The Owl of San Merida

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Black Jack
20th May 1995 51 mins Season 1 Episode 5

While on vacation, Black Jack comes across a young man called Leslie Harris on a train. Bullet wounds mysteriously appear on his body, bleed, but then disappear. Leslie has recurring dreams of seeing a woman with a child singing about the Owl of San Merida where he finds himself in a battle zone being shot. Black Jack examines him and finds barely visible signs of many earlier operations. They travel to the Republic of El Garnia, a country with over 25 years of civil war which ended 4 years earlier, and visit the village of San Merida. Leslie finds it familiar, and they meet Ernesto, the only survivor who tells the story of how he, an uncertified doctor, saved a baby by using the blood and body components of the dead woman Sanda, including her bullet-riddled skin. Suddenly the government troops arrive and arrest, then summarily shoot Ernesto for his part in the resistance. Jack is unable to save his life, leaving Leslie the only living survivor of San Merida.

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Night Time Tale in the Snow still
Season 1 · Episode 6

Night Time Tale in the Snow

Black Jack receives a large box of old Japanese currency from Saburo Taneda with an urgent request to treat his dying wife, however it was sent two years ago. Jack and Pinoko travel to Yashaga Mountain, through a snow storm, but become bogged and fall asleep. Jack awakes and sees a temple so he leaves Pinoko with a monk, Lady Kaoru, and continues by foot. He is caught in an ancient battle between the samurai Saburo Taneda and his enemies. Jack meets Princess Ikehata who ate the poisonous gamakazura fruit four years earlier rather than marry Lord Rokuyoji against her will and since then she has suffered seizures and violent fits. Abumaru, a messenger from Lady Kaoru the spurned wife of Lord Rokuyoji, visits Saburo and demands that he surrender Ikehata. Jack operates on the princes to repair an irregular heartbeat, which releases a giant snake. Saburo kills the snake which also causes the death of Lady Kaoru. Following the operation Saburo and Ikehata flee together, but are killed by Rokuyoji's troops. Meanwhile, Abumaru kills Rokuyoji in revenge for his poor treatment of Kaoru. The storm clears and Jack awakes, realizing that he has had a dream, and he is taken by Saburo to see his sick wife. Jack diagnoses that she has mesothelioma and prepares to take her to the hospital, but surprisingly finds that Saburo died two years earlier, and his wife was cared for by neighbors who resemble Kaoru and Abumaru.

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