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1. Dr Black Jack Pinoko

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Characters from Black Jack:

Black Jack and Pinoko are in New York City to operate on a patient at Brooklyn's Coney Island Hospital. Due to a strike by the city's Taxi drivers, they have to take the subway from the airport to their destination.

Kuro'o Hazama (alias Dr. Black Jack)

Voiced by: Akio Ohtsuka (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)

A brilliant unlicensed surgeon, who charges huge fees and cultivates a (partly false) Dr. Jerk persona. When he was a child, he and his mother were severely injured by a landmine. While his mother later died, Black Jack's life was saved by Dr. Honma, who inspired Black Jack to become a doctor.Tropes associated with Black Jack:

• Adaptation Personality Change: Media outside the manga tend to play up his kinder side, with the OAVs making him downright gallant at times.
• Amazing Technicolor M.D.: The blue-tinted side of his face in the manga, as a matter of Artistic License. In reality (as well as in all adaptations), it's dark brown, as it's a skin graft donated by a biracial childhood schoolmate of his.

• Back-Alley Doctor: Despite being an amazing doctor, he does not actually have his license.
• Badass Bookworm: Although it's downplayed outside the manga, he's capable of taking several thugs on in hand-to-hand combat, and a master at throwing scalpels.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a black trenchcoat draped over his shoulders, letting the sleeves dangle.
• Batman Gambit: Often pulls these to teach Aesops or favor his patients.
• Belated Backstory: It's not until much later in the manga (and several episodes in the anime) that we learn Black Jack's birth name, why he became a physician, why he's estranged from the medical establishment, or how he got those scars.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His rotten attitude and exorbitant prices are just as legendary as his incredible skills.
• Busman's Holiday: Can't even seem to walk down the street without running into some sort of medical emergency.

• Celibate Hero: Women fall for him all the time, but those who don't end up dead, end up brushed off or forever beyond his reach.

• Covered with Scars: Intentionally does not get plastic surgery to reduce his obvious skin grafts, because they remind him of the kindness of the (now dead) schoolmate who donated them.
• Crazy-Prepared: Always has medical equipment on hand, including all manner of scalpels and, on one occasion, fake arms to put his hands up with.

• Crimefighting with Cash: Once saves a man to whom he owes a favor by purchasing an entire hospital in order to preform a necessary operation on him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His startling appearance and funereal clothing have had people comparing him to a devil, but he's a truly good and compassionate doctor.
• Deadly Doctor: Not only is he a superhuman surgeon but also a deadly marksman who could kill or, more commonly, incapacitate enemies by throwing scalpels.

• Dr. Jerk: Actively strives to look like a bad guy, especially when it's for the patient's own good.

• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Intentionally played with, Black Jack's scars are intended to be scary and lead people to think poorly of him. In reality, he is often a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, although he can be self-centered as well.
• Ill Boy: More exactly, Severely Injured Boy. He was a healthy normal kid until the landmine incident and obviously had to go through extensive surgery and treatment afterward, including months in a wheelchair.
• It Amused Me: Likes to use his skills to take particularly arrogant doctors down a peg.
• It's Personal: Has been known to take on surgeries for free in order to show up doctors who insult his skills or mock people he cares about.
• Kavorka Man: Played with: While his actual facial structure is that of a Bishōnen, his face is scarred. He's a Chick Magnet nonetheless.
• Knight In Sour Armor: Being exposed to the worst of human greed and selfishness on a regular basis has made him pretty hard-boiled.
• Locked into Strangeness: As a result of his childhood trauma surrounding the landmine incident, his hair is partially white.

• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Is happy to present himself as one, and more than a few of his actions are sketchy even taking the Hidden Heart of Gold into consideration.
• Mr. Fanservice: In the OVA, Osamu Dezaki managed to turn him into this, with a good amount of upper body nudity. Young Black Jack decides to take this a step further and make him far more conventionally attractive for the New Tens audience.
• Not So Stoic: The mere sight of Dr. Kiriko will lead Black Jack to drop whatever he's doing just to bitch at him. Kiriko seems to find this amusing.
• Oedipus Complex: Dr. Black Jack has some daddy issues. Serious daddy issues.
• Omniglot: In the manga, he's able to speak Spanish, and in the OVA he is shown writing in English.
• Only in It for the Money: What he insists, though his tendency to find convenient excuses to waive fees or debts for patients who genuinely can't pay suggests much of this is just part of his facade.
• Only Shop in Town: A variant. No one on earth has skills like Black Jack, so he charges incredibly high fees. As he has noted, being alive and healthy is worth any amount of money.
• Papa Wolf: Extremely protective of Pinoko, as well as any child patients.
• Peek-a-Bangs: The white part of his hair tends to fall into his face a lot, usually for dramatic effect.
• Power of the God Hand: Has earned the nickname 'The Surgeon with the Hands of God' for his ridiculous ability in the operating room.
• Revenge: Has devoted himself to hunting down the people responsible for the dud bomb that nearly killed him and doomed his mother to a slow miserable death and making them pay. It's one reason he won't take the Hippocratic Oath.
• Scars Are Forever: Several of the scars (like the iconic facial one) are justified in that he had an emotional attachment to the skin donor and doesn't mess with them despite obviously being skilled enough to do so.
• Self-Surgery: Black Jack once performed a full surgery on his own abdomen, while being circled by hungry dingos. Black Jack also talked a quack doctor through performing surgery on him, which the quack had never done before. Soon after, the quack declared his intention to go to medical school for real. Another time finds him performing surgery on his leg instead of letting another doctor amputate it.

• Skunk Stripe: His hair is partially white due to his childhood trauma.
• The Snark Knight: While you may be able to buy your life, no amount of money will stop Black Jack from being a cantankerous smartass while saving it.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: His real name is Kuro'o Hazama (written in Japanese as 間黒男). As he himself explains once, 黒 means black/dark　and 男 means man (aka a 'jack'). Thus 'Black Jack' is a loose English translation of his actual name.
• Super Doc: Black Jack can basically operate on anything from humans to giant clams. The Young Black Jack prequel explains this by showing that he started teaching himself how to perform surgery before entering medical school by practicing on critically wounded animals and animal cadavers.
• Super Speed: A very downplayed example, but people are regularly astonished by the incredible speed and surety of his surgical techniques.
• Swiss Bank Account: Keeps his money from the operations he performs in one or more of these.
• Tested on Humans: Has a bad reputation for this in the medical community, since—although he himself despises the thought of human lab rats—the strange maladies he runs into often force him to use unconventional or even wholly experimental techniques.
• Tragic Keepsake: The half of his face with darker skin is his last memento of a close friend named Takashi who was killed during an environmental protest.
  • The TV anime has a necklace that Black Jack's mother was wearing during the landmine incident. In the sequel series Black Jack 21, this becomes an Orphan's Plot Trinket when it's revealed that Black Jack's father hid a microchip in it detailing the purpose and methods of the Phoenix Project. It's also noted in the same show that several of his skin grafts were taken from his mother and later takes a skin graft from his recently deceased father when operating on his own leg, signifying that he's forgiven him for his betrayal.
• Two-Faced: Thanks to trauma-induced poliosis and a facial skin graft from a biracial classmate that he refuses to replace out of sentiment.
• Weapon of Choice: Scalpels are his favorite, not just in the operating room, but in the very rare times when he has to fight. He also keeps a pistol at home for emergencies.

Pinoko Hazama

Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani, Utada Hikaru (Japanese); Julie Kliewer, Kim Mai Guest (English)

Black Jack's loyal assistant/surrogate daughter/wannabe wife. She spent 18 years as a parasitic twin, using psychokinetic powers (don't ask) to fend off the doctors trying to remove her. After convincing her that she wouldn't be pitched out with the medical waste, Black Jack built a synthetic body to house her organs. The first thing she did once in her new body was violently call out her twin sister for trying to have her killed. This freaked out the sister, who disappeared and left Pinoko with Black Jack.Tropes associated with Pinoko:

• Bratty Half-Pint: Just how bratty depends on the writer.
• Character Development: Stories set later chronologically show that she develops into a decent cook and assistant.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Thinks of herself as Black Jack's wife, and resents any woman who comes within 10 feet of him.
• The Cutie: The cutest tumor ever!
• Cyborg: Started life as a mass of several human organs, which Black Jack integrated into an artificial body.
• Hair Decorations: Four ribbons in her hair.

