Naturally, as mentioned, there have also been anime adaptations of Black Jack... and more than you'd normally think.
If you were to ask most anime/manga fans about anime adaptations of Black Jack you'd probably get two responses instantly. First would be the iconic 10-episode Black Jack OVA that was directed by the late, great Osamu Dezaki, which came out intermittently between 1993 & 2000, & then following Dezaki's passing in early 2011 it was decided to dust off work on two more unfinished episodes & properly complete them, which came out at the end of that same year as Black Jack Final. The second would be the 1996 theatrical film Black Jack: The Movie, which was also directed by Osamu Dezaki & told a complete original story. Both the OVA & movie have seen English release multiple times over the decades, with the movie last seeing release on DVD & Blu-Ray by Discotek Media in 2016, while the OVA just saw re-release this past December on Blu-Ray by AnimEigo, which included the two "Final" episodes for the first time in English, officially. If you were to then press those same fans about any other anime adaptations of Black Jack then some of them would likely be able to point out the two TV anime series that were produced, namely 2004 to 2006's Black Jack TV that lasted 62 episodes, which was immediately followed up by 2006's Black Jack 21, which lasted 17 episodes. The former was mostly a straight, episodic adaptation of stories from the manga, though with some other Tezuka characters added in as recurring supporting cast (like Sharaku from The Three-Eyed One being one of Pinoko's friends), while the latter was a serialized storyline where "B.J." is on the run from a mysterious organization that wants him dead; that said, it still also technically adapted stories from the manga. The anime adaptation of Akihito Yoshitomi's manga Ray, which unofficially featured some Black Jack cameos, aired the same season as Black Jack 21, & Tezuka Pro allowed "B.J." to appear in the first & last episodes of Ray the Animation as an official cameo, seemingly connecting the two shows together. Both Black Jack TV (or, at least, Episodes 1-52) & Black Jack 21 are currently streaming dub-only over on Tubi as of this piece, alongside the OVA & movie, while the first 25 episodes of Black Jack TV saw a crowdfunded sub-only DVD release back in 2014 via Anime Sols; this predated the English dub's production.
However, there are still OTHER Black Jack anime out there, and I think it's time that someone gave those oft-forgotten & ignored productions some time in the limelight, especially since it's entirely likely that some, if not all, of them may never see official English release for one reason or another. Now, to be fair, I actually won't be covering all of these OTHER Black Jack anime myself here, and that's mainly because there is one that I simply cannot cover in any way. Between 2001 & 2002 Tezuka Productions made a 12-episode Black Jack ONA that was only available via subscription service download through the now long-defunct TezukaOsamu@Cinema; it is streaming on some Japanese services today, though. This "internet" anime adaptation utilized Flash for its animation & featured a unique gimmick in that each episode included both a "Zapping system" & "Action system", with Zapping allowing the viewer to change the camera viewpoint at certain parts of each episode, while Action was more or less just a comedic gag that changed certain items around. However, these were still half-to-full-length anime episodes, so even if I could experience the Black Jack ONA it would be long enough to cover as its own piece; Tezuka Pro has a short snippet of the ONA on YouTube, if you're curious. However, even without that I still have four anime productions to go over, so let's see how these OTHER Black Jack anime fare.
The Doctor is In!
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| No title screen for this one, so here's the commonly seen image from it. |
As usual for pieces like this I'm going in chronological order, so first up is easily the most curious of them all. It's also the most confusingly named one of them all, but there's actually a good explanation behind it. Sometime in 1996, likely before Black Jack: The Movie (which debuted on November 30), Tezuka Pro produced a series of short animated film pairs that were shown together at the 300 Inch Theater at Tezuka Osamu World in Kyoto Station, one half being based on a Tezuka work & the other focusing on a part of Japanese history. One pair was a Jungle Emperor Leo short with the story of the Honno-ji fire, but the pair I want to focus on were each introduced by a CG render of the iconic Phoenix from Tezuka's (unfinished) magnum opus Phoenix, with one half being an adaptation of Chapter 89 of Black Jack ("Granny"), while the other told the story of how Emperor Kanmu had the capital of Japan moved from Nagaoka-kyo to Heian-kyo (today Kyoto) in 794. These short films were always listed together, and despite the history lesson portion no longer being associated with it anymore the Black Jack short is still officially titled Black Jack: Capital Transfer to Heian... despite Black Jack himself having absolutely nothing to do with the capital of Japan being transferred to Heian-kyo; the official Osamu Tezuka website lists it under that title, though, so who am I to argue semantics? Anyway, let's see how this 10-minute short film fares today, 30 years later.
