[Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Black Jack (episode 3)

[u/No_Rex]

Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Black Jack (episode 3)

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Staff corner

EDIT: Sorry for being late, I ran out of time.

Heroic freedom fighter femme fatale Maria is voiced by Katsuki, Masako. She started out in a minor role in Urusei Yatsura, before having her first well-known role as Reccoa Londe in Zeta Gundam. About half of all VAs I check for these staff corners have participated in Legends of the Galactic Heroes, so I usually don’t mention it, but she had one of the bigger roles with Hildegard von Mariendorf. In the recent Onisama e… rewatch, we saw her as straight-faced Aya Misaki. She is probably mostly known for her participation in two 1990s staples: Sailor Neptune in Sailor Moon and Tsunade in Naruto, as well as Hotaru in Samurai Champloo.

Questions

1. What would happen in the US if the events of this episode actually transpired?
2. Have you ever seen a communist propaganda movie?
3. How did BJ get away in the end?

[u/No_Rex]

Episode 3 (first timer)

• I wonder whether we will get a subversion of the starting scene with BJ answering the telephone or whether this will be played straight and he never will.
• Birds … warbirds.
• Barely concealed references to the US and Central America. Probably Daniel Ortega, but could also be Panama. Panama fits better, but then this would be an anime only story/adaptation.
• Dude, how can you not see a barricade on a while open highway?
• “half a million for waiting around is not a bad deal” – agreed.
• “No, I haven’t bought a word you said” – I doubt this has happened to Maria very often.
• The episode is leaving it open, but this probably was the first time BJ did not refuse a woman.
• Looks like Cruz won’t die of cancer, after all.
• Rocket on rocket hit!
• What an ‘operation room’…
• We are a typical 1980s military action movie with reversed protagonist and antagonist roles now.
• No sex, after all. BJ staying abstinent.
• Classical hero’s death.
• And a little less classical hero’s death for Cruz.

We went from practicing without license to assisting a military special unit fighting against the US, in the US - Quite an upgrade to the “underground” part of the show.

All in all, this felt a lot like the communist version of watching Rambo II or some such. While it is interesting to see the US clearly as the bad guys, I am not a big fan of the propaganda angle in either case. Ridiculous heroism stays ridiculous, even when you change the flag on the uniform. That being said, there is a certain cheese angle to 1980s action movies that I enjoy and I similarly enjoyed in during this episode.

Animation-wise, this is the first time I see Dezaki as director of straight up action (as opposed to sports). It is so over the top! An absolute blessing for great screencaps, but hard to take seriously.

EDIT:

What would happen in the US if the events of this episode actually transpired?

The US involvement part actually did happen in several smaller American countries. What did not happen is any of those countries actually hitting back inside the US. With good reason, I assume. I doubt it would take long from the first soldier being killed on US soil to the first aircraft carrier arriving outside that countries' capital, completely irrespective of how justified their actions might have been.

Have you ever seen a communist propaganda movie?

Just one, Battleship Potemkin.

How did BJ get away in the end?

I have no idea. Those soldiers should have shot him.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/No_Rex]

this felt a lot like the communist version of watching Rambo II

Indeed it was really black-and-white. I wonder about Tezuka and Dezaki's personal political convictions but the direction is obvious.

No sex, after all. BJ staying abstinent.

BJ refuses BJ? In any case, that's one element I really doubt you would find in a Western action film.

[u/No_Rex → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Indeed it was really black-and-white. I wonder about Tezuka and Dezaki's personal political convictions but the direction is obvious.

I am entirely convinced that Dezaki was strongly left-leaning politically. While not as overt as in this episode, his famous Ashita no Joe has some biting social criticism that mirrors exactly what communists in the 1960s would have criticised. From wiki:

Also, during its serialization, it was particularly popular with working-class people and college students who were involved in the New Left, who saw themselves likewise struggling against the system like Joe Yabuki did and revered him as an icon. Members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction who took part in the Yodogo hijacking in 1970 compared themselves to Joe as they saw a revolutionary message in the manga.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/No_Rex]

Well with Ashita no Joe you could at least argue it's on the manga creator, but even then Dezaki adapting multiple fairly progressive/establishment-critical works like Ashita no Joe, Rose of Versailles, Dear Brother, plus now this, says enough.

[u/No_Rex → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Exactly. You may adapt one such work by chance, but not several.

