©タカキツヨシ／集英社・BLACK TORCH製作委員会
The Black Torch manga came out back in 2016 and ran for five volumes before it ended in Japan, as serialized in Jump SQ from Shueisha by creator Tsuyoshi Takaki. The manga saw a pickup from Viz Media, which brought it out in English in both print and digital form some time ago – you can read our reviews here. An anime adaptation was announced in March 2025, with Crunchyroll previously announcing its pickup of the show for the summer season. They’ll be bringing it to subscribers in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and the CIS when it arrives on July 4th, 2026.
The latest update has the Japanese side streaming the clean version of the opening sequence, which features “Freeze Me Up” by SiM.
The show has Yutaka Yamada handling the music with 100studio on the animation production. Kei Umabiki is directing it from the series composition and screenplay by Gigaemon Ichikawa with character designs by Gou Suzuki.
The Japanese cast includes:
- Ryōta Suzuki as Jiro Azuma
- Yōji Ueda as Rago
- Sayaka Senbongi as Ichika Kishimojin
- Junya Enoki as Reiji Kirihara
- Reina Ueda as Hana Usami
- Junichi Suwabe as Ryosuke Shiba
- Nobuhiko Okamoto as Koga
- Toshiyuki Morikawa as Amagi
- Shinpachi Tsuji as Toshimasa Azuma
- Yuhko Kaida as Toko Kusumi
- Hochu Otsuka as Banjuro Tokieda
The English cast includes:
- A.J. Beckles as Jiro Azuma
- Erin Yvette as Ichika Kishimojin
- Kyle McCarley as Reiji Kirihara
- Keith Silverstein as Rago
- Ryan Colt Levy as Ryusuke Shiba
- Julie Nathanson as Hana Usami
- Laura Post as Toko Kusumi
- Ben Balmaceda as Toshimasa Azuma
The series features the opening song “Freeze Me Up” by SiM, and the ending theme song” Groooovy” performed by I Don’t Like Mondays.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: As a descendant of shinobi, Jirou Azuma has been learning ninja techniques his entire life. But in addition to that, he also has the ability to talk to animals. One day when he rescues a strange black cat named Ragou, he learns that the world is filled with spirits called mononoke that can take the form of both people and animals. However, their meeting is cut short when they are attacked by a hostile mononoke who is after Ragou’s power.
Previous promos and visuals:
©タカキツヨシ／集英社・BLACK TORCH製作委員会
©タカキツヨシ／集英社・BLACK TORCH製作委員会
Chris Beveridge
http://www.fandompost.com
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
He likes to write a lot, as you can see.
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