The news that Black Clover will air its final episode on March 30 may come as a shock to fans. The show is popular worldwide, the anime just entered what appeared to be a long and exciting arc and the manga is still being published. But Black Clover lovers shouldn't be too disheartened by the anime coming to a close -- now is actually the perfect time for it to do so.
Consistency and pacing are one of the many reasons why fans of Black Clover love the show. From the very start, and throughout the entire life of this show, episodes were released on a very tight, weekly schedule. The only time the show stopped airing was during Japan’s lockdown last year due to the pandemic, during which time animators and others working on the show weren’t allowed to enter their workspaces to continue production. In general, Black Clover has had a very small filler episode-count compared to most shonen anime.
In the past few months, Black Clover created anime-canon episodes in the hopes that the anime wouldn’t catch up to the manga too quickly. Those episodes were also advised by the series mangaka, Yūki Tabata, and focused on world-building and character development. The lack of filler has kept the anime close to its source material, which is one of its greatest strengths. That being said, it is also potentially the reason why the show is ending in March.
Due to the aggressive pacing that the show took on over the course of its run, it is now dangerously close to catching up with the manga. This is not a bad thing, but it does beg the question: what happens next? It appears the solution is to bring the show to an end. While this might make more than a few people sad or upset, it's actually a good thing.
The abrupt end could keep Black Clover anime fans guessing what might happen next in this high-stakes arc. With so many unanswered questions, especially regarding Asta’s origin, this might even show the world that the fanbase is alive and ready for what’s next, thus securing Black Clover’s future regardless of what that looks like. This turn of events could also be able to raise sales for the manga, which would only support the notion that the manga continues to be deserving of an anime in some form or another.
As far as the trajectory of the plot is concerned, ending the anime now keeps the integrity of what has already been written intact, as well as the security of what hasn’t been published yet. The anime has been true to the manga thus far, and it seems in-character to continue in that fashion to prevent jeopardizing the original vision in any way. If the anime continued on past the manga, this could disrupt the events that Tabata has in mind. Many anime that have taken this controversial approach have been met with mixed reviews, for example, the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime. It is also not uncommon to end a series and then continue the story in another iteration, as was done in Naruto: Shippuden.
The announcement of the final episode and the end of the show adds that there will be a “big announcement” after the series finale. Some have speculated that a Black Clover movie might be on the way, but one of the more common theories revolves around a sequel to the Black Clover anime that will continue where the current show leaves off. The other theory is that the anime will pick up within the same anime, but be aired as a seasonal series instead of a continuously running one. We’ll have to see what that announcement means for the future, but regardless of what that is, it is sure to surpass Black Clover’s limits.
