Leon Everett is back again, this time to tell us all about the Distant Worlds concert at the Albert Hall. Then we discuss the 2001 Rintaro adaptation of the Osamu Tezuka manga, Metropolis.
This is a medical drama in which an unlicensed but gifted surgeon, Black Jack, is the main character.
Endowed with excellent surgical technique, Black Jack always miraculously saves seriously ill patients and those on the verge of death. But he always claims an outrageous price for his surgery, which is why his presence is rejected in medical circles.
Black Jack lives quietly in a clinic out in the deserted wilderness with his assistant, Pinoko, whose life he had saved. Patients whom other doctors have given up on come to see him every today; he represents their very last hope.
If the long lasting appeal of Ozamu Tezuka's work needs any evidence then it lies here in the TV adaptation of his Black Jack manga.
While there had been an OAV in the early nineties directed by Osamu Dezak (later realeased by Manga Entertainment in the west), it wasn't until 2004, 15 years after Tezuka's death that a TV series was made.
And it was a massive success.
It ran from 2004 to 2006, with the title becoming Black Jack 21 in the last year. But Black Jack's 21st century revivial did not end there. Late in 2006, the series Ray The Animation began. Based on the manga by Akihito Yoshitomi, the original series had an alluded to appearance by Black Jack as BJ the surgeon who operated on the titular character. The anime gives this character a much larger role and has him voiced by Black Jack's voice actor, the awesome Akio Ohtsuka (Solid Snake, Batou, Marshall D. Teach, Moomin Papa).
The TV series is available fansubbed. Black Jack 21 is here. The 4 episode special from 2003 is here. Ray The Animation is here.
Hello. Back once again with the ill behavior. Ill behaviour in the this case being talking about classic anime shows I've never seen.
And here we are with the second best known Osamu Tezuka show in the US, Kimba the White Lion, or Jungle Emperor Leo as it be known in it's hometown.
Based on Tezuka's manga that began in 1950, there were two television series in the sixties and a remake in 1989. And each incarnation spawned a motion picture. You can get the series on an 11 disc set in the US, but it's not currently available in the UK. Entertainment in Video used to have one of the films out but it's long deleted.
Again this is another title where anything I write about it is pretty redundant as it's such a well known and influential show. Even more so when in this case, there's been mainstream controversy involving the series and a well known Disney animated film.
It was strange when that blew up, as there are certain types of people for who Disney are a flashpoint for. Both the pro and con sides. There were people who'd use the controversy to attack Disney, regardless of whether they had the first hand viewing experience to make the criticism. And likewise there are people who will defend Disney over ANYTHING. It's was all very odd/amusing.
For television animation from 1967, that is awesome stuff. Hell it puts a lot of modern shows openings to shame. It's certainly the best example of Disney's influence on Tezuka that I've laid my eyes on.
Also known as Princess Knight and released in english during the 70s as “Choppy and The Princess”, it is the tale of Sapphire, a princess who must pretend to be male to stop an evil relative getting their hands on the throne. There is an angel, Tink (or “Choppy”) who is sent to retrieve one of the two hearts Sapphire was accidentally given (she has a male heart and female heart). However Sapphire won't give up either, and so he is stuck on Earth as her sidekick.
ALSO! Sapphire has a duel (triple?) identity as the masked Phantom Knight who fights crime at night.
The series is currently getting an overpriced DVD release in the UK through Quantum Leap. So I'm sure that it will be a quality release. Hmm, do italics work well as sarcasm?
Osamu Tezuka's 1971 entry into the transforming magical girl genre. And by entry, I of course mean introducing the very concept of it. Plus it's another example of the entertainment value of orphans! At the end of this list I should work out exactly what percentage of shows feature orphans.
Melmo and her brother Totoo are left as orphans when their mother dies in a traffic accident, so her dead mother convinces God to give Melmo some magic candy that allows her to shapechange. Blue candy allows her to turn into an adult, Red to turn into a baby. Both at once turn her into a fetus and from that form turn into any animal she likes.
According to Tezuka Osamu @World the show was intended to be something of a sex education film. Something that is borne out by that first sequence in the opening credits featuring the pollen in the breeze. Unlike the transformation of the heroine into an adult, this sex education angle hasn't been one that has been directly imitated by further magical girl shows.
This is more like it. Stuff I've never heard of, by people I have heard of.
1972's Umi no Triton or “Triton of the Sea” is an Osamu Tezuka story, directed and written by Yoshiyuki Tomino, future creator of the Gundam franchise.
Some really nice animation in these credits for it's age. I particularly like the movement of the logo as it assembles itself in the air.
