# Black Forceps

Black Forceps (Japanese: ブラックペアン), also known as "Black Pean" or "Black Paean", is a Japanese drama based on the book "Black Pean 1988" by author Takeru Kaidō [ja]. It aired in April 2018 on TBS Television (Japan).
A sequel, based on the books "Blaze Mes 1990" and "Cerisier Center 1991" by the same author, is scheduled to air in July 2024.

## Synopsis
### Season 1

Tojo University Hospital is known for having high success in its Surgery Department. Its Director, Professor and heart surgeon Seigō Saeki has implemented the "Saeki Procedure", which is a heart surgery without stopping it. He has been considered as a candidate for President of the Japanese Society of Cardiac Surgery, as is his rival, Keisuke Nishizaki, Director of Surgery of Teika University. Nishisaki considers he is better for the position and schemes to bring down Tojo's fame to achieve it. For that, he sends surgeon Gonta Takashina, fervient user of the latest devices, to Tojo.
In Tojo, Takashina will face Seishirō Tokai, a genius surgeon whose (non-mechanical) surgical technique has a 100% of success, but whose attitude alienates everyone around him.

### Season 2

Six years have passed since the last encounter with Tokai. Tojo's medical crew has continued to grow and improve, including Tokai's "rival", Takashina, promoter of the "Snipe" medical device, formerly of Teika, now a part of Tojo.
Saeki, creator of the world-famous Saeki surgery technique, is now Tojo University Hospital's director. He aims for the position of president of the Japanese Medical Association, pinnacle of research medicine in Japan, and plans to open a new hospital that specializes in cardiac surgery. He has heard about Yukihiko Amagi, a devilish, world-renowned genius surgeon that works in the Heart Center in Australia's Gold Coast, and wants him for his team.
Sera, former resident and an assistant to Tokai, now a full-fledged cardiac surgeon, is in charge of getting to Amagi, who is, eerily, a Tokai doppleganger. Sera is to deliver a letter from Saeki to Amagi.

## Cast

Additional information

### Tojo University Hospital

* Kazunari Ninomiya
** as surgeon Seishiro Tokai (season 1). Known as a surgery genius for his perfect score, he is a rebel, rarely attends conferences and other administrative events. His attitude often alienates those around him Re-appears in (season 2) in flashbacks, and in episode 8 he makes a come back.
** as surgeon Yukihiko Amagi (season 2), a world leader in cardiac coronary artery bypass grafting; has worked for many years at the Heart Center on Australia's Gold Coast. His other passion is gambling
* Wakana Aoi as operating room nurse Miwa Hanabusa (season 1). Continues in season 2 as a more experienced, caring nurse.
* Ryoma Takeuchi as 1st. year resident Masashi Sera (season 1). Continues in season 2 as a more experienced and reliable doctor
* Seiyō Uchino as Director of the Surgery Department, Professor and cardiac surgeon Seigō Saeki (season 1). Known for the "Saeki Procedure". He has become Director of the hospital in season 2
* Kotaro Koizumi returns in season 2 as doctor Takashina Gonta (originally from Teika), as a Tojo ally.
* Taro Shigaki as Tojo University Director Nobuaki Moriya (season 1), his affiliation is with Teika, not Tojo
* Satoshi Hashimoto as Surgery Department associate professor Seiichirō Kurosaki (season 1)
* Misuzu Kanno [ja] as Head nurse Makoto Fujiwara (season 1)
* Shuri [ja] as surgical nurse Mari Nekota (season 1), with a skill in preparing medical instruments, continues in season 2
* Haruka Uchimura [ja] as surgeon Yūji Kakitani (season 1)
* Hiroki Konno as surgeon Fuminori Sekikawa (season 1), second surgery using a snipe
* Kanro Morita [ja] as resident doctor Kouhei Taguchi (season 1)
* Yusuke Yamada [ja] as resident doctor Kōichi Hayami (season 1)
* Sae Okazaki [ja] as resident doctor Tōko Shimazu (season 1)
* Naruki Matsukawa as resident doctor Tatsuya Kitajima (season 1)
* Kaho Mizutani [ja] as nurse Ayumi Miyamoto (season 1)
* Anna Hara [ja] as nurse Mio Arai (season 1)
* Kōki Okada [ja] as Sera's supervisor Tadashi Yokoyama (season 1). He leaves the hospital after a botched surgery that Tokai has to fix