While on a drive Black Jack & Pinoko come across a married couple & their daughter, who have become stranded on the road after their car breaks down in the hot weather. The family is brought back to their home & welcome the two in as guests, only for Black Jack to be insulted by the husband's mother Ms. Shimizu (who was watching the house while they were out) due to Black Jack's infamy regarding how much he charges for his jobs; Black Jack & Pinoko leave shortly after. Ms. Shimizu is especially cranky when it comes to money, as she seemingly only agrees to housesit in return for payment, yet the couple know that she barely has any money of her own & that she spends whatever she does get somewhere else, often coming home looking sad. She also constantly asks for her monthly allowance from the wife Ritsuko, which brings the two to constant arguing. Meanwhile, Black Jack looks for information regarding a Dr. Jindai, who the husband stated was one of the only doctors his mother respected (alongside Black Jack)... only to find out that Dr. Jindai had long passed away, as well as that Ms. Shimizu was spending all of her money on slowly paying off a long-term debt of 12,000,000 yen she had towards Dr. Jindai in order for him to save her son when he was deadly ill as a child. After hearing the truth the husband goes after his mother, only to find her collapsed on the road, due to a lesion in her brain. Black Jack offers to try to save her... but only if the husband is willing to pay 100,000,000 yen for the operation.
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| Even when she's in a bad mood due to Ms. Shimizu, Ritsuko's rather... well, let's just say "perky". |
The chapter "Granny" is a bit of an odd one for a Black Jack story, and that's mainly because it actually doesn't have a traditional ending to it. Watching this short film adaptation it honestly feels as though it stops right before the actual ending where Black Jack manages to save Ms. Shimizu, only to not want any payment, since all he wanted to know was if her son was truly willing to do what she did for him. However, upon double-checking the original chapter in the manga, the story literally ends on the same moment as in the short film, leaving the actual fate of Ms. Shimizu open-ended, though I imagine Tezuka intended for readers to imagine that everything worked out well. Still, where most Black Jack stories tend to end with some sort of surgery being performed & the aftermath being showcased in some way, "Granny" eschews all of that, since the point of the story was well & fully established simply by the husband making the same promise to Black Jack that his mother made to Dr. Jindai all those years ago. In that regard this short film is a very good adaptation of "Granny", and from what I can tell this remains the sole anime adaptation of the story, as it doesn't look to have used in any other Black Jack anime, both before or after; to be fair, it'd have to be stretched a decent amount to run for a standard episode length.
This short film was directed by Masayoshi Nishda (Allison & Lilia, Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again), who also acted as the animation director & even drew some of the key animation himself. Nishida himself was only a key animator on the Black Jack OVA, though he'd return to direct the second "Final" OVA in 2011, but with him essentially graduating to director here, alongside Kazuo Okada also reprising his role from the OVA as art director, I guess you can consider this a side story to the Osamu Dezaki OVA series. The same year as this short film also saw the release of Episode 6 of the OVA, which began Eiji Kawamura's time as the music composer, and he also worked on the music for this film (though, admittedly, with its short length I wasn't really able to hear much of it), which only reinforces the idea of this essentially being a side story or spin-off of the OVA series. Meanwhile, Mayumi Morita is credited with the writing here, and she'd later do the same for Black Jack TV, 21, & the two "Final" OVAs. Naturally, Akio Otsuka & Yuko Mizutani reprise their roles as Black Jack & Pinoko from the OVA, and they'd reprise their roles for almost every other Black Jack anime featuring them as they are in the manga (the ONA notably cast Hikaru Utada as Pinoko, in her sole voice acting credit), while Takuma Suzuki (the husband), Misa Watanabe (Ritsuko), Hisako Kyoda (Ms. Shimizu), & Yoshiko Kamei (Ms. Jindai) play the remaining characters in this film. Oddly enough, Dr. Jindai also has a couple of lines in a flashback, but was seemingly left uncredited; to be fair, though, since this is only half of the complete production there is no official cast list for me to check.