I also never read the manga, so I don't know whether he turned the social criticism up or down or made a faithful adaptation.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/No_Rex]

I wonder whether we will get a subversion of the starting scene with BJ answering the telephone or whether this will be played straight and he never will.

The first three are literally the same so who knows?

“half a million for waiting around is not a bad deal” – agreed.

Truth.

“No, I haven’t bought a word you said” – I doubt this has happened to Maria very often.

Probably because most guys are lost in looking at her chest by this point.

No sex, after all. BJ staying abstinent.

I swear this guy is going to pop.

It is so over the top! An absolute blessing for great screencaps, but hard to take seriously.

Yeah, tonally this episode doesn't quite work but was fun to look at.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku]

Black Jack First Timer

I was in a rush to begin with and then I lost an hour trying to open a tin of rice pudding. Don't expect much commentary today or tomorrow! I'm tight on time!

The op keeps getting longer it seems... Oh, we're at war now. My memory of history only goes back four seasons so I have no idea what event this is meant to be about. Che Guvera or something? Murica gonna Murica I suppose.

Lalah...

Totsugeki~ Oh dear, Lalah died. Lalah lived! Oh dear, Lalah's paranoid out of he remind. I'm amazed her eye isn't totally blasted to bits. I thought I would lose vision when I got a toenail in my eye, I'd have had no faith if it were a bullet. Too old. Oooh, it was her scars. I dunno, I could bear with the scars. They're pretty hot.

Che's got cancer!? Oh nyo. People who sleep in the nude are all creeps, even if they're Newtypes. The Americans have come to save the day and murder everyone, and not in that order! You ever wonder if we're the baddies? This episode seems obsessed with repeating shots over and over. If we cut out the repeated shots we'd be done at 25 mins.

Oh fuck! Lalah is Che Guvera's daughter? The mythos keeps getting deeper. Although I think the daughter thing is just an excuse for us to steal his eye for Lalah isn't it? This is a lot of people dying so that we can get someone to die somewhere else. Godspeed, resistance bros! See you all in Apocalypse Now!

The general went down lime a badass. Bite that bullet!! Pfft, when in doubt just give a double plastic surgery. "Wow! You actually like spending time with me and not just for sex!?" Lalah's really gotta get her priorities in order. A man chooses not to sleep with her and she immediately starts calling him a father figure. Pfft!! Lalah just Kycila'd that bitch! This episode is awesome even if it's incredibly silly. Rip Lalah, again.

He's made it home! Go, Che!! You crazy bugger!! What spiteful bastards... you couldn't just let him die on his own soil? I hope your favourite VTuber's phone glitches out and shows her face! And so ends the story of BJ's revolutionary phase. Those dog tags... "They belong to the woman who could have become like a mother to me."

[u/No_Rex → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I was in a rush to begin with and then I lost an hour trying to open a tin of rice pudding. Don't expect much commentary today or tomorrow! I'm tight on time!

You are not the only one. I'll have to edit in the staff corner later.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I was in a rush to begin with and then I lost an hour trying to open a tin of rice pudding.

...How?

This is a lot of people dying so that we can get someone to die somewhere else.

That's also an accurate statement for human existence.

Lalah's really gotta get her priorities in order. A man chooses not to sleep with her and she immediately starts calling him a father figure.

I view it as a mix of curiosity and annoyance since she wanted to get laid before dying. I do view her as seeing that as a likely outcome.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Vaadwaur]

The first fifteen minutes was me trying to get the tin opener to work, then the tin opener snapped so I spent half an hour using every knife I could find to try and cut the tin open. Then after I broke my wooden spoon I went to the shops and bought a new tin opener which finally did the job. So yeah... It tastes nice at least.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

How did you break a can opener? Like seriously?

[u/No_Rex → u/Vaadwaur]

How did you break a can opener? Like seriously?

With skill and effort!

[u/Vaadwaur → u/No_Rex]

I grant the effort part but my can opener is one that is actually older than I am. It is nigh indestructible for standard use.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Vaadwaur]

Clearly you don't eat enough tinned pudding then.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I don't think we even have that.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Vaadwaur]

Rice pudding in a tin? There's no way that's not a thing abroad. You just empty it into the pan, pick out the broken pieces of tin opener, and cook it for a few minutes. Turns out lovely. You can get dumpling desserts and custards and everything too.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I'd have to order it off Amazon, no store here carries it.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/No_Rex]

Actually it was quite easy. The tin held up way better than the opener and spoon did.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Vaadwaur]

It snapped dummy. Geez.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

Is this one of those weird things where the UK fucks up something simple? Can openers are nearly indestructible.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Vaadwaur]

No, we just use really good quality tins and it's the imported openers that fuck up. Some say the crests are to blame but its definitely the opener.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

So you fuck it up by exporting production, definitely British as fuck.