### Teika University Hospital

* Kotaro Koizumi as surgeon and lecturer Takashina Gonta (season 1), who is on loan in Tojo. Promoter of new surgical technology
* Ichikawa Ennosuke IV as Professor of Surgery Keisuke Nishizaki (season 1). Mainly engaged in research

### Others

* Ayako Kato [ja] as Clinical trial coordinator Kaori Kinoshita (season 1)
* Kōji Katō as Hideto Ikenaga (season 1), editor-in-chief of the medical journal Japan Journal of Surgery
* Itta Maru [ja] as surgeon Kenichi Shinohara (season 1)
* Jouji Shibue as surgeon Masato Fukumoto (season 1)
* Kim Moo-joon [ko] as resident Park Min-jae (season 2), a resident in a Korean hospital that goes to Australia in search for Amagi.
* Choi Ji-woo as Korean doctor, hospital and restaurant owner Park Seo-hyun (season 2). She is resident Park Min-jae's mother. She goes with him to Australia to look for Amagi.

### Tokai family

* Mitsuko Baisho as Tokai's mother, Harue Tokai (season 1)
* Kazunaga Tsuji [ja] as Tokai's deceased father, surgeon Ichiro Tokai (season 1)

### Season 1 guests

* Momiji Yamamura as Taeko Minagawa, Sera's first patient (ep. 1)
* Naoko Sawamatsu as Yoshie Koyama, the wife of a patient (ep. 2)
* Yōshichi Shimada [ja] as Kaneto Koyama, a patient brought in an emergency (ep. 2)
* Shinya Tasaki as Hideo Kusunoki, a patient under the care of Tokai and Sera (ep. 3)
* Yugo Kochi (SixTones) as Hayato Tamura, candidate for snipe surgery, but ends being operated on by Tokai, due to being a complicated and rare case(ep. 3)
* Tsukasa Yoda [ja] as Koji Tamura, Hayato's father (ep. 3)
* Kurumi Inagaki [ja] as Koharu Shimano, a patient who has been transferred from Teika University Hospital. Takashina was her primary care physician at Teika (eps. 4, 5)
* Masami Tanaka as Naho Shimano, Koharu's mother (eps. 4, 5)
* Takuma Oto [ja] as Jin Matsuoka, a surgeon at Teika University Hospital who specializes in endoscopic surgery using support robot "Darwin" (ep. 5)
* Akira Fukuzawa [ja] as Masayuki Tomizawa, Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (ep. 5)
* Saki Aibu as Shoko Yamamoto, Kinoshita's former colleague nurse (ep. 7)
* Shinobu Hasegawa [ja] as Hidefumi Takeda, a doctor at Teika University Hospital (ep. 7)
* Shintarō Hayashi (Hayashin) (YouTuber, Laters) as Ryuichi Kobayashi, a patient without an apparent reason to be hospitaized.
* Shōzō Uesugi [ja] as Kobayashi
* Yo Takahashi [ja] as Katsuya Sakaguchi surgeon at Teika (ep. 8)
* Akira Yamamoto as Tatsuji Iinuma, a patient under the care of nurse Hanabusa. He was originally Ichiro Tokai's patient.

