Black Torch Anime: Release Date, Cast, Manga Status & Episode Schedule

I’ve checked the Black Torch release calendar more times this month than I’d like to admit. Not because there’s anything left to confirm — July 4 has been locked in for a while now — but because this is one of those shows where the “wait, this is actually happening?” feeling hasn’t worn off yet. A manga Shonen Jump cancelled in 2018 is getting a full TV anime, a Crunchyroll simulcast, and a stacked cast in 2026. That doesn’t happen often, and it’s worth sitting with for a second before we get into the details.

So here’s everything I’ve pulled together on Black Torch — release date, cast, the manga’s surprisingly tangled history, and a projected episode breakdown nobody else seems to be running yet.

Black Torch Anime Release Date and Where to Watch

Black Torch premieres July 4, 2026 in Japan, airing on Tokyo MX with same-day broadcasts on Sun TV and TV Aichi. Crunchyroll has the simulcast outside Asia, which means most international fans get it the same day, not weeks later. Wikipedia’s production entry lists Tokyo MX as the lead broadcaster, and the show’s official site confirms the Saturday timeslot.

Release Information

One detail that’s easy to miss: this isn’t just a Japan-and-US release. Muse Communication picked up South and Southeast Asian distribution separately, and French fans get it day-one through Crunchyroll’s local catalog as well. If you’re outside the US, don’t assume you’re stuck waiting — check your regional Crunchyroll library first.

What Is Black Torch About?

Jiro Azuma is descended from a line of shinobi, which sounds like a setup we’ve seen a hundred times. The actual hook is that he can talk to animals, and it’s made his life miserable — kids don’t exactly go easy on the guy who chats with stray dogs. His only real comfort growing up was his own dog, Nachi.

That changes when he finds an injured black cat in the woods. The cat — Rago — turns out to be a mononoke known as the Black Calamity, hunted by other spirits for his power. When an attack leaves Jiro near death, Rago fuses with him to save his life. The fusion gives Jiro serious power, but it also drags him straight into the crosshairs of the Bureau of Espionage, a government outfit built to monitor and contain mononoke threats.

If you’ve read Jujutsu Kaisen’s early volumes, the bones here will feel familiar — human-spirit fusion, government oversight, a protagonist who didn’t ask for any of this. What sets Black Torch apart is the tone. Takaki leans harder into the ninja-versus-yokai folklore angle than most modern dark shonen, and Rago is written with more bite than your average “wise spirit mentor” archetype. Early trailer footage shows him as genuinely sarcastic, not just ominous. If you’re into the yokai-and-spirits side of current shonen, Dan Da Dan Season 3 is worth tracking too — different tone, same supernatural backbone.

Why a Cancelled Manga Is Getting a Full Anime in 2026

Here’s the part most release-date roundups skip entirely, and it’s honestly the most interesting thing about this whole project.

Black Torch ran in Jump Square from December 2016, then briefly continued on Shonen Jump+ before wrapping in mid-2018, according to Wikipedia’s publication history. Five volumes. That’s it. In an industry where Shonen Jump cancels far more manga than it ever adapts, a series that got cut after a year and a half doesn’t usually come back. No anime, no reprint, nothing. The creator moves on to their next pitch, and the series becomes a footnote some readers remember fondly.

Black Torch didn’t follow that script. The anime was confirmed at Emerald City Comic Con back in March 2025, which is itself a little unusual — a Western convention announcement for a Japanese shonen adaptation isn’t the norm. Whatever the internal calculus was at Shueisha and 100studio, somebody decided a five-volume cancelled series had enough of a built-in audience and enough story left to justify a full TV production with a composer like Yamada attached.

There’s also a quieter, practical advantage here that’s easy to undersell: the manga is finished. No risk of the anime catching up to unfinished source material, no awkward original-ending detour. Whatever 100studio adapts, they’re adapting a story that already has a beginning, middle, and end. That’s rarer than it should be for a Summer 2026 shonen debut.

