'Black Clover' Announces Spin-Off Manga

Black Clover is steadily becoming one of the more popular shonen anime series of the season as it gets more of a footing and fans grow to fall in love with its world. It even has such a draw, that the idea of a spin-off based on chibi versions of the characters sounds even better than you thought.

The series has announced that the spin-off manga, Asta-kun's Road to Wizard King, will start publication February 2 and features chibi designs of both Asta and Noelle.

'Asta-kun's Road to Wizard King' announced, a chibi spinoff starting February 2nd from r/BlackClover

Fans have noticed that this manga spin-off series looks a lot like the "Petit Clover" sections at the end of every episode in the anime. In these segments, chibi versions of the characters act out a moment in the series but with exaggerated tones and reactions with an exaggerated bent for maximum comedic potential.

Black Clover is currently in its second big arc, "Dungeon Exploration." It centers on a mystery dungeon that appears on the borders of the Clover and Diamond Kingdoms. Dungeons are highly sought after by the Magic Knights since when they do pop up they offer countless treasures and magical items, but are also incredibly dangerous. So it becomes the duty of the Magic Knights to journey into the mysterious dungeon in order to claim the magical artifacts before they land into the wrong hands.

The big foe of this arc, Mars, is actually the result of an experiment that embedded many magical stones into his body. His look in the anime series was actually teased a bit back by an update to the series' arcade game. He's a bit more mysterious and layered than his first appearance as a "villain," would suggest, but fans in the anime will soon learn this for themselves.

If you are unfamiliar with Black Clover, the series debuted in Shonen Jump back in 2015 from creator Yuki Tabata. The since 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 story then follows the two young boys as they strive to become the strongest wizard in the Clover Kingdom, The Wizard King.

Studio Pierrot's Black Clover adaptation premiered in Japan on October 3 and is currently slated for a hefty 51 episodes. You can currently find the Japanese language version with English subtitles on Crunchyroll, and the English language dub on FunimationNow and Saturday evenings on Adult Swim's Toonami block.