## Story
### Season 1

Doctor Seigo Saeki, professor and director of the Cardiac Surgery department at Tojo University Hospital, is known for his method called "Saeki Procedure", in which he operates on the heart of the patient without stopping it. His rival from Teika University, Professor Keisuke Nishizaki, who is seeking the post of president of the Japan Surgical Society, as is Saeki, has gone to Tojo, as have clinical trial coordinator Kaori Kinoshita and editor-in-chief of the medical journal Hideto Ikenaga, to watch Saeki in action, when a sudden emergency arises. Saeki sends a team to another operating room to attend that patient, but when his condition worsens, surgeon Seishiro Tokai, appears and finishes the operation, surprising doctor and lecturer Gonta Takashina. Tokai, who's called the "Devil of the operating room", has only one condition to do it: that the operating doctor submit his resignation letter and give him 10 million yen as compensation.
Takashina, who had been sent to Tojo by Nishizaki to promote the use of the "Snipe" medical device, has operated on a couple of patients with it, to prove the benefits of its use, but fails the 2nd surgery due to the patient's pre-existing condition, which was resolved by Tokai, after resident Sera begged him to (and got forced to work "for life" for Tokai), since it was his patient. On another day, Tokai works on patient Koyama to save his life, but he still needs another surgery to replace his mitral valve. Takashina suggests using the Snipe for it.
Takashina has not produced the results expected by Nishizaki to get the "impact factor" that will get him elected as president. There are 2 new patients at Tojo, one of which could be an ideal candidate to have a "Snipe" procedure done. As Takashina refuses to do the procedure on the music student, Saeki orders Tokai to do it. Seeing the success that "Snipe" has brought to Tojo, Takashina is conflicted as to who to include as chief researcher on his papers, Saeki, where the procedures had been taking part, or Nishizaki, where the paper was being written, and was at its final stages. In between, Takashina had transferred a patient from Teika to Tojo, and asked Saeki to perform a "Snipe" procedure on him. When Saeki appointed Tokai to do it, he refused, and, angrily, recriminated Saeki for crossing to the other side. Saeki, furious, told Tokai to not intervene in any more surgeries.
Takashina has finally decided who to include in his paper: Nishizaki. This means that he will return to Teika. Tokai had conveyed "certain concerns" to Saeki about patient Koharu Shimano, those concerns related to a "Snipe" procedure, which, because of her condition, couldn't be resolved through open-heart surgery. Takashina suggested using the endoscopic surgery support robot "Darwin".
Tokai's mother is taken in for an emergency surgery. Kurosaki, the attending surgeon, operates on her, but, unknowingly, leaves some of the tumor he was removing, and that is noticed by Tokai in a post-operative examination. He blames Kurosaki for malpractice, and demands compensation from Tojo. The election of president of the Japan Surgical Society has shifted battle, from the use of the "Snipe" to the use of "Darwin". A Japanese version, the "Caesar" was introduced in Tojo as a clinical trial, and Saeki puts Takashina in charge of it. Takashina considers who the perfect candidate to try it out on is: Tokai's mother, Harue.
Tokai is recruited by Teika, and Takashina begins to question Nishisaki's reasons to do it. Saeki also questions Nishizaki's actions, when Tomizawa, from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, promoter of the Darwin / Caesar, and who is an acquaintance of Nishizaki, takes a patient to Tojo to undergo a Darwin procedure. The Darwin / Caesar trials are over, and Nishizaki wants to unveil the perform the unveiling surgery under the leadership of Teika. Seeing no benefit, Saeki proposes Nishizaki to combine teams into one, with Tokai, Takashina and Sera at the helm. Teika staff went to Tojo, but immediately felt overwhelmed with Tokai's presence, as he was in charge of the Darwin surgeries. On the other hand, Saeki's presence around Tojo had declined, and Tokai had urged a reluctant Sera to follow him.
Saeki falls, and his condition reveals an existing disease in the cardiac area. Urgent intervention is required, and only Tokai can do it, but he is away looking for a patient at a neighboring hospital. However, the patient is not there, and Saeki holds that key. Tokai reveals to Sera that his true intention will be resolved after helping Saeki. But Saeki refuses Tokai's surgery, and proposes the use of Caesar, information of which has been taken away to Teika on Nishizaki's orders. Tokai performs the operation as a temporary measure. He asks Saeki to reveal the whereabouts of "Tatsuji Iinuma", the patient he is looking for, as a condition for performing a reoperation to cure him completely. Saeki refuses to answer, and forces himself to travel to Tokyo to a surgical conference. In Tojo, the condition of a "hidden" patient is discovered by Takashina. This patient is Iinuma, the one that Tokai was looking for. Miwa was in charge of him, at the request of Head nurse Fujiwara. He and Saeki are the reason behind Tokai being in Tojo... and the black forceps.