Overall, Black Jack: Capital Transfer to Heian is a solid little short film that does justice to the story it adapts, but admittedly isn't anything essential for anyone other than hardcore Black Jack fans who just really like the "Granny" story. I imagine it being a wholly separate production is the reason for why it wasn't included, but this would have made for a neat little bonus in AnimEigo's recent BD release of the Black Jack OVAs, as (previously mentioned) it wouldn't have felt out of place. I would be curious to see how the story of the literal "Capital Transfer to Heian" would have been tied into the theme of the "Granny" story by the Phoenix, but it doesn't look like the "complete" version of this film exists anywhere for the public to continue watching, officially or otherwise; only the Black Jack half continues to exist. The official Tezuka Pro YouTube channel does feature this short, though without subtitles, but it's only the first three minutes, which is bizarre considering how short it is to begin with.
The next Black Jack anime covered here is probably the most obscure & forgotten one of them all, likely due in part to the admittedly bizarre way it was released. In March of 2000, prior to the release of the (at the time) last two episodes of the Osamu Dezaki-directed Black Jack OVA, Tezuka Pro teamed with Weekly Shonen Champion to offer a special gift to readers who filled out an application & sent it back to Akita Shoten, likely with a requested payment. For their involvement in this promotion readers would receive a DVD containing a brand new OVA titled Black Jack: Sorakara Kita Kodomo/The Boy Who Came From the Sky, an adaptation of the titular Chapter 143. However, those who didn't partake in the Shonen Champion promotion had another way to get this OVA, which was by purchasing the "Black Jack Limited Edition Box". This was essentially a goodies box containing a pin, a Pinoko figure, a book containing two chapters of the manga that up to that point had never been republished after their initial serializations (Chapter 158: "Phoenix" & Chapter 209: "Falling Object"), a Pinoko mousepad, a cell phone strap, two posters, a reproduction of a cover illustration (randomly chosen from a set of 20), a full-color reproduction of the original manuscript for Chapter 205: "The Sea Smells of Romance", a reprint of a Black Jack-themed special issue of Shonen Champion from 1976, and (finally) a copy of the Boy Who Came From the Sky OVA... on VHS; yeah, weird how the goodies box had VHS instead of DVD. These two methods would seemingly be the only way for people to ever officially watch this isolated OVA until 2024, when Tezuka Pro finally made it available in Japan via streaming. So what's up with this one-off OVA, and is it worth the trouble today?
Black Jack & Pinoko are enjoying a meal at their cliffside home/clinic when all of a sudden what seems like an earthquake happens. Running out the two discover that the shakes are actually due to a fighter jet making a landing just outside their home, with the pilot coming out to greet them with a request: Cure his son. Said pilot is Major Ivan Juric Gaganoff from the Belad military, who's gone AWOL with his wife Miguela & their ill child Andrei in order to come to Black Jack with his request, but unfortunately Black Jack deems Andrei to be a lost cause. Andrei is suffering from Eisenmenger's syndrome, which has resulted in a hole between the two chambers of Andrei's heart that's resulted in his lungs' blood vessels becoming too weak to work, and while it's something that Black Jack could have possibly cured if they had come to him a year prior he deems it to be too late to save Andrei. Gaganoff, though, refuses to accept Black Jack's diagnosis & threatens the good doctor at gunpoint to save his son, while Miguela explains that they've abandoned their country & sold everything to raise money to pay for the operation; meanwhile, Black Jack himself hates that he's seemingly found an illness he can't cure. As a last ditch effort Black Jack offers to "fuse" one of Andrei's parents to their son, so that they can share the pulmonary flow to keep Andrei alive while a lung transplant can be found... but Gaganoff & his family escaped their country via the Lepol, a top secret jet, and the Belad military will do whatever it has to to recover the Lepol, even if that means killing the entire Gaganoff family.