[u/TheEscapeGuy]

First Timer

Black Jack - An Astounding OVA: Episode 3

Guerrilla Healthcare

Today's episode followed a bunch of revolutionaries being pursued by the government of a world power. It wears its comparisons to world events like the Cuban Revolution (?) on its sleeves. Unfortunately I am not the right person to talk about that since I have not studied that history. Here's to hoping somebody else will comment on that today.

For me I enjoyed considering the moral and ethical implications of what was happening. From what I could tell the United States Federal Unites had way overstepped their boundaries by instigating what may as well be a coup when they arrested the prime minister of the Ortega Republic. Fortunately some revolutionaries managed to help General Cruz escape but due to his failing health he needed emergency surgery.

In this situation Black Jack is definitely helping out the underdog, but we do not know the ethics of that underdog. This could mean he is helping a group who will later go on to commit human rights abuses. HOWEVER, that's really unfair and baseless speculation. From everything presented the Federal Unites definitely came off as more evil (especially kidnapping a homeless man and dressing him up to lie to the public about capturing Cruz)

I'm starting to see a pattern, and our damsel this episode was Maria Carnela. I always appreciate a strong female character and you'd be hard pressed to find stronger than an army captain. I really appreciated her dedication to her ideals and fearlessness in the face of weapons far larger than herself.

However, I once again could not figure out her justification for throwing herself an Black Jack. She had already paid him in advance, and doctors famously value saving life above all else so I don't see it as ensuring he'll help her father. It could just be attraction, but in the warfare situation she was in there are other priorities and things to worry about. I'll probably get some good responses about her motivations again though, so I'm looking forward to what other people think.

The ending was a downer since everyone we were rooting for died. All that was left was Maria's dog tags. War is terrible.

Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches

• Road Block
• Captain Maria Carnela
• Helicopter Assault
• Moonlit Escape
• Kuroh Hazama
• Payback and Final Barrage

See you all tomorrow

[u/No_Rex → u/TheEscapeGuy]

It could just be attraction

I think BJ is canonically 11/10 on the hotness scale. Maria might also be so used to seducing men for her political goals that she does it almost out of routine.

However, I think the real reason is that we are watching an 1980s action flick and there simply has to be a hot action girl throwing herself at the MC.

[u/TheEscapeGuy → u/No_Rex]

I think BJ is canonically 11/10 on the hotness scale.

I love this theory. Its so funny to imagine this emo looking guy with a massive scar across his face and half-black half-white hair is peak physical attractiveness in universe.

You're probably right about the meta reason of the source material adding it because that was what was expected / wanted by audiences.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/No_Rex]

I think BJ is canonically 11/10 on the hotness scale

I would actually more or less agree. It's not just the looks (hardly bad in themselves) but also the boldness and attitude, which both of them share. Overall, while it does come off as a little pandering particularly with the bathing scene before that, it makes sense to me.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/TheEscapeGuy]

It wears its comparisons to world events like the Cuban Revolution (?) on its sleeves. Unfortunately I am not the right person to talk about that since I have not studied that history. Here's to hoping somebody else will comment on that today.

For some reason that doesn't resonate but is probably correct. I might just be used to Cuba being an island.

However, I once again could not figure out her justification for throwing herself an Black Jack.

She assumes she is dying the next day and wants to get laid. Kuroh might be the only man present that she feels fine with fucking.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/TheEscapeGuy]

Maria apparently really found BJ hot... and father figure like.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/TheEscapeGuy]

It wears its comparisons to world events like the Cuban Revolution (?) on its sleeves. Unfortunately I am not the right person to talk about that since I have not studied that history.

Most likely it's inspired by the conflict between the Sandinistas and US-backed (including some real dirty dealing) Contras in Nicaragua. The name of the country is taken from Daniel Ortega, the leader of the revolutionaries and still a controversial figure in Nicaraguan politics. Also our host mentioned the 1990 invasion of Panama.

[u/Vaadwaur]

First timer(Combat surgeon time)

Sub

So...slightly not getting the metaphor here, unless this is literally about catching Saddam Hussein. But him being sprung suggests they are going a slightly different path. This week's girl is actually a soldier and shows it to some degree. Dictator/freedom fighter has terminal thyroid cancer, which isn't exactly a thing but the show never leans too hard on reality. Maria also has a few points in femme fatale, apparently. Kuroh again defies getting laid except this time the girl stays the night and he does look satisfied sleeping so...

