【Black Jack】A medical adventure that swept the world by storm from the God of Manga!!

Burakku Jakku (Black Jack) is an episodic manga series written and illustrated by “the God of Manga” Osamu Tezuka in the 1970s. The manga consists of hundreds of short, self-contained stories that are typically about 20 pages long. Black Jack is considered one of Tezuka’s most famous work, after Astro Boy, with a hefty record of 45.64 million copies in circulation. In 1977, it won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for shonen.

Black Jack was adapted into an OVA, two television series and two films. The first film directed by Osamu Dezaki, named Black Jack: The Movie, won Best Animation Film at the 1996 Mainichi Film Awards.

Besides anime adaptation, Black Jack also inspired several live-action films. The first live-action was the 1977 film The Visitor in the Eye. In 1981, a 13-episodes TV drama series, named Kayama Yuzo no Black Jack was aired on TV Asahi from January to April 1981. In 1996, three Black Jack direct-to-video films were released by Bandai Visual. From 2000 to 2001, series of three television films were aired on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) TV channel.

The story of Black Jack started with a terrible car crash somewhere in Europe. A young boy named Acudo Nikula, who was heir to a rich and powerful family, was driving recklessly and crashed his car into a street light.

When the police arrived at the scene and realized Acudo has been in the car crash, they immediately rushed him to the hospital. His father – Mr. Nikula, was a powerful tycoon that had a lot of influence. The president of the hospital greeted Mr. Nikula when he came to see his son.

They told him that Acudo has had several injuries with a cracked skull, broken neck, punctured lungs and smashed stomach. “It will be a miracle if he lasts 3 days”, the doctor said.

Mr. Nikula insisted that they do their best to save his son, no matter the cost. He would even build them a brand new hospital if they would succeed and threaten to kill them if they would fail. When he saw that the doctors were incapable of saving Acudo, Mr. Nikula told his men to search for the best surgeon in the world. Mr. Nikula was determined to use money to save his son.

Finally, his men found a surgeon in Japan that went by the name Black Jack. Nobody knew his real name but he was the only one that could guarantee success while the others couldn’t. Black Jack had a long scar that cut through half of his face and his hair was black and white.

After examining Acudo, Black Jack told Mr. Nikula that his son could be saved but he would need another body as replacement. All the body parts beyond remedy would need to be replaced. In other words, they needed another human to sacrifice his body.

At a tailor shop named Tailor Davy, a young boy named Davy and his mom was working when three men came into the shop.

They questioned Davy about his appearance at the scene of the car crash and accused him of obstructing the vehicle, thus led to the accident. Even though, it was Acudo who almost crashed into Davy.

They arrested Davy on wrongful charge and Davy’s mother could only ran after her son in tears. Mr. Nikula bribed the police and the judge to sentence Davy to death.

At the trial, Mr. Nikula told Black Jack that he knew his son was a trouble-maker. However, Acudo was his only son and he would do anything to save him. Black Jack asked Mr. Nikula “Do you want to sacrifice that boy for your own good-for-nothing son?”. To that, Mr. Nikula said that such things happened and the world didn’t exist solely for the righteous. Mr. Nikula then threaten Black Jack that he knew Black Jack operated without a license and could only work in the shadow.

The court sentenced Davy to death and he was dragged away. Black Jack injected anesthetic into Davy’s arm and proceed with the operation. However, he insisted on doing it alone, without any assistant.

After a few hours, the operation was successfully completed. Black Jack told Mr. Nikula that he would stay until Acudo’s bandage would come off to make sure he didn’t pull any trick. About Davy, his organs and limbs were used almost entirely so Mr. Nikula couldn’t dare to look.

Two months later, Acudo’s bandage finally came off and Mr. Nikula was overjoyed to see his son. Black Jack bid farewell as his job was done and received the payment.

Shortly after, Acudo sneaked out of the hospital and was missing. Acudo went to Tailor Davy. There, he told the truth that he was actually Davy and Black Jack operated on his face to make him look like Acudo. Black Jack told Davy before he left that “There was no point operating on a rotten body and soul”.

Davy showed his mother his tailoring skill and she finally believed him. To save Davy and his mom from the grasp of Mr. Nikula, Black Jack gave them the money that he received as payment. They could use that to escape to safety.

The final scene closed as Black Jack watched the car driving Davy and his mom away. Once again, the enigmatic doctor performed a miracle with his skills and heart of gold.