Rating: Summary: Tezuka does it again! Review: I watched this video and was deeply moved. It is a very compelling drama about a surgeon who must save a young girls life from some drug dealers. I was touched for this is by far one of the most brilliant films that I have ever seen. I would reccomend this for mature ages only. There are a few somewhat violent seens and it is somewhat hard to understand, in other words it takes a lot of thinking.
Rating: Summary: Blackjack is the best! Review: It's been too long since another Blackjack video was put out, and especially in Japanese w/ subtitles. Like the OAVs, this movie is true to the manga, with Blackjack at his best. It doesn't tell the viewer everything, however, assuming that they know the history of the movie characters, but this movie can be viewed in itself without any previous knowlege of the series.
Rating: Summary: A good medical-drama anime Review: Made by the same guy behind Golgo 13: Queen Bee, BlackJack's incredibly lifelike animation and painted still frames were instantly recognizable. BlackJack is a freelance doctor who can perform operations that would normally be impossible, usually for ridiculous fees. When humans with superhuman abilities start appearing and making news, a dawn of a new era of genetically superior beings is thought to be at hand. But those superhumans carry a deadly virus, and patient after patient begins dying during their operations. BlackJack is called to find who and what is causing the virus. BlackJack is able to capture a mood that is completely absent in other anime- suspense. Despite the slow-moving medical scenes and the ending that doesn't resolve too much, BlackJack is a stylish, suspenseful anime that is a good way to spend an evening.
Rating: Summary: Not too bad - once. Review: This DVD is true to its manga roots, but it seems the Black Jack formula of "medical miracle / fantastic consequences" becomes tired and preachy when stretched out too long for something feature length like this. I enjoyed it once, but I wish I had seen a friend's copy instead of adding it to my permanent collection.
Rating: Summary: Good Work Gone Awry Review: This full length medical thriller was created completed in 1996, base on a popular manga series created a decade before by Osamu Tezuka. It's plot, not particularly original then, and much hackneyed now, is the story of an experiment gone out of control. Brane Pharmaceutical has discovered a way to stimulate permanent secretion of endorphins. This has fueled the creation of a group of humans with superhuman abilities, who have just as suddenly begun to burn out and die. The culprit it the same virus that stimulates the endorphins in the first place, and it has begun to affect others besides the original patients - an artificially created plague. When one of his own patients is affected, Black Jack, a wildcat surgeon, becomes involved. Jo Carol Brane arranged the kidnapping of his ward, Pinoko, to force his cooperation. Black Jack finds the cause, but this only unmasks the source of the danger. It will take a miracle to find the cure and preventative. By rights, this should have been an exciting story. In the original Japanese, the script is terse and brutal, producing a stylized gothic effect that is enough to overcome a slow moving plot. Unfortunately, the dubbing took extreme liberties with the script and under-acted the parts. The result is a wordy and sometimes tedious performance. After all, the point of the story - the dangers of irresponsible medical research - is obvious enough so that there is no need to belabor it. Even so it is an interesting film. The art and music are excellent, using a lot of tonality that is unusual in anime work. A little better editing and writing would have made this a memorable effort. Instead, it is only a near miss. A mistake that should never have happened.
Rating: Summary: Good Work Gone Awry Review: This full length medical thriller was created completed in 1996, base on a popular manga series created a decade before by Osamu Tezuka. It's plot, not particularly original then, and much hackneyed now, is the story of an experiment gone out of control. Brane Pharmaceutical has discovered a way to stimulate permanent secretion of endorphins. This has fueled the creation of a group of humans with superhuman abilities, who have just as suddenly begun to burn out and die. The culprit it the same virus that stimulates the endorphins in the first place, and it has begun to affect others besides the original patients - an artificially created plague. When one of his own patients is affected, Black Jack, a wildcat surgeon, becomes involved. Jo Carol Brane arranged the kidnapping of his ward, Pinoko, to force his cooperation. Black Jack finds the cause, but this only unmasks the source of the danger. It will take a miracle to find the cure and preventative. By rights, this should have been an exciting story. In the original Japanese, the script is terse and brutal, producing a stylized gothic effect that is enough to overcome a slow moving plot. Unfortunately, the dubbing took extreme liberties with the script and under-acted the parts. The result is a wordy and sometimes tedious performance. After all, the point of the story - the dangers of irresponsible medical research - is obvious enough so that there is no need to belabor it. Even so it is an interesting film. The art and music are excellent, using a lot of tonality that is unusual in anime work. A little better editing and writing would have made this a memorable effort. Instead, it is only a near miss. A mistake that should never have happened.
Rating: Summary: very disappointing a true life waster Review: Well I had high expectations for this considering it's based on(Dr.) Tezuka Osamu's famous Black Jack. Unfortunately it's in name only. There is a story in there but it's rather silly and overly dramatic. Apart from the young girl none of the characters are interesting. They even managed to make black jack boring. And how long did they want to make this....ITS SOOOO LONG. I watched this with some Japanese friends and even they were bored witless. i can not recommend this dvd. choose something else. this is just too boring and silly. The only reason i finished watching this (unlike spriggan) is because I was watching it with people. I couldn't stop looking at the time counting by second by second. sometimes it's good to watch bad movies so you can compare and build up a sense of judgment. but not in this case. this isn't bad, just really really boring.
Rating: Summary: Don't Waste Your Time and Money on This Review: Where to begin! There's barely a hint of plot, absolutely no character development, no sense of danger or tension and the whole thing is based on a completely ridiculous premise. I guess you could say it's at least drawn well, but some of the stylistic choices are just stupid looking (a plethora of cheesy freeze frames and an overuse of an infrared effect to bash the viewer over the head with "hey look, this guy is a 'super mankind' person!") And, my gawd, it ends with a literal lecture that is screamed at the audience. After about 20 minutes of this tripe you'll be wishing you spent your money on a house call from Dr. Kevorkian.
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