WhatBlack Jack? It’s Osamu Tezuka’s long-running manga about a genius renegade surgeon, Kuro “Black Jack” Kazama, a distant ally of Astro Boy. And what is a “sealed” chapter? Well, there are exactly 11 chapters of Black Jack that have never been available to read in any official mainstream release. Usually, these chapters were too disturbing/dark/depressing to republish, or Osamu Tezuka was just generally unsatisfied with how they turned out. However, three of these eleven were published in English in 2008-2009 for Vertical Inc.’s translation of the Black Jack manga: “The Two Jans”, “The One That Remains”, and “Witch Trial”. All three are quite morose, and they are now available to read online. However, please be advised that these three chapters are very, very serious.
What happens in them?: Black Jack separates two conscious conjoined twins, performs reconstructive surgery on a deformed newborn, and helps a young victim of industrial runoff poisoning. They are very heavy chapters and I advise only reading if you are comfortable with off-putting imagery and serious themes. These chapters have a lot of value in showing Black Jack’s humanitarian side, which is why we’ve chosen to finally put them online. (Also, enough years have passed since these were published, so we won’t get sued for posting them).
Also included is a short essay by Ada Palmer, founder of Tezuka In English, which was published exclusively in a special edition of the third BJ volume. This essay gives some insight into Osamu Tezuka’s Star System and the background of each “sealed” chapter. Once again, I advise you to only read these if you feel mentally prepared to do so. Black Jack might be a genius doctor, but he wouldn’t want you to force yourself to read such heavy stories!
