Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Frumple]

... I'm neither sure why you're bringing this up again, ree, nor how the zog you think that fails the anime "style" test. That is anime as hell. Straight out of 70-80s era, just cleaned up and modernized a bit.

[Reelya]

Umm, Neonivek, the show is set in Japan, and he just says it will cost "go-hyaku-man", which is 5 x 100 x 10000, i.e. 5 million yen. There is no mention of dollars, and considering it's for a Japanese audience a raw number is certainly going to refer to the price in yen. He charged them about $50,000 in other words, not $5 million. I kinda thought it would be yen not dollars so I checked.

[JoshuaFH]

Hmm... Watched Young Black Jack and I am sort of on the fence right now.

The WEIRDEST part is he went and charged a family who has a dying child 5 million dollars to do the surgery, which is an outrageous price. They were desperate but they agreed to it.

So when he saves the child he later comes back, mentions he didn't have a license, and instead gives him 500 thousand dollars... Which is honestly a fair price for a four hour surgery. In fact more so because of the time period.

Yet the anime treats it like the father is trying to cheat his way out of a fair deal and ripped off the doctor. When in reality Jack was basically forcing the parents into a one sided contract under duress, something that would have NEVER held up in court even if he was fully licensed.

Mind you I am willing to look the other way in this case. Since I think the person who wrote this didn't know the difference between Yen and a Dollar (or it is a translation error) since if you convert it... Yes 5000 dollars is low for that kind of surgery and 50,000 dollars is a good price as well. If you just assume it was all in Yen, suddenly the issues disappear.

Heck you have no idea what was going on in my head while this was all going down. At first I thought he was just testing the parents to see if they really cared enough or that he was just a scummy Anti-hero. Then when the guy was backing out of the deal I was like "Ohhh I see! He knew they would welch on the deal, so he intentionally inflated the price so he would give him the 500,000. Clever!" until it was revealed, no.

---

The other thing that happened is the main character's back was turned and while listening to the parents crying over their maimed son you see a drop fall. And I was like "Wow! is our main character crying?" and I was suddenly very impressed. Then they revealed no he really isn't crying. I was kind of disappointed to be honest, it certainly would have been nice to see our "Macho, no emotion character" actually shedding a tear.

---

Overall I kind of have good expectations for Young Black Jack... It might genuinely be good. The male lead is a blank slate right now, the female lead is amazingly professional, and the subject is interesting. Heck I love the character art.

Or it might be bad. The main character is sort of a blank slate devoid of personality. I'd have a feeling if you asked him his favorite food it would be "training".

I am hoping Good! See you next episode Jack!

I've never seen Young Black Jack, but I will mention (again) that the Black Jack OVA is probably some of my favorite pieces of anime ever, easily in my top 10. In the OVA he's a mixture of a philanthropist and a Dark Doctor, both providing care for those that truly need it for nothing or next to nothing, and other times badly gouging the wallets of the the immoral and wealthy. The adventures are straight up pure, distilled culture. So much culture man it's unbelievable.

There's also Black Jack 21, which is utterly absurdly over-the-top. I'm not sure if you've seen either, but I'll highly recommend them again.

[Reelya]

Young Black Jack started today, it's a new airing show.

[JoshuaFH]

Oh damn I guess I gotta get on the bandwagon then.

[USEC_OFFICER]

The other thing that happened is the main character's back was turned and while listening to the parents crying over their maimed son you see a drop fall. And I was like "Wow! is our main character crying?" and I was suddenly very impressed. Then they revealed no he really isn't crying. I was kind of disappointed to be honest, it certainly would have been nice to see our "Macho, no emotion character" actually shedding a tear.

Having read all of the Black Jack magna that I could get my hands on, I am very disappointed that he didn't privately shed a tear, since it would have been well within his character. The guy legitimately wants to help people, but he became jaded from working in the medical community (I forget the exact details) and so works on the fringes instead to try and help as best as he can.

Umm, Neonivek, the show is set in Japan, and he just says it will cost "go-hyaku-man", which is 5 x 100 x 10000, i.e. 5 million yen. There is no mention of dollars, and considering it's for a Japanese audience a raw number is certainly going to refer to the price in yen. He charged them about $50,000 in other words, not $5 million. I kinda thought it would be yen not dollars so I checked.

