Black Clover Season 3 has been confirmed by Burakku Kuroba director Tatsuya Yoshihara. The popular anime will venture on and continue the story of Asta and the Black Bulls in Black Clover Episode 103.
It could be argued that Black Clover Season 3 being greenlit for production was inevitable considering how the Shonen Jump series is being marketed. It’s being advertised as one of the big 3 right next to One Piece and Boruto. The Black Clover anime has been popular on Crunchyroll and other streaming platforms, which is important for any anime’s success since streaming revenue has become the biggest source of income in recent years.
The Black Clover Season 3 anime is being produced by animation studio Pierrot, which is well known for their long-running anime adaptation of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and then its successor, Boruto. Besides Black Clover, director Yoshihara is also known for working on Monster Musume. Writer Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Is The Order A Rabbit?) is writing the series composition. Then there are character designers Itsuko Takeda (Blue Drop) and Kumiko Tokunaga (Kingdom). Musical composer Minako Seki (Kingdom, The Silver Guardian) is handling instrumental music.
The director also revealed that each new cour will receive a new Black Clover opening theme music song. A “cour” is a three-month unit of TV broadcasting based on the physical weather seasons. The ninth cour will have a new opening (OP) song called “RiGHT NOW” as performed by EMPiRE and the new ending (ED) theme song will be “Life Is A Battlefield” by Kalen Anzai.
So, how many episodes will the third season of the Black Clover anime be screaming streaming out of our TV screens? Writing on Twitter, the director confirmed another 51 episodes, but you have to wonder how long it will be before the anime adaptation catches up with the source material.
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Updated February 27, 2020: Added info about the Black Clover S3 filler arcs.
This article provides everything that is known about Black Clover Season 3 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Black Clover manga compared to the anime: Story pacing requires break/hiatus before Black Clover Season 4?
The story for the anime series is based on the Black Clover manga by Yuki Tabata. Published in Weekly Shonen Jump since 2015, the manga series is the creator’s second manga series after Hungry Joker, which was canceled after only 24 chapters.
New tankobon format volumes are released regularly every year. As of January 4, 2020, the Black Clover manga is up to Black Clover Volume 23, which includes chapters 218 through 228. Based on history, Black Clover Volume 24 will release on April 3, 2020.
The official English translation of the Black Clover manga is being produced by VIZ Media. Fortunately, they are not too far behind the Japanese release. The English Volume 20 is scheduled to release on March 3, 2020. The publisher also provides free chapters on the official website.
The Black Clover anime has been designed to run years at a time by faithfully adapting the manga with a slow pacing. The anime has sometimes resorted to original filler content and the second season even adapted author Johnny Onda’s light novel “The Book Of The Black Bulls” with Season 2 Episodes 55 and 56.
The first 51 episodes of the first season adapted all the way up through Chapter 75. The second season increased the pacing slightly and finished with Episode 102 by adapting all the way up through Chapter 159 of Volume 17.
Yes, that does mean Black Clover Season 3 is slowly catching up with the manga series. In fact, Episode 123 is likely the beginning of one of several filler arcs that will fill the time skip in the manga’s timeline. Black Clover Episode 153 will likely adapt a chapter that releases in 2020.
Tabata may be releasing new content weekly, but so is studio Pierrot. By the time the Black Clover Season 3 finale airs in Japan, the manga will be up to Chapter 274. But if the third season ends by adapting part of the next big story arc then the anime will have adapted manga chapters released in early 2020. If that happens, it’s possible the anime series may need to take a break or hiatus before Black Clover Season 4 starts up.
Black Clover manga ending soon? Fans theorize manga is near final story arc
While Black Clover Season 4 seems likely, fans are probably wondering how long the manga series will be running. Can we expect Black Clover Season 5, 6, 7, and beyond?
