Triage X

If Michael Bay ever made an anime, it'll be like Triage X.

I've stated in the past that a lot could be gathered from a show's 1st episode, but it's rare that I come across cases where the very 1st opening scene sums up the anime just as well. Not even a full second into Triage X and the 1st thing the audience is greeted with are melon-size oppai. With that being said, leave any sense of decency you may have at the front door, and revert back to your hormone-filled pubescent days because Tri-hard X is as brazen as it gets.

GUNS!!!.. BOOBS!!!.. EXPLOSIONS!!!.., annnnnd ... MORE BOOBS!!!

Let's face it; there are only two reasons for anyone to watch this:
#1, for the "plot"
#2, for the "plot"

But as far as the actual content goes, there's very little here worth discussing. This is an anime that exists solely as a container for boobs and action. Any plot points brought up that gives hints towards a character or narrative arc goes nowhere. From the mysterious inner-workings of the various organizations that the viewer is made aware of to the straightforward overarching narrative that contained it, all of it was merely brushed over. Mini-arc formats that began with no buildup and ended with no solid conclusion. Outside of being an advertisement for the manga and all the "plot" it may contain, Triage couldn't be bothered with the trivial matter of "caring." But man cannot live off boobs alone, so in substitution for a story, the show gives us chicken scratch that vaguely passes as one.

This chicken scratch was manifested with our protagonist, Arashi Mikami, as we find out that he's a part of a band of assassins that kill off members of society that they deem unworthy. With the help of a few armed titties with legs and his weapon of choice, they take on several assignments where they're tasked with cleaning house, leaving no grunt unscathed and no boob untouched. Wait, boobs and assassins? Is this Akame Ga Kill 2.0? All shit talking aside, the show could have done a lot more with the material than what it aimed for. No, I wasn't expecting much, to begin with, but they made no effort in hiding the fact that it was only there to boost sales and intrigue for the source material. The anime did very little to stand on its own, and it reflected profoundly on its drab presentation. The most we get are hints towards something brewing just below the surface; hints that ultimately panned out to the creators saying "Just go buy and read the manga already." This was marked off with an underwhelming ending that even the show's protagonist seems to be aware of, as the closing lines delivered by him felt like the studio's way of saying they simply didn't give a fuck:
"No. Nothing's been resolved."
They just went about finishing it without a proper resolution or care in the world, giving the audience narrative blue-balls in the process. Everything was just left up in the air, like the Freeze frame ending of an 80s movie. To give you an idea, it's like if I stopped writing this paragraph mid-senten

The art/animation was relatively simplistic, which is a shame since I thought it was the perfect material to push boob physics even further. Although there was nothing overtly offensive about the production, there was also nothing impressive about it either. It was just the bare minimum needed to get by, almost cynically pushed off an assembly line with the paint still wet.

And just like the animation, the soundtrack was equally generic, with your usual J-rock opening and OST that does nothing to stand out. Every musical cue felt incredibly phoned-in. The music fits the show in the same way every tween TV drama has your typical strum of an acoustic guitar hanging in the background. And as your eyes glaze over from watching GUNS, BOOBS, EXPLOSIONS, the soundtrack is just there, chiming along in the most unassertive way imaginable.

But enough of that, time to cover the wonderful people we follow throughout Try-hard X's episode run.

I'm hesitant to even refer to this cast as "characters," honestly speaking, there's only one actual person in the entire show. The rest is bodypillow models in the making. Our main protagonist, Arashi Mikami, is as stoic as they get, in other words, he has as much personality as a brick wall. With a brooding personality stuck in angst hell and dialogue equally as stiff, every moment he's on screen, I could just feel a bit of my soul being sucked out.

The rest of the cast can be summed up with a simple formula: archetype + boobs

They're all busty females with one predominant personality quirk, so basically, well-endowed smurfs. The only "development" they get are the ones hanging from their chest. Of course, this is only a bad thing if you were expecting more, but if you just came into this for dumb action and TNA, then this character lineup is godsent.
The antagonists were all overblown manchildren. It helped add to the campy nature the show unintentionally stumbled in. Also, none of them were afraid of groping a few sweater puppies either, so expect a lot of fun "boob-play" sessions.

GUNS, BOOBS & EXPLOSIONS; a tried and true formula

While Triage X was flawed on every level imaginable, it still managed to keep me entertained. I was brought to a time in my youth where sex and violence were all it took to appease me. It was certainly good schlock entertainment at times and if nothing else, kept my interest long enough before abandoning ship.