If this was the Old Black Jack he would have charged 5 million dollars and then return their payment and/or deliever an Aesop at the end of the operation. It depends on the family and circumstances in question.

Oh damn I guess I gotta get on the bandwagon then.

Obviously I need to too.

[Neonivek]

Exchange rates aside, I would assume it was because he agreed to an exchange of goods for services, received the services, and then withheld most of the goods. If it was a poor deal, he should have refused in the first place.

It is pretty much highway robbery. He took people who were concerned about their son's wellbeing, didn't really give them anytime to decide (Japan has a taboo on this), and then proceeded to charge them an obscene amount of money for it... in a situation where they couldn't have possibly refused.

Heck there was nothing that indicated they even had five million dollars for it. He could have essentially been putting the family into the poor house.

Now if it was the reasonable price... Then yeah, that is ok.

Umm, Neonivek, the show is set in Japan, and he just says it will cost "go-hyaku-man", which is 5 x 100 x 10000, i.e. 5 million yen. There is no mention of dollars, and considering it's for a Japanese audience a raw number is certainly going to refer to the price in yen. He charged them about $50,000 in other words, not $5 million. I kinda thought it would be yen not dollars so I checked.

So yeah it was a translation error that for some reason called Yen by "Dollar" and made this scene absolutely ridiculous. Though I'll be ready next time.

[Frumple]

... so basically, he acted like your average US doctor? How shameful :V

[Neonivek]

... so basically, he acted like your average US doctor? How shameful :V

Sure if US doctors charged more money the more desperate you are

And US doctors typically just do the surgery THEN charge you and yes they are often criticized for often charging far too much for certain things (hundred dollar bandages)

[Reelya]

So yeah it was a translation error that for some reason called Yen by "Dollar" and made this scene absolutely ridiculous. Though I'll be ready next time.

Personally, I'm watching the official translation via CrunchyRoll, and there was no mention of "dollars" at all. If you have something different it's probably by speed-subbers who see it as a challenge to get a release out in between the airing in Japan and the simulcast airing. Those speed-subbers make a lot more mistakes than the official translation since they're always in a rush, and do not have access to official scripts. Do yourself a favor and wait the extra 24 hours for the simulcast. After the simulcast all the more sane subbers use the official script as a starting point, then improve it.

But the lunacy should have been clear. How many people have 5 million sitting around? It wasn't established that the family were rich, and this was back in 1968 no less, when the money would easily be worth 5-10 times what it is now, so that would be like $30 million in modern money. And you have the fact that he was offering 500,000 for the use of the guys operating room. Half a million dollars for the use of one room for an afternoon (in 1968) should have been a sign that something was wrong.

[Neonivek]

Yeah but I've watched enough anime where legitimately doing a "I smell rich people" where they suddenly charge them an obscene amount (usually because being rich is wrong) isn't that unusual, and our protagonist looks like someone who could be an anti-hero.

So it wasn't that obvious. I only chalked it up to that the second I found the characters distraught that they didn't pay up.

[Reelya]

Why would he be distraught that he "only" got half a million? That line should have tipped you off that it was in yen. In the 1960's it would have been more than you could earn in a lifetime.

BTW, here are current photos of the voice actress for Minmei from SDF Macross (1982). She's kept pretty fit, considering he first seiyuu role was almost 35 years ago.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hikaru shouldn't have gone with Misa.

[Neonivek]

Why would he be distraught that he "only" got half a million? That line should have tipped you off that it was in yen. In the 1960's it would have been more than you could earn in a lifetime.

That was why it suddenly tipped me off.

But until that point, it was still in the air.

[Furtuka]

Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans is looking real good so far. Probably gonna be one of the most hardcore Gundam's we've had in decades. Even my moe obsessed friend is impressed. Biscuit Griffon is the best character.

Oh here's the actual opening vid. Apparently its airing in Japan had it playing at the end instead of the credits that we got.

[Frumple]

I think you misspelled "Poco" there, Furt >_>