What do you get when a fictitious character played by a real person (though not using his real accent, and then dubbed in a completely different language) is promoted in Japan by a fictitious character who is totally virtual?

Dr. House (played by British actor Hugh Laurie) and Black Jack will appear together in a television commercial, which will be the first collaboration between an overseas live-action television series and a Tezuka anime.

The caption at the top reads: "Don't the two of us resemble each other?"

Black Jack is the creation of manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989). Like Michael Crichton, Tezuka earned an MD but never practiced. Black Jack is a bad boy black market surgeon and his medical cases are more Crichton (and Raymond Chandler) than House.

House, to his credit, actually has a medical license, or doesn't (technically) practice without one.

You can watch the season four promos here (click on the red buttons; video may take a minute to buffer). From left to right: the "normal" TV spot, the Black Jack TV spot, the Black Jack extended version.

You can watch the season three promos here (TV and extended versions). More material with which to debate the dubbing choices.

Labels: anime, television