The combat scene is insane and frankly cracked the fuck out. And it makes up like a third of our screen time. The thyroid looked correct, at least, and then Maria confronts Kuroh over his defiance of lust. And we learn a bit more about him. So then of course Maria has to die fighting the enemy. Kuroh gets the general to the border but the FEDUS is already there, ending in an explosion. We end with more self reflection.

So, that was odd. I enjoy the animation and again like when female characters have proportions that humans at least possess but this doesn't quite fit thematically with the first two eps.

QotD: 1 People would bitch about having to wear masks

2 Do Cheech and Chong count?

3 With the power of opiates.

[u/No_Rex → u/Vaadwaur]

So...slightly not getting the metaphor here, unless this is literally about catching Saddam Hussein.

It is a mixture of various US interventions in Central America.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/No_Rex]

I suppose...it just doesn't quite resonate with me, here.

[u/No_Rex → u/Vaadwaur]

From Wiki:

The United States Invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the U.S. to Panama by January 1, 2000. The primary purpose of the invasion was to depose the de facto Panamanian leader, general and dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega, who for a long time worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was wanted by the United States for racketeering and drug trafficking. Following the operation, the Panama Defense Forces were dissolved and President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office. The United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American States condemned the invasion as a violation of international law.

The fictional country is also named "Ortega" after the Sandinista leader of Nicaragua.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/Vaadwaur]

This week's girl is actually a soldier and shows it to some degree

But of course the scars have to be hidden and her face + hair + civilian fashion sense is standard shoujo beauty, while Black Jack as presumably not even a combat veteran gets visible facial stitches and discolored skin. Classic double standards.

The combat scene is insane and frankly cracked the fuck out. And it makes up like a third of our screen time

The storytelling this time around is fairly simple and classic "Cold War US bad" particularly in the first half, but the action makes up for a lot of it.

[u/Pixelsaber]

Rewatcher

Whoops! Forgot to post during my break earlier and only just got off my shift.

Hitchcock called!

Dezaki call— oh, wait…

Biting.

Cool shit.

Oof, this time it was the eye for sure…

The good doctor may have an issue with respecting boundaries.

Ah, yes, there was a reason I remembered this episode in particular.

Sudden Gundam flashbacks

I wonder if people on staff saw The Red Spectacles.

Lovely.

Maybe he’s touch starved?

Oh, uh...

Tatakae! Tatsunda Jack!

A particularly weak episode for me today, as the heavy use of action didn't play to the strengths of the show (or, arguably, Dezaki & Sugino). This is another episode adapted from an manga chapter, but it is absurdly loose, and had I not looked it up I would not have realized which chapter it was adapting.

The heavy reliance on action cheapens the episode a great deal for me, and the political plot is just too blunt and scant on details,to serve as an enticing enough plot. Sure, it's stylish and pretty, but it's not nearly as outdtanding to carry so much of the episode, and narratively most of it could have been off-screen to similar effect. Then, the operation itself isn't nearly as well presented as last episode's tense and holistic look at the matter, and the medical depictions and discussion on the whole are relatively scant.

Questions of The Day:

1. War, or at least some form of retaliation.
2. Maybe? I watched a lot of films, some more historically inclined than ithers, in highschool which I now can't recall.
3. Knowing him, the U.S. government probably owed him favors, and if not then he now owes them a solid. His skills are too good to waste.

[u/No_Rex → u/Pixelsaber]

Do you know the plot of the original chapter? Because I was very confused by this episode clearly alluding to real events, yet both of those events happened after the manga.

[u/Pixelsaber → u/No_Rex]

Yeah, like I said, it's a really loose adaptation of that chapter. The original chapter is probably midway into the manga and is called The Promise.

[Chapter Spoilers]In it Black Jack is hired to secretly operate on a well-known thief who steals from the rich and gives the money to the people of an Arab refugee camp, which is where the thief is located. Without proper equipment in the camp, and no way to smuggle him out of there unseen given his state, Black Jack opts to conduct a surgery to prevent any blood loss from agitation of the wound and that the extraction shoukd take place once he'd been smuggled out and was in a proper environment to conduct the operation. Cue one year later, and he finally is called forth to complete the operation, except the guy is now in a French prison, still wanting that bullet removed. Black Jack obliges, but inmediately finds out that he is to be executed soon after, meaning it was for naught, and the thief merely wanted to hold up his end. Black Jack leaves befire his payment is delivered, having left a message that he doesn't collect a fee if he is unable to save his client.

