First off, let's talk about BLACK JACK the manga, by Tezuka Osamu ("father of Japanese comics" and all that). In BLACK JACK, our protagonist and namesake is sort of an anti-hero: a genius surgeon and physician who charges exorbitant fees to perform medical miracles. He's brusque, hard, cold; his appearance is frighteningly Frankensteinish; he wears black all the time (even in summer); and he's very persistent about collecting his fees. That said, however, he can sometimes be found performing difficult surgeries for free or returning surgery money in unexpected ways; he saves wounded animals; he buys up entire islands to protect them from development; he is protective of Pinnoccho ("Pinoko"), a little girl he helped create and who now keeps house for him; and he generally will do anything and everything to protect his patients from harm and help them recover. The scenarios range from mundane (sick children) to the very bizarre (ghosts and aliens).

Throughout these Ray Bradbury-like stories, where intense emotions combine with surprising twists and deep, touching character portrayals, we see Tezuka Osamu's irrepressible sense of humor, and his treatment of Black Jack as a human being. One particularly dark story opened with a panel showing our hero getting ready to slip off to work without waking Pinnoccho. We see him brushing his teeth, sitting on the can, checking his face in the mirror, getting dressed, then quietly searching everywhere for his briefcase, and being handed it at the end by the very awake little girl. Slapstick humor is also interspersed in most stories, including a memorable scene in which an offended character slaps the mangaka himself. With all the intensity, depth, richness, and humor, BLACK JACK the manga is a winner, and one of my all-time favorites.

And then there's the movie.

The movie's premise is that "super humans" have emerged among the populace. These are people who become record-breaking Olympic athletes, genius musicians and incredible artists. But, unbeknownst to the general public, each of these super humans is dying. Within a couple years of their amazing progression to the pinnacle of achievement, their bodies start to literally rot away.

St. Joel's Research Center is quietly collecting these dying super humans, and is racing to find a cure for what they call "the Moira Syndrome." Its head is Jo Carol, a beautiful and formidable researcher and physician. Unable to convince the stubborn Black Jack to join her research center through normal means, she kidnaps Pinnoccho to force his cooperation. (This is, by the way, the standard means of coercing Black Jack..) And luckily for the little girl, she is treated like a princess while she is away.

Black Jack joins the researchers, and sees the grisly deaths of the once "super" people: they die messily and bloodily, either maddened by a desire to relive their glory days, or so ravaged by the syndrome their internal organs rupture under the slightest stress. But even as Black Jack begins to make progress in understanding the disease, he is quietly slipped information that ties Jo Carol with a pharmaceutical company called Brane, and which also implicates her and the company with having caused both the super human condition and the deadly syndrome in the first place. Black Jack, who has high medical ethical standards except when it comes to monetary fees, becomes enraged at some of the atrocities he sees in the actions of Jo Carol and Brane Pharmaceuticals. Yet, behind Jo Carol's cold eyes is a brittleness and pathos that hints at her past. She is not quite a villain, yet not quite a victim.

To go further would be to give away spoilers, though unfortunately, it's hard to really be worried about that—probably because it's hard to really care about this movie. And that's really a tragedy. The animation is beautiful, and some scenes are really quite stunning. The voice acting is fine in Japanese, moderately good in English (although the English dialogue's nuances are sometimes different from the original). The ideas are interesting. The atmosphere is laid on thickly. But somehow things simply don't come together.

Any newcomer to Black Jack would hardly get any insight into his rich character or personality, because we don't get the behind-the-scenes look at him that the manga provides. That's a real pity, because his character is what makes the stories shine. It would have been nice to learn more about Jo Carol earlier, or to see her character and her relationships developed further. Seeing either Black Jack or Jo Carol let down their guard even a little would have helped tremendously. And the ending, with its complete change in locale and situation, feels even more fantastic than the rest of the movie. BLACK JACK readers or Tezuka Osamu fans who know his habits can probably accept the bizarre twists, but a general viewer may completely lose connection.

But, perhaps worst of all, the movie takes itself far too seriously. Bloody explosions of bodies, seeing blood vomited at inopportune times, seeing frozen frames of people proclaiming profound ideas (or proclaiming what they think are profound ideas)... the melodrama is smothering. I first saw this movie a couple years ago in an avant-garde theater, and every spew of blood actually had most of the audience laughing hysterically. Seeing it in private allows the viewer to sympathize more easily with the characters, but even so, the overdone drama makes connecting with the story more difficult than it need be. Some Tezuka Osamu humor would really have helped here. There are a couple in-jokes, such as where Pinnocho is putting together a picture puzzle of Tetsuwan Atom (aka Astro Boy), or where an Olympic flag is labeled "Atlantis" instead of "Atlanta." But aside from these little light touches, there is nothing but oppressive atmosphere.

Overall, it's a real pity this film doesn't serve Black Jack better. The movie can be enjoyed, but if you want the best of BLACK JACK, go back to the original comics. You won't get the highly detailed, beautiful art and animation, but you will get all the richness of the plot and the characters.