Episode 42: Life's Wrong Diagnosis Pinoko is Black Jack's sidekick and assistant. Despite her toddler-like appearance, she has actually been alive for eighteen years. She was originally a "teratoid cystoma" (Not an actual medical term but she is most likely a teratoma, which is a tumor made up of several different types of tissue, such as hair, muscle, or bone. They typically form in the ovaries, testicles, or tailbone and less commonly in other areas), growing in the abdomen of her eighteen-year-old sister. She was then detached and had her already-developed body parts (a brain, an entire nervous system with a variety of organs) transplanted into a synthetic body created by Black Jack. Thus, she is unable to grow, despite wishing to procure an "adult body" and marry Black Jack. She is known for her famous catchphrase, "acchonburike" (あっちょんぶりけ), which has been translated as "oh my goodness" or "ohmigewdness" in some English adaptations. The word itself, however, is devoid of any real meaning outside of the Black Jack universe.
Personality[]
It is said that Pinoko is loyal, practical and orderly. She does most of the chores around the house (cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, answering the door, occasionally taking calls) and assists Black Jack in surgeries whenever she can. She is quick to anger towards anyone who calls her a "child" and/or assumes she is Black Jack's daughter and generally responds by claiming she is eighteen and a happily-married lady to Black Jack. She shows extreme concern for him, and will attempt to stay by his side regardless of the situation. She also develops a huge crush on him, which is shown throughout the manga and anime. When Black Jack is around other women, she displays signs of jealousy and starts asking bothersome questions and/or attacking the women he's with. She frequently tells Black Jack not to cheat on her if she suspects he's in the company of another woman, even threatening violence in certain adaptations. In situations where Black Jack goes missing, is absent for a long period of time, gets into danger, or forgets to take an important item with him to work, she laments that he cannot do anything without her and takes on the role of attempting to save him.
Pinoko shows a good emotional contrast with the more "stoic" Black Jack, at times acting as the sole outlet for his emotions. She provides comfort in moments of anguish, and at times of danger, a will to live. This is a double edged sword, however, as she has also been the recipient of his anger, to which Pinoko generally responds either by crying, arguing, or attempting to find the source of his frustrations in an attempt to solve the issue. She also seems prone to coming up with worst case scenarios and displaying impulsive behaviour, which is most apparent in the manga chapter Pinoko's Mystery, in which she misinterprets a fictitious story that Black Jack receives in a letter as proof that Black Jack had stolen and hidden her from her true family. The story claims that a girl named Miya was injured in a horrible accident and her mother had brought her to Black Jack for life saving surgery, and that he had failed to keep her alive. The mother claims Miya was still secretly alive, and that Black Jack had handed the mother fake body parts from a growth in another body to trick her into believing her daughter was deceased. Miya is written to have lost her memory after the surgery. As she reads through this letter, Pinoko comes to believe she is actually Miya and that Black Jack had lied to her about her true identity. She consumes a bottle of alcohol and goes on a quest to find her family by following the address in the letter, which leads her to an apartment where she attempts to bond with the little girl living there, proclaiming she might be the little girl's big sister. The little girl's father arrives and accuses Pinoko of reeking of booze and she runs from him due to believing he's dangerous, accusing him of being "The Bomb Fweak". During her escape, she is confronted by a large man who asks her if Black Jack had received his letter with an unsettling grin, and she runs back home. She finds an angry Black Jack who tells her she deserves a spanking for violating his privacy, to which Pinoko responds by confronting him, claiming that he was a "liar, idiot, kidnapper". Black Jack responds by reading her a new letter he had received by the same author clarifying that the story was fiction and that the author wanted to be a mystery writer. The story ends with Black Jack spanking her as punishment, and Pinoko smiling through her tears.
Pinoko has a sweet tooth in the anime, frequently ordering "Pinoko's Special" at Tom's Coffee Shop, which is best described as a comically large ice-cream sundae. She will, on occasion, snack on large amounts of food and has a tendency to overeat, leading to a stomach ache. In the OVA, she is shown to have an interest in karaoke, and boxing. In the anime, she spends a good amount of time playing with Sharaku, teaching him how to fight his bullies, and watching TV (She develops a crush on the widely hated monster character during an episode, calling him "cute", showing that she has a tendency to take a liking to those who are not well received by the general public). Despite her small stature, she's a decent fighter. She loves accompanying Black Jack on his business trips, treating them as a vacation, mentioning wanting to sightsee, visit hot springs, and go to fancy hotels. She also loves over the top decorations, filling rooms with flowers and bows, and she even makes Largo a princess style dog bed complete with giant bows and drapes. She tends to play around with makeup and dresses, with varying levels of success, and seems to have a fixation with beauty, alternating between displaying confidence and insecurity in her appearance. She also tends to take pictures of herself in modelling poses, which she has attempted to show Black Jack during surgery, to his dismay. She enjoys writing in her diary of which excerpts of are shown at the end of episodes (that are mostly meant to function as a bloopers segment), and writing love letters to Black Jack, occasionally asking him for help with her spelling. She gets embarrassed easily when Black Jack teases her, which he does when he misadvises her to write the Kanji for Koi (鯉), as in the fish, instead of the Kanji for Koi (恋), as in romantic love, in one of her letters.
