He is a Japanese mangaka known for writing and illustrating Black Clover. Tabata was an assistant to Toshiaki Iwashiro, alongside Ryūhei Tamura (author of Beelzebub), and Naoya Matsumoto (author of Kaiju No. 8)
He presented his first one-shot in 2001, Grave Keeper HAKAMORI, which earned him a special award at the Tenkaichi Manga. He presented a second one-shot, Blue Steady in 2003 for the Rookie Manga Award, making it to the finalists. The following year, Tabata entered the Tezuka awards with a mention to his work XXX WITH NO NAME. The "quality leap" occurred in 2005 when he published the one-shot Garance in Akamaru Jump.
In 2011, he entered the Gold Future Cup with which he published his one-shot Hungry Joker in the Weeky Shonen Jump, winning the contest and managing to serialize in the magazine in 2012; however, due to the great difference with the original one-shot, it did not reach popularity and after 24 chapters it was canceled on May 13, 2013.
The following year, he published a new one-shot in Jump NEXT!, titled Black Clover, which was again considered for serialization in Shōnen Jump, which began in February 2015, but unlike Hungry Joker, Tabata preferred to stay more true to the original one-shot, both in terms of character traits, design, and other important settings.
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