• Fun Personified: In the Darker and Edgier 90's anime.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Hates the fact that she has a little girl's body, and only wants to look her proper 18-year-old age.
• Intergenerational Friendship: In the 2004 series, there's a touching episode where she befriends an Ill Girl.
• Kid-Appeal Character: The reason for her expanded role in the TV anime.
• Mind Control: Had this power as a tumor, forcing doctors who were going to remove her to injure themselves.

• Not Growing Up Sucks: Not so much in the anime, but in the manga she is always complaining about her size and saying that she wants to be 'tall and pretty'.
• Older Than They Look: Pinoko spent the first 17 years of her life as her twin sister's parasitic cyst, and then spends another year with Black Jack before her story continues. This makes her 18, and she only gets older. Her body looks young because her organs and limbs had a stunted development inside the cyst, so her synthetic body had to be small to match.

• Precocious Crush: Every love interest she's had has been much older than she, well, appears to be.
• Puni Plush: Bordering on chibi in the TV anime.
• Replacement Goldfish: Black Jack once gave her up for adoption by a loving couple... and it turns out they got her to replace their dead dog. Ouch.
• Speech Impediment: Talksh with a pronounshed lishp in the manga, probably as a result of her lips being artificial.

• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Black Jack is a bit unnerved by the fact that, within several days of her 'birth,' Pinoko was not only making some pretty strong advances on him, but also knew what a virgin was. In fairness, she's technically spent 18 years as a parasite...
  Black Jack: Good God, where did you learn that kind of language?
• Womanchild: Even if she did look her age, she'd be one of these, since all her experience with the world is second-hand.
• Younger Than They Look: Her prosthetic body looks about 7, but she's only had it for a couple of years.

Dr. Jotaro Honma

The surgeon who saved Black Jack's life when the latter was a kid, and Black Jack's role model. His daughter Kumiko makes several appearances in the 2004 series.

• My Greatest Failure: Confesses to Black Jack on his death bed that when first operating on him, he accidentally left a scalpel in his body, but adamantly refused to believe he could be so careless and therefore ignored it. When he discovered the calcium-sheathed tool in a follow-up operation, he was so disgusted with himself for putting a patient's life in jeopardy for the sake of pride that he immediately retired from practice.
• Posthumous Character: He dies in the first story he appear in, and thereafter makes appearances in flashbacks.

Dr. Kiriko

Nachi Nozawa (Japanese)

Black Jack's rival, a euthanasia specialist and former military doctor. Since Black Jack is against euthanizing patients, whenever the two docs cross paths the result is never pretty.

• Broken Ace: He is a very skilled doctor but it's implied that the war took a toll on his mind and broke him into the cynical man obsessed with euthanasia he is today. It's especially prominent in Young Black Jack where a younger Kiriko is shown to be a capable and dedicated field medic, at one point parachuting himself and his equipment into enemy territory to respond to an injured soldier.
• Combat Medic: He doesn't get to show it much, but he is ex-military.
• Deadpan Snarker: Manages to be even snarkier than Black Jack.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Dr. Kiriko has no issues with ending a patient's life, seeing the U.S. government condemn men to death when they DO have a chance of recovery in 'Terror Virus' sends him into a Tranquil Fury.

