Filled with awesome visuals and an epic sense of dread, the film would’ve been a great primer for me had I tuned in to those OVAs. My first glimpse of Black Jack however was through Manga Video’s release of the 1996 movie(also helmed by Dezaki) on VHS, a tape that I treasured in the late 90’s. Space Cobra, Rose of Versailles and Ashita no Joe are only but a sampling of what Dezaki has helmed, so it’s no surprise that he would be the right man to bring to life the dark and strange world that would surround our titular hero, the unlicensed surgical genius known as Black Jack. Osamu Tezuka’s macabre medical man gets a well-deserved OVA series thanks to the greatness of his former protege Osamu Dezaki (God rest his soul), a masterful director with a knack for grit, noir and dramatic freeze frames.