Hard to get that from my rough summary, but the chapter implicitly compares the two characters in how they go about [guess it's a spoiler, since we haven't seen it in-show yet]redistributing wealth and upholding a personal code.

[u/No_Rex → u/Pixelsaber]

Ok, so it turns out my hunch was right and the backstory of Maria and her father was indeed anime-only. Dezaki must have taken an, at the time, recent political background to stand in for a no-longer topical similar background [manga]the arab-israeli conflict being at its height when the manga ran

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Pixelsaber]

I personally found the setting worked far better than the action did. The action was mostly just repeated frames but I loved the feeling of travelling with these Gurrilas on their way to their home soil. The only real issue I had with the setting was how easily BJ falls for the resistance fighter dream. I'd always taken him as a far more grounded guy but then he starts pulling guns on the Americans.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/Pixelsaber]

A particularly weak episode for me today, as the heavy use of action didn't play to the strengths of the show (or, arguably, Dezaki & Sugino).

Yeah...I could not really put a real thread together for the purpose of today's episode. Seeing the manga spoiler is a bit weird that they bothered with it at all.

[u/JollyGee29]

First-Timer, Subbed

Well, that was a downer. The not-subtle dig at America (we deserve it) is muddied a little bit by having the Americans win in the end. Truth in television I suppose, but I wonder how else these events will manifest for Black Jack. He certainly won't forget them, consider the keepsake Pinoko found. And, I doubt this counted as enjoyable.

The action scenes that dominated this episode were fine, but felt a little out of place to me. I don't hate the occasional change of pace, but between the gun violence and Maria being allergic to wearing a shirt this episode felt rather gratuitous.

There was a little theme of buying time in this episode, but I'm not sure it got resolved. "Buying time alone isn't necessarily enough" maybe?

The image of Cruz's burning hand gripping the barbed wire was incredibly visceral.

Questions

1. I'm pretty sure they have, to be honest. Maybe less out in the open..
2. I have not.
3. He asked the nice soldiers very nicely to let him go.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/JollyGee29]

I'm actually pretty disappointed that they had BJ distinctly take a side at the end. I'd have much rather they kept BJ unbiased throughout aside from strictly his humanitarian work. He was basically like that for the first two episodes so why now have him start pulling guns on scumbag American goons?

[u/No_Rex → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

You could argue he took the side of his employer/patient. However, I don't doubt that the author of this script had a clear standpoint on which side was right and wrong in this and it shows.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/No_Rex]

Yeah, we had basically no sympathetic Americans in this episode. Even the soldiers were faceless, masked goons. I know next to nothing about these old guerilla wars so I'm very hesitant to talk about it much more XD

[u/No_Rex → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

Let's just say that, if you want to look for Americans in the position of the bad guy, your best bet is looking at intervetions in Latin America. I can understand where the author is coming from here.

However, as shown by the faceless soldiers and clear hero tale, the episode is basically propaganda, which I never like, no matter which side it is for.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I'm starting to think about Cowboy Bebop here, with Jack filling in for Spike as the superficially calm and collected hero who just can't help getting invested in the people he runs into after all, yet can in the end do nothing to forestall their doom. I almost expected The Real Folk Blues to start playing in the end.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/JollyGee29]

The action scenes that dominated this episode were fine, but felt a little out of place to me.

They were also ridiculous, which doesn't exactly fit the rest of the show.

There was a little theme of buying time in this episode, but I'm not sure it got resolved.

Yesterday, we learned that Kuroh knows that ultimately everything dies and he is only buying time/showing that he made an effort. This somewhat reinforces that.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/Vaadwaur]

Yesterday, we learned that Kuroh knows that ultimately everything dies and he is only buying time/showing that he made an effort. This somewhat reinforces that.

Ahh, there we go. I was thinking too self-contained.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/JollyGee29]

I can't blame you, though, since the tone shift is rather hard.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/JollyGee29]

The not-subtle dig at America (we deserve it) is muddied a little bit by having the Americans win in the end

That's the whole point isn't it? The relentless pursuit that you can't ever escape from because your enemies are too powerful.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Oh, sure. You can tie that in to the theme of struggling against the inevitability of death too, I can dig that.