Black Jack
Blackjack is a card game played with a deck of 52 cards. The goal is to reach a total value of 21 without going over. The ace is valued as either 1 or 11, and face cards are 10; all other cards have their index value. A player may hit (take another card) or stand (remain with what they have). If the dealer has a blackjack, the player loses.
The origins of the game are unknown, but it was popular in Europe in the 1700s. One account suggests that it was named after French card dealer Eleanor Dumont, who opened a gambling hall in Nevada City, California, under the name Vingt-et-un, or “Twenty-One”. The game has been played in North America and Asia since then.
There are several variations of the rules in different casinos. Some games allow resplitting of aces, while others do not. The presence of these rule variants reduces the house edge by about 0.13%.
The first live-action Black Jack film was Hitomi no naka no houmonsha (Tong noZhong noFang Wen Zhe – “The Visitor in the Eye” AKA “The Eye’s Visitor”), directed by Hausu director Nobuhiko Obayashi and starring Jo Shishido as Blackjack. The opening titles were animated in Tezuka’s signature style.
Black Jack manga stories are often centered around the exploits of Black Jack, a solitary doctor who is sometimes referred to as ‘The Good Samaritan.’ He has a penchant for curing the sick and the poor and is rewarded by few. He is also a shrewd businessman who occasionally acts as a pawn for evil people.
Aside from the manga, there have been two anime adaptations: a version produced in the United States and an updated version with a completely new storyline in Japan, called Black Jack 21. The latter was aired from April 10, 2006, through September 4 of the same year.
Kumi Yamashita is a patient of Black Jack’s who suffers from Cushing’s Syndrome, or Full-Moon Disease as it is also known. Her former fiancee Shoichi Marugiri dumped her because of it but Black Jack saved her and took care of her.
Shoren Hazama is Black Jack’s half-sister and daughter of Kagemitsu Hazama and Reika. She is seen as a bitter person who despises him at the beginning, but she secretly forgave him when she realized what his mother had done to her.
She is also a medical student and works at Tom’s coffee shop with her sister Kumiko. She has a crush on Black Jack.
Her parents died when she was young and she has always wanted to be a doctor. She was a great student, but she was always shy and unattractive. She later became a nurse. She also got married to a man who was killed in an accident.
His father, Kagemitsu Hazama, left his wife and son in the past to become a famous gambler. He was very cruel to his family and had no children of his own.