If you're simply looking for an easy-to-consume time-waster along the lines of a brainless blockbuster, then Triage X should fit the bill. And while it plays out well in that sleazy entertainment realm that it shamelessly occupies, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything else here. It's a show that focuses more on the "plot" than it does the plot and is very much aware of its ploy. The lower you set your bar, both in terms of standards and maturity, the better, as Triage X is wholly satisfied with its awarded consolation prize of being lowbrow smut.

What do you got when you combined, action, blood, guns, gore, big boobies and lots of eye-candy? You get something like this, a 10 episode anime whose theme, setting and plot are a complete oxymoron which is typical of studio Xebec, since most of it's genres are compose of popping eye-candy whose direction is complete head scratchier.

Note: I haven't read the manga yet, so my review is only for the anime.


Story

The story is just your typical vigilantes kind of thing where there is the usual good guys who fight against them bad guys out side of the law, which to me is ok. But, the ... ones who are doing the crime fighting that involves people in the health care industry is kinda of awkward, but nevertheless it's ok, but how they got into that kind of side business is a big plot hole to say the least.

My verdict: A decent 4.


Art


Frankly it was typical of studio Xebec to always include eye candy in their genre, now let's face it the only thing that make this anime and manga sell is sex, which it the very mantra of every men's magazine where "sex sells." Here the main selling point was mostly on the boobies, where distinguishing the young girls from the older ones isn't much a priority of the illustrator , in fact the youngest character Oriha Nashida can pass as a twenty-something bimbo. Despite of my disgust, those big boobies and some panty flashes really did got me.

My Verdict: a Very Good 8.


Sound

Basically the opening and closing isn't my cuppa tea, also the character voices regardless of age doesn't have that youthful tone, in fact Mikoto and Oriha doesn't have that teen age tone in it, were it that really doesn't impress me at all.

My verdict: a Poor 3.


Character

For the most part the character's themselves are either an oxymoron or a plot hole. So who were the characters?


Arashi Mikami, the main protagonist whom as a child and a victim of a terror attack he received a lot of organ transplant from his dead friend Ryu Mochizuki. Ok at first I find it hard as to how his body was able to cope up with multiple organ transplant in one operation, co'z in reality such operation would prove to be 100% fatal even with new drugs. The oxymoron about him was that he can ride a bike, so why does he have to ride shotgun along with Mikoto where both can shoot while riding? I was really unfortunate that he didn't even think about banging her while they were in the showers, which would have added more intensity to this anime and it was very obvious that the two don't mind being naked together.

Mikoto Kiba, in the anime, it was never mentioned that she is of Yakuza royalty and her brother was murdered, but nevertheless, it was a big plot hole as to how she learned how to shoot and fight. Pretty much she just one of the eye candies in this anime.


Oriha Nashida, the big plot hole about her was that she is this child prodigy / idol whom it was unknown as to how she got mixed up with being one of the members of "Black Label" who like things that goes BOOM! In fact that's what we the audience only knows about her.


Sayo Hitsugi, about her, well at least we got know her beginnings, not much to say.

Yuko Sagiri, so how does a well endowed doctor got to be a master swords woman is a mystery at least in this anime.

Miki Tsurugi, being an anesthesiologist was pretty much an oxymoron for her character, since a specialist like that only deals with the prevention of pain and not concocting brews like date-rape drugs or PCP's where she uses it to interrogated suspect and afterwards they won't remember a thing, geez , Manga artist Shōji Satō really has no idea that such drug can be concocted by either a pharmacist or a drug dealer.


My Verdict: Poor 3...blame it on Manga artist Shōji Satō.

Enjoyment

TBH, it was the eye candy that provides the true entertainment than anything else, one can simply forget the rest.

My Verdict: Good 7 for the boobies and panties.

Overall

Welp, since it was obvious that this anime was rushed and poorly assembled there is no doubt that this anime should've be better off left as a manga.

So my verdict: a Pathetic 1.

Triage X Production Committee:

Lead Producer [clapping his hands]: Okay, everyone, listen up. We had just been given the green-light to produce Triage X, a manga illustrated and written by Satou Shoji. You know, the person who did the illustrations for the Highschool of the Dead manga.

