Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King debuted a completely original storyline along with an original antagonist. Conrad Leto, the shiny new villain of the franchise, took fans by surprise. Even more intriguing is the fact that Leto is actually the 27th Wizard King, prior to Julius.
Creating a new villain is no joke, but Yuki Tabata has once again bowled fans over with Conrad Leto. In the film, Leto has a unique power unlike anything seen in Black Clover, but turns out the character was initially supposed to have a completely different magical ability.
Conrad Leto’s power in the Black Clover movie could have been completely different
Yuki Tabata participated in a question and answer session that was published in volume 23.5 of the Black Clover manga. In this interview, Tabata talked about the movie and the creative procedure that went into its production. But as the conversation continued, it was suggested that Conrad’s magic wasn’t Key Magic, initially.
Tabata further confirmed this fact by saying:
The base idea was ‘Door Magic’. However as we thought about the setting, we thought it would look better if the magic itself could be opened and closed with a ‘key’, so we decided on ‘Key Magic’. The fact that the door direction is still there is a remnant of the early days.
-Yuki Tabata
Conrad Leto uses a three-leaf clover grimoire, and he can use key magic, an attribute that lets him create keys and open magical rifts. Conrad uses these rifts to store anything and everything, very much like Doraemon’s pocket. As it turns out, the key element was only introduced to make Conrad’s magic look better.
Leto’s door magic power might even remind anime fanatics of Suzume, where the protagonist has to close mysterious open doors. Curiously enough, Suzume was released only half a year before Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King. So did the anime’s creators change Conrad’s power after watching Suzume? That’s a mystery for another day.
Conrad Leto is similar yet different to Asta
In the Black Clover movie, Conrad Leto is the perfect foil for Asta. Both of them had humble beginnings and possessed a strong sense of justice. However, Conrad’s loved ones were killed, after which rage and vengeance drove him to seek the destruction of the Clover Kingdom.
In the Q&A session, Yuki Tabata claimed:
I imagined Conrad to be「strong,「scary」,「earnest and hard-headed」,and a little 「sad」. So when I drew the man who was some-what alike Julius but completely different from Asta, this is what I ended up with.
-Yuki Tabata
Like Asta, Conrad is strong and earnest, as well as a bit hard-headed. He is determined about his goals in the same way as Asta. His sincerity also makes him a bit like Julius. However, due to the wrongdoings he had faced, he ends up rebelling against the nation that he was once supposed to protect.
Every Black Clover fan knows that Asta loves his comrades and would do anything for them. Had he lost someone just as important, he might have also gone berserk with rage. However, Asta’s nature to never punish the innocent and to always choose the moral high ground is what sets him apart from Conrad Leto.
The Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King movie is available to watch on Netflix. The Black Clover anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.
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