‘Black Torch’ Stars AJ Beckles & Ryan Colt Levy Talk Shonen Action & Cats [THS Interview]

The Next Big Shonen Sensation

Crunchyroll’s newest shonen mega-hit is Black Torch. The show is airing now on the anime streaming service. Black Torch is the latest in a long-line of hot-blooded fight series. These include “Chainsaw Man”, “Dragon Ball”, and “My Hero Academia”. This latest series follows a young man named Jiro and his confident black cat partner Rago. They’re fighting demons and working to uncover the heart of a deep conspiracy

You can catch Black Torch streaming right now on Crunchyroll!

Catching up with AJ Beckles & Ryan Colt Levy

With Black Torch’s finale recently airing, I spoke with AJ Beckles (Jiro) and Ryan Colt Levy (Shiba). These two agents are at the core of the increasing demon conflict in Japan. During our conversation we talked about different shonen protagonist approaches. We also covered how these two approach animals in real-life. It makes sense with how central cats are to Black Torch! They teased the wild events that close out this season. We had a blast during this conversation and you should check it out down below!

About Black Torch

“Jiro Azuma is no average high schooler. A descendant of ninjas and trained in the ancient warrior art of the shinobi, Jiro is also able to talk with animals. After a mysterious encounter with an injured cat named Rago, Jiro discovers the feline is actually the legendary Black Star of Doom! Joined by the Bureau of Espionage, they fight off swarms of mononoke lying in wait to exploit Rago’s powers.“

A New Era For This Genre

You’ve definitely heard AJ Beckles’ voice before if you love Anime. He’s Okarun in the critical and fan-favorite Dan Da Dan. But, Jiro is very different from our favorite bespectacled nerd in that show.

“Jiro is really cool. Yes. And a lot of my characters, while cool in different ways, they aren’t ‘Cool-Cool.’ You know?,” Beckles smirked. “So that was different. He also has this thing that’s really interesting where he he he wears his heart on his sleeve. A lot of the times with characters, there is a lot of subtext, right? What they’re saying, there’s something behind what they’re saying. Jiro is brain off.”

“The first thing he thinks of, he says out loud. You can always trust he means what he says. And, there’s something kind of like inspirational about that,” he admits. “I wish I was that way. I’m a bit of a people pleaser. But, he’s like, ‘No! I know what I’m doing is right. Whether or not it is, is up to you.’ You know? ‘But I know what I’m doing is the right thing to do. So I don’t care what you have to say. I will protect this person or these things.'”

Keeping It Cool

We also joked with Ryan Colt Levy that he might be playing against type a bit here. (Chainsaw Man is a very different show after all!) He smiled and offered, “It’s nice to be in control for once.” But, his character Shiba is all business and relatively understated.

“He’s not the character that is like, ‘I’ve got all these machinations happening in the background.’ You know that he he knows things and there are secrets happening. But, you also get the immediate impression from him that his intentions are in the right place,” Levy shared.

“You could see that he takes it incredibly serious. But also kind of takes the air out of the tires a little bit. Because he’s like, ‘I can’t live in this stoic place,'” the star demured. “So, I think having the the positivity and the mentor like energy, along with that kind of laissez faire kinda attitude, is very fun.”