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By now, you may have already heard of one of the most surprising developments in anime in 2025; something that was absolutely not on anybody’s bingo card, least of all the series' author.BLACK TORCH, created byHeart Gearauthor Tsuyoshi Takaki, is a manga that had loads of potential when it came out, but its run was cut short by unfavourable reception. With only 19 chapters collected into 5 short volumes,BLACK TORCHwas by no means the first title that came to mind when people thought of a series that needs to get an anime, but the announcement of an anime adaptation for the series hasopened up a whole new can of worms.
Where early cancellation meant the death of a series' hopes, theBLACK TORCHanime announcement made in early March this year might just be a glimmer of hope for the titles that couldn’t see their stories all the way through. But how exactly didBLACK TORCHget an anime against all odds?
I don’t think there’s anyone more excited and surprised than me.
This is all thanks to everyone who has loved the manga, both in Japan and overseas.
As for the production, I’ve been supervising the settings and storyboards, and I feel it’s been recreated into something even better, while still fully respecting the original story.
A newBLACK TORCHhas been brought to life, now with voices, sounds, movement and color.
There are battles, cats, and thighs!
What is BLACK TORCH About?
A Supernatural Battle Shōnen
Jiro Azuma is a little rough around the edges and looks to most like a delinquent, but he’s hiding a number of wild secrets: first of all, he absolutely loves animals, and like a certain Eddie Murphy role, he can talk to them! Not only that, but it turns out that Jiro is of special origins, as he is descended from a family of bona fide ninja. His love of animals often gets him in trouble, but no situation has been more troubling for Jiro than when a suspicious stray cat named Rago fuses with him, granting him exceptional power but also dragging him into humanity’s hidden battle againstpowerful spirits known asmononoke.As it turns out, Rago is a legendarymononokeknown as the Black Star of Doom, and there are nefariousmononokelooking to use this power to achieve their own ambitions. The series was serialized in Shueisha’s monthly shōnen manga magazine Jump Square from December 2016 to March 2018, and later on the digital platform Shōnen Jump+ from April to July 2018.
It had a generally positive reception, at least in the West, with critics like ANN’s Rebecca Silverman giving the first volume a B rating, praising the character dynamics and art style, which she compared to that ofBLEACHauthor Tite Kubo. However, it was also described as rushed and lacking in character development. VIZ Media’s Rae First described it as “everything fans love about Shōnen Jump, in a single manga”. The upcoming anime adaptation is by 100studio (Quality Assurance in Another World), which means that a relatively new studio has the gargantuan task of creating the kind of adaptation ofBLACK TORCHthat could open doors to the swathes of manga cancelled before they could come into their own, to have a new life. TheBLACK TORCHanime has a powerhouse creative team behind it, with:
The series author, Tsuyoshi Takaki, will be heavily involved in the production of theBLACK TORCHanime, supervising the script and storyboards. He expressed elation at the project, describing it as “something better while still fully respecting the original story”.
To bring the world of BLACK TORCH to life with music, we’ve created a unique soundscape with our own original tones and beats. We’re putting our all into making sure we embody the charm of the original work.
How Did This Happen?
Why BLACK TORCH Was Re-Lit
One of the most interesting things aboutBLACK TORCHis that it was axed after only 19 chapters, which indicates a lack of popularity in the platforms it was published on, but there was appreciation for the series both domestically and internationally. The publisher, Shueisha, saw value in packaging these chapters into five volumes, so it had to have been successful on some level domestically. Across the ocean; however, it’s pretty safe to sayBLACK TORCH, while criticized for lacking in character development, was very popular amongst fans internationally, with thehigh quality of the art and its similarities to that of Tite Kubobeing major draws to the series. The anime content aggregator website, MyAnimeList, which is most likely the most popular website of its kind on the internet, paints an interesting picture of the reception ofBLACK TORCH,as it has over 30 000 Members (individual profiles that have the title favourited), which puts it on a similar level as Tite Kubo’sBURN THE WITCH, Shinobu Kaitani’sOne Outs, Shūichi Asō’sThe Disastrous Life of Saiki Kwhen it comes to indicated popularity on MyAnimeList.
All that’s to say thatBLACK TORCHhad the potential to be a beloved long-running shōnen, and the circumstances behind its cancelation are unclear, but what is evident is that the staff working on it are absolutely ecstatic to be doing so. Series director Kei Umabiki’s first impressions ofBLACK TORCHwere that it had charming characters with great visuals as well as cool action with brash villains, further describing it as a “classic that proudly inherits the lineage of Shōnen Jump”. While fans were surprised by the announcement, anime and manga fans hada generally warm reaction to the re-ignition ofBLACK TORCH.
BLACK TORCH’s Revival Could Be Huge
Hope For One, Hope For All?
What makesBLACK TORCHsuch an outlier is the fact that, in most circumstances, an anime adaptation’s main purpose is to bring attention back to the source material. In fact, one could argue that the point of adaptation is to capture pockets of the market that either weren’t exposed to or interested in the source material.BLACK TORCHbeing set for an anime seven whole years after it was cancelled is one of the strangest circumstances behind an adaptation we’ve seen, potentially ever. There are so many titles, both over and ongoing, that are stuck in the Hell of having no hope whatsoever of being adapted into an anime.
Titles likeHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuauthor Yuji Kaku’sAyashimon, Toshiaki Iwashiro’sPsyren, Piroshiki and Takana Hotaru’sIris Zero, Gen Oosuka’sDoron Dororon,Rin Matsui’sDear Anemone, Tite Kubo’sZombiepowder; which could effectively be seen as a first draft forBLEACH(yes, even more so than the original one-shot), Kenji Ichima and Tsunehiro Date’sTime Paradox Ghostwriter, Yasuhiro Kanō’sMx0, to name a few, were all extremely promising manga that couldn’t get through to their end.BLACK TORCH’srevival creates a situation in which other cancelled manga now have the chance to live on as anime, and that’s a very exciting possibility.
Read BLACK TORCH onVIZ Media’s website. The anime does not have a release date yet, but expect it “soon”.