[Everyone nods their heads and say, “Okay."]

Lead Producer [looking at the Triage X manga on the table]: Now, this may be embarrassing, but I had not read this manga, yet. I had just skimmed it recently, and I’ve noticed that there are many scenes involving big-breasted women shooting guns. Now, tell me. Besides, adding in large breasted women and guns, ... what else should be included in this animation production?

[A few people look at each other, nervously, until someone raises their hand.]

Person A: But, sir, that’s pretty much it. The story could be summarized as this: “A group of vigilantes, mainly women and one man, go around killing people deemed as ‘cancers of society’.” You can think of it as a cheesy 70’s to 80’s film with lots of action and suggestive content. Other than that, there’s nothing else to it.

Lead Producer [confused]: Really? What about the character development? And the actions scenes, are they awesome and exciting?

Person B [interrupting]: There isn’t much in character development at all. All the female characters have big ass watermelons, like a size ‘F’ or ‘G’, attached to their chest and all they said is how much they need to get rid of the ‘cancers’ of society. The main guy character does get some development, but not much and his backstory of how he became who he is, is laughable.

[Person B takes a deep breath.]

Person B: The action scene are somewhat ‘cool’ and ‘exciting’. There are many explosions, gunfights, and hand-to-hand combat action. Although, I have to question why civilians don’t hear these explosions and gunfights, and call the cops right away? But, whatever, logic is dead in this series!

Lead Producer [looking at Person B]: Okay. I understand that there is little to no character development, and the actions scene are cool, but unrealistic. But, we still need to add in other stuff, besides guns and large-breasted women.

Person C [clearing his throat]: Okay. Let me give you my suggestions.

1. Add lots of fanservice material, such as bouncing breasts, boob physics, little to no clothes on, bathes and hot springs.
2. Add a fucking motorcycle because that shit is OP.
3. Have the cops/main detective be as stupid as possible
4. Have everyone wear dark glasses or have dark shadows covering their faces.
5. Make the villains do typical villainy stuff like torture women, drug women, abuse women; pretty much anything done to a women makes you automatically a villain.
6. Add lots of unnecessary melodrama and lots of pseudo-philosophical crap to make the main characters question crap.

Person C [thinking]: That pretty much covers it.

Lead Producer: Based on what I heard, it seems that there is a lot of fanservice material, is that correct?

Person C [nodding his head]: That is correct.

Lead Producer [pounding the table]: If that’s the case, then censor everything, I want the boobs censored by steam, scenery censorship or dark shadows. I want gore not too gory by reducing the amount of blood or turn the scene into a negative color. And for the panty scenes, either pan the camera or add some objects to block its view. Are there any questions?

[Lead Producer looks around the room.]

Lead Producer: Okay. If there are no questions, then let’s get to work!

The End

I wanted a fun fanservice anime to help embellish my ecchi bone like I am always known to do. Is this too much to ask for? Is it hard to make a fanservice anime that is fun? Unfortunately yes. I don’t deny the tough task of trying to make a fun anime that can please many people. However, when it is obvious that the writers did not give this thing the time of day that it desperately needed from how it is presented, there is no excuse to justify laziness of this magnitude.

From the beginning, I thought Triage X started with some decent, albeit typical, ... layout of the characters and story as this secret organization based on a hospital staff of girls. The fanservice was quite voluptuous with decent-looking art designs on the girls and the guys, with an interesting shot of a nude guy’s butt. Then I watched episode two. It had the same thoughts by the end of it, even though the plot arc was forgettable. Finally, I got to episode three, and by the time I was halfway through it, I thought to myself, “Is this just episodes one and two over again?” Not in the sense that it was literally like the previous episodes, but the fact that all of the attacks have a similar structure: Black Label helps with this situation involving kidnappings of partially naked ladies or other terrorist antics. That’s pretty much it. Sometimes these arcs feel like they were an afterthought and that we are supposed to forget about them by the next episode.

Now, this wouldn’t be too bad based on how there are episodic anime. But unfortunately, with the case of Triage X, it is, what I would call, a soulless anime. All of the characters have absolutely nothing that makes them even the slightest bit interesting or gripping. Based on how predictable and formulaic they come across if you’ve seen most seinen-type action anime, Triage X is about as typical as you can get from the genre. Not only that, but the writers don’t even try to give me a minute to let me get to know any of them to help me differentiate between each character. Because of this, I couldn’t pinpoint a specific character trait that makes any of them unique. All they have going for them is that they are just characters to move the plot or lack thereof. This is never a good sign when trying to get to know any character in an anime.

