REVIEW: ‘Black Torch’ Has An Excellent Premise Buried Under A Mountain Of Exposition

In 2018, Takaki Tsuyoshi’s manga Black Torch was released, but after 5 volumes totaling 19 chapters, it was canceled. The 2026 anime adaptation of Black Torch, produced by 100studio, seeks to tell the story of humanity and the mononoke while completing the narrative that the manga never could. Unfortunately, this already short and incomplete manga was adapted into a rushed and exposition-heavy anime.

Jiro Azuma (A.J. Beckles) is a teenager with a gift for speaking to animals. When his gift unintentionally gets him entangled in the world of mononoke, he winds up dead. When the powerful mononoke, Rago (Keith Silverstein), revives him by merging with him, Jiro and Rago will become part of the Bureau of Investigation, an organization with ancient ties to the Shinobi.

The Bureau’s newly developed human/mononoke team, Black Torch, is tasked with seeking out harmful mononoke. Rago is one such target, but after joining Black Torch through his unconventional merger with a human, the team becomes aware of the larger mononoke threat that seeks to end all of humanity.

The premise of Black Torch centers on action, suspense, and consequences.

Along for the ride are the other recruits, Ichika (Erin Yvette) and Reiji (Kyle McCarley). No one trusts each other at first, so much of Black Torch is about the three teammates working towards learning to trust and support each other.

It’s one of the few places where the exposition is more helpful because it gives us context into who these characters are and why we should care. Also, it’s early enough in the series that setting the table is still important.

Unfortunately, it sets up what could be an interesting romance angle for Jiro and Ichika or even a love triangle with all three. It sets up an even more interesting rivalry-turned-friendship angle between Jiro and Reiji. Black Torch just doesn’t give those potential stories time to breathe after going through the effort to set them up.

Black Torch isn’t a bad idea. In fact, the premise is exciting and surprisingly original. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make up for its poor execution. Black Torch spends a painful amount of time with exposition. No spot is too good for an exposition dump. Beginning of an episode? Sounds like a good spot. Middle or end of an episode? Also a good spot. Right in the middle of a battle? Yes, that’s a good spot for exposition, too.

Black Torch spends a painful amount of time with exposition.

These exposition dumps are in some cases entirely unnecessary. In other spots, characters stop everything they’re doing to explain, and the flashbacks feel like they could have been more fully fleshed-out parts of the story. Instead, we’re left with a lot of talking and a lot of information that’s barely enough to give context to the scene. Even the penultimate episode stops to give us backstory for the main villain, Amagi (Benjamin Diskin).

A particularly disappointing example of unnecessary exposition is a look into Ichika’s motivation for becoming a member of the Bureau. It’s established early on that she’s distrustful of mononoke because of her parents being killed by them. Then, in a later episode, in supplementary exposition, it’s revealed that her mother may still be alive but encased in stone. Then, that thread gets dropped until the very end of the series, where it’s briefly highlighted visually but not resolved.

The premise of Black Torch centers on action, suspense, and consequences. What audiences actually receive is a high-speed cram session as though there’s a test about everyone’s motivations at the end. It becomes increasingly difficult to care about everyone’s personal histories the more they detract from the story’s true heart.

Black Torch takes characters that could be worth rooting for, and somehow undermines them at every turn.

Black Torch could easily have been a 20-24-episode series, given as much information as was provided. Alternatively, one shorter season could have covered the first half, with a second season covering the conclusion. Black Torch could have more fully examined each character and their backstories, as in other anime. Currently, however, there are no plans for a second season to expand upon the story.

But no, instead Black Torch spends so much time setting up the story and each person’s lore that the actual story itself is frustratingly small. The actual amount of time spent investigating, searching for, and fighting hostile mononoke is relatively small compared to the more information-laden aspects of the series.

Frankly, it takes characters that could be worth rooting for, and undermines them at every turn. Jiro, Ichika, and Reiji have a lot going for them. They have personality, humor, and wit, and each is dangerous in their own way. If the series had let that knowledge come organically by watching them in action, it would have made that revelation so much more profound.

When Black Torch finally gets out of its own way in the finale, audiences are treated to the best that the series has to offer. With no pauses for exposition, a fight worthy of the name, and every member of Black Torch working together as a cohesive unit, it’s just about perfect.

Team members work together with little to no ego. The fate of humankind is at stake, and everyone acts accordingly. Jiro and Rago, who largely act as though their union is an alliance born out of necessity, act more like friends or even brothers. It almost makes the previous 11 episodes of mediocrity even more aggravating than they already were.

Black Torch has a premise full of potential. It’s an original idea. It has all the right ingredients for action and suspense. It even comes with the inherent promise of completing a story that the manga never could. Moreover, this is a story that manga fans have desperately wanted completed for quite some time. Despite all that, the result is an anime that feels entirely too rushed and is more talking than action.

Black Torch is streaming now on Crunchyroll.