Warning: Contains spoilers for Black Torch.In an announcement no one was expecting, the Shonen Jump manga Black Torch has been announced to have an anime in development. The series was canceled after five volumes almost seven years ago, so as exciting as the announcement is, it’s nonetheless surprising when the series was, by all measures of the word, a failure.

Regardless of how popular Black Torch may or may not have been, Black Torch getting an anime is nonetheless exciting, and there’s an easy way for it to succeed. As with many manga that are unceremoniously canceled, Black Torch’s ending and overall final act were largely unsatisfying, and they even retroactively make the earlier parts of the series feel less competent, because of that. Fortunately, Black Torch already has the perfect blueprint to make its anime succeed where its manga failed, and it’s the exact sort of series that would deserve all of that and more.

Black Torch's Author Already Laid Out The Perfect Blueprint For The Anime

Black Torch's Story Has The Chance To Be So Much Better

While most mangaka with canceled manga just leave their stories as is, the same can’t be said of Black Torch’s Tsuyoshi Takaki. In Black Torch’s final volume, Takaki devoted the last dozen pages to detailed biographies for the cast, and not only did he reveal the backstories of several characters that never made it into the manga, but he also described a potential second arc involving things like the main trio in high school, Ichika and Reiji gaining new powers, and a new conflict with mononoke trying to take over the political world that involved Jiro’s evil, long-lost father.

If the Black Torch anime simply adapts the manga as is, it would be as largely unsatisfying as the manga was, but since the author already has an outline for what the rest of the story would have been, Black Torch’s anime can improve on the story by adapting Tsuyoshi Takaki’s complete vision for the story. Takaki has already said that he’s involved with the anime’s production, calling to mind how Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War resulted in numerous changes, and it would be great to see something like that for Black Torch, as well.

Black Torch Can Have The Ultimate Redemption With Its Anime

How One Of Shonen Jump's Most Underrated Manga Can Get Its Due

Above all else, the thing to look forward to the most with Black Torch’s anime is the story’s ultimate redemption. Even though Black Torch was never a big hit, it still developed a fanbase thanks to its great art and even greater action and ing, and even after almost a decade, it’s still one of the most visually striking manga a person can read, by far. Black Torch deserves far more respect than it’s been given if only because of the sheer magnitude of its spectacle, and with it finally getting an anime, that’s perfectly poised to happen.

What little has been shown of the anime also gives credence to that idea. While director Kei Umabiki and production studio 100studio aren’t well-known, the trailer showed off incredible artwork and animation befitting the original manga, and with the possibility of an improved and expanded story, Black Torch looks like it’s set to be an incredible anime just from its first trailer. Overall, there’s plenty to be excited about with Black Torch, and hopefully, it will go down as one of the best Shonen Jump anime in years.

Source: Viz Media.