• Eyepatch of Power: Probably due to an old war injury.
• Insistent Terminology: Kiriko maintains that what he does is not assisted suicide, no matter what Black Jack may think.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He really does believe he's doing what best for his patients, although he seems to enjoy his work a bit too much.
• Older Than He Looks: Admittedly this is Depending on the Artist, but while Kiriko is older than Black Jack, he's not that much older. Certain depictions of Dr. Kiriko make him look like an old man, owing in part to his white hair.
• Patricide: Surreptitiously poisoned his own father when he believed Black Jack wouldn't be able to save him...the old man died right after Black Jack found and fixed the problem.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The above-mentioned Patricide. Kiriko was able to give his father a peaceful death, but right after Black Jack was able to cure him. So, in the end, Kiriko killed his father when he could have lived... The chapter ends with Kiriko crying bitterly over his actions.
• The Rival: Black Jack's most consistent one. He and Kiriko are constantly at odds with their differing philosophies, outlooks on life, and approaches to medicine.
• Shadow Archetype: Also to Black Jack. A doctor who served in wartime, he believes in helping patients die painlessly when there is no chance for recovery. He's not evil, as such, but where Black Jack will do anything possible to make a patient live, Dr. Kiriko will choose euthanasia rather than prolong the patient's suffering. Naturally, the physicians clash at times but must cooperate at others. To his credit, if he discovers that the patient has a chance of recovery, guess who he turns to?
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Having to euthanize so many of his fellow soldiers has definitely left a mark on him.
• Start of Darkness: The newest anime Young Black Jack definitely is going this path, since it shows Kiriko's time as a war doctor in the Vietnam War, and a damn good one to boot: his skills in surgery are on par with Black Jack's (who, mind you, is still a student at the time of this anime, but is nevertheless considered a god with his abilities), and his drive to see his patient live no matter what. The first patient he euthanizes is a Vietnamese woman he falls in love with, Hoa, after she sustains severe radiation burns across her entire body and is left to slowly rot alive in a field hospital.

• White Hair, Black Heart: White-haired and morally ambiguous.
• Worthy Opponent: Regards Black Jack as one of these on some level, notably being absolutely shocked when one of his operations fails (due to circumstances outside his control, mind).
• You Can't Fight Fate: Believes that if someone's fated to die, the best thing to do would be to make it quick and dignified instead of dragging things out or giving them false hope.

Megumi Kisaragi

Black Jack's first love. A fellow medical student, Megumi was the only one to look past Black Jack's scariness and see his true nature. But before she could confess her love, Megumi was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She survived thanks to Black Jack, but was forever changed by it.

• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The Gentle Girl to Black Jack's Brooding Boy.
• Shrinking Violet: Though once she 'became a man', she adopted a more assertive personality.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Black Jack; the two of them loved each other during their medical student days, but Megumi was diagnosed with uterine cancer and, after her uterus and ovaries were removed to save her, she began living as a man. Black Jack and her never got together as a result.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: One of the ship's crew falls in love with her after realizing her true gender as a woman.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Having her uterus and ovaries removed threw Megumi into early menopause and made her less physically feminine as a result. Thus she decided to live and dress as a man, as she would no longer be viewed as a proper 'woman' anyway. She's perfectly pleasant and a capable doctor.

Kumiko Honma

The daughter of Dr. Honma, whose life was saved by a teen Black Jack when she was a little girl. She works in Black Jack's favorite café and keeps an Intergenerational Friendship with him.

• Ill Girl: In the 2004 series she has glaucoma, so she has to get a cornea transplant to save her eyesight. Then, her eye started showing her the last things that the original owner saw before dying...
• Nice Girl: She has a very sweet disposition and always seems eager to help others.
• Precocious Crush: Hinted she has a crush on Black Jack. He once saved her from falling to her death.

Tetsu

Kumiko's boss and the owner of a cafe where Black Jack and Pinoco stop very often. Sometimes offers an understanding ear to many people. Inspired in Tezuka's recurrent character Shunsaku Ban.

• Composite Character: A combination of Ban's role in the manga story Tetsu of the Yamanote Line, a thief who nearly lost his hands, and Kumiko's father in the manga version, who was not Honma but a completely different guy who owned a restaurant.
• Fingore: One of his hands is severely scarred. Because when young, he commited the severe mistake of stealing money from a yakuza. How it happens is different on adaption but it immediately went From Bad to Worse: In the manga the gangsters cut off Tetsu's fingers and would have killed him if it weren't for a detective's timely intervention, whilst in the anime Tetsu gets away from the gangsters but as a truck tries to avoid running into him the glass it was carrying falls down onto Tetsu's hands...
• Five-Finger Discount: A master at it in his old days, He does it only one last time for Black Jack's sake.
• Freudian Excuse: Was once a failed magician, but found that his fast hands translated rather well to the business of pickpocketing.
• Red Baron: Tetsu of the Yamanote Line.
• Retired Badass: Used to be quite the scoundrel in his younger days. An episode of the 2004 series focuses in him and the Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist who never got to catch him.

