Black Jack Is No Bleak Phantom of the Opera, He Cuts for Compassion

Released Dec 16, 2025

MediaOCD has taken a careful, almost surgical approach in updating Black Jack, the OVA series, treating it less like a nostalgia item and more like an essential entry point for a classic manga series that many viewers may have missed reading. Alongside a revised song translation, this release restores the two episodes absent from earlier editions and makes a clear effort to remaster the material for modern digital viewing.

For anyone unfamiliar with the property, this set finally presents the series as a complete experience. I’ll also include a brief guide at the end to help newcomers understand how this fits into the wider world of Osamu Tezuka’s work and the many versions of his famously unconventional doctor, Kurō Hazama.

But to others, they know him by his moniker: Black Jack. He’s a surgeon with a hard to read exterior. Although his scar can frighten, there’s more to him than meets the eye.  While there’s some mystery concerning his past and why he looks the way he does, I’m not spoiling this reveal. All we need to know is that he’s a surgeon who operates entirely outside the law. What he does is not out of arrogance, but is with compassion.

The series makes it clear that a patient’s moral history matters far less than the immediate human cost of refusing care. His signature demand that patients assume the cost is high allows him to expose inequality directly. He may counter that guessing game by getting to know the person and maybe adjusting the bill afterwards. This IP is focused on dignity, suffering, and the uneasy compromises that come with survival.

For viewers new to the franchise, it helps to know that Black Jack began as a manga. The original works were written during a period when Tezuka was openly critical of institutional authority equating to moral certainty. The series is widely known for being more confrontational than its animated adaptations. While the OVA softens some of those edges, traces of that anger remain, especially in stories that challenge the commodification of care. That distrust of institutions still feels uncomfortably familiar, particularly when systems insist there is only one acceptable path forward and show little interest in the human cost of enforcing it.

While this creator could not have addressed modern contested conditions directly, his series frequently operates along the same fault lines. Although this set of episodes sounds very procedural and has to follow a certain template when it comes to episode design, what’s presented isn’t almost in line with Marcus Welby, M.D., a television series which may have been its North American cousin due to familiar themes being in play. While one is enigmatic, the other is the opposite.

Although the dense medical terminology feels intimidating, it comes from a genuine place. Tezuka trained in medicine before becoming an artist. Also, this latest translation doesn’t dumb down the the jargon. It respects its audience, whether they know what a pancreas does or not. No matter what the series, this release included, a consistent theme lies in whether or not Hazama shows compassion.

Comparing this release to other editions highlights why this set matters. Prior North American releases were often incomplete or inconsistent in presentation. This AnimEigo edition benefits from improved colour mastering and a familiar English voice cast that avoids the tonal whiplash common in older dubs. Some visual artifacts remain, but they do not distract. If anything, they mark the production as a product of its era rather than a flawed restoration.

Some tales are visceral, lingering on the brutal reality of surgery, while others pull back and focus on emotional consequence instead. Taken together, the series showcases a storytelling approach that has largely faded from modern adaptations, but remains strikingly effective.

List of Black Jack series released in North America

And for those folks not ready to take the plunge, Tezuka Productions Official has a curated Black Jack playlist on YouTube

Author: Ed Sum

I'm a freelance videographer and entertainment journalist (Absolute Underground Magazine, Two Hungry Blokes, and Otaku no Culture) with a wide range of interests. From archaeology to popular culture to paranormal studies, there's no stone unturned. Digging for the past and embracing "The Future" is my mantra. View all posts by Ed Sum