Tite Kubo’s Bleach, which ended its anime run in 2012 before the manga even finished the story in 2016 (and has yet to return). Thankfully, that isn’t the case with Black Clover. Shortly after its last episode premiered, the anime announced that the series would be releasing its first movie. Since then, there haven’t been any other developments, but the show’s Twitter released a statement that more information about the film would be announced at a later date. However, after the movie is released, it is expected that the anime will return for Season 5 soon after.
According to Distractify, the series’ hiatus may be a calculated move on creator Yuki Tabata’s part. Having the series go on hiatus would give Tabata more time to continue writing the story and allow the anime to catch up to the manga. In the meantime, the first Black Clover movie will be released to pick up where the anime left off, which means you’ll also have to catch up on the other four seasons to follow what’s going on in the movie. With as many episodes as Black Clover has, you may want to start now because, frankly, it’s going to be a while before you finish.
How many episodes of Black Clover are there?
Black Clover has 170 episodes to date, which roughly translates to about 40 episodes per season. That’s a lot of binge-watching, even for an average Netflix couch potato. If you’re a fan looking to get into what makes the anime so great, it’s worth it. After the events that transpired at the end of the last episode, there’s a good chance that anticipation for the movie will be through the roof when it finally premieres in theaters.
If you’re experiencing some FOMO and want to get caught up on everything before that happens (without feeling rushed), then you may need to devote your free time to a few Black Clover episodes every day for the foreseeable future. With any luck, you’ll be done before next summer.