Housuke Sharaku

A recurrent character in several of Tezuka's works, who first appeared in the manga The Three-Eyed One (Mitsume ga Tooru). In the 2004 series he's a normal junior highschool boy, the son of an archeologist as well as one of Black Jack's first patients. He and his sister Watou become show regulars.

• Ill Boy: The first one that BJ operated in, in the TV series.

• Shrinking Violet: Cotrasting with his original self's Creepy Child.

Chiyoko Watou

Another recurrent character from Tezuka's works, who is Sharaku's ward and Morality Pet. In this continuity she is Sharaku's older sister and Kumiko's best friend.

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: In an episode, with the local Delinquent Jou. Whom BJ has to operate on later

Dr Black Jack Pinoko

Dr. Tezuka

An obvious expy of Osamu Tezuka himself, from the 2004 series. He's a friend of Black Jack and owns a small clinic, often asking him for help with specially difficult cases.

• Foil: To Black Jack, as he does work inside the system.

Konomi Kuwata (alias Black Queen)

A doctor specializing in amputations, thought to be heartless by many, earning her the nickname 'Black Queen' in the medical world. She is engaged to Rock (referred to as Makube Rokuro in the TV series, probably to make up for the lack of 'Carved Seal' episode), but her being infamous causes troubles for the couple. She met Black Jack, drunk, in a bar, naming herself as the Black Queen. The former is impressed by their similarities and falls in love with her, but he would eventually discover that Rock was her fiancé.

• Foil: To Kuro'o. They both nicknames associated to the color black.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Despite her cold exterior, she shows compassion towards those she loved as she was horrified at the aspect of having to cut off her own fiancee's leg.

Alternative Titles Japanese: ブラック・ジャック Information Volumes: 25 Status: Finished Genres:Drama, Shounen Serialization:Shounen Champion Statistics 1 indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet published' titles are excluded. Ranked: #2572 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Members: 12,960