Black Torch Cast, Staff & Music

Junya Enoki voicing Reiji Kirihara is the casting note everyone’s latched onto — he’s Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen, and given how often Black Torch gets compared to JJK in trailer reactions, that pick doesn’t feel accidental. Junichi Suwabe rounding out the cast as Ryosuke Shiba adds a veteran anchor that signals the production isn’t cutting corners.

Behind the camera, Yutaka Yamada on score duty is the credit that made me sit up — he scored Tokyo Ghoul and Vinland Saga, and that’s the right resume for a show built on mononoke horror. The OP is “Freeze Me Up” by SiM, the band behind Attack on Titan’s “The Rumbling,” and the ED is “Groooovy” by I Don’t Like Mondays. According to the official Black Torch anime site, 100studio has also been deliberate about preserving the manga’s monochrome look rather than oversaturating the supernatural elements with color.

Black Torch Manga — Is It Finished, and Where Do You Read It?

Yes, fully finished. The manga ran from 2016 to 2018 and wrapped at five collected volumes. VIZ Media holds the English license and has all five volumes available, both physically and through the Shonen Jump digital platform.

If you’re planning to read ahead of the anime — or catch up after — there’s a detail worth knowing that most release-date posts don’t mention: VIZ is putting out a complete box set edition covering all five volumes, currently listed with a September 22, 2026 release date and over 1,000 pages combined, including an exclusive double-sided poster. That’s separate from the individual 2018–2019 volume releases, which are still in print but scattered across formats. If you want the whole story in one purchase timed roughly to when the anime’s nearing its later episodes, that box set is the play. If you just want to start reading now, the single volumes on VIZ work fine too.

Projected Black Torch Episode Schedule

No official episode-by-episode air dates have been published yet, and I want to be upfront that everything in this table is a projection based on the confirmed July 4 premiere and the standard weekly format most Crunchyroll simulcasts follow. Treat it as a planning tool, not a locked schedule — actual dates can shift for production reasons, and 100studio hasn’t released a full episode count as of this writing.

Why stop at 10 instead of running it out to 12 or 13? Because that’s exactly the uncertainty I don’t want to paper over — sources discussing the adaptation’s scope have floated a 12-to-13 episode single-cour season as the likely format for fitting five volumes of material, but 100studio hasn’t confirmed a final count. I’d treat anything past episode 10 as genuinely speculative until the studio says otherwise. I’ll update this table the moment an official episode count or schedule change drops.

Black Torch vs. the Rest of Summer 2026’s Shonen Lineup

Summer 2026 is loaded. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War — The Calamity is delivering what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest shonen finales in years, and Mushoku Tensei Season 3 is bringing back one of isekai’s most polished productions. Against that kind of competition, Black Torch isn’t trying to out-spectacle anyone. It’s playing a different game entirely — the underdog comeback story, the complete-and-contained narrative, the “you can watch this whole thing in one cour and walk away satisfied” pitch. That’s a real niche, and it’s one this crowded season was otherwise missing.

Black Torch FAQ

Q. When does the Black Torch anime release?
July 4, 2026 in Japan, with a same-day Crunchyroll simulcast for most international regions.

Q. Is the Black Torch manga finished?
Yes — it concluded in 2018 after five volumes, so the anime has a complete story to work from.

Q. Why was Black Torch cancelled the first time?
Shueisha ended its Jump Square run in 2018 after roughly a year and a half; the official reasoning was never publicly detailed, which is fairly typical for Jump Square cancellations of that era.

Q. How many episodes will Black Torch anime have?
Not officially confirmed yet. Given the five-volume source material, a single-cour 12-to-13 episode season is the most discussed estimate, but treat that as unconfirmed until 100studio states otherwise.

Q. Where can I read the Black Torch manga?
VIZ Media has all five volumes in English, plus a complete box set edition listed for September 2026.

Final Thoughts about Black Torch

I’ll be watching the premiere live when it drops — this is shaping up to be one of those rare “give the cancelled series its second chance” stories that actually earns the hype around it. Are you adding Black Torch to your Summer 2026 watchlist, or waiting to see how the first couple episodes land first?