Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King was announced in Weekly Shōnen Jump in March 2021, days before the television run ended. It is an original story set in the six-month interval before the Heart Kingdom Joint Struggle arc, the kind of tale Tabata said the original work would not do. He served as the film's chief supervisor and original character designer; Ayataka Tanemura directed, and Johnny Onda and Ai Orii wrote the screenplay.
The villain is Conrad Leto, voiced by Toshihiko Seki: a former Wizard King and Julius's predecessor, sealed away by Julius, who returns wielding the Imperial Sword and revives three dead Wizard Kings, Edward Avalaché, Princia Funnybunny and Jester Garandaros. Production delays tied to the pandemic moved the release from March 31, 2023 to June 16, 2023, when it opened in Japanese theaters and streamed on Netflix the same day. Theatergoers received a bonus booklet, Volume 23.5.
Netflix reported 6.4 million views in the first three days, the week's number two non-English film worldwide, and its engagement reports credit the film with 21.5 million hours viewed in the first half of 2023 alone. Critics were kind: it holds an 86 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was nominated for Best Film at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards. A novelization by Atarō Kuma followed in June 2023.