There is even one scene where the girls have a spring bath scene together because there has to be one, and they converse about miscellaneous topics and events. The problem is that in the last episode, we barely even had time to get to know any of them to care. Of course, this problem of vapid characterization seems minor in the female cast compared to the main hero, Arashi Mikami. It’s not just the bland characterization that makes Arashi so bad, but also his poor charisma and personality. I would say that Arashi has the personality of a wooden board or brick, but I think those examples would be too generous when describing. At the very least, he dares to admit that “nothing was resolved” near the show's end to ensure that it was a mess from the start.

This poor characterization also comes down to how incredibly poor the writing is. Not just that the dialogue itself is painstakingly awful, but just how stilted and awkward the voice actors portrayed it. Any character dialogue between each other felt flat to the point where I almost felt like I was watching a hentai conversation. That might seem ironic, considering this is an ecchi anime. Still, there is much ecchi anime that make conversations, even at the level of Triage X’s caliber, decent enough to be passable. The majority of the dialogue consists of constant exposition and predictable one-liners.

With Triage X being an action/ecchi hybrid, you would think they would balance the two genres accordingly, right? That doesn’t seem to be the case since they are both executed with minimal efficiency. Action being the majority of what Triage X has going for it, it is by far the most lackluster I have seen in a while. This coincides with the criticism of the animation, which is sub-par at its best. Action sequences, at times, feel more finicky and less fluid because of this problem. Not to mention the number of corners they cut that made the action such a jarring experience. There are even action scenes where the action felt incredibly rushed, to the point where it was already over before I even started getting into it. By the time the fifth action sequence emerged, I had begun to lose interest in enjoying the action.

Fanservice is usually the selling point to anime like Triage X. However, I was surprised and disappointed with how little fanservice there was. And even when these fanservice moments happened, they were not super special to even watch the uncensored version for. If you watch the uncensored version to see some nipples and ass, I guarantee that almost all that time would amount to about five or six minutes. I don’t count the ones involved in action sequences only because they mostly serve the action than the fanservice. Whatever how many panty shots, beach scenes, skimpy outfits, and boobs Triage X has going for it. They do not leave a lasting impression of how dry the animation direction is. This is especially surprising since this is the same studio that brought us Highschool of the Dead. While not a great show by any measure, it at least had some semblance of a budget. When your ED is just a girl riding on a motorcycle from point A to point B with her boobs slightly bouncing for no reason, no amount of budget could save laziness of that magnitude.

I know this seems too big of a review for me to convince anyone that Triage X is bad, but it’s not just because it is bad. It is because it is the worst anime I’ve ever dared to sit through. I was not angry. I was not incredibly disappointed. I was bewildered by how something this bad could ever be approved to go on air. Dropping this could not be done by me as I wanted to continue watching this to see if it could get any worse than before. The truth was that it didn’t get any worse or better because it was already at the lowest point of quality anyway.

Grade: F-

A review of *Triage X, an anime by Shouji Satou, the creator of Highschool of the Dead.*

Based on a manga by the creator the infamous *Highschool of the Dead*, *Triage X* is the latest anime about guns, explosions, and over-the-top fanservice that follows a group of assassins that eliminate the "cancers" of society.

After the first few episodes, Triage X showed promise beyond its fanservice exterior thanks to its intriguing concept. The focus on an individual character for a two to three episode arc actually provided slight character development and fun action sequences. Unfortunately, after a decent start, the writing takes a turn for the ... worst to the point where it is not even that entertaining anymore.

As with any work based on a manga by Shouji Satou, the characters have insanely oversized breasts. Fanservice in a fanservice series is not necessarily a bad thing. If that is the point of the anime, at least do the fanservice well, and that is not the case for *Triage X*. During the dramatic scenes, taking the series seriously is almost impossible with two large things that defy the laws of physics sticking out all the time. Even during the fanservice scenes, it is rarely “sexy.” Maybe it will appeal to a certain demographic, but not me.