Ranked #257Popularity #735Members 12,960 Add to List Chapters: /243 * Your list is public by default. Synopsis Black Jack is an 'unregistered' doctor with a clouded, mysterious past. He works with his little assistant Pinoko (who has a massive crush on the doctor), dealing with medical cases not very well known, which can be strange, dangerous, or not known at all. But he is a genius, and can save almost any of his patients' lives (as long as they have the money for it, that is), and is known to many around the world, especially to those of medicine and science. He's a man of science himself, and does not believe much until he has seen it, yet it is many times he is surprised by love and nature often overpowering the science he bases his life in. (Source: ANN) Background Black Jack won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for the shounen category in 1977. The series was first published in English by VIZ Media, who released select chapters in their manga anthology magazine Manga Vizion, and later released those chapters in two volumes in 1999. Vertical Inc published the entire series in English based off the 17-volume shinsouban reprint from September 23, 2008 to November 29, 2011. Related Manga Alternative version: Black Jack Kuroi Ishi, Black Jack Neo, Black Jack Alive, Black Jack: BJ x bj Spin-off: Ray, Dr. Kiriko: Shiroi Shinigami Adaptation: Black Jack ONA, Black Jack 21, Black Jack: Heian Sento, Black Jack: Sora kara Kita Kodomo, Black Jack (TV), Black Jack Specials: Inochi wo Meguru Yottsu no Kiseki, Black Jack the Movie, Black Jack (TV): Hizouban Specials, Black Jack: Futari no Kuroi Isha, Black Jack Sequel: Black Jack: Aoki Mirai Prequel: Young Black Jack Characters Hazama, Kuroo Main Pinoko Main Hyakkimaru Supporting Biwamaru Supporting Holmes, Rock Supporting Tenma, Umatarou Supporting Doctor Kiriko Supporting Sapphire Supporting Ham Egg Supporting Hige Oyaji Supporting More reviewsReviews 243 of 243 chapters read IceAndCream(All reviews) 50 people found this review helpful Dr. Black Jack looks and acts like a gruff ol' doc from some cowboy town. An old surgical scar runs down his face; part of his hair has turned white, and he goes about wearing a big black coat thrown over his shoulders. By the way, he doesn't have a medical license, and charges an arm and a leg (sometimes literally) for his services. Yet still people come to him at his weatherbeaten shack on the hill. Whether hopeless cases that need his incredible skill, or criminals who can't go to a normal hospital. 'He'll only cure you if the price is right!' many scoff. Despite his crusty, ugly outside, might he possibly be a good person? The drama is quite rich. And we cover every type of emotion possible, from comedy to tragedy and in-between. In each new encounter between the Doc and his patients and their families/friends/associates, we wonder which side of his face he is going to turn. Will he be cold and impassive, mercilessly demanding 30 million yen? Will he take on the case for free, or will he do it for some bizarre exchange? As you might guess, Black Jack isn't as cold-hearted as tries to seem. Sometimes he has to give 'tough love' style treatment. The patient may hate what he asks of them, but things turn out for the best in the end. And occasionally, he helps people for no apparent reason. Maybe he really has a heart of gold. He just buries it as hard as he can. Maybe it seems like he can't understand what it means to be chopped up and sewn together, and go through painful years of rehab. But he does. Because he has. After all, that's what that scar on his face, and many more all over his body, are from. Several stories made me tear up. Like one where he saves a patient, and thereby causes the death not only her, but her entire family. You wonder if his cold outside is to protect himself from those kinds of outcomes. After all, how do you emotionally deal with that kind of responsibility? Most of the light comedy in the series is carried by a girl (woman??) he essentially saves from the trash heap. In the body of a little girl, and treated like one, Pinoko insists that she is 18 years old, and is Black Jack's wife. Well, that's because they live together. A hopeless case that the Doc adopted to be his own daughter. The Doc would adopt someone!?! Yes, he must be a good person after all. Each chapter is a self-contained story. At the end of each chapter, I had to pause, and decompress. Most endings are climactic, often with some unexpected twist, whether a tragic turn, happy ending; maybe bittersweet, or something to make you ponder. The series began publication in the 70's. Lots of social issues from the time are brought up, from racism, women's rights, gang violence, and euthanasia, to animal rights, gender identity, and drug abuse. And other things from dirty politics to artificial intelligence. Tezuka used his typical art style. It's much more rounded than I usually like for my comics. But I didn't notice it after the first few pages. I was too engrossed in the stories. More annoying was that many of the character designs are repeated for different people. It's like, 'Wait, that looks exactly like the guy from two chapters ago!' but it's a different person. Like any medical drama, it shouldn't be used as a reference for real medicine. Some procedures are impossible even now. And on that note, there are quite a lot of realistic close-ups on body parts that are being surgically worked on (including cut up flesh, knives slicing skin, innards). They don't look gory; mostly like black and white drawings out of medical textbooks. But if you get queasy around that kind of stuff, consider yourself cautioned. Sometimes more gory are the bodies of accident victims. We sometimes see mauled and burned bodies; some of that was a bit disturbing. A rich and satisfying series about the fascinating character called Black Jack. A tad mature, very engaging, and highly recommended. 