Recently, Netflix released an exclusive interview with the creators of the Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King film on YouTube, featuring Director Ayataka Tanemura, Character Designer Itsuko Takeda, Art Director Yuki Maeda, Color Planner Aiko Shinohara and Camera Director Tomoyuki Kunii. In this interview, director Ayataka and others elaborately discussed their in-depth perspectives that went into the making of the film Sword of the Wizard King.
The film Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King follows the story of Yuki Tabata’s Black Clover and introduces a new adversary that poses a threat to the Clover Kingdom. This article highlights the major points discussed in the interview.
The Black Clover creators explain the behind-the-scene effort that went into making the film Sword of the Wizard King
In the exclusive interview held by Netflix, the creators of the Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King movie provided their respective views and also unveiled the behind-the-scenes effort that went into making the film. The five creators featured in the interview have discussed multiple concepts of the film from their own perspectives.
The director of the film, Ayataka Tanemura, precisely established three guiding principles that had to be kept in mind while making the film. First, Asta had to win satisfying battles. Secondly, the story of the film should take place in between the six months Asta trained in the Heart Kingdom, and thirdly, they should tell an exciting story that would follow the original style of the manga. That’s how they settled on the idea of Magic Knights fighting the previous four Wizard Kings.
Talking about the original characters, Ayataka said,
“What I’m most mindful of in creating my own story is the need for characters who aren’t in the original work. These characters have to be developed in such a way that fans of the original work will accept them naturally.”
The color designer of the film, Aiko Shinohara, also provided details regarding the number of cells that had to be incorporated into the multiple fighting sequences. Whether it was photographing those cells, drawing them, or animating the backgrounds, every step required lots of work.
Director Ayataka also acknowledged the efforts of the animators. As a director, he wanted to create scenes that would really grab hold of the audience, especially the sequences of the first four minutes of the film, which were dynamic in nature, according to Ayataka.
The art style, action sequences, animation, and more
Making an anime film like Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King was most certainly not an easy task. As it was mentioned earlier, Ayataka emphasized the contribution of the animators. It was important to make dynamic fighting sequences in this action-heavy film. Jokingly, the creators asked whether they had put more work into the first few minutes of the film than the concluding fight scene.
Tomoyuki Kunii, the camera director of the film, also highlighted the integration of CG and cell animation. Highlighting the climactic battle between Asta and Conrad, where the latter drops a big meteorite, director Ayataka mentioned how he was impressed by that sequence and wondered how the animators could pull something like that off.
Talking about the core themes and the philosophical dynamics, Ayataka said,
“I feel Conrad represents what Asta could have become if he adopted the wrong philosophy or took the wrong path. As a result, you have this battle of ideas between Conrad and Asta.”
He added,
“My hope was that he could show strength but also human frailty as a Wizard King, and that would make him an interesting character.”
Itsuko Takeda, the character designer of the film, revealed how she designed Conrad in fine fashion. She highlighted the sanity of Conrad’s previous self through his eyes. To contrast a different Conrad, she tried to make his eyes have a ‘more melancholy appearance’. Talking about the character design, Takeda said,
“First we got rough designs from Yuki Tabata, the manga author, and then, to make them suitable for animation, I tried to draw several designs, so that when other people had to draw them, they could do easily, no matter what the angle or the expression.”
To animate the action scenes beautifully, they also constantly consulted with the director. Yuki Maeda also cited the example of the Triumph Coliseum, which had a total of 300 different shots where it was used. In other words, they had to make 300 different background drawings.
“I would create a finished background and give it to others to use as reference,”Yuki Maeda said.
Not only the action sequences but also the voice acting was equally important in the film. Ayataka had a chat with the voice actors regarding the personalities of the characters they’d represent. In addition, the creators of Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King also talked about the iconic music used in the film.
There were already songs that we’re familiar with from the TV series, and ‘Haruka Mirai’ is a sort of the traditional Black Clover song, so I knew I would want to use it somewhere.”- Ayataka Tanemura
Apart from that, Ayataka also asked Kenkaku Piero for something new for the film as well, in terms of music. He wanted to use the new song in the climax scene of the movie and use Haruka Mirai as the concluding music.
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King is available on Netflix. It tells the story of Asta, Black Bulls, and the Magic Knights of the Clover Kingdom, who need to fight against the four wizard kings from the past, to save the Clover Kingdom from calamity.
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