Shonen Jump has zero incentive to cancel the manga since it’s often in the top 5 for manga volume sales in Japan. Plus, manga creator Tabata has not even given a hint about the climax or how close we are to the ending of the overall story (presumably, the ending will have Asta become the Wizard King).
In a March 2019 interview, Tabata was asked how he stayed motivated after creating 200 chapters of the manga.
“Well, there are a lot of people looking forward to the next chapter, I hope, so that motivates me. Plus there’s a lot of stories that I still want to tell, so that keeps me going,” Tabata replied. “Oh, and my wife wants me to keep it up. She wants me to keep working.”
In the past, Tabata has teased fans by saying that he’d like his series to run as long as the Naruto manga series, which ran for over 700 chapters. If that’s any benchmark to judge by then Black Clover’s ending is 10 years away since Tabata still has 500 plus chapters to finish.
Plus, Tabata has a lot of loose plot threads to tie up. Tabata has provided a world map in the manga, so it’s very likely that Asta will eventually explore the Heart and Spade kingdoms in addition to Diamond, which only recently received an expanded roster. There are also different magic zones and the Otherworld to explore on top of the regular kingdoms of the fantasy world.
Warning: The following contains major spoilers for the Black Clover manga.
At the same time, the latest manga chapters have fans wondering if the manga is introducing a final story arc. Wizard King Julius Novachonro was revived recently in a younger form and he just made some startling predictions in Chapter 215. First, he claims that the Clover Kingdom will be destroyed and, second, he predicts that Asta is going to die!
Such revelations have some fans claiming the end is nigh. Of course, fans were also saying the same thing back when the Devil was introduced in the last story arc since they assumed the Devil would be the main antagonist for the remainder of the entire story.
It’s likely that Asta will figure out a way to either beat the Wizard King’s prophecy or even resurrect. Therefore, it’s very likely that the Black Clover manga’s ending isn’t coming any time soon, never mind if Tabata goes the Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest route with a direct Black Clover sequel.
Black Clover Season 3 release date confirmed for October 2019
Animation studio Pierrot has confirmed that the Black Clover Season 3 release date is set for October 1, 2019. That’s right, the anime did not take a break from the second season and immediately rolled onto the next story arc with Episode 103.
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation have licensed the streaming rights for the anime series. Funimation has been producing the Black Clover English dub that’s being released in North America as a simuldub broadcast.
Black Clover Season 3 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
The last time we watched Asta and Yuno, they had parted ways after sensing elven magic in two different directions. Their paths will separate the two but they plan on meeting up again back at the capital.
The Black Bulls descend upon the capital by defeating all the elves which stand in their way. But after entering the capital they realize the city is in ruins and they’ll need to defend the capital against attack. Episodes will focus on different events that are taking place in the city during all this chaos.
The elves eventually begin casting a spell to open the door to the realm of the dead. They summon a dark castle called the Shadow Palace and the elves will become fully reincarnated once they place a final magic stone into a pedestal inside the Shadow Palace.
When a spell destroys the Black Bulls base, multiple members are transported into an alternate dimension controlled by Reve. The Black Bulls must find a way to escape into the real world.
Eventually, Asta and his friends make their way into the Shadow Palace and Yuno and other Magic Knights show up. But they are unable to prevent the magic stone from being placed into the pedestal.
Out of this catastrophe, a terrifying creature composed of dark mana calling itself a Devil is reborn. The Devil reveals that he was the one to have tricked humans to destroy the elves all those years ago. The Devil thinks the Elves fools for having carried out plans for revenge that he had orchestrated. The Elves had been reincarnated as the Devil’s pawns.
But the Devil was reborn in an incomplete body. In order to have full power in the world, the Devil needs a five-leaf clover grimoire born from the grimoire of a four-leaf clover grimoire that is in despair.
These revelations cause Patolli, the eleven leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, to be confronted by the truth. Asta manages to convince Patolli to join forces to combat the Devil.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to start watching Black Clover Season 3 to see how Asta takes on the Devil. Stay tuned!