Black Jack (manga)

Black Jack

Cover of the first manga volume
ブラック・ジャック
(Burakku Jakku)
Genre Medical, Drama
Manga
Written by Osamu Tezuka
Published by Akita Shoten
English publisher
Demographic Shōnen
Imprint Shōnen Champion Comics
Magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion
Original run 19 November 197314 October 1983
Volumes 17
Manga
Black Jack: the Dark Surgeon
Written by Kenji Yamamoto
Published by Akita Shoten
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Shōnen Champion
Original run 9 May 20059 February 2006
Volumes 3
Original video animation
Directed by Osamu Dezaki
Studio Tezuka Productions
Released 21 December 1993 16 December 2011
Episodes 12
Anime television series
Directed by Makoto Tezuka
Studio Tezuka Productions
Original network Animax, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation
Original run 11 October 2004 6 March 2006
Episodes 62
Anime film
Black Jack: Futari no Kuroi Isha
Directed by Satoshi Kuwabara
Produced by Tomoyuki Saitō
Sumio Udagawa
Music by Isao Tomita
Studio Tezuka Productions
Released 17 December 2005
Runtime 97 minutes
Anime television series
Black Jack 21
Directed by Satoshi Kuwabara
Studio Tezuka Productions
Original network Animax, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation
Original run 10 April 2006 4 September 2006
Episodes 17
Related anime

  • Black Jack: Capital Transfer To Heian (1996, Movie; Side story to 1993 version)
  • Black Jack the Movie (1996, adaptation of 1993/manga version)
  • Black Jack Special: The 4 Miracles of Life (2003, Promotional special; Lead-on episodes of Black Jack TV)
  • Ray the Animation (TV)
  • Young Black Jack (TV)

Black Jack (Japanese: ブラック・ジャック, Hepburn: Burakku Jakku) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka in the 1970s, dealing with the medical adventures of the title character, doctor Black Jack.

Black Jack consists of hundreds of short, self-contained stories that are typically about 20 pages long. Black Jack has also been animated into an OVA, two television series (directed by Tezuka's son Makoto Tezuka) and two films. Black Jack is Tezuka's third most famous manga, after Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. In 1977, it won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen.[1] About.com's Deb Aoki lists Black Jack as the best "re-issue of previously released material" of 2008.[2] Osamu Dezaki's anime film adaptation, Black Jack The Movie, won Best Animation Film at the 1996 Mainichi Film Awards.

Plot

Most of the stories involve Black Jack doing some good deed, for which he rarely gets recognition—often curing the poor and destitute for free, or teaching the arrogant a lesson in humility. They sometimes end with a good, humane person enduring hardship, often unavoidable death, to save others.

Characters

Main characters

Black Jack aka Kurō Hazama
Pinoko (ピノコ)

Supporting characters

Pinoko's Twin Sister
Dr. Jotaro Honma (本間 丈太郎, Honma Jōtarō)
Megumi Kisaragi (如月めぐみ, Kisaragi Megumi)
Konomi Kuwata aka Black Queen (桑田このみ, Kuwata Konomi)
Takashi
Maestro Morozoff
Biwamaru (琵琶丸)
Dr. Kiriko (ドクター・キリコ, Dokutā Kiriko)
Tetsu (in the manga) aka Master (哲(てつ), Tetsu)
Largo (ラルゴ, Rarugo)
Yuri
Mio Hazama (間みお)
Kagemitsu Hazama
Reika Hazama
Ushigoro
Shoren (in the manga) aka Benitokage (紅蜥蜴, Benitokage)
Guffaw
Kumi Yamashita (in the manga) aka Kumiko Honma (本間久美子, Honma Kumiko)
Dr. Yamadano
Osamu Tezuka (手塚 治虫, Tezuka Osamu)
Inspector Tomobiki
Chiyoko Wato (和登千代子, Wato Chiyoko)
Hosuke Sharaku (写楽保介, Sharaku Hōsuke)
Zen Mantoku
Dr. White

Manga

The manga series was first serialized from 1973 to 1983. Each volume was divided into 12 to 15 chapters; each chapter is about 20-some pages long. The first episode was called "I Need a Doctor!", and the last episode was called "A Question of Priority". Most of the manga series had never been directly adapted into anime form until a Black Jack Special was aired in 2003, thus initiating the Black Jack anime series in 2004, and the Black Jack 21 series in 2006.

Vertical Inc. has released translated volumes of the series in the United States, starting with Vol. 1 in September 2008 and finishing with Vol. 17 in November 2011. These collected volumes include a dozen or so stories each in the original unflipped format, and the stories will be published in the same order as the Japanese Black Jack collections.[3] Vertical has also released limited editions of the first three volumes that include bonus stories not printed in any other edition.

Two translated volumes had been previously published by Viz Communications, but those editions are now out of print.

