It’s 2021. I’m at home. My Crohn’s disease is flaring, and
I’m debating on whether it’s safe or not to go to the emergency room because
Covid-19 is still quite widespread, and despite being vaccinated, the risk of
infection is still there, especially with new variants on the rise. Health care
workers are setting their safety aside to do battle on the front line in order
to treat those who suffer and keep the general public safe. Given this current
state of events, I thought it was only right that I should watch Triage X, an
R+, hardcore echi series created by the character designer from Highschool of
the Dead, Satou Shouji, which stars a varied cast of buxom women (and a token
guy they can fawn over), who live as doctors and nurses by day, but by night,
don their hidden personas as Black Label: a vigilante group of super-spy,
ninja-assassins that move under the command
of a genius surgeon. Their mission – to purge the world of the many
cancers that plague society (with bullets, swords, and explosives).
Let’s be blunt. You will watch this show for the medical
theme, just as much as you watch High School of the Dead for the parts with the
zombies. The veneer of medical atmosphere
around it plays out more like weird fetish cosplay than it works practically to
set up plot, character backstory, or setting. In fact, the plot of the series
is bad, no, it may actually be pretty terrible. Not only that, but by the end
of the series, the story doesn’t actually give you any closure, instead setting
up for a future OVA, or maybe a season 2 (lord knows if it’ll get one, but you
never know). So not only is the story bad, it’s incomplete. That’s a major deal
breaker for me when it comes to anime, even if the show is just an echi one.
The characters, and their backstories, were confused, and
filled with the standard tired tropes. Several of them didn’t even get a
backstory at all (maybe we’ll learn about them in the sequel). One of the
characters doesn’t seem to have any tie-in to the rest of the team, from what I
could tell, and works as an Idol and TV star by day. My best guess was that she
was added to the cast by the series creator to fill a certain character
archetype, and he thought, “Meh, why not, make her an idol, that’ll sell well
with this demographic.”
Honestly, the plot behind the scenes for both the story and
characters is pretty much garbage.
But honestly, you’re not watching this series for the plot,
just like you’re not watching it for the medical drama. You’re watching it
because you’re highly cultured and you’re interested in the PLOT i.e. the sexy
ladies. In this case, the PLOT of the show is very attractive, mostly focused,
in extreme close-up on the boobs (sasuga Satou-sensei). All the women have
massive assets, which have been painstakingly animated with more care than some
entire series will ever get (looking at some of the newer releases, it’s really
quite painful). The series is presented in a fully uncensored version, as well
as the “safe for TV” one, so of course I watched the home video release,
because nobody needs weird beams of light, or dark black boxes all over their
screen when they’re watching anime.
I saw someone comment the other day on twitter, “that show
is entirely carried by the fan-service”, and generally people replied that yea,
of course it is. “It’s an echi series, what do you expect?” At the time, they
weren’t talking about Triage X, but I think the same argument applies here. If
you’re watching this show, you’re watching it for the lewd jiggle physics, not
the story, and not the action.
That being said, the action was actually really good. The
guns were shooty, the swords were swingy, and the explosions possessed
sufficient boom. The chase scenes on motorcycle, and fight scenes were all
well-choreographed, taking into account the best way for each of the women to
show off her character design. The male lead, was actually not a wet blanket.
He was likable, in a serious, “let’s get down to business” kind of way.
At the end of the day, I don’t really recommend this show.
It’s in the category of anime you probably watch when you’re horny, and alone,
or bored and have nothing else to do, and that doesn’t really have much going
for it other than the eye candy; the overly serious tone of it, combined with
all the sexual abuse in the plot, just kinda kills the mood. If that doesn’t
deter you though, the series is out legally on multiple streaming platforms
such as Crunchyroll and Hidive.
*****
Please note, in all seriousness, support your health care professionals who are putting their lives on the line in the fight against Covid. That shit is getting absolutely out of hand. Wear a mask, get vaccinated. Don't be a dick.
