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BookDragon Blog

03 Jun / Black Jack (vol. 3) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Camellia Nieh

Black Jack 3At the rate I’m reading these, it’s a good thing I only ordered the first three volumes to get me started … although that ‘1-click ‘ button sure is calling to me!

I did try to savor this final-volume-in-possession (let’s see if I can at least keep from pressing ‘buy’ long enough to finish this post!) but the pages just kept turning until Pinoko was too soon staring at me with her wildly glaring eyes, with a “WRONG WAY!” warning at volume’s end, boo hooo.

So what did our Dr. Jack Black do in his third adventurous installment? He got snowbound in a remote village and kept company with a lonely old woman waiting futilely for her too-busy sons to visit. He discovered – but couldn’t find a cure in time to save his friend – a mysterious disease that miniaturized its victims (and what a chilling comment that was on the consequences of massive human overconsumption of the world’s resources!). He operated on his own body in the wilds of the Australian outback to remove a killer parasite, all the while realizing that humans stupidly, unwittingly continue to bring death and destruction upon themselves.

He saved an unjustly accused nurse from evil hospital administrators – yet another reminder of why he chooses to remain unlicensed. He witnessed the power of a grateful bird to save a human life, even at the ultimate cost of its own. He met a father who risked everything to save his son’s life. He rescued a once status-hungry woman from losing her life to greed and the bottle.

He went head-to-head with a doctor of death. He listened to Pinoko declare her undying love to him but refused to take her kidney to save another little boy whose father was more concerned about his wallet than his child. He mourned the premature death of a young doctor who lived long enough to finally perform his first surgery. And he saved a baby abandoned in a coin-locker. Not bad for a single volume’s work, huh?

Along the way, Black Jack teaches the reader a thing or two about the human body, with excellent medical renderings thanks to the multi-talented Dr. Tezuka. More importantly, he reminds us all of our humanity, his misanthropic stance not quite able to hide his overwhelmingly caring heart.

To check out other Black Jack volumes, click here.

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2009 (United States)

By Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers Tags > Adventure, BookDragon, Camellia Nieh, Death, Family, Friendship, Illness, Love, Osamu Tezuka, Parent/child relationship, Series, Series: Black Jack
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