TV-Series
Description
"Black Jack 21" is a continuation of the "Black Jack" series, based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka. The story centers on Black Jack, an unlicensed but highly skilled surgeon who operates outside the conventional medical system, charging exorbitant fees for his services. Despite his morally ambiguous methods, Black Jack is driven by a deep sense of justice and a desire to save lives, often taking on cases that others deem impossible.
The narrative unfolds as Black Jack is drawn into a web of intrigue involving a secret organization known as "Noir," which seeks to manipulate global events through advanced medical technology and unethical experiments. The series explores Black Jack's past, revealing his connection to a tragic incident during his medical training that left him scarred physically and emotionally. This incident ties directly to Noir, as the organization's leader, Dr. Kiriko, was involved in the event that shaped Black Jack's life.
Throughout the series, Black Jack is accompanied by Pinoko, his young assistant and adoptive daughter, who provides emotional support and comic relief. Together, they confront a series of complex medical and ethical dilemmas, often involving Noir's machinations. The story delves into themes of morality, the limits of medical science, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Black Jack's encounters with Noir force him to confront his own principles and the darker aspects of his past, culminating in a climactic showdown that tests his skills and resolve.
The series maintains a balance between episodic medical cases and an overarching narrative, blending suspense, drama, and action. Black Jack's character is portrayed as enigmatic and multifaceted, with his motivations and actions often challenging conventional notions of right and wrong. The supporting cast, including recurring characters like Dr. Honma and Kiriko, adds depth to the story, highlighting the moral ambiguities and personal stakes involved in Black Jack's world. "Black Jack 21" serves as both a standalone narrative and a deeper exploration of its protagonist's origins, offering a compelling mix of medical drama and conspiracy thriller.
The narrative unfolds as Black Jack is drawn into a web of intrigue involving a secret organization known as "Noir," which seeks to manipulate global events through advanced medical technology and unethical experiments. The series explores Black Jack's past, revealing his connection to a tragic incident during his medical training that left him scarred physically and emotionally. This incident ties directly to Noir, as the organization's leader, Dr. Kiriko, was involved in the event that shaped Black Jack's life.
Throughout the series, Black Jack is accompanied by Pinoko, his young assistant and adoptive daughter, who provides emotional support and comic relief. Together, they confront a series of complex medical and ethical dilemmas, often involving Noir's machinations. The story delves into themes of morality, the limits of medical science, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Black Jack's encounters with Noir force him to confront his own principles and the darker aspects of his past, culminating in a climactic showdown that tests his skills and resolve.
The series maintains a balance between episodic medical cases and an overarching narrative, blending suspense, drama, and action. Black Jack's character is portrayed as enigmatic and multifaceted, with his motivations and actions often challenging conventional notions of right and wrong. The supporting cast, including recurring characters like Dr. Honma and Kiriko, adds depth to the story, highlighting the moral ambiguities and personal stakes involved in Black Jack's world. "Black Jack 21" serves as both a standalone narrative and a deeper exploration of its protagonist's origins, offering a compelling mix of medical drama and conspiracy thriller.
Episodes
Staffel 1
1The Day His Medical License Returns
A detective forces Black Jack to treat a man with Paget's disease as a test to restore his medical license. Black Jack accepts a risky three-out-of-five chance during the surgery and succeeds. The Japan Medical Association refuses to recognize the result,and police arrest Black Jack for practicing without a license. An Italian billionaire named Boccherini, whose grandson suffers from a heart condition, visits Black Jack in prison. The Medical Association rejects all bribes from Boccherini to release Black Jack. The Association instead assigns a surgeon named Dr. White, who uses advanced robotic equipment to operate on the grandson. The grandson initially recovers but then dies suddenly from a rapid change in his condition. Enraged by the death, Boccherini orders the assassination of the Medical Association chairman's son. The chairman's son survives the attack but remains in critical condition with a bullet lodged near his heart. The chairman pleads with Black Jack to save his son. Black Jack agrees to perform the surgery only in exchange for an outrageous sum of money, leaving the boy's fate uncertain. The episode ends with Black Jack preparing for surgery while a new threat involving his father emerges.
