I am not really one to go out of my way to review things on here but this felt like something I needed to sit down and process. So to start I was out one weekend with some people and I walked into this shop where they had a bunch of manga both newish and old a wonderful little shop. Sitting right before my eyes which I knew was a deal I would be unable to pass on was vol. 15 of Black Torch for TWENTY USD. Now this is a semi new series I had seen vol 1 at BN earlier that day for 10 USD plus tax. So without knowing anything about the series I scooped it up bought it and went home. Looking at this series from the outside and reading the first volume Ill just say it for what it is: Its quite literally JJK mixed with a bit of Naruto but only if we had Naruto Shippuden. Of course I will break down my idea of this now and this is in no way my own thought so to speak. I have seen a few others say the same thing. On the JJK front you have the similarities of an iconic demonic figure inhabiting a boy who had no real ties to the world prior that he THINKS at least. A trio of people who are put to the task by a much larger organization to take care of these spirits/demons/things without the general public finding out. You have a leader who is lovable in his goofy fun loving approach but in reality is amazingly talented/smart and capable. And finally you have a similar overarching goal from the villain of seeking out this iconic demonic figure and making them work with them in their scheme. Now comparing it to Shippuden is coming more to personal feelings in poor character development and treatment but Black Torch is very similar in the way that the characters are extremely one dimensional. No matter how you argue if Naruto Shippuden is good or not I like Naruto so dont get me wrong anyone can see that a majority of characters are only meant to represent an archetype of a personality and not much more IE Hinata is soft spoken and shy Sakura is out spoken and strong Naruto is a gogetter etc. In Black Torch however this is less of the fault of the mangaka and more of the fault of how long the series runs. The protagonists and even the antagonists have so much potential to be multi faceted characters but its hard to do that in 5 volumes as well as having heavy fight scenes and exposition. Along with all that you of course have the similarities of Naruto and Jiro being half human half demonicish spirit as well as the whole ninja aspect and the team of three being broken up into rambunctious half human boy strong sassy girl and attractive up and coming prodigy. Now for me to sing this series some praise: the art is fantastic. The character design and the art itself is honestly very well done and beautiful. The physical manga come with small mini posters for each volume and theyre all absolutely beautiful. The design that goes into the demonic spirit people as well as the motion and the dynamic movements is honestly enough for me to recommend the series as well as it being a decent read for a non committing 5 volumes. However I do feel that reducing it to 5 volumes which I have a theory was not the mangakas choice to do based on open ended plots and things that were never resolved has caused this manga more damage than it can really overcome. This manga came out two years to my understanding BEFORE JJK meaning that by the beginning of the 4th volume JJK would have just started production. Now I enjoy Shonen Jump as much as another but I have to say from an objective standpoint that SJ is not the kindest to their creators signed to them. I would not be shocked if SJ decided to chop Black Torch in favor of JJK which sucks because I would have loved to hear more about characters back stories and things that will never be known like Jiros father. All in all I do recommend this read to people who enjoy JJK and Naruto as well as D.Grey Man. With beautiful art and not a whole lot of commitment it is honestly a decent way to spend an afternoon.