Let’s talk Osamu Tezuka. The man was a fucking genius, and probably the best singular character he ever made was Black Jack, a licenseless freelance surgeon who charges exorbitant prices for his skills, which, to be fair, are completely fucking impossible. He’s also kind of a major asshole.
I love him.
So, I’m totally ecstatic over a new Black Jack series, even if it seems to be an adaptation of a prequel manga that wasn’t directly penned by Tezuka himself. Black Jack’s just that damned good. Also, the OP alone promises quite a lot of completely batshit insane stuff.
We start off setting the tone for the rest of the series, maybe. A revolution in 1968 Japan results in protests at Tokyo U from students demanding fair compensation for… well fuck if I know, since I’m not a history buff and the anime doesn’t exactly do a good job of elucidating the issue. Actually, it seems to take a stance AGAINST the students by portraying them as no better than union strong-arms.
Our hero, Hazama Kuroo, is a med student with a strange appearance and a penchant for visualizing surgeries alone. Our main heroine, Okamoto Maiko, ropes him into helping out an understaffed hospital when a train accident injures multiple people, including a little boy who lost an arm and a leg.
The boy’s parents are told they’ll have to amputate to save the boy’s life, and the father is scolded for begging them to try to reattach the limbs. Hazama overhears this and offers to do the surgery for 5 million yen. So, figuratively charging an arm and a leg for literally an arm and a leg.
Hazama SOMEHOW manages to convince Maiko into helping bring the kid to another doctor who’s willing to help so they can use his operating room.
Seeing as how this guy eventually becomes Black Jack, the operation is a success. However, the boy’s father stiffs Hazama on the bill, only paying 500k of the 5 million he agreed to since Hazama is only a med student and not even an intern like Maiko. Also, what Hazama did is kinda… extortion. So there’s no action Hazama can take against him for the rest of the payment.
He takes it kinda hard.
Overall, I liked it. I can see Young Black Jack being pretty polarizing. It’s probably a better watch for people who are already familiar with and like Black Jack.
One thing that could get annoying is how blatantly sexualized Hazama is. I mean, Black Jack was always kind of a ladies’ man in his own right, but, well…. dayum.
I honestly am not sure what’s in store for the rest of the series. As I mentioned, this is an original prequel story based on the original Black Jack’s origins. But hey, if it provides a weekly dose of Black Jack being Black Jack, that’s all I really care about.