English Dub Review: Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King

Remember Black Clover? I remember Black Clover. It was probably the most creatively bankrupt long-running modern Shonen anime, which is certainly saying something because Boruto aired alongside it. I ALSO remember that it ended in Japan over two years ago, needing to pause the story on a major cliffhanger because they finally caught up with the manga (even after having a six month long filler arc to postpone that very thing) and I covered the last dubbed episode later that year. But I ALSO also remember that when they aired that last episode, they announced a movie, which has now finally been released. There was plenty of speculation about what it could be about, with some rumors being that it would take place after the final episode, which simply could be the case because, again, massive cliffhanger. But it was eventually revealed to take place between the end of the filler arc and the timeskip where all the characters get notable redesigns, so all the characters get to have the clothes from the end of the anime but it can still work within continuity.

The plot of said movie is probably one you’ve heard before if you’re familiar with movies based on Shonen anime: there was this guy that we’ve never talked about before but he was crazy strong and wanted to change the world so we had to seal him away and now he’s back and after this movie we’ll go back to never talking about him. Said crazy strong guy in this case is a former Wizard King, the title that main character Asta has been striving to become. This former king, Conrad Leto, was sealed with a powerful artifact that holds the powers of every other former king (aside from probably the first one for reasons I’ll explain later) and he’s also brought back three other infamous Wizard Kings to help him destroy the country they once ruled. Given that every other pre-existing character is still alive after the events of this and never mentions these events, you can probably guess how that plan goes.

Like most everything in Black Clover that cribs from other more popular stories, the role of Wizard King is pretty derivative of things like the Hokage in Naruto and the King of the Pirates in One Piece, whose respective protagonists also strive to become (and already have in Naruto’s case). However, unlike those two positions, which either have a handful of predecessors that can flesh out the history of the title OR have a single holder who is presented as the platonic ideal of that profession, the Wizard King is a woefully underdeveloped aspect of Black Clover’s world. For the majority of the anime, we only ever meet the current guy, Julius, and later meet the very first, who we later learn only got the title posthumously. We never find out who took over after the first guy, nor did we know who the Julius took it over from until this movie. And with TWENTY SIX PEOPLE between the first and current, some of them apparently being total monsters, you’d think they’d want to talk about that, but apparently not. Plus, it’s not like we learn anything significant about the three other resurrected kings, so they might as well have just been his minions that were sealed with him.

But it’s not like this movie was made as a chance to deep dive into Black Clover lore or make some bigger statement about the Wizard King position. No, that would be far too reflective for this story and we can’t give Asta any reason to NOT want to be the magic president or think about any major societal change he will or won’t be able to impose with that kind of power. This is a Shonen anime movie, meaning this premise is simply the thinnest possible justification to have all the characters you know and love from this show fight forgettable bad guys with movie quality animation. Honestly, I’m surprised they even put enough thought into this to make it fit into the timeline. One Piece doesn’t even bother with that, as much as I wish they would. Maybe that was the exchange they made to not have it play in theaters in the states, which would’ve definitely made this a slightly more exciting experience. However, as it is, it is simply ANOTHER Shonen anime movie, but for fans of Black Clover who have been craving something animated for the past couple years and don’t know when they’ll be getting more anytime soon, hopefully this lived up to the hype. But for me, I think I’ll have to give this a rating in line with the mythology of this story about clovers, because this was definitely made by a deal with the devil.