Even at a light 10 episodes, *Triage X* does little to make itself a worthwhile experience. Unless you are a fan of the manga, Highschool of the Dead, or offensively large breasts, do not waste your time with Triage X; it does not even manage to be a guilty pleasure.
_Watch if you like:_ Action, Highschool of the Dead, Fanservice,
*-3.5/10*

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

When I was in the third grade, I came down with something pretty awful. My eyes burned, head ached, and I was sweating profusely. Plus, I had this terrible cough. I’ll never forget the x-ray I saw that day, with the huge blotch over my lung. The diagnosis came back pneumonia. Now, as a youngling, I had pretty much no idea the gravity of the situation I was in. All I knew was that I had to take this gross liquid because the pill was ginormous. I missed Halloween, too, which was completely unfair. Luckily (as ... me typing this should be evidence enough) I made it through this ordeal, and I owe it all to the medicine and care I received from both the doctors and my family. Triage X is “similar” in that “doctors” aim to eliminate “sickness,” but this anime is itself a disease in every sense of the word.


STORY

Triage follows Arashi Mikami, a boy whose body is half him and half the friend he saved during a deadly explosion. He, Mikoto Kiba, and many others make up a group of people who aim to excise the “lesions” of society to make the world a better place, one visit at a time.

Anime is no stranger to “fan-service.” For those unfamiliar with the term, fan-service is (contextually) when an anime includes scenes or segments for the purpose of pleasing the audience. Normally, the vast majority of fan-service is of the sexual variety, as is the case here with Triage. A misconception that people often have is that all fan-service is automatically bad. Fan-service can be good or bad in the same sense that the narrative, characters, or any other facet of a show can be good or bad. What truly matters is the execution of it. In Triage’s case, the fan-service fails to deliver. It isn’t used as part of the plot, it doesn’t exist to accentuate a particular character or idea, and it certainly doesn’t come off as tasteful. Instead, the fan-service employed by Triage is overtly forceful, and so blatant that its only purpose is to distract the audience from the rest of the show. Furthermore, the fan-service is wholly lazy; it mostly boils down to a low shot of some woman’s panties or having the camera focus on her chest. There are other methods used – bathing scenes, clothes that are a bit too revealing, etc. – all of which aren’t appealing and instead feel tiresome after witnessing them for the umpteenth time in the same episode, let alone across the full series.

What does lie behind the half-naked women and medically-concerning-sized breasts? It’s hard to say, really, because Triage itself doesn’t know. While the opening synopsis said that the show “followed” Arashi, this only occurs for maybe the first episode or so. Afterwards, the show flits between random plot lines in order to bring about some semblance of worth to the characters doing the doctoring. This would be at least acceptable – focusing on one character’s arc at a time – but there exist two problems that persist between each.

The first is the inconsistency in the cast. When the show sets its sights on another plot line, it seemingly forgets about many of the other characters. Think of it like tunnel vision; the anime runs with the idea it has for a particular arc without taking into account the characters around it. This includes both the mains and the sides. Many side characters exist for the express purpose of being dealt with in the arc they appear, sometimes within the first few minutes. The second is the isolation of the events themselves. Each arc does have actual happenings, despite everything that it does. But none of what goes down in one sequence seems to transpose to another. What this causes is a degree of incoherency that prevents the show from maintaining any kind of meaning. The group takes care of one problem in one place, with another popping up someplace else, without any of the separate instances having relevancy to developments made later.

This is excruciatingly true when it comes to the ending, which is perhaps one of the worst in anime to date. There is (at first) seemingly zero continuation from the previous events, with the resulting fan-service – now the unabashed focal point – being more confusing than arousing. There is some attempt made to explain how they got to this point, but it becomes lost among the “ghost stories,” some paradoxical talk involving certainty and uncertainty, and, once again, an irrelevant plot point. Yet, the icing on the cake is the final two minutes or so. It’s literally just Arashi walking down an expressway before cutting to black. When you look back at everything that it did, the finale is an ironically poignant way to define this tale: a whole lot of nothing.

ANIMATION

There is little to note when it comes to Triage’s overall art direction. The locations visited are typical for a city – a nearby dock with accompanying freighter, a television producing skyscraper, and a local school dot the landscape. It serves its purpose as being an area for the characters to interact in without doing much else. The show also decides to make use of CG for many of its motorcycle portions involving Arashi and Mikoto, but they always look too stiff and unnatural, coming off as displeasing to the eye. Censorship is also rampant, which heavily goes against the anime’s ideals.

