Osamu Tezuka’s massive body of work is sometimes overshadowed by the success of Astro Boy, to the point where I’m only able to tell certain people who Osamu Tezuka is by bringing up Astro Boy to them. However, one of the most important series that Osamu Tezuka ever created has, itself, grown into quite a respectable franchise, one that easily attains greater critical reception than that of Astro Boy and is also commercially successful, being Osamu Tezuka’s second bestselling manga behind Astro Boy itself. Therefore, I thought it worth providing an overview of this fascinating franchise, Black Jack.
The Black Jack manga ran from 1973-83 in Weekly Shonen Champion and proved to be so successful that it’s often referred to as having rejuvenated Osamu Tezuka’s career. The manga follows the titular Black Jack, a genius surgeon who is unlicensed, as he encounters all sorts of unusual cases, patients and situations alongside his assistant/adopted daughter Pinoko. The series itself is told episodically with a few chapters fleshing out the background of its main cast but the quality of these stories proves remarkable and, in my personal opinion, is much more consistent than Astro Boy. It is also one of the best-selling manga series of all time with an estimated 50 million copies being sold in Japan!
Despite the remarkable success of the manga, it’s surprising to see the early years of the franchise relatively restrained. A live-action film adaptation called The Visitor in the Eye was released in 1977 while a live-action TV series seems to have aired in 1981 although I can find relatively few sources for it to the point where I can’t even speak with confidence about it. The character of Black Jack also cameoed in other Osamu Tezuka works but it wasn’t until much later that the first anime incarnations of the franchise came to be.
In 1993, a long-running OVA series of Black Jack began, directed by the venerable anime director Osamu Dezaki, which ran until 2000 across ten episodes with a further two episodes being released in 2011. Additionally, Osamu Dezaki directed a Black Jack film in 1996 which won critical acclaim as well as the award for Best Animated Film at the Mainichi Film Awards. The years 2005-06 proved to be the most fruitful of the franchise’s life with numerous releases. Two anime TV series were released with one, simply called Black Jack, running for 61 episodes from 2004-06 and another, called Black Jack 21, running 17 episodes in 2006. Additionally, another film called Black Jack: The Two Doctors of Darkness saw release in 2005 and a manga called Ray featured Black Jack, implied in the original manga but much more prominently in its anime adaptation, as an important character.
Since then, the most notable release within the Black Jack franchise has been a manga prequel called Young Black Jack which ran from 2011-19 in Young Champion and has itself received adaptations with a live-action TV special in 2011 airing prior to the manga and an anime adaptation in 2015. It’s also notable that the character of Black Jack has also recently been used in several medical campaigns in order to promote their cause, showing the importance, impact and value of this character.
The Black Jack franchise may not be as famous or popular as Astro Boy but it’s still a fascinating one with numerous adaptations that amount to a sizable body of work. Let me know your thoughts on this overview of the Black Jack franchise, whether you have read any of the manga or seen any of the adaptations, what your thoughts on them are, whether you’re aware of any other Black Jack media and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!