While these stories are stylistically departed from the original Tezuka manga, they retain a powerful and simple charm. Instead of Tezuka's club-foot pseudo-Gumbyish body types, the characters are drawn in realistic anatomical detail, which I personally like given that the more recent anime adaptations return to Tezuka's art style. This is a dark, gritty world for Black Jack, and many of the visual elements from the movie remain--nearly retro-futuristic technology combined with urban decay. Japanese culture is also deeply entrenched in those cases that do occur in Japan--the final OVA with its mermaid story comes to mind. It is faithful to the juxtaposition of modern technology and Shinto animism still present in Japan.
For better and worse, the animation is highly derivative of its time (mid 90's)--it is high-quality hand-drawn cels, but I would have told the director to lay off the dramatic triple-takes and action lines. It gets maudlin fast.
The political issues are also painfully contemporary. A thinly-disguised (and I do mean *thinly*; the damn flag is the same, Niagara Falls is on the Northern border) United States invades a country under pretenses of correcting a corrupt government when all it wants is oil rights. (Note that this was pre-Iraq, but post Desert Storm). The President speaks of a God-given duty to spread justice throughout the world in the form of forceful policing. Chemical weapons and radiation left from the world wars cause devastating diseases. Biological warfare, something less prevalent in Tezuka's manga, takes a center stage.
I can recommend this to those unfamiliar with the Black Jack franchise given that they are stand-alone stories with little integration into the manga storyline. However, this is not my favorite anime adaptation of the doctor's adventures, despite my love for the pseudo-realistic style given to the character designs. Everything else this OVA does well, the 2004 adaptation does just as well or better, and given how well-done this OVA is, that is truly saying something. Knowledge of the background is helpful but not necessary to understand what is going on.
