An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer rotating in a first direction while bearing a toner image thereon in a normal image forming operation; a toner image forming device to form the toner image on the image bearer; a transferring device to transfer the toner image to a recording medium eventually; a cleaning blade to block toner remaining on image bearer without being transferred; and a controller. The controller controls the image bearer to perform an inverse rotation operation in which the image bearer rotates in a second direction opposite to the first direction after controlling the toner image forming device to perform a special image forming operation such that the amount of toner input to the cleaning blade in the special image forming operation is greater than the amount of toner input to the cleaning blade in the normal image forming operation, and then stopping the image bearer.