Black Jack Volume 6 by Osamu Tezuka

Another 14 tales of the outlaw surgeon named Black Jack.

"Downpour" takes Black Jack to one of Japan's tiny islands where he meets a young female doctor who looks after the schoolchildren there. But she's got a bee under her bonnet- once a cliff face fell during unusually heavy rains, and since then, the town fathers have done nothing to correct the problem. But when the cliff face falls again during another heavy rain, can Black Jack save the life of the woman who has fallen in love with him?

"A Body Turning to Stone" shows a boy whose muscles and skin are turning into bone, or as he sees it, stone. Black Jack finds only one way to treat the disease- to transplant the boy's brain into a new body. But when the boy's father attempts to run over another child to have a new body for his son, he hits his pregnant wife instead. Can Black Jack use her stillborn baby son as a surrogate body for her ill child?

"The Old Man and the Tree" has Black Jack encountering an old man who is defending a Zelkova tree that is about to be cut down after many years of living. The night before it is to be cut down, the man drinks under the tree, shares his liquor with the tree, and commits suicide by hanging himself from the tree. Black Jack may be able to save his body, but can he prevent the man from trying again?

"Twice Dead" has Black Jack being asked to save a dying killer who leapt to his death when he was cornered by the police. He refuses, only to have another surgeon call him in when it looks like the man is going to die on the operating table. But has Black Jack saved him just for the system to sentence him to death at the trial?

In "Lion-Face Disease", Black Jack is arrested by a policeman who hates fake surgeons like him. He has a test for Black Jack- operate on a man who has lion-face disease and cure him, or be thrown into jail. Black Jack operates, placing a radium chip in the man's pituitary gland. But will he be able to pass the Policeman's test?

"Con Man, Aspiring" introduces a child who desperately needs an operation, but his parents can't pay the 3 million yen fee. So the doctor that the woman takes him to decides to try and trick Black Jack with a fake check for the money. But after the operation, cops show up at the Doctor's office. Who will they try to take to jail, and will Black Jack get his fee?

"Brachydactyly" introduces a Texas millionaire willing to pay Black Jack millions to save his son from an inoperable brain tumor. So why are his men threatening Black Jack not to go through with the operation, saying they will kill him unless he pretends to fail? Can Black Jack save the boy... and talk sense into whoever is behind the threats?

"Fire and Ashes" has Black Jack trapped by an erupting volcano with a father and son. The son fell and was badly burned in the volcano. Black Jack can save him- only by amputating both legs. But was he pushed or did he fall into the volcano's mouth? And will his father pay Black Jack to save his son, or does the man want him dead?

In "Revenge", the JMA gives Black Jack an ultimatum- get a license, join them, or be sent to jail. Black Jack refuses, and is duly jailed. A rich Italian man asks Black Jack to operate, and promises to do anything to get him out of jail so he can perform the operation. But the chairman of the JMA blocks him, and when the man takes his son to the JMA's hospital for an operation, the boy dies on the table. But this man is the head of the Mafia, and takes his revenge on the Head of the JMA's son. Now when the leader of the JMA turns to Black Jack to save his son, what will Black Jack do?

When a woman is injured by a rock thrown at the bullet train by her husband in "Vibration", Black Jack is on hand to save the day. He demands 10 million yen in compensation, but plans on getting it from the railroad. But when the bullet train passes by, the entire neighborhood shakes, jeopardizing the operation. Can Black Jack pull it off, saving the woman? Or is it already too late?

In "Nadare", a doctor wins a Nobel prize for discovering that a brain can grow bigger if you transplant it elsewhere. He used a deer that he named Nadare for the experiment back in Japan, working with Black Jack as the surgeon. But now the deer is super-intellgent and has gone on a rampage, escaping from its cage and attacking workers on the mountain where it lives. Will the Doctor agree with Black Jack that Nadare has to be destroyed, or will he find a way to redeem it?

In "Three in a Box", Black Jack is trapped in an elevator with an injured man and his son when a department store collapses. Can he save the man's life when all three of them are buried in the collapse? Or will his son's wailing and crying ensure their deaths from lack of oxygen?

"The Substitute" has Black Jack taking over the role of an injured and dying surgeon to perform an operation- to save the Doctor's reputation. But when he's unmasked by a little girl he talked to earlier, what will happen to his patient- and the hospital?

And in "Terror Virus" Black Jack is brought in alongside Dr. Kiriko to try and save three sailors infected with a mysterious virus from the war. Black Jack works hard to save them, but when it actually seems as though he might be succeeding, he is replaced by Dr. Kiriko, who he knows will kill them. Cam Black Jack engineer their escape to save them before Kiriko can be let loose on his patients?

I really enjoyed reading these stories. You'd think medical procedures would be dry as dust, but all Black Jack's cases are do or die, and this lends the stories weight and tension. Sometimes the tales are about the procedure itself, but it is often the tension from the outside story underlying the procedure that adds weight and depth to the tale.

As I have said in the past, Black Jack reminds me of Doctor House, except that Black Jack doesn't have the Vicodin addiction, and this volume has the added attraction of no supernatural-ish stories. Once again, they are very much human stories- human disease, human frailty and human courage. I liked these stories a lot. Black Jack usually succeeds, but he occasionally fails to save someone, and the cost is usually hard on him.

I like Dr. Black Jack. He's a surgeon who it is hard to look away from- not God, but a man doing his best to succeed. Constantly angered and astounded for people's ability to disregard others and do what they want instead of what they need to do, this manga paints a fascinating picture that never grows old. Highly recommended.