Black Jack (manga)

AUTHOR: Tezuka, Osamu

ARTIST: Osamu Tezuka (illustrator)

PUBLISHERS: Akita Shoten (Japanese); Vertical (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Burakku Jakku, 1973-1983

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1987-2004 (English translation, 2008-2011)

Publication History

The character of Black Jack originally appeared in the comic Tezuka Osamu’s One Man Theater Production, written to celebrate manga creator Osamu Tezuka’s thirtieth anniversary as a cartoonist. When readers clamored for more, Tezuka created the long-running comic Black Jack, a series of short, black-and-white stories. Published in the weekly manga magazine Shonen Champion between November 19, 1973, and October 14, 1983, the 243 stories in this fast-paced medical drama average twenty pages each and are independent, self-contained adventures with no detailed plot continuity between episodes, although there is continuity of characterization. The first 230 stories were published consistently through 1978, while the last 13 appeared sporadically over the following five years. The series was collected in book form on several occasions, with a definitive collected edition, edited and arranged by Tezuka, published beginning in 1987.

Black Jack was an immediate success in Japan, but it did not appear in English until selected stories were published in Manga Vizion, the first English-language manga magazine, in 1995. In 2008, Vertical Publishing issued the entire series of short stories in seventeen paperbacks. This collected edition arranged the stories in Tezuka’s preferred order, rather than in order of publication.

Plot

Black Jack is an unlicensed doctor who travels the world, taking on the most serious and, in some instances, most dangerous cases. Because of his lack of a medical license, Black Jack operates illegally and is frequently pursued by the law. Most people view him as a mercenary concerned only with charging extravagant fees, but he is actually altruistic, often receiving no payment or even recognition for his kindness toward others. When necessary, he teaches people important lessons while healing them.

Black Jack’s background, including the childhood accident that nearly killed him and left him horribly scarred, is revealed gradually. When Black Jack’s father abandoned him and his mother after the accident, Dr. Honma, the surgeon who saved his life, became Black Jack’s surrogate father and lifelong mentor.

Black Jack is accompanied by Pinoko, who was a parasitic twin living inside the body of her sister before becoming Black Jack’s medical assistant, partner, and housekeeper. Black Jack does not realize that she has an unfulfilled crush on him throughout the series; while he thinks of her as a daughter, she considers herself his wife.

The stories in the series combine various genres: medical drama, fantasy, horror, science fiction, comedy, philosophy, and morality tales. Each story is short, averaging twenty pages in length, and entirely self-contained. Although he established his reputation as a cartoonist with simpler comics, Tezuka drew upon his own medical training to create Black Jack, a sophisticated comic with more to its plot than mere surface adventures. Often Black Jack must deal with mobsters, government officials, a rival doctor who believes that euthanasia is the only humane treatment for seriously ill patients, an acupuncturist who considers surgery brutal, and psychologically scarred patients for whom he must serve as both surgeon and psychologist.

Volumes

• Black Jack, Volume 1 (2008). Contains the stories “Is There a Doctor?,” “The First Storm of Spring,” and “Teratoid Cystoma,” among others. The volume introduces several important people in Black Jack’s life: Pinoko, the Black Queen, Kisaragi Kei, and Dr. Honma.

• Black Jack, Volume 2 (2008). Contains the stories “Needle,” “Granny,” and “The Ballad of the Killer Whale,” among others. Black Jack encounters the unlicensed acupuncturist Biwamaru, who quickly becomes an enemy. In another story, Black Jack seeks the doctor who donated the skin for his facial skin graft after his traumatic childhood accident.

• Black Jack, Volume 3 (2008). Contains the stories “Disowned Son,” “Shrinking,” and “Dingoes,” among others. Black Jack meets his greatest rival, the unlicensed physician and euthanasia provider Dr. Kiriko. In another story, Black Jack is hospitalized with a broken arm, and the surgeon operating on it, only knowing of Black Jack’s heartless reputation, decides to put an end to his surgical career.

• Black Jack, Volume 4 (2009). Contains the stories “False Image,” “The Scream,” and “Drifter in a Ghost Town,” among others. Pinoko is in danger of dying, and Black Jack must balance his feelings for her with his objectivity as a surgeon to save her life. In another story, Black Jack receives a letter from Kei Kisaragi requesting he perform a frivolous operation that is against his principles.

