Anime Spotlight #30: Black Clover - Sword Of the Wizard King

Article by Sean Wilkinson,
a.k.a. The Animeister,

Pushing Past My Limits.

In the series review, I noted a few of the more bizarre uses of magic in the Black Clover world, as well as the fight animation being that Gainax flavor of simple yet flashy and epic (despite Black Clover being animated by Studio Pierrot, rather than Gainax, but there's no denying the Trigger precursor's effect on animation styles from all cultures).

What I forgot to mention while I was bashing how generic, unsubtle, confusing, annoying, basic, and ultimately disappointing the Black Clover anime was, is just how cool the magic system is.

It's kind of absurd because the basic idea is "take noun, put 'magic' after it," like if Avatar: The Last Airbender didn't stop at the four elements and people could bend dreams or mirrors or space or something as mundane as sheep, paper, or keys. There's an entire family in Black Clover (the Vermillions) where each member can do something different with fire, and Noelle's family members (the Silvas) can each manipulate a different substance in liquid form, such as metals or water. There's even a character who's just literally Marylin Manson (before all of that sexual abuse and assault stuff came out) who can manipulate and control poisons.

No matter if you like any of the characters, or the series itself, the fights and the ways those characters use and develop their magic is spectacular to behold.

Just the Ticket is also spectacular to behold, so please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment a new spell at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest grimoires of news on my content.

Black Clover: Sword Of the Wizard King is a Netflix follow-up movie from 2023 (the series ended in 2019) that isn't really canon even though it references events from the series such as Asta being tied up with the Devil trial and Licht the elf killing Wizard King Julius during the Midnight Sun arc. So it takes place after the anime's finale, but in an effort to not spoil the ongoing manga for anime-only fans, there is no mention of whether or not the Spade Kingdom invasion was thwarted between series and film.

As the movie opens, we get our first taste of the massive cinema-quality upgrade the animation got, seamlessly blending multi-dimensional backgrounds with hand-drawn, HD-quality, hyper-fluid character work and flashy energy effects. We also get introduced to Conrad, who has Key Magic and was Julius' predecessor as Wizard King. Conrad is also the movie's villain and has the same goals and catchphrase ("my magic is never giving up") as Asta, because Marvel influences and "you and I are not so different" is the new "I'm declaring World War III" of villain catchphrases.

Speaking of cliche turns of phrase, after Julius seals Conrad away, ten years pass and we catch up to the end of the anime where everyone is so not worried about the Spade Kingdom that they're holding a fighting festival, complete with an opening ceremony of "as you know" propaganda on how the Clover Kingdom is totally not classist at all and the Wizard King is the best guy in the world because he has a hundred-plus-man army of super-powered aristocrats to protect everyone. But then Conrad shows up with three other deposed Wizard Kings (the crazy Barrier Magic one, the old man with Ice Magic, and the chess-playing sadist with Domination Magic) because Licht stabbing Julius caused a Bojack Unbound scenario, and the movie immediately turns into a 90-minute anime fight full of sensory overload, cliches, false victories, and loud groans from myself that there's still a fucking hour of this left! I had to watch the movie in three sittings because it felt like the third act of the third Made In Abyss movie crossed with the Buu Saga and the last four seasons of Seven Deadly Sins, but more agonizing and compressed down into a 90 minute singularity of torture and spectacle.

I must again commend the animators for keeping up the quality of their work throughout this slog-fest and making the magic look absolutely beautiful. I also forgot how much I liked Mereleona Vermillion as a personality (voiced by the versatile Monica Rial, who also voices Secre/Nero in the anime and voices Bulma in various Dragon Ball properties) until this movie, where her fight with the chess dominatrix was my favorite part (because it's a flashy, character-rich slugfest, not for the reasons you're thinking...). Conrad's broken powers (he can unlock other people's grimoires and steal spells to use for himself, plus temporarily bring back the dead if he uses the titular sword) and his plan to destroy the Clover Kingdom by performing chemistry with all of his stolen spells and shoving that concentrated power into a lay line were also pretty inventive.

But Sword Of the Wizard King is a thematically shallow torture to get through, so in this case, it might be more magical to give up before you even start.

Next week, the One Piece Multi-Piece returns, so Stay Tuned for that and more, and please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment a new spell at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest grimoires of news on my content.

Animeister,

Out of Magic