2BJ's Reunion with His Father
A recorded message on Black Jack's answering machine contains a request from a man who calls him by his real name,Kuroo. The caller reveals himself as Black Jack's father, who abandoned his family 21 years earlier after a bombing killed his mother and severely injured him as a child. The father requests plastic surgery for his new wife, asking Black Jack to transform her face into the most beautiful woman in the world. Black Jack accepts the operation despite harboring deep resentment toward his father for leaving him and his dying mother. During the surgery, Black Jack reconstructs the wife's facial features to precisely match those of his late mother. The operation succeeds, and the wife receives her new appearance without knowing its origin. After completing the surgery, Black Jack returns to his residence. Upon entering his home, a bomb detonates and destroys the building. The explosion directly mirrors the childhood incident that took his mother's life and left his own body scarred. The episode concludes with Black Jack's fate uncertain as the rubble settles and no confirmation of survival emerges. Pinoko later faces the aftermath alone as authorities search the debris for any sign of the doctor.
3Pinoko's Sadness
An explosion destroys Black Jack's cliffside home. Pinoko screams as the building collapses. Several days later,Inspector Tomobuki informs Master that police found Black Jack's belongings and declares the doctor dead. Pinoko refuses to believe Black Jack died and continues searching the rubble alone. Tomobuki urges Master to follow through on Black Jack's final request: placing Pinoko up for adoption so she forgets him. Pinoko becomes the adopted daughter of Dr. Saeki, a hospital director, and begins a new life away from Black Jack's associates. While living with her new family, Pinoko spots a figure in a black cloak resembling Black Jack. Black Jack survived the explosion by escaping through a window and falling into the sea. A killer whale named Toriton rescues him from the water, and a fisherman whom Black Jack previously treated hides him from the organization pursuing him. Black Jack takes shelter in the ruins of Dr. Honma's clinic and struggles to perform surgery on his own injuries. He discovers a hidden photograph inside a bookshelf showing Dr. Honma together with Black Jack's father and a European doctor. Pinoko locates Black Jack and performs the surgery as he directs. After recovering, Black Jack and Pinoko follow the photograph's clue and depart for Europe to find the doctor who knew his father.
4The Black Angel of Northern Europe
Black Jack and Pinoko travel to a small country in Northern Europe to locate Dr. Kreutzer,a man whose photograph Black Jack discovered at Dr. Honma's clinic. A young girl named Suzie throws a can at Black Jack, mistaking his black clothing for the devil's appearance. Black Jack cuts his finger while shielding himself from the thrown can, and Suzie later warms up to him. He enters the hospital where Dr. Kreutzer worked and discovers that Kreutzer has remained in a persistent vegetative state for two months following a car accident. The hospital controller, Mr. Devon, requests that Black Jack impersonate Dr. Kreutzer and perform surgery on a cancer patient. Black Jack refuses the request outright, unwilling to assume another doctor's identity. Pinoko informs Black Jack that the cancer patient awaiting surgery is Suzie's mother. Black Jack agrees to perform the operation, demanding a high fee for his services. He successfully completes the surgery while disguised as Kreutzer. Following the operation, Dr. Stein, another figure from the old group photograph, appears and mentions both an organization and the Noir Project in Black Jack's presence. The mention of the Noir Project forces Black Jack to confront a new lead in his investigation into those who tried to kill him.