The anime makes a “big” decision by having the majority of its female cast be equipped with breasts that are quite huge. There is a line, though, where the size of the boobs transitions away from believability and into comicality. This anime moves beyond this line, where the girls lose their provocativeness because of the absurd designs they are given. Oriha is attributed with an interesting look by having her a bit more squat and bigger in terms of size when compared to most female anime designs, but the diversity ends there.

Actual animation just barely manages to be average. The show does make the most of smaller details such as hair and cloth shuffling. There are also a lot of explosions, gun firing, fist throwing, samurai sword swinging, and other crazy action sequences. Nothing is too elaborate, but the show tries to do what it can. There is a lot of sitting with minimal facial expressions on top of this, but the anime alleviates this negative to an extent by providing a lot of motion for the breasts it always brings to the forefront.

CHARACTERS

The cast of Triage is, perhaps unsurprisingly, extremely mediocre. Important side characters such as Masamune (the lead doctor) and Isoroku (the lead detective) don’t receive nearly enough attention despite having a place in the plot. Some side members don’t even receive any sort of characterization due to only having literal brief glimpses of their person. Most prominently is Kaname, who seems to be the leader of the terrorist organization the group is fighting, but outside her laidback behavior, nothing else is known about her.

Certain main characters like Miki and Mikoto are only known for their tiger-tooth and way-too-late romantic feelings for Arashi, respectively. Speaking of Arashi, he, too, succumbs to the anime’s inability to explore almost its entire cast. For him, there is talk about discovering his inner “self,” considering the situation he’s in mentally and the issue he experienced as a child. It’s all very strange, though, because it never seems as if he has a problem with anything he deals with. He doesn’t undergo turmoil, even when his subconscious – taking on a form resembling his friend – always warns or questions his motives. But Arashi never falters, going through with whatever he does, having some sort of epiphany about himself rather than learning from the dilemmas in front and around him. It also doesn’t help that, despite being the star of the show, he garners some of the least overall time on-screen, making it inherently difficult to work with his character development in the first place.

The only character that manages to do anything remotely worthwhile is Sayo, the blue-haired fighter. For the majority of the season, there isn’t much known about her besides the massive strength she wields and the mask she normally wears while brawling. However, following an incident against people similar to her, she “awakens” to her past, remembering the tribulations she had to conquer as a child to get to the point in her life she finds herself in. This doesn’t occur without her first going berserk; these traumatic memories resurface hard and fast, causing her to essentially lose herself once more. It isn’t until Arashi, whose problems mirror that of Sayo, comes to her rescue. Her character development is meant to exemplify the notion that the pasts we have are not something that should control us. Instead, we should embrace who were then because it helped to shape who we are now. She even attempts to instill her newfound insight onto the same people who led her down this path of enlightenment, signifying the change in her person. Sayo proves that Triage can, in some fashion, produce a character that isn’t fully forgetful.

SOUND

The opening theme tries really hard to be cool, but it succeeds in only reaching this descriptor halfway. The first portion of the track is a lot of guitar without much substance, but the latter portion, with the dual vocals, does manage to have that “good guys versus the world” vibe to it. The ending theme, on the other hand, remains rather lame from start to finish. The instruments and beat sound an awful lot like the opening theme, but here, the track comes off a bit more hopeful and subsequently loses that cool edge it was undoubtedly aiming for.

As for the remainder of the soundtrack, it doesn’t have the strength to stand on its own. Many of the pieces take on a techno or rock-n-roll composition to coincide with the action taking place, and there is the occasional piano melody to round out those “touching” moments. But they aren’t nearly as impactful as they should be. Like the art style, the OST exists as background filler and nothing more.

Voice acting is somewhere around average, with no notable performances to be had.

ENJOYMENT

This is a weird one for me, because I’m actually a fan of all anime, “ecchi” material included. But having the fan-service as forward as it was didn’t make me happy to see in the slightest. Rather, I would always question why it was being done in the first place. There are a lot of breasts and underwear to stare at throughout the entirety of this one, so my own personal questioning was happening a lot. Some characters could be cute at times, such as Mikoto or Arashi’s class friend Hinako, but they weren’t endearing enough to be too likable and not fun enough to get a laugh out of me. Even Oriha’s idol singing, which was designed to bring about happy times, did nothing for me.