The original "The Boy Who Came From the Sky" chapter in the manga debuted in Shonen Champion just 11 days after Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected from the USSR in his MiG-25 jet to Hokkaido, Japan on September 6, 1976, which Tezuka used as the inspiration for the tale of the Gaganoff family; Viktor Belenko actually only passed away rather recently, on September 24, 2023, at the age of 76. Naturally, the circumstances behind Belenko & Gaganoff are completely different, but it's easy to see why Tezuka was so inspired by the story of Belenko's defection, & the end result is a really damn good Black Jack story. Black Jack's medical skills are generally seen as being almost superhuman with how he can perform seemingly impossible surgeries, hence why he charges such exorbitant fees, but here you actually get to see him struggle & have to deal with the idea that there's actually something beyond even his capabilities when it comes to late-stage Eisenmenger's syndrome. Even Black Jack's solution is really more of a temporary reprieve for the Gaganoff family than an actual solution or cure, showing just how much Black Jack is pushed when it comes to his knowledge & skills. Meanwhile, Ivan Juric Gaganoff himself is a good character for Black Jack to work off of here, as he's a man who knows full & well what he's done in order to save his son & is willing to do whatever he can to protect the lives of his family... even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice.
The Boy Who Came From the Sky OVA is rather unique among Black Jack anime productions in that it's seemingly the only one to actually maintain the blue-toned skin graft on Black Jack's face, which is technically accurate to the original manga; all other Black Jack anime simply go with a darker skin tone to clash with his normally white skin. The Boy Who Came From the Sky also shares some staff with Osamu Dezaki's OVAs, though aside from Kazuo Okada once again reprising his role as art director it's a different group of staff from Capital Transfer to Heian. Here we have Shinji Seya, who was a key animator on the Dezaki OVAs, being promoted to director (both general & animation), though this would be Seya's sole time directing an entire production, as well as fellow key animator Masaki Yoshimura now being the assistant animation director here; Seya would later work with Masayoshi Nishda on Allison & Lilia as character designer. Meanwhile, Dezaki OVA staff like editor Seiji Morita, 3D animator Shinji Nasu (now acting as 3D director), & medical consultant Toshitaka Takeshita all reprise their roles from Dezaki's OVA, more or less, so like Capital Transfer to Heian this could also be seen as a sort of side story to the more well known OVA series. Oddly enough, neither of these two productions actually credit character designers, and while both might have elements of Akio Sugino's distinctive style (Capital Transfer to Heian more so than here) neither is really a direct copy. In terms of the voice cast unique to this OVA, we have Masaru Ikeda (Gaganoff), Rio Natsuki (Miguela), & Yuko Watanabe (Andrei), who all do great jobs here.
It is a shame that Black Jack: The Boy Who Came From the Sky was stuck behind such a bizarrely restrictive release in Japan for so long, & has never been licensed for English release, because this is a very good adaptation of a great Black Jack story. Even more so than with Capital Transfer to Heian, this OVA really should have been included alongside the Osamu Dezaki OVA series' recent Blu-Ray release by AnimEigo as a bonus, because otherwise I don't think it'll ever see an official English release, and it really is an OVA that more people should check out. Much like with the "Granny" story seen before, this OVA looks to be the only time "The Boy Who Came From the Sky" has ever been adapted into anime, so those who are fans of Black Jack really should give this standalone OVA a watch.
After the releases of both The Boy Who Came From the Sky & the (then) final two episodes of Dezaki's OVA series, there was the previously mentioned Black Jack ONA in 2001/2002, so let's jump ahead one more year to 2003 for our next (& longest) "other" Black Jack anime. Up to this point all Black Jack anime were more or less special features, as it were, as they either went straight to the home video market, were theatrically released, or were available via the internet. It would take until the 30th Anniversary year of the manga's debut for Black Jack to finally make his TV anime adaptation debut with Black Jack Special ~Inochi wo Meguru 4-tsu no Kiseki/The 4 Miracles of Life~, a two-hour TV special that aired on Yomiuri TV (which was also celebrating its 45th Anniversary that year) & NTV on December 22, 2003 & adapted four of the most popular stories from the manga. This was obviously considered a big deal at the time, with B'z's Tak Matsumoto even composing an original instrumental "The Theme of B.J." to open the special up, while "Roots" by B'z was used at the end credits, and the TV special was a big success for both YTV & NTV; it also even had an official English streaming option via Crunchyroll at some point, but is long gone. It's the success of Black Jack Special that led to the creation of Black Jack TV, which debuted on October 11, 2004, and the special itself is actually considered canon to the TV anime, effectively acting as the true first four episodes, even getting referenced here & there over the course of the show. This TV special was actually my introduction to Black Jack way back in my early days of anime fandom, so time to see if they still hold up as well as Tak Matsumoto's outstanding instrumental does.