5The Robotic Arm
Black Jack tracks Dr. Stein to Germany after encountering him at Dr. Kreutzer's hospital. At Stein General Hospital,Black Jack reunites with Dr. Konomi Kuwata, a colleague known as the Black Queen. Dr. Stein prepares to attach an experimental, thought-controlled robotic arm to a young pianist named Triton. Triton suffers from Ewing's sarcoma in his arm, and Stein recommends amputation followed by the prosthetic. Black Jack speaks directly with Triton, who confesses he wants to keep his biological arm. The boy prefers to master piano through years of practice rather than rely on a robotic replacement. Dr. Stein refuses to discuss the case or delay the scheduled operation. Black Jack and Dr. Kuwata work together to perform limb-saving surgery on Triton. The surgery successfully removes the sarcoma while preserving the boy's natural arm. Black Jack then shifts his focus to following Dr. Stein to England for further answers. Throughout the episode, the assassin Benitokage and the organization's operatives continue trailing Black Jack. Black Jack sets course for England with his pursuers still closing in.
6The Flying Hospital
Black Jack and Pinoko arrive at an airport to follow Dr. Stein from Germany to England,but authorities deny them a departure permit. Dr. Ayako Nishikawa encounters the pair and offers Black Jack passage aboard the Sky Hospital, a military aircraft converted into an airborne clinic. Dr. White, the plane's owner, developed the hospital's advanced medical facilities. Shortly after takeoff, three militants seize control of the aircraft, intending to convert it back into a fighting vessel for their cause in Taranistan. Passengers and crew resist the hijackers, but one militant detonates a stun grenade inside the cockpit. The explosion injures both pilots and the grenade's thrower with shrapnel, and the cockpit door locks from the inside. Pinoko discovers an alternate entry through a hatch on the fuselage roof. Black Jack climbs onto the aircraft exterior, enters through the hatch, and unlocks the door from within. Dr. White attempts to perform surgery on the wounded pilots, but the plane's power voltage drops, disabling his high-tech equipment. Severe turbulence forces White to abandon the operation, and he offers Black Jack one hundred million yen to perform the surgeries instead. White takes over piloting duties while Black Jack operates on the captain under extreme conditions. Black Jack successfully completes the operation, and the semi-recovered captain gives landing instructions to White. White lands the damaged Sky Hospital safely in a desert as fuel runs critically low. Black Jack and Pinoko disembark and continue their journey toward England on foot.
10A Miracle in New York
A bullet strikes Black Jack but lodges in his mother‘s swan pendant,saving his life. He proceeds to Bart General Hospital and joins Dr. Bill Bart in surgery on Bill‘s mother, Catherine. During the operation, Black Jack examines Catherine‘s heart and finds a high-performance artificial organ. The device bears a snake engraving and the label ”Hydra-KH0202.” Dr. Honma‘s hematoma condition, an ischemic disease, originated from this artificial heart. Black Jack and Bill replace the Hydra heart with a different artificial heart that Black Jack secures, and Catherine survives. Black Jack notices a microfilm protruding from the edge of his mother‘s pendant. He has the microfilm analyzed, and the results reveal that his father, Hazama Kagemitsu, designed the Hydra artificial heart. The microfilm contains the complete blueprints for the device. Awakening from surgery, Catherine tells Black Jack how his parents met and how Kagemitsu left Mio to work on the Noir Project. When Catherine suffered a heart attack, Kagemitsu risked his life to implant the experimental Hydra heart as a life-saving measure. The assassin Red Lizard infiltrates the hospital to retrieve the Hydra artificial heart. She steals the device and returns to the hospital to kill Black Jack. The order to eliminate Black Jack is canceled. Catherine shares information about the Noir Project, and Black Jack decides to travel to Canada with Pinoko to pursue the next lead.
