Yuki Tabata is renowned all over the world for his brilliant work on Black Clover. This stellar story focusing on wizards ended its run after a decade on May 1, 2026, and it certainly made the author a standout name in the industry. That said, Black Clover was far from being Tabata's first work. To establish himself in Weekly Shonen Jump, Tabata made prior attempts, notably with a story known as Hungry Joker. Hungry Joker had an interesting concept, and while it got Tabata deeper into the manga industry, it ended up being a flop. After only 24 chapters, the story was axed. Thankfully, Tabata didn’t give up after meeting this failure, and he ended up crafting a new story in hopes of finally succeeding in the industry. This story is what we know today as Black Clover.
Yuki Tabata has now revealed in a newly resurfaced interview with Shonen Jump that Hungry Joker flopped because of his main character Heidi's personality. For Black Clover to succeed, he had to take a completely different approach and instead created Asta as a happy-go-lucky character.
When hearing the name of Yuki Tabata, most manga fans' minds immediately go to Black Clover. After all, it is his only successful and big manga series so far. Black Clover, however, would never have existed today had his previous work taken off. Yuki Tabata's first big serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump was a story known as Hungry Joker. Hungry Joker saw its debut in the popular shonen magazine in 2012. The story sadly wouldn't last too long. Due to low interest from readers, Weekly Shonen Jump decided to axe Yuki Tabata's manga, and with chapter 24, which was serialized in 2013, Hungry Joker officially ended.
Succeeding in a magazine as big as Weekly Shonen Jump is not guaranteed. In fact, most manga end up being axed before they are even a year old. The magazine is strict and will immediately axe a low-performing series. Ever since Hungry Joker was axed, fans have been wondering what exactly led to this failure in the eyes of Shonen Jump. While we can't say for certain why Hungry Joker ended up flopping, Yuki Tabata himself seems to know what happened there. In a newly surfaced interview from 2017, he reveals to us that Hungry Joker's failure largely came down to his main character, a boy named Heidi.
Heidi did not follow the typical shonen protagonist archetype. He was quiet and often kept to himself, while most shonen leads, at least back then, were quite energetic. They were always filled with energy and ready to step into action. This new kind of character archetype ended up being a failure for Tabata back then.
Shonen Jump: What did you learn from your first serialization in Shonen Jump that you've used in Black Clover?
Yuki Tabata: Did I actually learn anything...? Oh, having a more happy-go-lucky character. My previous main character was someone I really wanted to draw, but he was pretty quiet. I didn't understand what that meant very well, probably because people say I'm a really energetic person. So for my next series, I figured I'd go with an easier-to-understand main character, and it worked out. I really like dark characters, but I guess I just couldn't pull it off.
While Hungry Joker flopped and ended with the 24th chapter in 2013, Yuki Tabata wasn't quite done yet. After his initial failure, he did not give up, and instead he returned with a brand-new story known as Black Clover. Black Clover debuted 2 years after Hungry Joker was axed, in 2015, in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #12. As we know today, Black Clover went on to far surpass Hungry Joker. Due to its popularity and overall sales, Black Clover was allowed ample time to run and eventually conclude.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/black-clover-tabata-manga-failure/