First up is an adaptation of the very first chapter of the Black Jack manga, "Is There a Doctor?", which is about the irresponsible son of the rich & powerful Mr. Nikla, Akudo, getting into a car crash that leaves him on death's door & impossible to heal. Black Jack offers to see what he can do, but feels that the only way to save Akudo is for someone else to willingly sacrifice their body & organs in return... so Nikla gets the local tailor Davy, who was (unintentionally) a party to Akudo's accident, tried & found guilty for murder so that he can be used to save Akudo; however, Black Jack knows a better way to make use of Davy. Up next is "Disowned Son", which adapts Chapter 164 & sees Black Jack & Pinoko stranded in the middle of a blizzard while on their way to Sendai, after their car breaks down. They manage to find safety in the nearby home of an old woman, who's invited her three sons over to celebrate her 60th birthday that night. However, after all three respond that they're too busy to visit, the only one to actually arrive is Shiro, the fourth son who was disowned by the now-deceased father for his history of delinquency. Shiro is allowed to stay the night due to the blizzard, and when Shiro's mother comes down with pain from mobile cecum syndrome it's up to Black Jack & Shiro (who himself is a doctor, though inexperienced) to operate on the mother right there in her house.
Then there's "U-18 Knew", the only manga story to not be initially serialized in Shonen Champion first (so it doesn't have a chapter number), which is about a high-tech hospital where its nearly 1,000 patients are all cared for (bedside, rehab, & even surgery) by a central computer system, the titular "brain" U-18, that's watched over by the head of the hospital, Dr. Wattman. But when U-18 itself claims to be "ill" it requests that Black Jack be summoned to operate on it, due to numerous patients citing how talented Black Jack is, and U-18 blocks access to all of the hospital's patients until its demands are met. In other words, U-18 wants to test Black Jack for itself. Finally, the special ends with "Sometimes Like Pearls", which adapts Chapter 29 & delves a bit into Black Jack's own past. After baking a cake Pinoko looks all over for a knife, only to find a scalpel that was hidden inside a bizarre stone-like container that itself was in a box inside of one of Black Jack's cabinets. After stopping her from using it to cut the cake, Black Jack tells Pinoko the story behind the scalpel, a memento which was given to him by Dr. Jotaro Honma, the man who saved him as a boy & taught him everything he knew to be a doctor. However, Dr. Honma himself had a secret shame that he never revealed to Black Jack until just before his passing, a mistake he had made while operating on him so long ago, one involving a retained surgical instrument. When Honma suffered a cerebral hemorrhage after finally telling the truth Black Jack tried to save his mentor & surrogate father figure... but even the best doctors can't fight against a person's ultimate fate sometimes. Was Dr. Honma right in pointing out how ridiculous it was that a human being could think they can control the life of another?
As mentioned, the four stories chosen for adaptation for the Black Jack Special were apparently some of the most popular ones with fans in Japan, and watching this it's easy to see why these four were specifically chosen. Being the very first Black Jack story ever serialized, "Is There a Doctor?" is the quintessential introduction to the good doctor, establishing his infamy & notoriety while also showing both how talented he truly is & the fact that (despite said infamy) he is a good person deep down & wants to do what's right; he charges exorbitant fees, but he doesn't mindlessly just do what he's asked in return. "Disowned Son" is a very strong story where the actual operation itself in the climax is more or less secondary to the overall tale itself, a simple means to an end that helps heal the familial wound between Shiro & his mother, but it also shows Black Jack's keen observation skills, as he immediately makes a mental note of the mother's pain the first instance she shows it early on, when she excuses it as simply a pain of old age. "U-18 Knew" is definitely the odd one out of these four, & easily one of the most bizarre Black Jack stories out there, since it involves Black Jack literally repairing a supercomputer's circuit board as though he's performing brain surgery. Still, it's a unique story (& the bizarreness is likely what's made it popular, in the first place) that might have seemed more than a bit sci-fi back in the day, but in today's world where companies are trying to sell AI to the public like it's Sliced Bread #3 it's surprisingly still prescient. Finally, "Sometimes Like Pearls" is a great look into Black Jack's past, while also acting as a nice bookend to the special's prologue that shows how a young boy named Kuro'o Hazama turned into the man known as Black Jack, and shows that while Tezuka's iconic doctor is a miracle worker he isn't a god that can save everyone he wants.
