Black Clover does what everyone feared regarding Ichika and Asta

With the spoilers for Black Clover chapter 353 out, it seems like fans will finally have their wish granted as Ichika Yami could possibly join Asta's harem. While the same has not been confirmed, the trope is too common to be ignored and thus, the events from chapter 353 give a huge boost to Asta x Ichika shippers.

The previous chapter saw the Land of the Sun's shogun Ryudo Ryuya unveil his Tengentsu. Following this, he instructed his Ryuzen Seven to help Asta defeat the five-headed dragon. While there were some concerns, the team as a collective came together, after which Asta slashed all five heads of the dragon at once.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the Black Clover manga.

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How Black Clover may have made Asta and Ichika a valid ship?

In the spoilers of Black Clover chapter 353, the Ryuzen Seven, Asta, and Ryuya were seen enjoying a feast, after which Asta gets drunk. Following that, Daizaemon takes him to the hot springs to take a bath together. However, at the time, it was the women's time slot at the spring, which led to Asta seeing Ichika Yami having a bath.

While Asta believed that he was about to get a beating, Ichika was embarrassed and covered up herself, following which Asta ran away from the hot spring. The next morning when they met, Asta apologized to Ichika for the incident the previous day. However, Ichika did not seem pleased as she was determined to have Asta take responsibility for his mistake.

While manga readers could interpret the scene in the most innocent way, that is, Ichika will punish Asta for his mistake. This could be interpreted as a ruthless beating during their training session or some other form of revenge when others aren't around. However, there is another interpretation for the same, which is quite rightly one of the biggest relationship tropes in anime/manga.

In Dragon Ball, Goku was a kid who lived in the woods with his grandpa. Thus, having never met a woman in his life before, he had no other way to distinguish them other than the difference in their private parts.

So, at the time, Goku was notoriously known for touching people's private parts, one of whom was Chi-Chi. She asked him to take responsibility, which later saw them getting married.

Asta as seen in the Black Clover anime (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Thus, judging from that anime trope, there is a huge chance that Ichika wants Asta to get married to her for having seen her in such a vulnerable state.

She is six years older than him and has realistically shown no romantic interest towards him. Fans believe that there were other ways for her to frame her sentence if this is not what she meant by "taking responsibility."

Nevertheless, the chances of a relationship between Asta and Ichika becoming canon is pretty low. It is especially so given how Mangaka Yuki Tabata has for years worked on Noelle's feelings for Asta, finally having her admit to herself that she loves him. Thus, there is a good chance that Asta might end up with her, also considering the fact that Sister Lily rejected his final proposal.

Regardless, fans will have to wait until the Black Clover chapter is officially released by Shueisha and VIZ to see if Ichika's statement was something different altogether.