Kara Dennison
February 12, 2021 
Black Clover is airing its final episode this March, meaning one of our big weekly watches will soon be over. But if you’re looking for more shonen adventure to fill the upcoming gap, you’ve got plenty of choice! The best part? Most of these shows are super-long, meaning you’ll have viewing material for months.
So dig in and get ready to marathon some shonen classics that’ll give you the same vibe… including some that have, or will have, continuations in 2021!
Fairy Tail
If you’re going to miss the magical team adventures of Black Clover, Fairy Tail may be just what you need. Hiro Mashima’s series follows the title guild, in particular Dragon Slayer wizard Natsu, as he meets new friends and goes on exciting missions. Core to the series is the battle against the ancient wizard Zeref and his ultimate demon — which, to put it mildly, Fairy Tail will have to contend with in unexpected ways.
The series has the same party dynamic, colorful characters, and magical action we’ve come to love. Plus, at more than 300 episodes, you won’t run out of viewing material for a while.
Bleach
With Black Clover as one of the new major players in shonen anime, our list is naturally going to contain a few older pillars of the genre. Take Bleach, based on Tite Kubo’s hit manga. The series kicked off in 2004, and followed high schooler Ichigo as he stepped into the role of Soul Reaper to help the incapacitated Rukia. The new role revealed to Ichigo that there were a lot of spiritually talented people in his life… and also made him aware of the organization known as Soul Society.
A new Bleach anime is expected in the near future to adapt the manga’s final arc, but you still have 366 episodes and four films to look into ’til then. Plus, there’s Burn the Witch: the dragon-centric, Anglophilic short subject that takes place within the Bleach universe.
Blue Exorcist
Sometimes not knowing who your family is can be a good thing. Take Rin of Blue Exorcist, who finds out as a teenager that he’s literally the son of Satan (along with his fraternal twin). That revelation kicks off a chain reaction of events that leads to him joining a school for exorcists. The reasoning? He wants to become an exorcist, achieve the highest rank, then go kill his real dad for leading to the death of his adopted dad.
Like Black Clover, Blue Exorcist has a pair of mismatched protagonists fighting their way through the ranks. It’s got high-stakes action, world-beating magic, and that all-important team dynamic. It may not boast hundreds of episodes like the other titles on this list, but with two separate anime series, there’s a good amount to dig into.
Naruto
Black Clover, like so many other shonen series, stars a young hero who aspires to a high rank against all the odds. And who exemplifies that more than Naruto Uzumaki himself? The hot mess of a ninja has wanted to be the Hokage for years, and (spoiler) the crazy kid actually succeeded. But not without a lot of training and mishaps along the way.
Obviously, there’s tons of Naruto out there: three entire series of it, if you count BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS into the saga (which we do). So it’s a great time to finally watch it if you haven’t before. Or, if you’re already a fan, it’s a great time to revisit it from the beginning!
Inuyasha
White-haired anime boys? White-haired anime boys.
Inuyasha is kind of a different vibe from Black Clover, being largely a feudal fairy tale. It says so right there in the title. But it’s got the action, magic, worldbuilding, and generational drama of the soon-to-be-completed shonen anime. You’ve got your rivalry, your crazy power levels, and (even years later) lots to discover about the magical world our heroes inhabit. Most of all, we’ve got the reassurance that this show lives on — like Naruto, Inuyasha is into its second generation. So you can kick right off with Yashahime when you’re done!
What will you be watching once Black Clover ends?
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