Being a made-for-TV production, Black Jack Special naturally doesn't have the visual polish of the various anime productions that came before it (minus the ONA, more than likely), looking very much like a TV anime of the era, and Black Jack TV would follow in the same exact vein as this a year later. While Macoto Tezuka (Osamu's son) was the general director for this TV special, just as he would be for Black Jack TV, Black Jack 21, & even the next anime we'll be going over, the actual nuts & bolts work for each of the four stories were handled by different people. The writing was divvied up between Genki Yoshimura (odds) & Akatsuki Yamatoya (evens), with both returning for Black Jack TV; Yoshimura was even in charge of series composition there. The individual episode direction was handled by, in order, Kenichi Maejima (Totsugeki! Pappara-tai, Demon Lord Dante), Teruo Sato (who's currently directing MAO), Yasumi Mikimoto (who directed Orguss alongside Noburo Ishiguro), & Kiyoko Sayama (Skip Beat!, Vampire Knight), though none would return to direct any episodes of Black Jack TV. The music here was done by Daisuke Ikeda (Project ARMS, Monkey Turn), who wouldn't return for Black Jack TV but would eventually compose the score for the Young Black Jack TV anime. In terms of notable voice cast we have Bin Shimada (Ham Egg), Kan Tokumaru (Nikla), Takeshi Kusao (Shiro), Makoto Tsumura (U-18), Gara Takashima (Dr. Wattman), & Osamu Saka (Dr. Honma).
The end result is a production that obviously won't shock & awe on a visual level, especially when compared to the work Osamu Dezaki & Akio Sugino had previously done (though Sugino would work on a few episodes Black Jack TV), but the stories told here are all very enjoyable & well worth watching. Just as it was for me over 20 years ago, Black Jack Special ~The 4 Miracles of Life~ is an excellent introduction to Black Jack for newcomers, and I do wish it was more easily available (officially) in English, especially since it essentially acts as the true start of Black Jack TV, which is officially available to watch, in some way. General Tezuka fans will also enjoy the cameos from his "Star System" cast, too, namely Ham Egg in "Is There a Doctor?", adult Melmo in "U-18 Knew", Higeoyaji in "Sometimes Like Pearls", & even Tezuka himself in "Disowned Son" (where he was voiced by Macoto).
Finally, we end with another Black Jack anime that's actually tied to the TV series, and in fact is Black Jack's OTHER theatrical feature! Yeah, I'm sure most people only think of Black Jack: The Movie but there is in fact a second Black Jack movie, and that is Black Jack: Futari no Kuroi Isha/The Two Dark Doctors, which debuted in theaters December 17, 2005, two days before Episode 53 aired. In fact, there was a one-week hiatus between Episodes 52 & 53, so I guess this movie could maybe be considered "Episode 52.5"? Shown alongside this movie was a seven-minute anime short titled Dr. Pinoko no Mori no Bouken/Dr. Pinoko's Forest Adventure, which saw Pinoko & Largo (Pinoko & Black Jack's adopted dog... who actually originally died in the story she debuted in!) going through the forst to deliver medical tools to Black Jack, only for them to have to help heal some sick animals & later even save Unico; I won't cover it here, since it's so short, but it's worth mentioning. So let's finish up this look at Black Jack's "other" anime adaptations & see how this 92-minute theatrical film wound up.