• Black Jack, Volume 5 (2009). Contains the stories “Hospital,” “Quite a Tongue,” and “Asking for Water,” among others. Black Jack must work with Dr. Kiriko to save the latter’s father. In another story, Black Jack must save Dr. Kiriko, who has contracted a contagious disease and plans to euthanize himself to prevent it from spreading.

• Black Jack, Volume 6 (2009). Contains the stories “Surgical Knife,” “Downpour,” and “A Body Turning to Stone,” among others. Black Jack is arrested for practicing medicine without a license in two stories, but he avoids punishment both times. This volume also contains the series’ only two-part episode, in which Black Jack is trapped on an island with a female doctor who falls in love with him.

• Black Jack, Volume 7 (2009). Contains the stories “Guys and Birds,” “The Gray Mansion,” and “A Cat and Shozo,” among others. Black Jack deals with the effects of environmental pollution and the refusal of government agencies to acknowledge them. In another story, Black Jack’s life is endangered when he operates on a young boy whose grandfather owns land that is coveted by the Mafia.

• Black Jack, Volume 8 (2009). Contains the stories “What Lurks the Mountain,” “Fits,” and “A Wrong Diagnosis,” among others. A killer tries to prevent Black Jack from interfering with a planned murder. In another story, Black Jack encounters an important doctor who does not make his own diagnoses.

• Black Jack, Volume 9 (2010). Contains the stories “Teacher and Pupil,” “Pinoko Lives,” and “Eyewitness,” among others. Two stories illustrate the type of superficial, uncaring doctors whom Tezuka resents: In one, Black Jack encounters a doctor who orders the amputation of the arm of a talented pianist, and in the other, Black Jack’s life depends on an esteemed doctor who turns out to be a fraud.

• Black Jack, Volume 10 (2010). Contains the stories “Island of Avina,” “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World,” and “Revenge,” among others. Black Jack turns down a chance to obtain a medical license because of his concern for the whereabouts of the missing Pinoko. In another story, he reunites with his father, who abandoned him years before.

• Black Jack, Volume 11 (2010). Contains the stories “Pneumothorax Operation,” “Broken into Little Pieces,” and “Days of Vanity,” among others. Black Jack discovers he has an emotional problem related to his troubled childhood that prevents him from performing a particular operation. In another story, Black Jack demands an excessive fee from a patient, with unexpected consequences.

• Black Jack, Volume 12 (2010). Contains the stories “Wildcat Boy,” “The Language of Breath,” and “Invaders from Space,” among others. Black Jack encounters a faith healer who challenges him to a competition to see which of them can save the life of a stillborn fetus. In another story, Black Jack encounters a group of terrorists responsible for the death of his mother.

• Black Jack, Volume 13 (2011). Contains the stories “A Perverse Swimmer,” “The Pirate’s Arm,” and “Death of a Movie Star,” among others. Black Jack encounters another parasitic twin, and Pinoko begs him to create a body for this unborn person as well. In other stories, Black Jack deals with life and death, encountering a would-be suicide victim who resents Black Jack for saving him and a dying girl in the care of Dr. Kiriko.

• Black Jack, Volume 14 (2011). Contains the stories “The Corsican Brothers,” “The Phone Rings Three Times,” and “Temporary Love,” among others. Black Jack is forced to marry a girl dying of cancer before he can operate on her. In other stories, he performs surgery on the daughter of his childhood mentor and on a Vietnam War veteran who shows no regret for the atrocities he committed during the war.

• Black Jack, Volume 15 (2011). Contains the stories “Treasure Island,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Leaf Buds,” among others. A gang leader tries to determine where Black Jack hides his profits from his operations, following the trail of the money to a mysterious island. In another story, Black Jack’s fingers become mysteriously paralyzed.

• Black Jack, Volume 16 (2011). Contains the stories “Anaphylaxis,” “Miyuki and Ben,” and “Lost Youth,” among others. Black Jack spends a night in a haunted mansion to prove that it is not haunted. In another story, Black Jack seeks a doctor whose reputation is even better than his own.

• Black Jack, Volume 17 (2011). Contains the stories “Pinoko Refuses to Leave Home,” “Bird Man,” and “Two Shujis,” among others. Black Jack tries to find foster parents for Pinoko, but she flees from them and returns just in time to help save Black Jack’s own life. In another story, Black Jack is torn between operating on a patient and returning home to help Pinoko, who is stranded without power after a typhoon.

