Black Torch Review: The Bullied Kid Who Could Only Talk to Animals — Until One of Them Talked Back

When I was small and friendless, the only living things that didn't flinch away from me were animals. A neighbor's dog, the stray cats behind the convenience store. I used to talk to them out loud, the way lonely kids do, and I half-believed they understood. So when I picked up Black Torch and met Jiro Azuma — a boy bullied for talking to animals, who could only find peace with his dog — I felt something old and specific click into place. This is a five-volume action manga with a cat-spirit and demon fights, and it should not have hit me the way it did. But Tsuyoshi Takaki built it on top of a wound I recognized.

I read all five volumes in an evening. It is short, it ends a little too soon, and I still think about it more than series ten times its length.

Quick Take

• A compact, fully complete action series (5 volumes) about a lonely ninja kid and the immortal cat-spirit fused into his body
• The Jiro–Rago partnership is the heart of it — they bicker like an old married couple between fights, and Takaki never lets the demon become a mere power-up
• Rated T (Teen) — action violence and supernatural themes, plus a bullying backstory that grounds the lead; nothing graphic

Story Overview

Jiro Azuma is a teenage punk descended from ninja and trained by his grandfather, with one rare inheritance: he can talk to animals. It made his childhood miserable — kids bullied him for it, and his only real friend was his dog, Nachi. Following some birds into the woods one day, he finds a gravely injured black cat and nurses it back to health. The cat is stunned that Jiro can understand him, and reveals his name: Rago, an immortal mononoke (a demonic spirit) that has warred with humanity for ages.

That night they're ambushed by another mononoke, and Jiro is killed — stabbed through the chest while protecting Rago. Out of pity and debt, Rago fuses with Jiro to bring him back to life. Their combined strength destroys the attacker, but the display drags them into custody of the Bureau of Espionage (the modern-day Oniwabanshu), the secret organization that hunts mononoke. Rather than be executed as a human housing a demon, Jiro and Rago agree to fight for the Bureau, joining a squad and learning to live as two beings sharing one body.

The series escalates toward Amagi, a mononoke who devours other spirits — and eventually allies — to make himself the strongest thing alive. His goal is Rago's power, which now sits inside Jiro. The final volume sends Jiro into the spirit world's Avidya Forest to fully awaken and control Rago's strength before the last confrontation. The ending ties off the Amagi arc but very deliberately leaves the door open — Jiro and Rago's story is framed as far from over.

Characters

Jiro Azuma — The lead, and the reason the premise works. His animal-talking gift is treated not as a quirky superpower but as the thing that isolated him as a child. He's brash and quick to throw a punch on the surface, but his defining trait is that he cannot stand to watch a helpless creature suffer — it's why he saved Rago, why he died, and why he keeps risking himself. His arc is about a kid who only ever connected with animals finally having a partner who talks back.

Rago — The black cat who is also an ancient immortal mononoke. Gruff, proud, and far older than Jiro, he fuses with the boy out of obligation and ends up genuinely bonded to him. Crucially, Takaki gives Rago real opinions — he argues with Jiro's decisions instead of just lending power, so the fusion reads like a relationship, not an upgrade.

Reiji Kirihara — A Bureau squad member who flatly refuses to work alongside a human fused with a demon, and nearly comes to blows with Jiro almost immediately. His hostility is the squad's main internal friction early on.

Ichika Kishimojin & Hana Usami — The rest of the Black Torch squad. Ichika is the more composed operative; Hana rounds out the team. They give Jiro the first human peer group he's ever really had.

Amagi — The final antagonist: a mononoke who consumes other spirits and his own allies to grow stronger, hunting Rago's power inside Jiro. He drives the back half of the series and the closing battle.

What I Love About It

It's the Jiro–Rago dynamic, and specifically the choice to make Rago an arguer. So many shonen "I now have a demon inside me" setups treat the inner partner as a voice that grants power and occasionally growls a warning. Takaki refuses that. Rago has actual positions — about whether to fight, whom to protect, how reckless Jiro is being — and Jiro takes them seriously, pushes back, and sometimes loses the argument. Reviewers keep landing on the same description: the two bicker like a married couple between battles. That's exactly right, and it's why their bond carries a series that could otherwise coast on its fight choreography.

What makes it land for me personally is the foundation underneath it. The bickering is funny, but it sits on top of Jiro's loneliness — a kid whose only friend was a dog, who was bullied for the very ability that now lets him hear Rago. The fusion isn't just a power source; it's the first time this boy has a partner who is genuinely with him, inside his own skin, talking back. Takaki could have played the gift as cute trivia. Instead he made it the loneliest thing about Jiro and then handed him the one creature that could finally answer.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The fusion itself. Jiro leaps in to shield Rago from the attacking mononoke and is run through the chest — killed protecting an animal he'd known for a day. It's the logical endpoint of everything established about him: the kid who can't watch a creature die, dying for one. And then Rago, the proud immortal who has spent ages at war with humans, chooses to fuse with him out of pity and debt, dragging him back from death.

What sticks with me is the inversion. The whole series premise — a human carrying a demon — is born from a demon being unable to let a human die for him. The moment isn't a triumphant power-up; it's two outcasts, one bullied human and one cornered spirit, deciding in the same breath that the other is worth saving. Everything that follows, all five volumes of squad politics and mononoke fights, is just the two of them learning to live with that decision.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Complete at 5 volumes — a full story you can finish in an evening, no ongoing commitment
• The Jiro–Rago partnership is genuinely warm and funny, not a hollow power-up
• The bullying-and-loneliness foundation gives the lead real emotional weight
• Clean, confident Jump-style action with distinct mononoke designs

Cons

• It ends abruptly — the Amagi arc resolves but the series clearly wanted to be longer, and the villain feels underused for his buildup
• World-building stays thin; the Bureau and the mononoke war are sketched, not deepened
• The supporting squad (Ichika, Hana) gets less room than the central duo
• If you want a sprawling, deeply-built shonen epic, five volumes will leave you wanting — that's either a clean strength or a frustration depending on what you came for

Is Black Torch Worth Reading?

Yes, if you want a complete, character-driven action series you can finish in one sitting and a lead-and-demon partnership with actual heart behind the banter. It's short and the ending arrives too soon, but the Jiro–Rago bond — and the lonely-kid foundation under it — make it worth the few hours. Go in for the relationship, not for epic world-building, and it delivers.

Similar Manga

Title	Its Approach	How Black Torch Differs
Blue Exorcist	Supernatural heritage and an organization hunting demons, long-running	Black Torch is far more compact and centers a single fused partnership rather than an ensemble school cast
Noragami	A human bonded to a spirit partner, with a melancholy streak	Black Torch keeps a punchier shonen-action register and a tighter five-volume arc
Kekkaishi	Self-contained supernatural-action with a clear mythology	Black Torch trades deep world-building for a faster, relationship-first focus

Where to Buy

Read the first volume. If it doesn't hook you, put it down. It'll hook you.

Start with Volume 1 →

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