There were a few scenes throughout the experience that were so ridiculous, though, that I did manage to smile. Chikage’s whole storyline was poorly handled to the point of hilarity and Kyouji, the over-the-top evil son of the gang leader, could not be taken seriously at all. That was somewhat the point of his behavior – he’s one of those “dumb” bad guys. He would fondle women, drug them, and force them to do his bidding; a real scumbag you love to hate. Sadly, he never got his just desserts because the anime didn’t complete his (the main) plotline. Which, at this point, should be expected from the show’s overall ineptitude.

Triage X never wavers from its abysmal story, unappealing character designs, and boring sound-work. It can’t even do fan-service right, despite leaning on it for the whole series. Comparing what I went through back then to this one, I’d choose the pneumonia.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, poorly executed fan-service, inconsistent and incoherent plot, with one of the worst endings in anime

Animation: Bad, boring art style, bad character designs, average actual animation

Characters: Bad, nearly the entire cast is handled poorly with the exception of Sayo

Sound: Bad, okay OP, bad ED, bad soundtrack, average VA work

Enjoyment: Bad, nothing sexy or attractive about the show, with some minor laughs caused by the absurdity of it all

Final Score: 2/10

What can I saw about Triage X. Hm, well, the premise was decent. I like the idea of mercenary assassins killing evil individuals in order to protect the world and keep corruption from spreading. Unfortunately, I don't think this anime quite reached its true potential. Why? Because they focused too much on the boobs and not enough on the plot - I mean the story. What at first sounds like an interesting story filled with action and a multi-faceted plot soon becomes an anime that is essentially boobs and violence. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, but when I went into the anime, I ... was expecting something a little more serious than jiggling breasts. I mean, I kinda knew there would be some fanservice, but not this much. While I'm not sure I would have minded this in another anime, in this one, I feel like the story itself suffered because the animators focused more on making every woman's boobs bounce than they did on making a good story. This anime is basically an urban fantasy version of Queen's Blade, which has been hailed as one of the greatest failures in anime history.

This story had its hand in way too many genres. It's basically a secret society show about high school teenagers and large-breasted women who work at a hospital during the day and secretly assassinate people by night. It tries to be a slice-of-life high school show, a medical drama, an action series, a crime mob series, and worst of all, a bad fanservice series. Now, contrary to my complaints, I do not dislike fanservice. I don't. If the anime does it right, I can enjoy fanservice as much as I do every other genre. I love To LOVE-Ru and its epic boob falls, Highschool DxD is one of my favorite anime, and I thought the fanservice in Cat Planet Cuties was adorable. But this? Triage X's fanservice is just a bunch of women with swollen, misshapen breasticles. Seriously. I don't even think the guy who did the illustrations for this knew what a real pair of breasts look like. Every girl in this anime has tits so large they'd sag. It's disturbing. And the fact that even the high school girls have boobs that big makes it even worse. I love fanservice, but even in a bad fanservice show, I at least expect the illustrations to be gorgeous. These just bothered me.

Now, let's take a look at what this show failed at. First off, the high school aspect of the show. We're basically given nothing about this. We see a few scenes where two of the characters are in high school, but that's about it. It's never developed beyond being there to tell us that the characters are leading a double life. The medical aspect of the show is like a really bad metaphor. The entire idea is that these people are doctors who exercise tumors, and the people they assassinate are the tumors. While that sounds really cool, the idea never went beyond the metaphor phase. The crime aspect could have also been interesting, but I don't even think the people directing this knew how real crime lords and drug cartels acted. Every bad guy was basically just an insane scumbag who committed crimes with all the subtlety of a bull in a China shop. They didn't even try to stay below the radar. They didn't try to be clever. You know that girl in the GIF image with arrows on her nipples? Yeah, that's basically how every criminal is in this story - about as subtle as a jack hammer. It's completely ridiculous.

The problem is none of these themes mesh. It doesn't help that all of the characters are one-dimensional. Perhaps its because the director tried shoving too many genres into a 10 episode series, but none of the aspects work well together, and the character's aren't fleshed out enough to carry the story on its own. Maybe if this story has 24 episodes to develop its characters, it could have been better. But then again, I feel like if this anime had 24 episodes, it would just be 14 more episodes filled with nothing but oversized breasts.

Now then, despite all of my complaints, this anime did do some things right. The animations are sick, like, awesome sick. The animators were really spot on with keeping the animations fluid, and all of the characters stayed on model, so you didn't have any characters who suddenly looked different because they couldn't retain that characters unique design while animating. Considering this anime has a lot going on, that is a very impressive feet. However, aside from the technical aspects of this anime, nothing else about it really stood out as good to me.