Characters

• Black Jack, the protagonist, is a doctor who travels the world performing surgeries. He often wears a superhero-style cape and has two-colored hair and a strangely scarred body, hinting at a mysterious past that is revealed slowly through the series. Known for charging high fees for his services, he is considered by many to be a sort of mercenary; however, he often heals people for free, and the majority of his income goes to charity. Although he is believed to be a harsh person, he feels great empathy for his patients and always does what is morally best for all parties concerned.

• Pinoko is Black Jack’s constant companion. She is an underdeveloped parasitic twin who lived in the body of one of Black Jack’s patients for eighteen years before Black Jack removed her and gave her a plastic body of her own. She fills a variety of roles, including housekeeper and medical assistant, and occasionally provides some comic relief in tense medical situations. She considers herself Black Jack’s wife and is jealous of the other women he befriends.

• Dr. Jotaro Honma is Black Jack’s surrogate father. He saved Black Jack’s life after a tragic accident and became his mentor as well after Black Jack’s father abandoned him. He dies of old age in the series.

• Black Queen is a doctor who primarily performs amputations and has a reputation for being harsh. She meets Black Jack when he finds her drunk, and he quickly falls in love with her. However, she is engaged to Rock, whom she eventually marries after Black Jack saves both his legs in an operation.

• Kei Kisaragi is a doctor who met and became attracted to Black Jack when they were both interns. Jealous of other women in Black Jack’s life, Pinoko meets her and learns about their relationship.

• Biwamaru is a blind, unlicensed acupuncturist who charges no fees for his services but considers surgery barbaric. He becomes one of Black Jack’s nemeses.

• Dr. Kiriko is an unlicensed physician who travels the world charging outrageous fees to perform euthanasia. He is another nemesis of Black Jack.

• Dr. Tezuka is a fictionalized version of Tezuka who appears periodically as a member of the official medical establishment and a supporter of Black Jack and his work.

Artistic Style

From the beginning of his career as a cartoonist, Tezuka was influenced stylistically by early Disney cartoons. While he did not invent the genre of manga, his iconic wide-eyed characters, inspired by such Disney characters as Mickey Mouse and Bambi, influenced the development of a visual style that would come to dominate Japanese comics. This style is evident throughout Black Jack. Although Tezuka completed many of his projects with the assistance of a team of illustrators, as he wrote so many comics simultaneously that he was unable to draw all of them, he was reportedly so fond of Black Jack that he did all the drawing himself.

The art in Black Jack is primarily simple and cartoonish, although the characters do not have the round simplicity of those in earlier Tezuka comics. Tezuka’s intent was for the characters in Black Jack, especially Black Jack himself, to resemble real people more than cartoon characters. His characters’ faces are drawn with a few simple lines, yet they are able to display a variety of emotions, which Tezuka emphasizes with lines of motion around the characters and beads of sweat on their faces. Youthful characters, including Black Jack, have small noses, while older males have either long and sharp or large and round noses. To add to his aura of mystery, Black Jack has hair that always covers one side of his face, concealing one eye completely. Black Jack’s exposed eye is not drawn in the large, round style typical of Tezuka’s manga, although other characters are drawn in that style.

The main characters are the focal point of the panels, and the backgrounds are relatively sparse. This gives the panels an open, relaxed feel, which adds to the relatively rapid pacing of the stories. Like most manga, Black Jack consists of drawings, speech balloons, and sound effects and is printed in black and white.

Tezuka avoids depicting graphic violence in Black Jack, restricting himself to occasional “cartoon” violence that is neither realistic nor particularly offensive. However, he does not restrain himself in surgery scenes. Nearly every story includes at least one operation, during which Tezuka generally abandons his typical cartoonish style for a more realistic and graphic depiction of the surgery.

Themes

Although Tezuka made his reputation with manga for young readers, Black Jack is aimed at an older audience. The mature nature of its subject matter and themes is apparent from the first story in Tezuka’s preferred order, “Is There a Doctor?,” in which the spoiled son of a wealthy tycoon is injured in a devastating car accident and can only be saved if another young man sacrifices his own body.