11The Destiny of the Black Doctor
Black Jack and Pinoko travel to a lakeside cabin in Canada to meet Dr. Jorujyu. Dr. Jorujyu's daughter,Yuri, fires a rifle at them, mistaking Black Jack for her brother. Yuri explains that her brother intends to kill their father and asks Black Jack to help. Black Jack diagnoses Dr. Jorujyu with mediastinal pneumothorax, a condition where air leaks into a body cavity. Yuri's brother arrives and reveals himself as Dr. Kiriko, the physician known for euthanasia. Dr. Kiriko admits he cannot save his father and plans to end his life against Yuri's wishes. Kiriko further discloses that their father also suffers from incurable Phoenix Disease, which he contracted during the Noir Project's search for eternal life. Black Jack successfully operates on Dr. Jorujyu, closing the air leak and allowing the patient to regain consciousness temporarily. Despite the successful surgery, Dr. Jorujyu succumbs to the Phoenix Disease shortly after. Before Black Jack departs, Yuri gives him the key to her father's research laboratory, sending him toward the next phase of his investigation.
12Beyond the Aurora
Black Jack and Pinoko arrive in Canada. Black Jack travels into the mountains near the Arctic Circle to find Dr. Jorujyu's research laboratory. Dr. Jorujyu previously studied the Phoenix Disease,a deadly condition Black Jack seeks to understand. A woman who previously tried to kill Black Jack suffers a severe injury. Black Jack chooses to treat her wound despite her earlier attacks. An avalanche suddenly crashes down the mountain slope. The rushing snow traps Black Jack, Pinoko, and the injured woman inside a cellar beneath the laboratory. Black Jack searches the laboratory shelves and locates a hidden document. The document contains Dr. Jorujyu's complete research notes on the Phoenix Disease. Before Black Jack can secure the document, a blast of wind rips the papers from his hands. The snowstorm outside swallows the document and carries it away. Black Jack loses the only existing copy of the Phoenix Disease research. Black Jack must continue his pursuit of the Phoenix Disease cure without the crucial information he traveled so far to obtain.
13Pinoko - Go Back to Japan!
Black Jack and Pinoko arrive in the Gabon Republic of Africa to search for Dr. Kuma. A flooded river traps them in a small town,where they encounter the boy Sharaku. Sharaku's father offers the pair lodging for the night. Pinoko befriends Al, a local boy who delivers groceries. The next day, Pinoko spots a boy who looks identical to Al. She learns the boy's name is Johan, and Al confesses that Johan is his twin brother Niko. A flood ten years earlier killed the twins' parents and forced the brothers to live apart. Niko's adoptive mother lost her own son in the same flood, so she raised Niko as her child Johan to give her a reason to live. Al falls ill and requires an urgent liver transplant from a blood relative. Pinoko and Sharaku locate Niko, who agrees to donate immediately. Niko fears his adoptive mother will discover he is not her biological son. The brothers reunite successfully, and Niko's adoptive parents ultimately adopt both children. Black Jack worries about Pinoko's safety and asks Sharaku's father to send her back to Japan with Sharaku, leaving Pinoko devastated. Black Jack continues his journey alone, searching for Dr. Kuma while Pinoko returns home.
14The Terrifying Phoenix Disease
Black Jack and Pinoko arrive by helicopter in a remote village where many residents have already died from various illnesses. Black Jack convinces the hesitant pilot to continue flying deeper into the area. Upon landing,Black Jack asks the villagers about Dr. Kuma, but no one agrees to speak. A girl named Marie, whom Black Jack met on the way to the village, guides him and Pinoko to Dr. Kuma's location. Shortly after, Marie's brother Jiru appears and pleads for help because their mother has begun suffering intensely. The group rushes to Jiru's house, and Dr. Kuma examines the mother. Dr. Kuma diagnoses arterial thrombosis that has caused intestinal necrosis. Black Jack decides to perform emergency surgery inside the home. He completes most of the operation successfully. Just before finishing the final steps, Black Jack experiences a severe dizzy spell. Black Jack collapses to the floor, unable to continue the surgery. The episode ends with Pinoko and Dr. Kuma facing the immediate crisis of an unfinished operation and an unconscious surgeon.