There is also a series called Black Jack ALIVE which was published in 2005, this series was created from numerous artists adding stories onto the original series. A chapter from this series was published in the last volume of "Magetsukan Kitan". In 2013, he is celebrating his 40 anniversary since his first appearance, along with Princess Knight's 60th, and Astro boy's 50th.

A manga called Say Hello to Black Jack (manga) has no connection with the Black Jack series, along with its sequel Shin Black Jack ni Yoroshiku (manga).

A 2005 remake of the series was titled Black Jack - Kuroi Ishi (manga).

Another manga called Black Jack NEO (manga) was published by a different author. It may be another remake. Not much information is known.

Young Black Jack is another manga, not by Tezuka but featuring his characters, that started in 2011. The story follows Black Jack as a medical student in the 1960s.

Anime

The first televised appearance of Black Jack was in the 1980 remake of Tetsuwan Atom. Episode 27 of Astro Boy brought together three separate Tezuka creations, as Astro, Uran, Doctor Roget (Black Jack) and Penny (Pinoko) travel back through time to 15th Century Molavia (Silverland). In this storyline, Black Jack performs a life-saving operation on a critically injured Princess Sapphire (from Ribbon no Kishi), while Astro and Uran fend off Gor, a malevolent magician bent on usurping the throne. Characteristically, Roget/Black Jack refuses to operate until he is offered the key to the treasury vault, but later takes only one commemorative coin from the grateful court (which turns out to be worth $200,000,000 when he returns to Astro's time).

Black Jack also made a cameo appearance in the theatrical film Phoenix 2772 as an interstellar prison warden, and is one of the main characters of the TV movie One Million-Year Trip: Bandar Book, in which he plays the role of a space pirate, somehow similar in concept to Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock.[4]

TV Series

A four-episode TV promotional special called Black Jack Special: The 4 Miracles of Life aired in 2003. Princess Sapphire appeared in episode 3 of this series.

There was an original television series called Black Jack (TV), featuring 61 episodes that aired from 11 October 2004 through 6 March 2006.

The sequel is Black Jack 21 (TV), which aired seventeen episodes from 10 April 2006 through 4 September of the same year. Adapted from standalone manga chapters, Black Jack 21 features an all-new overarching storyline. Though the Black Jack 21 series has never been licensed in the U.S., there are several legal subs available on the internet.

The previous two anime, Black Jack and Black Jack 21, depart somewhat from the manga by changing the setting to the early 2000s, allowing for flat-screen LCD computer displays and other items not present in the 1973-83 manga.

A new anime entitled Young Black Jack, about Black Jack's adventures as a medical student, began to air on 1 October 2015, with twelve episodes planned. It is based on the November 2011 and ongoing spin-off manga of the same title written by Yoshiaki Tabata and illustrated by Yūgo Ōkuma. More closely following the timeline of the original 1973-83 manga by Osamu Tezuka, the new anime is however somewhat discontinuous with the 2004 anime. While Young Black Jack is set in the late 1960s against the backdrop of activism against the Vietnam War, the 2004 anime is set in the early 2000s, representing nearly a 40-year time difference, even though Black Jack appears to have aged less than 10 years between them.

OVA

Two OVAs were made for the series: Black Jack (OVA) and its sequel Black Jack Final (OVA).

In 1992, Tezuka's protege Osamu Dezaki did the direction for a theatrical film and an OVA series. Ten OVAs were made (six of which, along with the film, were originally only available in dub-only VHS form in North America, but all 10 OVAs have since been released on bilingual Region 1 DVD). Wizard selected the series as their "Anime Pick of the Month" for August 1997, calling it "one of the darkest and hardest-hitting made-for-video series of recent years."[5]

ONA

An ONA adaptation of the series is called Black Jack (ONA).

Films

A 1996 movie of the series was made called Black Jack The Movie. Another one that was made in the same year is Black Jack: Capital Transfer To Heian.

A 7-minute movie called Dr. Pinoko no Mori no Bōken is shown before Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness (movie).

A new TV series was released in fall of 2004 in Japan, and a new film entitled Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness (movie) was released in December 2005. While the television series is an (albeit sugar-coated) adaptation of Tezuka's original manga, the film's storyline is wholly original. The film describes Black Jack's attempts to prevent a group known as the Ghost of Icarus from starting a widespread, biological war which could wipe out humanity, while working alongside the infamous Dr. Kiriko. The TV show can currently be viewed for free on Viki (website) and Crunchyroll. Anime Sols has successfully crowd-funded the first 26 episodes of it for DVD release, starting from Episode 0.[6] Right Stuf and Crunchyroll are currently selling extra copies of the first boxset through their website.

Live-action

Appearances in other media

An anime version of the character was seen in an ad teaming up with Dr. House from House for the promotion of the latter in Japan.[12]

Museum

Between March 03-June 27, 2016, the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum located in Takarazuka City, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, sponsored an art exhibit focused on the "Heroines of Osamu Tezuka". It highlighted the leading ladies of Tezuka's comics, such as Sapphire of Princess Knight and Pinoko of Black Jack. [13]

See also

References

Manga:

Anime:

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