Forum - View topicOHMYGEWDNESS!(The Black Jack thread)
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
AegisX
 Posts: 59 |
|
||
|
Last August I sat down at my computer and began watching the first two episodes of Black Jack 21. Afterwards, I spent the rest of the night frantically searching for the other fifteen episodes. As of today I've finally found said episodes but only seen up to the tenth or so. To me this is a tragedy. Why, you may ask? Because, this series is genius in its purest form.
Everything about this show, from the artwork and animation, to the voice acting and soundtrack , is excellent. Yet as I search for info regarding this series, I've realized that almost no one(outside of Japan of course) has heard of it. I have to ask why it, along with the character's other two series, is so obscure. Of course an obvious answer would be that the series has never seen release outside of Japan(the original ten OVA episodes were released in America along with the first film, but nothing else). With beautiful artwork, excellent music(http://mymedia.yam.com/m/427933 - Black Jack's theme), and some great voice acting(Yukio Mizutani as Pinoko, has made being cute an artform), this show is quite honestly a must see. Yet apparently no one's seeing it! This has to be fixed! The story is the main drawing point of the series of course. Each episode is adapted from Osamu Tezuka's original manga, with several alterations, such as the addition of an overarching storyline. The story itself involves Black Jack's attempts at uncovering the secret of the mysterious Noir Project and the Organization behind it, all while performing seemingly impossible medical operations each episode and dealing with the adorable(if slightly annoying) Pinoko. My description honestly doesn't do it justice though, you'll have to see it for yourself. In closing, I welcome anyone else here who's seem even an episode or two of this series to share their opinion on the subject, as I'm rather interested in hearing what others think of this. Edit: Discussion of the OVA series and the 2004 television series are welcome as well. Last edited by AegisX on Fri May 25, 2007 8:45 pm; edited 2 times in total |
|||
|
|||
Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
|
||
|
Black Jack is really one of the great characters of all time. I think that I really appreciate everything that Black Jack did considering that Urasawa basically went on to do Monster probably because of how much he enjoyed Black Jack. Other wise I haven't seen any of Black Jack 21, although I have watched a decent amount of Black Jack the original TV series and I am really enjoying the OVA by Dezuki, some of those illness are really brutal. One thing that I really enjoy about Black Jack is the suspense, sure it's a bit like House ya have a pretty good feeling the doctor is going to say the patient. Different in the two Black Jack makes sense whereas House put some random BS out of ass with 5 mins left......sorry I got little carried away.
Also the Manga was (I actually think it still is) licensed by Viz and they only released two volume and it doesn't appear that any more is coming out. Although the FRENCH did get a nice complete collection so if your from Canada (and actually know more French the first two words "Oh Canada") or possibly France you could always try to find that. |
|||
|
|||
Amasa
 Posts: 340 Location: Japan |
|
||
|
First of all I'd like to say that Pinoko is the epitomy of cute. Forget Chiyo-chan and Jigglypuff, it's all Pinoko. She's obviously cute in a very unloli way which is so nice in this day and age where loli seems to have infiltrated the best storylines. So with that I'd just like to add my appreciation to the creation of the cutest ever to exist without making her a loli victim.
I have never seen Black Jack 21 but I saw the first 20 or so episodes of the original series. I stopped after a while because after 20 episodes of "patient of the week" I thought I finally understood the moral of the show which lacks subtleness. There was no overarching plot to make the end of each episode suspenseful and it seemed that I was watching the same episodes over and over again. To give the series more credit than that I will say that of those very repetitive episodes have some of the most unforgettable characters. Some really had me feeling their pain which was portrayed so well in a lot of cases. The boy who pretended to a healthy baseball player over the internet to his spoiler[blind] friend and the girl who sang so much that she lost her voice have really stuck in my mind for some reason. There's others of course that I've forgotten which are probably just as good but then there are the episodes which were just so.... odd that they probably surpass terrible in more ways the one (I'm thinking of a sick whale and a dying patient who wants to get married). Anyways, now that I know that Black Jack 21 has a plot and still has Pinoko I'll definitely add it to my to watch list. If it even has half of the heart and moral that the TV series had then I will love it. I also find it strange that Black Jack is almost non-existent among the Western anime fans, it's very popular in Japan and not just among children. Adults love this show and I've seen Pinoko and Blackjack appear on adverts on TV advertising something completely random. The music featured on the series is also very well known as a result of the show. I love the Janne de Arc OP to the tv series and I bought the double CD album the other day which was really exciting. One last thing that I still cannot get over to this day, in an episode of the Black Jack tv series there is a very strange character design that has stuck in my head. It was the episode where Black Jack and Pinoko go into a snowy village and the Doctor in the village was old and was cheating on his patients by not giving them the correct medication. That doctor's nurse assistant has four eyes it seems. She has two dots that fill two big circles and it makes her look like a mutant. I just thought I'd bring that up because I found it so weird, I couldn't see a way that her eyes could actually resemble two human eyes - did anyone else notice that? Sorry to go completely off-topic, it seems I didn't actually discuss Black Jack 21 at all.... 
|
|||
|
|||
|
AegisX
Posts: 59 |
|
||
|
I saw two episodes of the 2004 series this afternoon and I have to say that, unfortunately, I'm not very impressed. The episodes were far brighter and happier than what I had previously seen(BJ21, the OVA series, Two Doctor's of Darkness), and the lack of a storyline left me a teeny bit uninterested. I'll give a chance though and watch a few more episodes before making a final judgement.
I'd suggest watching The Two Doctor's of Darkness before BJ21, Amasa. It's significantly darker than the 2004 series and actually has an interesting plot. It's currently unavailable outside of Japan though, so importing and fansubs would be your only way of seeing it. It's severely lacking in Pinoko appearances unfortunately... |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group