Saruta is instantly recognizable by his grotesquely spotted nose—a signature Tezuka trait he shares with Dr. Ochanomizu, though where Ochanomizu tends to show up in lighter stories, Saruta gravitates toward darker material. His two biggest roles come in Black Jack and Phoenix, arguably Tezuka's most important works.
Phoenix is where Saruta really shines. He's woven throughout the entire series—sometimes front and center, sometimes barely visible, occasionally under a different name entirely—but always there and always mattering. Across his many lives and deaths, he becomes an over-arching protagonist alongside Phoenix itself, demonstrating both the worst of human nature and humanity's stubborn capacity to endure and transcend. The sheer amount of suffering he goes through across those lives is impossible to miss.
In Black Jack, Saruta plays Dr. Honma Jotaro, a once-celebrated surgeon whose career imploded thanks to professional jealousy and skepticism about his research. He saves the young Black Jack and becomes his primary father figure, steering him toward medicine. It makes thematic sense: Saruta's the character in Phoenix who understands reincarnation and death most deeply, so it tracks that in Black Jack, Dr. Honma is the one constantly reminding his protégé about nature's power and the inevitability of mortality.
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