The most prevalent themes in Black Jack are the sanctity of life and the necessity of fighting for it against all odds. This is shown repeatedly in Black Jack’s acceptance of cases that seem hopeless and his constant battles with Dr. Kiriko, who believes euthanasia to be the most humane treatment for seriously ill patients. When Black Jack believes he has failed a patient, he becomes frustrated with his inability to foil death.

Another theme is the danger of judging people based on outward appearances and preconceptions. Black Jack charges exorbitantly high fees for his services, but unbeknownst to the public, he uses the money for mostly charitable purposes. In addition, Black Jack often deals with patients in ways that oppose the express wishes of the person hiring him yet are the morally proper actions for all concerned parties.

Tezuka was a trained doctor who never practiced, and his concerns about the medical establishment are evident throughout Black Jack. Black Jack rejects the hypocrisy of the medical profession, and he deliberately takes on the difficult cases no other doctors dare handle. Several stories deal with Black Jack’s interactions with callous or fraudulent doctors, while several others display Tezuka’s distrust of faith healing.

Impact

During his career, Tezuka was responsible for several revolutions in the field of manga. In addition to popularizing an iconic visual style that has become recognizable worldwide, he created comics that had substantial plots and emotional depth. Astro Boy (1952-1968) was the first popular manga based on detailed, emotional plots rather than cartoonish jokes. After creating comics featuring boys’ adventures, he began the first series geared toward girls, incorporating long, detailed, and emotional story lines. Tezuka’s success during the 1950’s inspired other manga artists to begin writing more serious adventures for a slightly older audience. Rejecting the comics they had read as children, including the early works of Tezuka, they created the term “drama comics” to represent the level of sophistication they strove to reach. In turn, this influenced Tezuka to create comics for adult readers, including Black Jack.

A series of morality plays in miniature, Black Jack combines exciting adventures with thought-provoking ethical dilemmas. Each story in the series contains a philosophical aspect, with Black Jack either teaching someone a much-needed lesson or displaying behavior that influences someone for the better. The characters and their emotions are more complex than in Tezuka’s earlier comics, representing a trend toward well-rounded manga characters that would continue to develop in the subsequent decades. A significantly successful series, Black Jack set the standard for the adult and young-adult manga that followed it.

Films

Black Jack: The Movie. Directed by Osamu Dezaki. Tezuka Production/Shochiku, 1996. This animated film adaptation is a science-fiction drama involving a scientist who breeds a group of superhumans. When the superhumans begin to deteriorate physically, the scientist hires Black Jack to find a cure for them. Directed by one of Tezuka’s protégés, the film features dark overtones and violence generally absent from the manga.

Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness. Directed by Makoto Tezuka. Tezuka Production, 2005. This animated film combines elements from several episodes of the comic to create a single story, which involves a group of researchers who kidnap Black Jack and force him to seek a cure for an epidemic that is afflicting them. To complicate matters, Dr. Kiriko plans to euthanize the researchers.

Television Series

Black Jack. Directed by Osamu Dezaki. Tezuka Production, 1993-2000. This animated adaptation is a series of ten independent episodes made for direct home release. The episodes are considerably more graphic in terms of both violence and nudity than either the original manga or subsequent dramatizations. Black Jack’s origin is not explored in these episodes, nor is that of Pinoko. Black Jack’s nemesis, Dr. Kiriko, appears in one story.

Black Jack: The Four Miracles of Life. Directed by Makoto Tezuka. Tezuka Production, 2003. This television special of four self-contained episodes adapts the manga stories “Is There a Doctor?,” “Disowned Son,” “U-18 Knew,” and “Sometimes Like Pearls.” The plots differ somewhat from the original stories, but the characters and themes remain faithful to the comic.

Black Jack 21. Directed by Satoshi Kuwahara. Tezuka Production, 2006. This seventeen-episode series adapts various stories from the manga and features all of the major characters, including Pinoko, Dr. Kiriko, and Dr. Honma. While more intense and slightly darker than the comic and differing somewhat in plot, it remains faithful to the spirit of the original manga.

Further Reading

Soryo, Fuyumi. Eternal Sabbath (2006-2007).

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life (2009).

Urasawa, Naoki. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka (2009-2010).

Bibliography

Bunche, Steve, “Tezuka: Discovering a God of Manga.” Publishers Weekly, November 24, 2009. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/26010-tezuka-discovering-a-god-of-manga-.html.

McCarthy, Helen. The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. New York: Abrams Comic Arts, 2009.

Power, Natsu Onoda. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.