Black Clover is quickly becoming one of the more popular shonen anime series out. Whether that’s due to most of the older shonen series like Naruto or Bleach having ended, or because it’s just that great, it’s unquestionable that Black Clover is a rising star in the world of anime.

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As the series approaches the end of its second season, we’ve decided to take a look at its lead character. Despite Asta’s importance to the main story, it’s easy to miss a ton of details about him. Not to worry, that’s what this list is for, offering 10 facts only true fans know about Asta.

10 CAN SENSE KI

While Asta was never able to find a way to develop an ability to use magic, that doesn’t mean he relies only on wildly swinging his sword. During the arc when Asta first comes up against the Eye of the Midnight Sun, he’s taught a new technique from the Captain of the Black Bulls, Yami Sukehiro.

This technique basically translates to a sixth sense, allowing him to detect the life force of people around him. With this, Asta is able to react and attack faster than a normal human, making him an even deadlier threat in proper close combat. With Yami having come from another country, it’s a nice touch that they were able to have him bring over the knowledge and prowess from a different country and culture.

9 HAS A LITERAL DEMON INSIDE HIM

This is technically nothing new, as Naruto had the nine-tailed fox demon inside of him. But while everyone else has had to struggle with the power inside of them looking for dominance, it hasn’t quite been the same for Asta.

Instead, the diminutive Magic Knight felt this dark power waking up inside of him during his battle against an opponent, and rather than give in, he decided to boss the demon around. Refusing to give up his body, Asta instead was given access to the demon’s anti-magic abilities, granting him his first transformation.

8 CAN BREAK CURSES

Asta’s original weapon ignores literally any magic thrown at it, rendering it null and putting Asta and whoever he’s facing on an even physical playing field. This has worked out in Asta’s favor numerous times, including once where he was facing an opponent who tried to hold the sword in his body to stop Asta from using it, only to wind up making himself slower because the sword numbed his magic sensitivity.

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This turned out to be foreshadowing for Asta acquiring a third weapon, the Demon-Destroyer Sword. With this weapon, Asta can absorb and remove the effects of spells and curses.

7 HAS AN UNINTENTIONAL HAREM

Surprisingly, despite being disrespected at everything else, Asta has managed to wind up with quite the number of ladies pursuing him. There’s his comrade in the Black Bulls, Noelle. There’s also Mimosa of the Golden Dawn, a member of Yuno’s trio. Lastly, there’s also Rebecca, a commoner girl from the city.

All of them admire him for his honest nature, his straightforwardness, and his desire to always do the right thing. ...Too bad he only carries a torch for the nun who raised him.

6 HIS ORIGINAL LAST NAME WAS "STARIA"

Asta’s origins remain a mystery, as the character was left at the Hage Village orphanage shortly after he was born. He spent his early years growing up there with other children serving as his family. But one thing the character never had was a last name, because he never had parents...at least, not in the actual manga.

In the one-shot pilot series, both he and Yuno have names. We learn that Asta’s last name was actually Staria. This is actually a little redundant, as he’s named after the flower, which comes from the Greek word which actually means “Star”.

5 CAN STORE MAGIC IN HIS SWORD

Thus far, Asta’s grimoire has only succeeded in granting him a bunch of swords. It’s a bit out of place in a series where everyone’s supposed to be a mage, but that’s the point of the character. Unlike everyone else in the series, Asta doesn’t just have little talent with magic—he has absolutely zero talent with it.

Still, that doesn’t mean he can’t use it at all. The second sword he attains during his battle against the Diamond Kingdom’s soldier, Mars, allows him to drain other people’s magic and store it for use in combat. He doesn’t use this often, but it’s still a powerful card to have up his sleeve.

4 WAS TRAINED BY AN ENEMY SOLDIER

In the first episode, Asta receives his grimoire which contains a sword within its pages. But while he spent much of his time training, none of it ever involved being good with a blade. But even during the Magic Knight Exam, he displays an almost uncanny sense of how to use it.

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This is explained later in the series, when we learn that Asta took sword lessons under a former soldier of the Diamond Kingdom, Fanzell Kruger. While Fanzell was on the run from Diamond, he ran into Asta, who he helped teach how to fight while Asta helped him fend off Diamond Kingdom soldiers.

3 WAS ONCE A DETECTIVE

Back during Black Clover’s earliest chapters, it ran alongside Toshiaki Iwashiro’s short-lived manga Kagamigami. Kagamigami was a series about a character named Kyousuke Kagami, a young man capable of forming contracts with Shikigami, astral spirits that liked possessing humans and causing trouble, working alongside Mako Miyoshi, a young woman seeking to be a detective.

To celebrate the first volumes of both series releasing, a crossover manga came out where Asta joined Miyoshi’s detective agency. Of course, he couldn’t summon any spirits, so he just kept punching all the threats in the face until Miyoshi demanded he use some kind of Shikigami.

2 IS THE CHARACTER MOST LIKE THE CREATOR

Yami watching Asta square up in Black Clover

In a 2017 interview that Yuki Tabata did for Weekly Shonen Jump during the December Jump Festival, the creator was asked by some of the staff at VIZ which character he was most like from his series. Surprisingly, Tabata admitted the character he resembled the most was actually the main character of the series, Asta!

Even more surprising was how, in the very same interview Tabata’s editor, Katayama, quickly agreed with him because of his relentlessly positive attitude and his inability to sit still.  Guess that's one way to get so many pages out every month.

This seems like it would be obvious, as Asta is the main character, and it’s only natural that the main character be the most popular one in the series given all the focus they get. But take a look at Deku to see how much work this really is. Black Clover, like many of our favorite action-oriented series, is published in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Every so often, every manga does a popularity poll, asking its readers who their favorite characters are. Other main characters are often overshadowed by dark horse characters, like their rivals, but not Asta—his tenacity and ability to succeed even though he isn’t the fastest or the strongest has succeeded in winning the hearts of fans everywhere.

NEXT: Black Clover: Magic Knight Captains, Ranked