TV Asahi announced on Saturday that Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack manga is receiving a Japanese live-action television drama adaptation to commemorate the manga's 50th anniversary. The television drama is set to air in 2024 on TV Asahi.

Issei Takahashi (Mimi wo Sumaseba) is starring as Black Jack. Hideo Joujou is directing the TV drama. Yoshiko Morishita is handling the script, and Takashi Oomama (Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo) is composing the music. Isao Tsuge is credited for character design supervision and costume design.

Tezuka (Pluto) began drawing the medical drama manga in Weekly Shounen Champion magazine from November 1973 to October 1983. Akita Shoten shipped the 25th and final volume in October 1995. The manga won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for the Shounen category in 1977.

The series was first published in English by VIZ Media, who released select chapters in their manga anthology magazine Manga Vizion and later released those chapters in two volumes in 1999. Vertical Inc. published the entire series in English based on the 17-volume shinsouban reprint from September 2008 to November 2011.

Black Jack inspired various television anime, original video anime, original net anime, and anime movies. The manga received its first live-action television drama series by TV Asahi in 1981 and a second television drama by TBS in 2000.

Synopsis
Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though a trained physician, he refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community's hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations.

Black Jack charges exorbitant fees for his services, the proceeds from which he uses to fund environmental projects and to aid victims of crime and corrupt capitalists. But because Black Jack keeps his true motives secret, his ethics are perceived as questionable and he is considered a selfish, uncaring devil. (Source: Vertical Inc.)

Official site: https://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/bj/
Official X (Twitter): @blackjack_asahi

Source: TV Asahi News