From time to time, one has to rinse the palette with some unadulterated craziness. When going into Triage X one should expect to see sex, violence, drugs, and rock n’ roll in all its hedonistic glory. You will be treated to a cast of curvy girls with a range of different personalities, and a premise ripe for a violent journey into the criminal underworld.

However, does the anime live up to these expectations? Looking at it as something in the exploitation-genre, the series succeeds in putting all the ingredients in place, but the actual execution offers little to nothing. Despite the fact that its main ... draw is action and fan-service, it lacks most of the things that can make it entertaining, which is over-the-top spectacle, a seductive tone, and character-chemistry.

Regarding the animation, I cannot find much to complain about as the design and the fluid motion were executed well. The soundtrack, while nothing too spectacular, fits the series and does its job with its rock n’ roll tunes. On a technical level Triage X succeeds in being presentable. The direction however needed a better grasp on how the premise could have been made more fun. I’ll give examples below.

Big-breasted characters may appear on-screen, yet they just stand there half the time doing nothing of interest, tits are simply shoved in your face casually. There is a difference between being in the viewer’s face about it, and being seductive, making something taboo and tempting. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the show goes from casual to dark and edgy in a heart-beat, taking its time to victimize the women on display, corrupting them into mindless freaks hooked up on drugs, or abusing and torturing them for sadistic pleasure. While this is only what one might expect from exploitation, the fun is sucked out when presented in a flavorless and mean-spirited way, hovering dangerously close to being offensive had it not been a show you're not supposed to take seriously.

Same thing applies to the action, there is a difference between action and violence, with the former being about exciting feats like jumping out of an airplane, while the latter is about making you wince at something that looks painful. The majority of Triage X focuses on violence that is quick and bloody, rather than exciting stunts, speeding chases, or explosions. This is why I would argue that the show can only be enjoyed on a technical stand-point, it’s just a good-looking series of uneventful things flying by.

What I missed the most was the dynamic between the characters. I can only count two scenes where they interacted in interesting and exciting ways. I will take my hat off for the back-story and fleshing out they provided for the main character and two of the girls. This is however something I had hoped to see more of through-out the series with the rest of the cast.

To sum it up, Triage X is a series that misses its mark, with action that isn’t memorable, undeveloped characters, and fan-service that offers no sexual tension. Last but not least, with a plot that ends up unresolved in the end with very little being accomplished, I would recommend skipping the anime entirely as it is a waste of time.

If it wasn't for tits, it would never have exceeded the rule of 3 episodes...

The main character legit spills the beans on the backstory from the get-go. No build-up or attempt to grasp the curiosity of the watcher. They are trying to handle the story of the entire team within 10 episodes when other shows takes 2 to 3 seasons. You won't get attached to any of the characters. They should straight-up have focused on the titties so that I would have been distracted enough to actually finish the anime. Instead of making my completed list grow, it contributed to my dropped list.

Apparently I've found god and he takes the form of a motorcycle. Simply cause he can smash through glass, smash through solid wall with no damage and float on a tight rope deying any type of physics which I get anime but come on who created this and thought it was cool?

The characters are all painfully cliche and the most trope covered thing in both anime/tv shows in general thats I've personally ever seen and I say this seeing a little bit of Darling plus HSotD. At least those scenarios were sort of funny you could laugh at. This is basically that one kid who ... thinks hes the biggest bad ass on the planet since Chuck Norris.

I'm personally hoping the manga isn't nearly as bad as the anime adaptation but dear god is this bad.

This is not an anime, this is Hell! I've watched it and there are so many things in this work that are wrong, and i don't know where to start. Ok, so, first of all: the story is kinda cute but nothing else, seriously: NOTHING ELSE!

The main characters are boring, the females characters are only there for fanservice … literally. I don't know but it's like that this anime was created on a single thought: "Give those girls a gun!". Almost every bad guy is half rapist and half crazy; every innocent girl gets stripped by their attackers and every time we have to deal ... with some sort of thriller background (the series tried to be serious on its themes but failed).

In this anime the CG is used. It sucks.

The fighting choreography is lousy and the dialogues are written by an idiot. Hey, but at least is funny, right? ... No. No, it's not funny. Is nauseating.