A shopping complex operated by the Daedalus Group is blown up by an anti-Deadalus organization calling themselves the Ghosts of Icarus, creating a massive explosion & causing tons of damage to both the property & the public. Despite finally being arrested for performing medical procedures without a license, the police have no choice but to release Black Jack & ask for his help with the injured. After saving a child caught under rubble Black Jack is then asked by two kids to save their mother, who suffered spinal paralysis due to the explosion. Unbeknownst to all, though, the mother had initially agreed to be "treated" by Dr. Kiriko, who specializes in euthanasia, as she felt that her condition only made her a burden for her kids, and that it would be better for her to pass away. Black Jack has a past with Kiriko & despises his actions, so when he finds out about the mother's deal with Kiriko he successfully performs the surgery to repair her back... only for the entire family to die in a car accident shortly afterwards. Having previously worked as a military doctor, Kiriko feels that no one can prevent death that's meant to happen, and Black Jack starts to question what he knows when the man who reforges his scalpels passes away of old age just after doing one last job for the good doctor, and Black Jack was unable to resuscitate him. Following that Black Jack is hired by the Ghosts of Icarus to cure people they have on their home base, Icarus Island, of a new type of Anthrax called Satan... a bioweapon created by Deadalus. They've also hired Kiriko, just in case Black Jack is unable (or unwilling) to cure them.
Despite its subtitle, The Two Dark Doctors is only partially based on the actual manga story titled "The Two Dark Doctors", i.e. Chapter 56, which fans of the Dezaki OVAs will recognize as being used (partially) for "Karte IV" of that series. It was also adapted as an episode of the ONA series, the third live-action straight-to-video movie in 1996, & the third live-action TBS TV special in 2000. The main reason why "The Two Dark Doctors" is such a popular pick for adaptation mainly comes down to it being the introduction for Dr. Kiriko, who's the closest thing Black Jack has to a direct "rival". This second anime film combines that story with three other stories from the manga, namely (in order of their adaptation) "Timeout" (Chapter 111), "Two at the Baths" (Chapter 141), & "Terror Virus" (Chapter 46, which was originally titled "The Avatar of Death"). Essentially, the first third of the film adapts "Timeout" (about a boy caught under steel beams where Black Jack has to operate on site to save him), "The Two Dark Doctors" (which deals with the paralyzed mother), & "Two at the Baths" (where Black Jack & Biwamaru encounter each other) in succession, though now having them all relate to the overall story of the film, either towards the plot with the Ghosts of Icarus & Daedalus or with Kiriko's feeling that death that's meant to happen can't be stopped. Really, despite the subtitle, this film is truly more focused on adapting "Terror Virus", though even there it's really just the basic concept of the story (Black Jack & Kiriko dealing with a viral bioweapon) instead of a direct adaptation.
The end result is a bit of an odd film, at least for the first 30-ish minutes, as the adaptations of the first three stories really do feel mostly separate from the remaining hour-ish of the film, even though they've been reworked to fit within the overall plot. Still, the stories told in that first third of the film are very good (even if the animation has a couple of rough spots, at points) & Kiriko's introduction in particular is great. However, the remainder of the film focusing on the events on Icarus Island is just excellent, telling an interesting story with a number of cool twists that, while not exactly unpredictable, do result in a fun sense of discovering who's actually a villain & who's (at best) an anti-hero who at least has some justification as to their actions; plus, the overall theme of "death can't always be prevented" is a good one for a Black Jack story. Black Jack is also put into some neat struggles as he tries to figure out what exactly is going on with Satan & the members of the Ghosts of Icarus, all while trying to stay true to his ideal of never giving up on a patient. Meanwhile, Kiriko more or less acts like the devil on Black Jack's shoulder, going "You know you can't save them, so let me at least give them a peaceful & painless end to it all". That said, Kiriko himself sometimes feels a little bit ancillary at points, as he only plays a truly direct role in the plot maybe three times, four at most. The film does a good job making sure that he's not an outright villain, but at the same time I would have loved to see him directly work with/against Black Jack a little more often than he does here.
