Black Torch Ep.01 - Good start, feels old school. Ichika looks good!

Black Torch is an anime series that just started airing in the summer 2026 anime season, and it is the first one I'm covering here on the blog. It's based on a manga of the same name, written by Takaki Tsuyoshi, which serialized between 2016 and 2018 and was completed with five volumes released.

I'm honestly surprised they decided to produce an adaptation for a series that is this old and without a sequel. I genuinely wonder what events led them to say, "Oh, this one feels like the best series to animate." It can't be to boost manga sales because, at this point, it's way too old to sell. Maybe a spinoff, I wonder? Or a new series from the author?

Ichika looks good for a main heroine, voice, looks. We don't know personality much, but she looks like the serious type which will inevitably lead into embarrassment and cute scenes.

This was like the third shot at this angle for Ichika in one episode and I'm impressed, recent anime shy away from this.

The story follows 17-year-old Jirou Azuma, who is living a quiet life with his grandfather while using his supernatural ability to talk to animals. His family is a descendant of a long-standing Shinobi clan, and he has been trained by his grandfather even though he doesn't take that too seriously.

Life changes abruptly when he encounters Ragou, a mononoke in the form of a black cat. That catapults him into a supernatural world and gets him involved with various factions to ally with or fight against. You know, it's the usual gist, and the series doesn't shy away from following the classic tenets of this kind of series.

The entire first episode is divided mostly into two areas: showing Jirou's personality and showing Ichika's (the main heroine) lower half. Like, the first time I thought, "Oh, fanservice," but when the camera moved down for the third time in five minutes, I knew that was very intentional. Not that I'm complaining, you know.

Oh, and there was a battle against the Oni mononoke (see attached video), but it honestly wasn't too impressive animation-wise. There were a few nice shots, but it was mostly reused keyframes and a few PowerPoint-style tools to make the image swipe and roll. I mean, it's still decent, but I'm worried it might devolve later on.

Ichika looks good in this outfit too, but I'm curious if she's doing this part time between school or it's her main job. They haven't said much about their life outside yet.

Typical government organization, what's the point of putting a mask on everyone? I know I know, it's to make the dude at the center more visible, still look silly though.

I can't talk much about the plot yet, but there are good hints left around. Jirou is more important than he would seem at first, and Ragou is clearly hiding something. But from there, it could develop in any possible way, so it's better to wait for the second episode before exploring that further.

I'm definitely going to continue watching and covering this; it feels like a light series that I can get through without thinking too much. I don't expect it to be revolutionary, but I can't see it disappointing me either. Hopefully, the other heroines are as good as Ichika, as the OP doesn't really show much of them.