Black Jack has some of the best-looking animation that is out there, bar none. All Black Jack images © 1993 Tezuka Prods. All rights reserved.

Black Jack V.1 Infection, V.2 Seizure, V.3 Incubation
(2007) OVA series (six episodes). Director: Osamu Dezaki. V.1, 2 & 3. Each has two episodes/100 minutes. DVD bilingual $24.95. Distributor: US Manga Corps

US Manga Corps has brought a real classic back to life in this re-release of the classic Black Jack OVA series. Back in 1993 Osamu Dezaki of Golgo 13 and Lupin the III fame directed, what was at the time, a groundbreaking medical drama anime called, Black Jack. It was an excellent adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Manga series. Despite the fact that Tezuka is probably better known for his earlier works Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy, Black Jack has still received a great deal of critical acclaim in Japan and to this day continues to build a fan base. And the best part about this entire series is that it is all traditional hand-drawn animation. I know that doesn't sound like a big whoop, but after the first operation scene it becomes very evident that Black Jack has some of the best looking animation that is out there, bar none.

This OVA series is a wonderful collection of 50-minute medical drama stories. Each episode is essentially a 50-minute movie that could stand alone and makes perfect sense without having to see the other episodes. In some places there is some back story given about Black Jack, but that information really exists more to satisfy fan curiosity rather than deepen the story. Our main character is an unlicensed physician for hire named Black Jack. He is a medical genius who often works alone, but is sometimes aided by his patient-turned-companion Pinoko. Pinoko has the body and voice of a five-year-old girl, but regularly tells people that she is 18. Black Jack treats her as his daughter despite the fact that Pinoko often acts more like a petulant wife to him. She provides a nice amount of comic relief for the show, and, despite the awkwardness of the nature of Black Jack and Pinoko's relationship, it somehow seems believable.

Black Jack has a scarred appearance from an incident in his childhood, and, as a result of this incident, it inspired him to practice medicine himself. But he chooses to remain unlicensed so that he doesn't have to conform to any set regulations. Often the procedures that he performs on his patients are outside of the medical mainstream, and are sometime so radical that it would have resulted in him losing his license anyway. Despite the lack of credentials, there is no shortage of work for this maverick doctor whose charges are based on what the patient can afford rather than insurance coverage. He is known for finding the answers when no other doctor is able to find a cure. As a result his fees can be astronomical, but he will do the occasional pro-bono case.

The most impressive aspect of Black Jack's animation is the level of detail that is shown without the help of computer animation. Operation scenes are exquisitely animated with pumping veins and twitching tissues.

The most impressive aspect of this animation is the level of detail that is shown without the help of computer animation. In most current anime cities, vehicles and even background elements are computer-generated, because it is faster and cheaper to build a detailed 3D model and cel shade it instead of tweening a comparable 2D drawing. Not in this case. This title is all hand-drawn 2D, but with awesome amounts of detail. Operation scenes are exquisitely animated with pumping veins and twitching tissues. Layers of body material unfold and reveal a crazy amount of depth to tissue. Connective tissue can be easily seen as well as musculature, bone matter and nerve tissues.

I took several semesters of biology in college and, in that time, I learned enough anatomy to be totally impressed with what was done here. There is some cheating that happens where vehicles or highly detailed objects don't change in perspective as they should, but that is small potatoes compared to the scene in the first episode where Black Jack performs open chest surgery on a man while he is having a seizure. After seeing that surgery no one can rightly complain about a car that doesn't turn in perfect 3D space. Character design is solid and has a very distinctive western style look to it. However, there is some lack of variety, as most faces look very similar from episode to episode with only hair color and length being the only differentiating features.

The Black Jack anime has a darker and more macabre type of style to it compared to the original manga art. This is undoubtedly because of Osamu Dezaki's artistic influence and really has a similar feel of the grittiness from his earlier works. In this case the darker tonal change of the visual element of the story really works to enrich the environment behind each plot. Oftentimes when an individual is sick because of their past inequities, their surroundings will reflect their evil and decay along side of patient. Then, after Black Jack works his miracles of medicine, the environment will be healed along with that patient.

I know that on the surface this sounds kind of cheesy, but it is done very subtlety and not readily noticed by the casual viewer. I think that the subtlety in which the entire animation is handled is one of the keys to the strong visual impact that it has. For example, during surgeries there could be tons of gore with veins and arteries spurting blood everywhere. Instead there is a tight focus shot of the scalpel entering the flesh and making an entry incision with a small amount of blood seeping from the incision. Each time that happened, I got a small chill sent up my spine. A very subtle amount of gore, but there still was an emotional connection made. As an added bonus the anime regularly harkens back to the manga with an interesting take on bumper treatments. The action freezes on screen during a point of action and the art style changes from the anime to something that looks like a colored Manga page. Not exactly groundbreaking, but I thought it was a nice touch.