Black Jack: Aoki Mirai

nathandouglasdavis Apr 30, 2021

7

I liked it. There are a few times where it transitions from the Tezuka style of cartoonish artwork into the more detailed and impressive artwork that makes up the majority of the manga. I should mention that I am entirely unacquainted with the original Black Jack series, so some of the references and allusions obviously went over my head. But I got the gist of it. Possibly more important than Black Jack femself are Chloe and Samam and the parallel story that they're involved in. Samam is in a leadership role among the forces who are rebelling against the dictatorship, and Chloe is a doctor who was helping at a refugee camp and strongly advocates for non-lethal methods of resolving the war. Chloe is bomb. Black Jack is whatever, but Chloe is bomb. That being said, there was a moment at the end of chapter 8 that was showing how much Chloe cares that didn't land very well for me. It's solely because fe told somebody that fe never met before (a dying person) that fe loves fem. I dunno, whenever someone tells a complete stranger that fe loves fem, it just feels disingenuous to me. My gut reaction is "No, you don't--you don't actually love fem." You can care for and grieve for a stranger without loving fem. Love is built up over time, not instantly there. And I recognize the moment is just supposed to be a display of kindness and empathy, but it just rubbed me the wrong way because of that untruthful word choice. As for Black Jack, I liked the way feir narcoleptic disease was incorporated into feir method of securing payments for feir services. And feir personality was kinda interesting--fe always felt like fe was ju~ust over that line of being "mysterious."