002: Strangers at Sea (Manga)

Also known as 海のストレンジャー (text)

Black Jack (1973-83), Chapter 002 ‘Strangers at Sea’ (海のストレンジャー), was originally published on November 26, 1973 in Weekly Shonen Champion.

What it’s about?

On a rainy night, Black Jack steps out of a car outside a large hotel. A stranger in a hat gets his attention, asking if he is Dr. Black Jack, and while Black Jack is considering the stranger in silence, another man knocks Black Jack out with a blow to the head. The two men put him in another car and drive to a boat, where they carry the unconscious doctor on board and sail away.

Later, Black Jack opens his eyes. The leader of his kidnappers (Marukubi Boon) asks him if he’s finally awoken. The boat, he says, is three nautical miles away from land. He has heard that Black Jack has a miraculous ability to cure any wounded person, and has brought him here to see someone who requires treatment. On a nearby bed, a fourth man appears to have a fever and is bleeding profusely from wounds sustained in an attack the men made on a cash transport. The leader offers Black Jack a deal: either treat their wounded comrade and receive a share of the payout, or refuse and the leader will drop him in the middle of the ocean.

As Black Jack begins treatment, he informs the men that his patient has lost too much blood and will require a transfusion, for which they will need to go to a hospital. However, one of the criminals replies that they cannot return to land. When Black Jack objects that the transfusion is the only way to save his life, the leader tells him that if the patient — his own younger brother — dies, then Black Jack will die as well. With a serious expression, Black Jack goes to work.

A storm rages outside, but the leader stays with Black Jack to encourage his younger brother. Midway through the operation, however, one of the criminals comes below decks to tell the leader that their compass is broken. The leader wonders if the ship is going down. Although the navigator thinks they won’t, the ship is headed for dark clouds and a worsening storm.

When the sea clears, the leader finds Black Jack finishing his operation. The blood loss remains too severe for the patient to survive without a transfusion, Black Jack says. The leader offers his own blood, but Black Jack says that no one on the ship matches the patient’s blood type. At this, the leader goes on deck to ask if his navigator has found a way to figure out where the ship is going. Saying that he hasn’t, and he’d rather fix the problem of being hungry, the navigator grumbles about the fact that the ship is surrounded by dolphins instead of fish that he could eat. He shoots a dolphin anyway and announces his intention to eat it. The leader, however, tells the navigator that he’ll die if he eats the dolphin — although he won’t stop him from doing so, as his death means one less person with whom to split their prize.

Yelling that he’d pay one million yen* for a package of Cup Noodles, the navigator walks away, leaving the dolphin dying on the deck. Shortly thereafter, Black Jack begins operating on the dolphin’s bullet wound. When the leader asks him why he’s treating the dolphin, he answers that he cannot stand by and watch the dolphin die. The leader calls Black Jack tender-hearted, then accuses him of placing a dolphin’s life above his brother’s life and starts a fist-fight. Black Jack, however is able to hold his own and drops the leader to the deck.

Just as the leader tells Black Jack that he’ll send the doctor to Hell, the patient below decks awakens at last and calls for his brother. The leader explains that they’ve escaped safely to the ocean, and that they have a doctor to see to his wounds. After a quick examination, Black Jack then says that the boy’s pulse is unsteady and he will need to administer drugs to improve his condition as long as they can’t return to land.

The next day, the crew continues to go hungry with no way to find land, and to the leader’s dismay Black Jack has moved the dolphin below decks next to his brother. He goes to throw the dolphin out, but his brother asks him to stop, since even though it’s a dolphin, it’s in the same condition as him.

As time passes, the crew begins collapsing from hunger and thirst. The leader worries that the boat is doomed. Below decks, Black Jack seems to be faring better than the criminals who kidnapped him. His patient asks if the dolphin has recovered. Although, Black Jack says, the dolphin is healing faster than the boy is, he still won’t be able to swim without his wounds coming open. Sadly, he takes the dolphin outside and puts it back into the sea, saying that the dolphin should float calmly, which it appears to do at first. Later, however, the dolphin reappears.

Despite Black Jack’s protestations that it should stop swimming before its wounds reopen, the dolphin seems determined to swim in front of the ship as if leading them somewhere. Black Jack tells the navigator to take the helm and follow the dolphin. Partway through the journey, the leader notices that the dolphin is bleeding, and Black Jack begs the dolphin to stop swimming before it dies. Shortly thereafter, the navigator sights land. Overjoyed to see land, the criminals pull into port and surrender to the police (Police Chief – Inspector Geta), as the dolphin led them to the place they’d just left.

The police take the leader’s younger brother to a hospital, as requested. As everyone is walking away, Black Jack hears two ladies who have noticed a dead dolphin in the water. He stares down from the pier at the bandaged dolphin who bled out in the water, giving his patient one last look before he turns to walk away.

*Note: In late November 1973, JPY 1,000,000 was approximately equal to USD $3581.41. After accounting for inflation, USD $3581.41 in 1973 would be about USD $19,050 (or JPY 2,237,078.67) as of the end of 2014.

Who’s in it?

As with most Black Jack (1973-83) chapters, ‘Strangers at Sea’ (1973) features several of Tezuka’s Star System players.

Where you can find it?

Black Jack (1973-83), Chapter 002 ‘Strangers at Sea’ has notably been collected in the original Japanese in: Black Jack Vol. 10 (Akita Shoten 1987), Black Jack Vol. 20 (Tezuka Pro Electronic Editions 2014) and Black Jack Vol. 20 [MT-367] (Kodansha 1995).

However, English-speakers can find it in Black Jack Vol. 10 (Vertical 2008).