Black Clover Season 2 Sets Record on Crunchyroll, Most-Liked Premiere of 2026

After a wait of more than five years, Black Clover has finally returned and immediately made history on the anime streaming platform Crunchyroll. The Season 2 premiere, titled "The Battle Begins" (episode 171), racked up 135,500 likes in just one week since airing on October 3, making it the most-liked anime premiere of 2026. The achievement surpassed a number of major titles that also started new seasons the same year, such as Jujutsu Kaisen and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

The figure is not just an ordinary statistic. For Crunchyroll, the high engagement on Black Clover's opening episode signals that the series' loyal fan base remains very solid, and even appears to be growing. This is reflected in the aggregate user score on IMDb, which reached 9.4 for the episode—a strong indication that the quality of the story and the adaptation of Yuki Tabata's manga has met the expectations of fans who had waited so long.

Black Clover's own journey has been unique. Between October 2017 and March 2021, studio Pierrot produced 170 episodes that technically all fell under "Season 1". The series follows the story of Asta, a boy without magic in a world where almost everyone has it. Thanks to a five-leaf grimoire, Asta gains Anti-Magic powers that allow him to compete with elite magic knights. Although a feature film on Netflix filled the gap in 2023, anime fans had to be patient until Season 2 finally arrived in early October.

The premiere also marks the start of the manga's "Final Wizard King" arc being adapted, a storyline that has been eagerly awaited because it is one of the most epic parts of the story. The success of the opening episode not only affects the series' popularity but also strengthens Crunchyroll's position as the main home for global anime fans. With exclusive streaming on the platform, Black Clover Season 2 could drive new subscriber growth, especially from Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, which has a large anime fan base.

"The fan response to the premiere episode has been very positive. It shows that Asta's story is still relevant and able to capture the attention of a new generation of anime viewers," said an animation industry analyst who declined to be named.

In Indonesia itself, enthusiasm for Black Clover is evident from the lively discussions on social media and anime forums. Although there is no official data on local viewership, the surge in Google searches for the keyword "Black Clover Season 2" in Indonesia over the past week is an indicator that this market is also contributing to engagement on Crunchyroll. Legal streaming platforms like Crunchyroll are indeed increasingly becoming the main choice in Indonesia as awareness of the importance of watching anime legally grows.

With a weekly schedule through December, Black Clover Season 2 has the opportunity to keep adding likes and strengthen the record it has already set. The question is whether the series can maintain its momentum until the end of the season, or whether it will slip like some other titles that started strong but weakened midway. What is clear, for now, is that Asta and his friends have proven that the long wait was not in vain.