Eiichiro Oda's illustration for Black Clover's Asta has fans convinced it's another Luffy cosplay

With Black Clover manga soon set to celebrate its 10th anniversary with Jump GIGA Summer 2025 magazine, fans knew that the series was set to receive special illustrations drawn by 17 popular manga creators. While there is quite some time before the magazine is released, the leaks from Weekly Shonen Jump's preview announcement gave fans a look at Eiichiro Oda's illustration of Asta.

As manga fans expected, Eiichiro Oda's illustration of Asta was nothing short of their expectations. Like any other time Oda drew a character from another series, he made sure to use his original style, leaving fans divided over the illustration. This time, fans are convinced that Oda drew Luffy cosplaying Asta.

Weekly Shonen Jump reveals Eiichiro Oda's illustration of Black Clover's Asta

As fans must remember, a few months back, Yuki Tabata drew an illustration of Monkey D. Luffy for One Piece TCG. Fans loved the illustration and wished to see Eiichiro Oda's drawing of Asta. To their surprise, the One Piece manga creator was set to draw a special illustration to celebrate Black Clover's 10th anniversary.

With the release of Jump GIGA Summer 2025 inching closer, Weekly Shonen Jump issue 36/37 unveiled the cover for the upcoming magazine issue. This cover also unveiled Eiichiro Oda's drawing of Asta.

Monkey D. Luffy as drawn by Black Clover creator Yuki Tabata (Image via Yuki Tabata, Bandai)

The illustration saw Asta standing upright while wielding his Demon-Slayer Sword with both hands, preparing to swing it at his enemy. While his clothes looked great in the illustration, the face looked very similar to that of Monkey D. Luffy. In fact, with Asta's white hair, the illustration resembled Gear 5 Luffy.

As expected, fans shared mixed reactions to the illustration online.

Fans' reaction to Eiichiro Oda's Asta illustration

Most animanga fans were very disappointed by Eiichiro Oda's illustration for Asta, as some even claimed that the One Piece manga creator had drawn Monkey D. Luffy, cosplaying as Black Clover's Asta.

Asta as seen in Black Clover manga (Image via Shueisha)

Meanwhile, other fans believe that Oda did Black Clover dirty. Yuki Tabata drew a beautiful illustration of Luffy for the One Piece TCG. In return, Oda drew Asta in such a way that he looked like he was wearing a wig.

"Luffy cosplaying Asta. *what* is this," one fan said.

"Oda did black clover dirty man. Why he made Asta look like he wearing a wig? Tabata did justice and this is what he gets in return?," another fan added.

"Honestly could be worse. idk I feel like Oda's style only works with his own characters though," another fan said.

"People criticizing Oda’s drawing of Asta while I actually really like it," other fan said.

Meanwhile, other fans were content with how the illustration turned out, as, according to them, it could have been much worse. As per them, Eiichiro Oda's style only worked with his own characters.

Lastly, other fans shared how they liked the illustration. While they understood why the majority of the fanbase disliked it, they thought it was quite cool.

Related Links

About the author

Gokul has been an anime writer in Pop Culture division at Sportskeeda since 2022. His love for watching anime and his interest in the ever-growing anime industry inspire Gokul to produce insightful content about the genre on a daily basis. He holds a Master's degree in Communication & Journalism, and has worked for close to 3.5 years in the field.

Gokul likes to thoroughly research about the anime he is writing about and only credits a source after verifying its credibility. He loves the popular Shonen anime, Black Clover, for its memorable characters and their development throughout the story.

When not racking his brain behind his next anime story, Gokul likes to play video games, read manga, and play football.

Know More

Edited by Gokul Chettiyar