With my last Doctors' Column, I successfully completed the last installment of Chapter 1. I had delivered a column with contents that would be useful for daily practice, but I wrote a column with completely useless contents to give you a break before resuming the second chapter. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I hope only those who are interested will read it.

Do you read manga? Japanese manga is now a world-class content. Although not as much as when I was a child, I still read manga even now that I am an adult.

There are many manga with medical themes published today and in the past. I would like to introduce some of the memorable medical manga that I have been exposed to.

Super Doctor K.

This manga was serialized by Kazuo Mafune starting in 1988. It was the first medical manga I loved reading when I was in middle school and high school. The catch copy is "Hard-boiled medical legend. The main character KAZUYA, with his genius brain, divine surgical skills, and beastly body, solves all kinds of intractable cases.

The hard-boiled drawings, which are hard to believe that this is a shōnen magazine, are the best of all. The main character's medical skills are outstanding, and his body is just amazing. He has a body like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. His body is not only for show, but is also beyond the realm of human beings, for example, he is able to support a building that is collapsing due to an earthquake.

The medical practice gradually escalates and fascinates us with such superb developments that surgery is performed in weightless space to treat a prima donna's hernia. Although it may seem like a ridiculous gag manga when written like this, it has medical supervision so that it is medically sound. It is good that the protagonist has a sense of perfection that is not found in the protagonists of recent medical manga, which is like the manga in the shonen magazines of the time.

twinkle

This manga was serialized by Mamora Gouda starting in 1995. The main character of the manga is Hikaru Amano, a medical examiner in the forensic science department. Through the autopsies of corpses involved in incidents and accidents, the manga depicts the human drama behind the autopsies. Mamora Gouda's drawings are not very good or have a unique touch. The atmosphere of the work is like that of "Jarinko Chie," with the smell of downtown Osaka wafting from the paper. The work is filled with the straightforwardness of the main character, who believes in listening to the last voice of the deceased, and the human drama of the tragedy and joy behind the corpse. The forensic content is also quite specialized, and thanks to reading this manga, I was able to pass my forensic science test as a medical student with ease.

Dr. Koto Clinic

The manga was serialized by Takatoshi Yamada starting in 2000 and has been on a long hiatus since 2010. It has also been made into a TV drama, so even if you have never read the manga, you have probably been exposed to it.

The main character is Kensuke Goto, a.k.a. Dr. Koto, and the film depicts his activities at a clinic on a remote island called Koshiki Island. The main theme of the story is the difficulty of remote medical care, and the protagonist, who was initially regarded with caution as an outsider, gradually gains the trust of the islanders. Many medical professionals may have been inspired to become involved in remote island medicine by this manga. The gap between Dr. Koto's honest and simple personality and his prodigious surgical skills makes this manga an irresistible read. The TV drama is also great, and I would like to go on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Yonaguni Island, where it was filmed, someday.

Give my regards to Black Jack

This manga was serialized by Shuho Sato starting in 2002. Many older doctors may have been influenced by Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, but for me, the first manga that comes to mind when I think of Black Jack~ is this one.

The main character, Eijiro Saito, is an initial resident doctor at a prestigious university hospital, and he has no special skills or knowledge. He has no special skills or knowledge, but Eijiro is a pure and awe-inspiring patient.

Eijiro confronts head-on the various contradictions and unreasonableness in the medical field. The story makes use of the setting of interns rotating through medical departments: surgery, internal medicine, NICU, pediatrics, surgery (cancer treatment), psychiatry, and organ transplantation. All episodes are thought-provoking, but I personally recommend the cancer treatment episode. The heroine, Ms. Minagawa, a NICU nurse, is cute, but the hero is a weirdo, so I feel sorry for him because he is pushed around. The story has been made into a TV drama starring Satoshi Tsumabuki, but there are many details that are not fully depicted in the drama, so if you want to touch on them, please read the manga.

stork (esp. the Oriental stork, Ciconia boyciana)

It is a manga serialized since 2012 by Yu Suzunoki. The story revolves around various human dramas and social issues surrounding obstetrics and gynecology. The main character, Sakura Konotori, is an obstetrician-gynecologist as well as a mysterious jazz pianist named "Baby. While "Baby" wears a blonde wig and lipstick, Dr. Sakura is a mild-mannered, thoughtful, and skilled obstetrician and gynecologist. In the real world, there are many people who are both doctors and talented in other professions. Dr. Sakura is one such person.

I wondered how much I could go on drawing in the obstetrics genre. I was enjoying the serialization, but it continued up to volume 32 without running out of material. It is amazing. It is a masterpiece that should be read by both men and women alike, as it sincerely and honestly depicts the various problems that pregnant women and their families may face. Due to the harsh working environment, the number of students wishing to become obstetricians has plummeted in recent years, but I really hope that obstetricians will be rewarded for their efforts. (No tsk tsk tsk, not even from a cosmetic surgeon).

liaison

It is a manga set in a child psychiatry department, serialized by Yong Chan since 2020 and still running today. The two main characters are Taku Sayama, a child psychiatrist, and Shiho Tono, a child psychiatry resident. Sayama himself has a history of ASD (autism spectrum disorder), and Tono has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Since the theme is child psychiatry, the content is very heavy and there is no exhilaration after reading it. It is not a fun manga, but it is a manga that many people should read to see what kind of reality people with mental irregularities face. The main characters in this work also have ASD and ADHD, respectively, and doctors are often people with that temperament. I think that is strangely realistic.

Finally.

Did you find any of your favorite manga among the works introduced in this issue? In recent years, an increasing number of medical manga have delved deeper into narrower genres, such as those featuring pharmacists and pathologists. There are also manga dealing with cosmetic surgery. Even in the genre of medical manga, which seems to be a genre that has been well-drawn, I think it is truly amazing that artists are creating works from new angles.

Assistant Director Daiki Kuroda

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