Review by Frank Plowright
Black Torch is a page-turning action thriller concerning the efforts of a small and talented team to prevent mononokes, or spirits, from using their mystical abilities to dispense with humanity. Black Torch 3 ended with the threat of Jiro being killed unless his inner mononoke Rago pledged allegiance to the cause of rogue mononokes. Tsoyoshi Takaki rapidly moves away from that, though, initiating the separation of Rago from Jiro. It causes complications continuing throughout this collection.
While there are violent problems, this volume is one for reflection, assessment and catching up with what’s going on. Despite dips into the past, at times it’s seemed as if some characters are only there to bulk out the cast, but with more space at his disposal to swivel the spotlight around them, Takaki drops some surprises. The biggest concerns Ichika, given a sequence no-one will have predicted, but it also extends to Jiro, who’s not really had to stretch himself as the lead character. Changed circumstances mean he now has to consider what he does far more than previously and rein himself in.
There’s also more time spent with the mononoke, all of them in human form other than Rago, and displaying some very human emotional states. Perhaps Takaki’s point is that they’re not very different after all. His designs for them are disarming, more sinister versions of people you might see on the streets on a Friday night heading for the pub, club or casino.
Because a forest and the creatures within play an important part toward the end, Takaki once again shines with the art, placing his cartoon figures in what in places seem digitised photographic backgrounds, and in others very precise drawings. Either way, the effect is beautiful. It also occurs that the merger of Jiro and Rago isn’t that far removed from Marvel’s Venom, but what Takaki does visually with that idea surpasses most Marvel artists.
Jiro’s abilty to talk with animals leads to an amusing conversation with a snake before his biggest test to date begins. Takaki’s only left himself with the single volume to wrap everything up, and with what’s been disclosed in the final chapter here he’s setting up something very interesting indeed for Black Torch 5.