243 of 243 chapters read ItIsIDio(All reviews) 6 people found this review helpful Black Jack can be a good choice if you'd enjoy some dramatic stories, even if sometimes they really don't nail it or you'd want to observe how manga used to be written back in the 70's and what was the mentality of the writers back then. As Tezuka touches on a range of subjects, you would easily observe some things about his own mentality and even the industry's back then. Black Jack is a collection of stories from the life of Black Jack, some dramatic, some attempting to be dramatic and becoming comical, some with questionable content, but most interesting and still enjoyable. The stories were rearranged and released in an optimal rather than chronological order. Sometimes this will create some problems for the story, but it will make the story more optimal as the manga wasn't exactly released with a lot of the continuity in mind, but rather some of Tezuka's random ideas. The manga itself started as a horror manga, rather than a drama, so it also helps establish the drama side better. Back to what I said about drama, some of the chapters nail their drama really well do this really well, but some really fail on it, ending up as silly instead. I assume it's because Tezuka tried to be overlydramatic and illustrate his point through too many coincidental events in the stories or he simply had an idea but he was pressed on time and couldn't come up with any better idea or couldn't hold up well with it. Sometimes you'll even found repeated themes. I think as a result of the fact that at times he tried to take the manga too seriously, he sometimes likes to get the manga to break the fourth wall, either through his own characters or by including himself in the manga. As for the questionable content I specified earlier, it's pretty much a result of aging. I'll say that some things were different back then and just leave it at that. It's pretty much things you would expect which I doubt could be found offensive, at best you'll find silly, except maybe for the chapters that were removed from the volumes for questionable content themselves. Which I couldn't find and I've heard that they are only in japanese, so, if you know japanese, you might have better luck unraveling exactly what's the peak for questionable content. Overall the story goes in a lot of places and it can best be summed up as a collection of the more notable stories of the unlicensed surgeon Black Jack. As it goes into a wide variety of themes, the best way I can describe the story is dramatic, as most of the stories are that or are aspiring to be dramatic. Also keep in mind that the story is a collection of stories about Black Jack, so don't expect the manga to have a conclusive ending and be more than just a collection of stories. The art style is from when manga took great western influences but, for instance, the surgical parts of it are drawn in a moredetailed style, so if you're afraid if there's anything medical that would suffer as a result of the art, do not worry a bit, it won't. If art style is not a big yiff for you but you still dislike it, keep in mind that the overall style of manga was under development. So if you don't generally care much about the art, don't weigh too much on Black Jack's. At the time there wasn't much differentiation in between art styles. Now, character wise, there's not a whole lot of characters to talk about, as some even if recurring won't be memorable, while some will be. The most developed character in the story is Black Jack, of who's development is best shown inside the chapters themselves, but just in case you might have the wrong idea of what kind of character Black Jack is, he is a medical genius which does not own a medical license, who will operate on you only if you can meet his outrageously high demands. While he does value money, quite a lot, he also does value honesty and integrity and he shows that through his work. There are plenty of layers to Black Jack's character. So don't lose sight of that. Talking about any other characters would be spoilery, but note that they generally aren't bad. They usually are means to an end but some of the recurring characters will be interesting. Just don't expect TOO much from them. Most of the focus is on Black Jack & the drama surrounding his operations and real issues of the time that do apply even today, to some extent. The stories are very enjoyable even when they don't achieve the purpose they try to set for themselves and what I mentioned as questionable only ends up as silly at best, by no means offensive or disturbing. If you're ever in the mood for a bunch of short stories that travel a great deal of themes, Black Jack is a good choice. 243 of 243 chapters read Kuchisake-Onna(All reviews) 4 people found this review helpful I've seen all the Anime adaptations, and read all the Volumes to the Manga, and from what I've witnessed in both the Anime & Manga and Kuro himself has gone through a lot which is what brought about his overall philosophy as a Doctor. However no matter the circumstance Kuro always goes the extra mile for each patient, whether it be because of a promise, the pay, or because Pinoko insist that he help he'll never give less than his 100%. Although in actuality it's his moral code and the fact that he owes his own life to a Doctor who took risks that he himself has become what he is today. His goal is to save and preserve life, because nobody ever truly wants to die... Finally, if that's not enough to convince you to read, the show House is also inspired by the eponymous hero of Osamu Tezuka's manga Blackjack. You can easily note this in how similiar both these cynical, dark, lonely doctors (Althou BJ is without a medical license) perform medical miracles throught the series! This influence is confirmed by House himself, who said in an episode, that his medical vocation comes from his encounter with a marginal Japanese doctor... Sound Familiar??? What's funnier though, is how there[s even a short cross-over between Dr. House and Blackjack in the two promotional and official ads for the release of season 4 of Dr. House in Japan. Click Link To See: https://youtu.be/d8YoHF2TIGA Recommendations View All Recent News Japanese publisher Kodansha announced it will make the Osamu Tezuka Bunko Complete Works manga collection available on digital platforms. Kodansha first announced th...read more May 29, 2015 12:32 AM by arsonal | Discuss (23 comments) According to Deadline Hollywood, US multimedia producer Entertainment One has acquired the live action TV drama rights for Tezuka Osamu's manga 'Black Jack...read more Aug 3, 2012 6:06 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (33 comments) Recent Forum Discussion Poll: Black Jack Chapter 1 Discussion Simply_Waiting - Apr 30, 2010 4 replies 2 replies : Online Gambling South Africa Legislation : Free Slot Games With Bonuses Wicked Winnings : Rivers Casino Schenectady Poker Schedule : Main Function Of Agp Slot : No Internet Free Slots : Texas Holdem Hands When To Fold  Luckymove © 2021