The upcoming Black Clover movie may have accidentally spoiled its runtime.A recent tweet from the anime’s official Twitter account included an image of the film’s editing process, along with a time code of exactly two hours for the file’s total length. Whether this is the true runtime of Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King, or whether the image shows an incomplete version, is not yet confirmed, but with recent anime film hits like One Piece Film: Red and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond coming in around two hours, it is plausible Black Clover will follow this trend as well. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train was another major success with a roughly two-hour runtime, suggesting this length may be a new industry standard for the anime film genre.
Black Clover Fans Patiently Await the Film
While fans might know Sword of the Wizard King’s runtime, they still have a long wait ahead of them for the film’s premiere, as a recent announcement pushed back its release by nearly three months. Initially set for a March 31 theatrical debut, the studio pushed back the premiere date to June 16 after a COVID-19 outbreak delayed production. Pierrot is the studio behind the Black Clover anime, as well as iconic series like Tokyo Ghoul and Naruto, the latter of which just announced a collection of four new episodes set during the show’s original run. These episodes will air in September 2023, ensuring Pierrot will have a busy summer with this surprise Naruto project and Sword of the Wizard King’s June debut.
Black Clover and Naruto also shared the headlines recently for less exciting reasons, as fans of Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja classic called out Clover for apparent plagiarism. These accusations arose after images from Black Clover’s latest manga chapter leaked, with one panel depicting an ocular power with a suspicious resemblance to Sasuke’s sharingan. Black Clover has caught flack for ripping off other series in the past, with some critics going so far as to label the show “junk food anime” for how little it demands from its viewers, utilizing common shonen elements to connect to its audience through a sense of familiarity. That said, there is no denying the success of Black Clover as a franchise, which the collective outcry over Sword of the Wizard King’s delay is a testament to.
The movie debuts in Japanese theaters on June 16 and will be available to stream worldwide on Netflix the same day.
Source: Twitter