Origins[]
Pinoko began life in her twin sister's abdomen as a teratogenous cystoma. Since then, Pinoko started to develop as a tumor in her twin sister's abdomen and "lived" there for eighteen years, mentioning having learned about various subjects, mainly relating to romance, through witnessing her sister's life. She began to develop over a span of eighteen years and eventually developed an entire brain, a complete nervous system, organs and limbs. Soon, the tumor became so large it had to be removed due to its size. It was then separated by Black Jack in an operation. Before the doctors consulted Black Jack to proceed with the removal of the tumor, previous surgeons found it hard to operate on the twin sister due to an alleged curse cast on them when attempting to operate. Supposedly, all of those attempting to operate on the tumor had a frantic fit and began to harm themselves and destroy various pieces of medical equipment. Every surgery had to be cancelled due to this problem, causing the doctors to have no choice but to turn to their last resort: Black Jack. Fining a whopping 50 million yen, he accepted their help in removing the tumor.
During the surgery, Pinoko began to enact the supposed "tumor's curse" as she did to the previous surgeons. (She is somehow able to telepathically communicate with and control the surgeons. This is how she enacted the supposed "tumor's curse". After she is extracted, she is no longer able to control people or communicate telepathically). She almost forced Black Jack to shove a scalpel into his throat during the operation before he attempts to bargain with her by saying that he will promise to keep her alive once she is removed from her twin sister's body. After agreeing with Black Jack, she lets him proceed with the surgery without disturbance and was kept inside a culture medium for some time after the removal. While her twin sister is taken back to the hospital, one of the doctors is horrified to see the tumor being kept inside the culture medium. He frantically asks Black Jack to throw it away but Black Jack refuses to do so saying that it is up to him to do what he wants with the remaining body parts. After they leave, Black Jack immediately begins with another surgery on the remaining parts, assembling and arranging the scrambled body parts into a complete body. The body has the appearance of a toddler, and is partially made of synthetic materials and the organic bits left over from the operation. The body is soon connected to the brain, Pinoko's brain, and body. Pinoko's body is placed in a bed, and she soon gains consciousness. She is barely able to babble in her new body, and is technically nameless at the time. But, Black Jack soon takes inspiration from an old fairytale book lying on his table near Pinoko. It is the tale of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet who becomes a real boy. He then names the girl Pinoko. This is how Pinoko is "born".
While it's not shown in the manga, the anime depicts Pinoko's attempts at getting used to having her own body. Throughout the process, Black Jack refuses to help, as he himself had to recover from his own operation as a child on his own. He believes that the struggle he went through was a valuable experience for him as a person and believes Pinoko should learn this lesson as well. This may be because she is in a similar place as him earlier in life, and must learn to cope with her physical debilitation. Pinoko spends her days learning to walk and maneuver her new body. Later that night, there is a fire in Pinoko's room. Pinoko manages to pull herself together, and get up and walk just in time to escape the fire. This experience helps her learn to walk and properly make sounds. She then trains herself to become a "normal" human without Black Jack's help and it doesn't take long for her to adapt to her new body, now able to walk, run, talk and much more; even becoming a sort of house wife, and dealing with any number of medical emergencies she may have to deal with.
A year after Pinoko and her twin sister's separation, the doctors brought Pinoko's sister back for the final checkup. Before leaving, Black Jack tries to introduce Pinoko to her twin sister, where in a comical fashion, Pinoko begins to attack her sister by jumping up and down on her while calling her various names. She was angry at the multiple attempts by her twin sister and many others to get rid of her, causing her to hate her sister and to trust only Black Jack. Her sister then angrily disowns her and leaves in a hurry with the other doctors. However, this is changed in the 2004 TV anime, where she was shown talking to her twin sister but gets immediately rejected by her, who simply states that she has no sister. As in the manga, Pinoko is immediately infuriated by this and begins to attack her sister. The twin sister quickly leaves the house, leaving Black Jack and Pinoko behind. Since that day, Pinoko became Black Jack's assistant. She still holds a grudge toward her twin sister to this day.
Appearance[]
Pinoko has short orange hair, that is also sometimes depicted as either a reddish ginger or a chocolate brown. She also has a pair of brown eyes and a light complexion. She is the height and weight of the average toddler since she is physically unable to grow normally due to her synthetic body. Her hair is a rounded bob cut, and she wears four pink bows, two on each side of her head, red overalls with a frilly skirt trim, and a yellow long sleeve shirt. She also wears a pair of white knee high socks and tiny red strap shoes.
Trivia[]
- Her twin sister's name is Yurie as mentioned in Black Jack Final OVA but usually went unnamed in the manga and anime series. Her face was never shown in the anime series as she wears a mask during her entire screentime.
- Pinoko's synthetic body was inspired by a young girl (whose name is later revealed to be Romi) who used to be a model. Black Jack mentioned he chose her as a model for the body because he thinks she looks rather cute. This plot point is reminiscent of Dororo, another Tezuka work, in which the main character has extreme body enhancement and replacements, to the point he is more synthetic that organic.
- Due to her synthetic body, Pinoko has some disability. This affects her ability to swim and grow and manage her stress levels. Although not caused by her synthetic body, Pinoko has a heavy lisp that is present in both the manga and anime, which is simply because she doesn’t put any effort into improving her speech.
- Pinoko is technically zero years old as stated on her birth certificate, but she is also technically eighteen since she grew together with her twin sister in her abdomen for eighteen years. Despite her apparent age, she is a gifted doctor and Black Jack acknowledges her as such and later corrects people who call her a child.