Viz Media made a number of announcements at Emerald City Comic Con last weekend, but the most unexpected was a new anime now in production based on Tsuyoshi Takaki’s manga Black Torch. It’s got a typical shonen premise, so what makes this unusual? The fact that the book is from 2016.
Ordinarily, anime studios tend to pick manga to adapt that’s just recently become popular. A manga that doesn’t get its own animated series by the time it ends is considered to have missed its chance. But not this time. It may be late, but Black Torch is getting its belated time in the sun.
The premise of this one is that Jiro Azuma is your average teenager — who also happens to come from a family of shinobi and undergoes secret ninja training with his grandfather every week. In addition, Jiro possesses the special ability to understand the languages of animals and communicate with them — and he uses this power to protect the animal kingdom.
One day Jiro spots an injured black cat and rescues him — but the cat turns out to actually be the evil mononoke (spirit) Rago of the Black Star of Doom. While fending off Rago’s attackers, Jiro is killed in battle, but Rago saves him by merging their two spirits together. While this makes Jiro even more powerful, he and Rago have to learn to get along in order to accomplish anything.
Black Torch will be directed by Kei Umabiki with character designs by Gou Suzuki. Series Composition & Screenplay will be guided by Gigaemon Ichikawa and Yutaka Yamada will provide the music score. Animation house 100studio will make everything move.
“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,” says creator Takaki. “A new BLACK TORCH has been brought to life, now with voices, sounds, movement and color.”
There’s no release window yet for Black Torch, but you can watch a teaser AND see Takaki draw Jiro and Rago below….
The post Viz Announces Black Torch Anime Adaption appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
