With the debut of the Black Clover movie on June 16, 2023, as the franchise’s first film, the series is the trending topic of discussion amongst anime fans on social media. With the movie, officially entitled Sword of the Wizard King, having delivered in all respects, this level of engagement and discussion is somewhat unsurprising.
Now that the Black Clover movie has been a smashing success, fans can not stop speculating about what is next for the series in the anime medium. Fans are also arguing whether or not the movie’s prequels, sequels, and tie-ins will get their own OVA adaptations.
This has also, however, led to many discovering that a novelization of the events of the Black Clover movie does indeed exist, creating more questions than answers. Now that a “chicken or the egg”situation has arisen, audiences want to know which came first: the film or the novel.
The existence of Black Clover movie novelization has fans confused about which was adapted from the other
Given all the currently available information on the Black Clover movie and its novelization, it seems that the novel is based on the movie rather than the other way around. This is cemented by the fact that the release information for both always promoted the novel as a “novelization” of the film’s events, rather than the film being marketed as an adaptation of the novel itself.
While this may seem obvious, the primary reason why some fans were perplexed is that the novel contains more information about the former Wizard Kings than the film. Similarly, this led many to believe that the film was an adaptation of the novel, which omitted this material due to time constraints.
In reality, the novel exists (in part) to provide supplemental information which had to be cut from the production of the Black Clover movie, such as his background story. Such a process allowed the film to focus on what it absolutely had to show while leaning on said supplemental material to share what was left on the editing table.
This is further evident by the fact that the novelization of the film’s events is written by Johnny Onda, who himself is one of the scriptwriters for the movie. Onda has also written 3 of the franchise’s light novels, further establishing him as a trusted and reputable author within the series’ body of works.
Given that Onda was involved in writing the script for the Black Clover film, it is reasonable to assume that the novelization’s depiction of events that happened but were not shown in the film is still canon. While the overall film may not be considered canon to the mainline series, the novelization is at least considered canon in terms of the film’s events, such as the backstory of the former Wizard Kings.
In summation
Although this is a complicated question, the solution is simple: the novelization is a retelling of the film, not the other way around. Despite the fact that fans were confused by the near-simultaneous release of the two, this is obviously the case when looking at how the two were marketed in comparison to one another.
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.
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