Studio Pierrot's latest stance may do justice to Black Clover anime's return

With Studio Pierrot Managing Director Keiro Itsumi's interview out, Black Clover fans have new hope for the anime's upcoming sequel series. From the start of Black Clover anime, the series had received criticism over its inconsistent animation, however, that could all change soon.

Black Clover anime premiered back in October 2017. The anime released a total of 170 episodes till March 2021. Following that, the series released a movie called Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King in June 2023. Thereafter, fans have been eagerly waiting for an announcement surrounding the return of Black Clover anime.

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Studio Pierrot might release Black Clover anime in a seasonal format

Studio Pierrot Managing Director Keiro Itsumi (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Studio Pierrot Managing Director Keiro Itsumi recently gave an interview speaking about financing and the changes in the anime industry. During this, he revealed how animation studios in the modern era were more focused on the quality of animation than long-running anime with "big episodes."

This was also evident from the success of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime. The series was previously a long-running anime with big episodes. However, its new arc has been adapted into a seasonal format.

Evidently, the seasonal format has been a huge success. Thus, the company is seemingly planning to adapt to the new stance going forward.

Ichigo Kurosaki as seen in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Currently, they are only focusing on Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. However, after that, they plan on turning other long-running projects into seasonal anime.

Studio Pierrot already has big titles on its hands, big animators, and the budget to do so. Hence, such a move could bring massive success to the company and make it capable of rivaling other industry giants.

According to anime news leaker on X (formerly Twitter), @SekiTsumi, Black Clover anime began early production at the start of 2023 itself. Since then, the studio has been in talks about different plans for the future.

That is also the reason why the four special Naruto episodes, scheduled for September 2023, were also delayed. The company was planning to prioritize quality over quantity of output. This is not just good news for the Naruto anime, but also Boruto anime that ended prematurely.

With such developments, fans are now looking forward to the return of Black Clover anime as it may start its seasonal format with the Spade Kingdom Raid Arc.

Zora and Magna as seen in the anime (Image via Studio Pierrot)

While fans were quite disappointed by the inconsistent animation seen in the television anime, they were impressed by Studio Pierrot's work in the Sword of the Wizard King movie.

Hence, fans are very confident that Studio Pierrot can do justice to the series if the company has a good schedule and financial planning. Such developments could help the anime derive huge profits and gain new popularity within the industry. This could also help boost manga sales and the production of more merchandise.

Noelle Silva as seen in the anime movie (Image via Studio Pierrot)

That said, considering that Studio Pierrot is currently focusing on Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, fans may have to wait until the Tite Kubo anime is close to its end to hear any official news about the Yuki Tabata anime.