### Season 2

Six years have passed since Tokai left Tojo. Saeki is now Director of the hospital at Tojo, and is planning to open a new one, specialized in cardiac surgery. His next target is to become president of the All Japan Medical Association. Sera is now a full-fledge cardiac surgeon. Sera is to deliver a letter that Saeki gave him, to a doctor called Yukihiko Amagi, who is attending a medical conference in Australia.
Sera travels to Australia with Yuji Kakitani, a senior doctor. They find a boy unconscious on a beach on the Gold Coast and Kakitani decides to give him first aid. A mysterious man appears and advises Kakitani, who is confused when the boy does not regain consciousness. On his advice, the boy survives. After that, they go to the conference, but Amagi is nowhere in sight. Frustrated, they meet Park Seo-hyun and her son Min-jae, who have also gone to Australia searching for Amagi. Min-jae joins the pair as they go in search of Amagi, after they are informed that he could be at the racetrack. Sera does a double-take as he sees the man standing in front of him. It is the same man he had passed earlier. Is it Tokai? That was Amagi, a world-class genius surgeon, called a diabulous (devil) in the medical world, who played with people and money.
After learning the plans that Saeki has for him, Amagi decides to go to Japan> But it isn't without controversy. His plans for the new hospital draw resentment from those around him, And to add to it, he boasts that his introduction in the Japanese medical world will be performing a public surgery. Amagi is the only one in the world with a way to handle successfully direct anastomosis, an advanced form of coronary artery bypass grafting, and he says that he will show it off. Meanwhile, Sera is in charge of patient Shigeno, a pastry shop owner. He is in need of a surgery, but doesn't have the funds to cover it. His daughter Asami tries to gather the money by selling the recipe and rights to an apple pie that Shigeno developed. But when he and his granddaughter learn about it, they vehemently oppose. Unfortunately, Shigeno has no choice but to receive Amagi's direct anastomosis, which is very expensive. So Amagi and Yui make a bet.
Takashina has been working at Tojo. He has been secretly aiming for the top position of the new hospital, as the shadow of Sugai, who is competing with Saeki for the position of president of the All Japan Medical Association, is creeping up on him.
Amagi arbitrarily has named the new hospital being planned in Sakuranomiya City as the "Cerisier Heart Center". However, he is scolded by Saeki saying he should explain the situation to local people first, and tells him that he will hold a public surgery to announce his appointment as director of the center, as well as its name.
Toshiko, A welfare recipient has become a patient at Tojo. New resident Park is in charge of her. Sera, Park's supervisor, sees Toshiko's results and deems Amagi the perfect person to operate on her, but Amagi refuses. Amagi instead tries to persuade Mizuno, a director of the business association coordinating investments for the new hospital, to undergo direct anastomosis surgery. However, it turns out that Mizuno is an intermediary from Sugai, a professor at Ishin University, who is in conflict with Saeki. Amagi asks Shingyoji, the president of the Sakuranomiya City Medical Association, to introduce him to patients for public surgery.
Kazuko Tomiya, a famous lawyer for medical litigation, looking for Amagi, who is being sought out for fraud. Saeki stops the situation by settling with the people who have come with her, canceling Amagi's upcoming surgery.
Sera sees Miwa arguing with Tomiya, and intervenes. It turns out that she is Miwa's mother. And she suffered a collapse while at the hospital. She needs urgent medical intervention. And Sera is the one who attends her. But there is a complication. There is too much of a calcification, and the only one who can get through is Amagi, but Tomiya refuses, opting for an AI procedure developed at Ishin. Sera and Miwa try to convince her otherwise.

## Music

"Kono Michi o", theme song for the drama, was written by Kazumasa Oda. The song was included in a single, released on May 2.
Soundtrack for the series was written by composer Hideakira Kimura [ja].
Oda returns with "Sono saki ni aru mono", theme song for season 2 (2024), that has chorus by actress Takako Matsu and Triceratops member Shō Wada.

## Main medical instruments shown in the drama

* Dr. Saeki uses the heart-lung machine (a machine that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during open-heart surgery by maintaining the circulation of blood and oxygen throughout the body) to work on the heart in his "Saeki Procedure", which can produce very little damage in the heart muscle. In ep. 2, Dr. Takashina, who proudly mentions the use of the "Snipe" device without the need to use the heart-lung machine, had to use it, as an emergency arose after trying to retrieve a stent from the heart of the patient they were operating on.
* "Snipe" is a type of device used, including after cardiac catheterization, to install, primarily, a stent in a mitral valve replacement procedure. Takashina had studied the artifact overseas and took it to Japan to introduce its use as an alternative to regular surgery. Though it does not exist in reality, there are several manufacturers getting up-to-date with technology that can bring them to light. The model in the series is a pistol-type apparatus, probably molded from some types of catheter syringes, used to insert the catheter into the body in angiography and other catheterization procedures. According to Dr. Shunsuke Yamagishi, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, IMUS Tokyo Katsushika General Hospital, and technical advisor for the series, the use of the "Snipe" as said by Takashina ("anyone can use it") was proven wrong, since not even himself could perform the operation correctly. Knowing all the technical data for the apparatus is not enough if the doctor has not taken the time to examine all possible consequences.
* Use of the Da Vinci robot (named in the drama as Darwin) was shown in episode 5. Newhart Watanabe International Hospital, a pioneer in da Vinci surgery for the heart in Japan, was used as background for the drama, with Dr. Gou Watanabe providing technical support.
* "Black Pean", the instrument that gives the name to the drama, is a type of forceps called a hemostat. It is used to clamp exposed blood vessels shut during an operation. Saeki uses it as a symbol of his responsibility, and as an instrument during Iinuma's operation in the last episode.