While watching this film I sometimes got the feeling that it was very much trying to imitate the feel of Osamu Dezaki's work, at least visually, and while Dezaki himself wasn't involved with this film (Macoto Tezuka was the director, while Yoshio Takeuchi acted as unit director) Tezuka Pro did bring in Akio Sugino to do the character designs, which really explains things. The movie also brought in OG Tezuka anime maestro Isao Tomita (Dororo 1969, Jungle Emperor Leo/Kimba the White Lion) to compose the music for this film, making it the last anime Tomita ever scored before his passing in 2016, and the end result is very much in that classic style of Tezuka anime. This movie is also filled with appearances from various members of Tezuka's "Star System", with many carrying over from the TV series, including Acetelyne Lamp as Inspector Tomobiki of the police (complete with a lit candle popping up on the back of his head when he has a "Eureka!" moment), Rock as the primary focal point character for the Ghosts of Icarus, Ham Egg as the personal assistant for the head of Daedalus, Higeoyaji as the "Master" of the local bar Pinoko frequents, & the previously mentioned inclusion of Sharaku (from the TV series) & Biwamaru. There's even a fun little 30-second "Please turn off your cell phone" bit before the film starts where Black Jack yells at Pinoko, Osamu Tezuka, & even Astro Boy for having their phones on as he begins an operation on Sharaku, for added cameos. In terms of notable voice cast, this film went with stunt casting when it came to Kiriko & Rock, as both are voiced by film actors rather than voice actors, namely Takeshi Kaga & Yuma Ishigaki, respectively; both do very good jobs with their roles, however, especially Kaga as Kiriko. A fun bit of casting, though, was the late Nachi Nozawa as Biwamaru, as Nozawa was the voice of Hyakkimaru in Dororo 1969 (the series Biwamaru originates from), as well as the second ever voice of Black Jack for his appearances in various Tezuka anime in the late 70s & early 80s.
Black Jack: The Two Dark Doctors is a very good anime film version of Black Jack & well worth watching. The first third can feel a bit segmented from the rest of the movie, but none of it is ever bad & once the "main" plot truly gets going it's a great time to be had. Also, amusingly, since this is in continuity with the TV anime that means that this version of Black Jack, one who was meant to be seen by kids, once killed a man by throwing a scalpel into the man's forehead, instantly killing him; it was done in self-defense, sure, but still.
Black Jack is one of Osamu Tezuka's most iconic characters for good reason, and while Astro Boy only gets the occasional anime (or appearance) here & there the good doctor gets way more. I'd argue the reason for that mainly comes down to his flexibility, as Astro is effectively a superhero where appearances beyond simple cameos really require him to take on some sort of larger threat in a more direct fashion, while Black Jack being a doctor gives him much more leniency when it comes to stories told involving him... and some of his earliest anime appearances didn't even see him as a doctor, so his iconic look allows him to work in other roles, too. When it does come to actual adaptation of Black Jack's various jobs, however, there is no doubt that primary attention is given towards the stuff that Osamu Dezaki directed, while the two TV anime are given secondary focus seemingly just due to their cumulative length. That's why I wanted to go over the "OTHER" Black Jack anime, because I was curious if these productions have been (more or less) ignored due to quality reasons, or if it's simply because none of them have the Dezaki pedigree behind them.
To my lack of surprise, then, it's seemingly just because they don't have the Dezaki name behind them, which is unfortunate. "Capital Transfer to Heian" is a short but very well done adaptation of the "Granny" story, right down to its (admittedly) rather sudden end, but was definitely made to imitate the feel of Dezaki's work, to some extent. The Boy Who Came From the Sky is an especially excellent OVA, telling a really interesting story & showing Black Jack struggle with finding out a solution to the conundrum that was brought to him. Black Jack Special was the only one that I had prior experience with, and while its made-for-TV roots do show visually it's also just an extremely well done adaptation of four iconic stories that still makes for a great introduction for newcomers. Finally, The Two Dark Doctors is an excellent film outing for Black Jack in its own right, with an interesting main plot & inclusion of an iconic "rival" in Dr. Kiriko, though I'm sure it'll forever live in the shadow of Dezaki's film from about a decade prior. Really, outside of the ONA adaptation (which I can't give any opinion on), you truly can't go wrong with any anime adaptation of Black Jack, in his adult form at least (I also haven't seen Young Black Jack), and if you've already watched Osamu Dezaki's takes on Osamu Tezuka's iconic doctor then definitely check out these other versions.
Hell, you can even watch two & call me in the morning.
Black Jack: Capital Transfer to Heian © Tezuka Productions
Black Jack: The Boy Who Came From the Sky © Tezuka Productions・Akita Shoten
Black Jack Special ~The 4 Miracles of Life~ © Tezuka Productions・Yomiuri TV
Black Jack: The Two Dark Doctors © 2005 Black Jack Film Production Committee (Yomiuri TV, Tezuka Productions, Toho, NTV, Akita Shoten, Avex Entertainment, Dentsu, Yomiuri TV Enterprise, SKY PerfecTV! Wellthink)
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