Black Torch, the 100studio adaptation of Tsuyoshi Takaki's manga, premiered July 4 on Crunchyroll with a same-day English dub and early praise for its animation and Yutaka Yamada soundtrack.
Black Torch, the 100studio adaptation of Tsuyoshi Takaki's supernatural shonen manga, premiered on July 4, 2026 on Tokyo MX and began streaming the same day on Crunchyroll with a simultaneous English dub. The 12-episode series has quickly become one of the standout debuts of the Summer 2026 season.
Based on Takaki's manga originally published by Shueisha, Black Torch follows Jiro Azuma, a rough-edged teenager with hidden shinobi heritage and the rare ability to communicate with animals. After a fateful encounter with a black cat demon named Rago leaves him fatally wounded, the spirit fuses with Jiro to save his life - granting him volatile shadow-ninja powers and dragging him headlong into a hidden war between humans and supernatural beings.
The setup treads familiar shonen ground, but the series leans hard into its occult-meets-espionage atmosphere, distinguishing itself from more conventional action fare this season. The demon-fusion hook provides an immediate power system with clear stakes, and the uneasy partnership between Jiro and Rago gives the show a tense character dynamic from its very first episode.
Director Kei Umabiki helms the adaptation at 100studio, with Gigaemon Ichikawa handling series composition and screenplays. Character designs come from Go Suzuki, while the score is composed by Yutaka Yamada, whose previous work on Tokyo Ghoul:re and Vinland Saga has made him one of the most sought-after composers working in anime today.
The Japanese voice cast features Ryota Suzuki as Jiro and Yuji Ueda as the centuries-old demon cat Rago. On the English dub side, produced by Studiopolis, A.J. Beckles voices Jiro and Keith Silverstein takes on Rago. The dub launched day-and-date with the Japanese broadcast, ensuring international audiences could jump in from episode one.
The musical identity of Black Torch extends beyond the incidental score. The opening theme, "Freeze Me Up" by SiM, sets an aggressive tone for each episode, while I Don't Like Mondays. provides the ending theme "Groooovy" - a deliberate tonal contrast that mirrors the series' shifts between violent action and offbeat humor.
First impressions from the premiere have been broadly positive. The animation quality during action sequences has been described as stellar, with 100studio delivering fluid, high-energy cuts that give the supernatural combat real visual weight. Some early commentary noted that the fight choreography can feel slightly cluttered at its busiest, but the overall visual execution has drawn praise.
Yamada's soundtrack has been a particular talking point. His score leans into aggressive nu-metal textures that complement the show's edgy aesthetic, though opinion is split on whether the intensity is exhilarating or occasionally overwhelming. Early community reception has settled around a 3.5 out of 5 score, reflecting a series that executes its genre formula with style and confidence even if it does not reinvent the wheel.
The consensus so far positions Black Torch as a reliable, well-produced shonen entry - the kind of series that may not dominate seasonal discourse but delivers consistent entertainment for fans of supernatural action.
Black Torch streams exclusively on Crunchyroll outside of Japan. New episodes drop every Saturday at 6:00 a.m. PT (9:00 a.m. ET), with the English dub available simultaneously. With a compact 12-episode run planned, the season is set to wrap before the fall slate begins, making it a manageable pickup for viewers looking to add one more action series to their weekly rotation.
The series joins a competitive Summer 2026 lineup, but its polished production values, punchy soundtrack, and streamlined episode count give it a clear lane as a gateway title for both longtime shonen fans and newcomers to the genre.
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