15The Truth about Black Jack's Father
Black Jack travels to Macau after learning that his father,Kagemitsu Hazama, has fallen into a coma from a stroke. Renka, his stepmother, welcomes him and asks him to stay and become part of the family. Renka's father, Zen Mantoku, orchestrates this invitation as a ploy to obtain the microfiche hidden inside Black Jack's mother's pendant. When Black Jack refuses to hand over the pendant, the organization's henchmen kidnap Pinoko. The assassin Benitokage appears and rescues Pinoko, but a henchman knocks out Black Jack and brings him before Zen Mantoku. Mantoku reveals that he planted the bomb twenty-one years ago that injured Black Jack and killed his mother. Mantoku also forced Kagemitsu to work for the organization, and Kagemitsu left his family to protect them. Black Jack refuses Mantoku's offer to join the organization and declares that he has already released the secrets of the Noir Project to the world. Black Jack reveals that Benitokage is the first daughter of Kagemitsu and Renka, making her his half-sister. Benitokage helps Black Jack escape, but a gunshot wounds his leg. Black Jack operates on his own leg, transplanting skin from his deceased father's body with assistance from Dr. Kuwata. Weeks later, Black Jack and Pinoko prepare to return to Japan from the airport. A sniper targets Black Jack, and Benitokage sacrifices her own life by shielding him from the bullet. Black Jack leaves Benitokage's body behind and departs, answering 'no' when airport personnel ask if she is family.
16The Challenge Against Extinction
Black Jack and Pinoko wait at the airport departure gate when security personnel escort them to the Sky Hospital. Dr. White and Dr. Nishikawa request Black Jack to examine the hospital's sole patient,Zen Mantoku. Mantoku suffers from Phoenix Disease, a condition resulting from the B.O.P. injection he received as part of the Noir Project. Black Jack agrees to assist Dr. White in developing a cure in exchange for one billion yen. Renka, who harbors resentment over the loss of her husband and daughter and Black Jack's decision to give her the face of her husband's former wife, secretly plots to kill the surgeon. She intends to obtain the vaccine and profit by spreading Phoenix Disease. One of Renka's henchmen attempts to hijack the Sky Hospital. During the hijacking attempt, Mantoku exits his containment capsule. The patient's departure from the capsule releases a mutated form of Phoenix Disease throughout the aircraft. The airborne pathogen now threatens to infect everyone on board, including Pinoko. Black Jack must confront the spreading Phoenix Disease to save the lives of Pinoko and the other passengers.
17The Sanctity of Life
Black Jack orders Dr. White to change the Sky Hospital's course toward the North Pole. Renka initiates her plan to acquire the Phoenix Disease. The Sky Hospital receives a call from a US Alaska base reporting that doctors worldwide,including Dr. Kuma, have 21 hours to find a cure before a nuclear missile launches to destroy the virus and all infected individuals. Renka boards the Sky Hospital. Before she can shoot Black Jack, her father Zen Mantoku intervenes. Father and daughter shoot each other. Zen Mantoku dies from his wounds, and Renka suffers severe injuries. Black Jack decides to operate on Renka despite her attempt on his life. During the surgery, Black Jack discovers an antivirus within Renka's system that cures the Phoenix Disease. The nuclear missile launches toward the North Pole with no way to divert it. As the Phoenix Disease spreads through Black Jack's own body, he loses consciousness. He sees visions of Benitokage, Dr. Kiriko, Dr. Honma, and his parents, each telling him he has done enough. He also sees an adult eighteen-year-old form of Pinoko, who tells him patients still await his help and that she will never leave him. Dr. White successfully evades the missile detonation and flies the Sky Hospital to safety. The medical community names the cure the Honma Antiserum in honor of Dr. Honma and distributes it freely. Black Jack and Pinoko return to the site of his destroyed house, and Black Jack decides to rebuild his clinic.
Relations
Anime overview
Manga overview
Music
Opening
Hitomi Shimatani
Ending
Ep. 1-8
EXILE
Ep. 9-17