Using the unlicensed, black market doctor Black Jack, Osamu Tezuka tells remarkably human and humane stories around small little medical dramas that have as much to do about healing the physical body as the do about the health of a person’s soul. In the new 5th volume of Black Jack stories from Vertical which contains about 15 short stories, Black Jack’s role varies from story to story. He can either be a force who moves in and out of a story, affecting change without really being part of that change or Black Jack can be the focus of Tezuka’s story, demonstrating the character’s own innate goodness or exposing his own hubris and weakness.
While all of the stories in the 5th volume are good, there are a couple that stand out, not the least of which is “Pinoko’s Mystery,” a story featuring the one-time cancerous growth and now the doctor’s adopted daughter. The story that Tezuka gave her in an earlier volume is that she was a cancerous growth that he cut out of another girl and put into basically a doll’s body and now keeps as his daughter only she insists that she’s Black Jack’s wife. Yes, it is as strange and demented as it sounds. In this new story, she gets a letter from someone claiming to be her mother, saying that she’s always been a real girl and that the doctor has basically kidnapped her and told her lies. As the letter shakes her faith in Black Jack’s story, she goes an a drunken journey to find her “real” family. As with all stories involving Pinoko, there’s a creepy charm to this one including a final spanking scene that just makes Black Jack and Pinoko’s relationship more disturbing than anything else.
Two stories involve Kiriko, Black Jack’s opposite number. Where Black Jack always tries to save lives, Kiriko is the Dr. Kevorkian of manga, looking to ease his suffering patients into death without once trying to give them a chance to live. One story involves Kiriko’s father, who Kiriko wants to give a merciful death to, and his sister, who brings their father to Black Jack, looking for a miracle. In the other story, Kiriko himself is almost dead, having contracted a rare virus. Both stories show a compassion in Black Jack as he fights for the lives of his rival and his family and give the character a depth that is present but not obvious in many other stories.
Those other stories usually involve Black Jack moving into a situation, affecting change for another doctor or patient and then moving on. In one of those stories, “The Helper”, Black Jack helps an old mentor, Dr. Yamadano, perform a surgery to prove that he’s is still a good doctor even as he is going blind. Yamadano’s younger colleagues are trying to discredit him and force him to retire. This story features Black Jack as an agent of change, discrediting the selfish doctors and uplifting the good people in his care. There are many stories like this, including one where Black Jack helps an old country doctor version of himself and another where he has to show another doctor just how much family really means. The Vertical collections do an excellent job of putting different types of stories together in these collections.
Each story in Black Jack Volume 5 showcases Osamu Tezuka’s excellent cartooning and storytelling while also deliverying a gripping story. Whether the focus is on Black Jack, Pinoko or another doctor, Tezuka’s stories are always grounded with a humanity that rings universal and true. Even Pinoko’s stories have a tinge of humanity to them, even if she is a walking tumor?
Black Jack Volume 5 is available at Amazon.com.
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Tags: Black Jack, Osamu Tezuka