‘Black Clover’ Creator Shares Take on ‘Dragon Ball’s Goku

Black Clover has been one of the most successful shonen releases in recent years, and a lot of that success is due to the fierce art and character design of series creator Yuki Tabata.

Tabata had his own fierce take on another shonen juggernaut Dragon Ball with this fierce art of Super Saiyan Goku.

As you can see in the sketch above, Tabata takes his sensibilities and gives Super Saiyan Goku quite the final makeover. This Goku has been roughed up quite a bit, and one can imagine just how tough of a struggle Tabata has placed Goku in here. Artists in Weekly Shonen Jump often pay tribute to one another’s characters, but it’s still a surprise to see just how well each of these notable characters translate into other art styles.

Fans of Black Clover hope the series can one day reach the same peaks of popularity as Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise, and it’s hard not to imagine this seeing just how well the manga and anime series have been received. The anime series may have had it’s detractors at first, but the series has definitely found its groove as it continues into its second season.

Yuki Tabata first created Black Clover for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2015. The popular series follows two young boys named Asta and Yuno who are growing up in a world where magic is everything. Asta, unfortunately, seems to have been born without magical powers while Yuno is a young prodigy whose magical powers rival that of the strongest magic users in the Clover Kingdom, the Magic Knights. The two young boys now strive to become the strongest wizard in the Clover Kingdom, The Wizard King.

You can currently find the Japanese language version with English subtitles on Crunchyroll, and the English language dub can be seen on FunimationNow and Saturday evenings on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. As for Dragon Ball Super, the series currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 11:00 p.m.

It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media.