Black Jack: Parasite

Black Jack was only an obscure OVA (Original Video Animation) on VHS, before the domestic anime fans were given Black Jack: The Movie, a 90-minute DVD release from Manga in 2001. That hooked a lot of people on this super surgeon for hire, but it took three years for the original series to make its way to DVD.

That’s a long time for those of us who wanted to know more about this medical miracle worker, a creation of Osamu Tezuka, the “pioneer of anime” who gave us Metropolis and Astroboy.

Central Park Media released the first six, 50-minute episodes on three DVDs, starting with Infection in February, and pared down the stories to one per DVD beginning with episode seven.

In this eighth episode of the original series, Parasite, Black Jack is called on to help a young boy who has been infected with a plant seed, sending sprouts through every visible orifice in his body.

Meanwhile, back at the boy’s hometown, a wild-eyed, drunk old man protects a 4,500-year-old sentient tree from being destroyed by a road crew.

The two stories crash together, and, of course, only Black Jack can save the lives that need to be saved.

This was a different type of story than those in previous Black Jack episodes (in the seventh episode, our doctor was smack dab in a war zone). Parasite is almost a child’s tale, except told in a

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