Who is Yūki Tabata?
Seven years as an assistant, one cancelled series, then the hit he drew out of his own personality.
Yūki Tabata was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and entered the manga industry at twenty. He spent seven years working as an assistant, most formatively under Toshiaki Iwashiro, the creator of Psyren, learning the weekly trade at someone else's desk before he held a series of his own.
His Black Clover editor was Tatsuhiko Katayama. Tabata's working method stayed deliberately old school: he has described consulting Katayama on thumbnails, then drawing the chapter by hand, inking and toning in analog with no digital tools. In the early run he slept about three hours a night; after the anime began, about six.
THE ROAD IN
Assistant years and a first seriesAssistant to Iwashiro
Tabata assisted Toshiaki Iwashiro, whose Psyren ran in the same magazine Tabata aimed at. Seven assistant years preceded his own debut series.
Golden Future Cup, 2011
His Hungry Joker one-shot took first place in the Golden Future Cup, Jump's rookie competition, in 2011. The prize became a series a year later.
Asta is Tabata
Tabata has said Asta's character is based on himself, loud and relentless where his first hero was quiet. Charmy, his favourite character to draw, is based on his wife, whom he married soon after Black Clover began.
Names from dictionaries
Character names were found by searching dictionaries in various languages, one of the small methods Tabata has described in the books' question corners.
THE INFLUENCES
On the recordA shōnen Berserk, by design
Tabata has named his sources openly, and the biggest is Berserk: he set out to craft a shōnen equivalent of it. The full list, and what it explains about Black Clover's European look, is on the Berserk question page.