The Black Clover movie may have set back the anime's return

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One of the most highly anticipated anime projects of the year was finally released this past weekend in the form of the Black Clover movie. Following the delay from its original release date of March 31, 2023, fans have been excitedly counting down the months, weeks, and days until its eventual Friday, June 16, 2023 release.

With the film now available to watch on Netflix worldwide, fans of the series are tuning in to experience the events and assess the franchise’s return to an anime format. Unsurprisingly, the Black Clover movie has received high praise from long-time fans and newcomers alike for its overall quality. They are now curious to see whether or not the overwhelmingly positive reception of the Black Clover movie will lead to an eventual return of the series’ television anime adaptation.

The film’s success is certainly encouraging in this regard, but fans may be disappointed to find that the television anime’s return has actually been delayed by the film’s production.

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Black Clover movie production reason behind season 5’s delayed return

Without a doubt, the most time-consuming aspect of producing any type of anime (including the Black Clover movie) is the overall animation production. The amount of work, effort, and attention to detail that goes into producing high-quality anime-style animation is truly a Herculean effort, even if it may seem otherwise to viewers.

This is true even when just one anime project is being produced, whether it be a television anime season, a standalone film, or an OVA (original video animation). In any one of these cases, animation production can be a long and arduous process, and even frustrating at times, depending on what a production team’s specific goals for a scene are.

All of that is to say that the Black Clover movie’s production process was likely several years in the making. This is especially true when considering that Studio Pierrot, the animation studio for the film, was still working on other projects alongside the film. Bleach: TYBW, Boruto, and more were all likely being produced (by separate teams) concurrently with the film.

Likewise, it’s possibly unlikely that Studio Pierrot devoted more than one team to each franchise in general. This likely resulted in the team working on the film prioritizing its completion over beginning work on season 5 of the series’ television anime adaptation. In other words, the film’s production likely delayed the return of the television anime.

While this is obviously speculative, the Black Clover movie’s incredible quality does somewhat serve as evidence for such a claim. To produce both such a high-quality movie and a television anime season concurrently would be almost unheard of, and to achieve a satisfactory final product for both is essentially miraculous.

With all of this in mind, it appears uncertain that fans will see the return of the series’ television anime adaptation anytime soon. While the movie’s success would indicate that such a return is coming eventually, it’s more likely than not that significant production didn’t begin until the film was fully completed, thus delaying its return.

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Be sure to keep up with all Black Clover manga news, as well as general anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.