Ya know what day it is? It’s Guest Review Wednesday! ^_^ And today we welcome back Guest Reviewer Day, who will be discussing the anime Triage X, available for your viewing pleasure, for free, legally on Crunchyroll. Please welcome Day back with your usual enthusiasm!

Triage X is a show following the exploits of an assassin group known as Black Label which is run out of a hospital and, fittingly, made up primarily of medical professionals. It is also adapted from the manga of the same name by the man responsible for Highschool of the Dead, and it is this piece of information which will likely go a long way toward telling you whether you will likely be able to tolerate Triage X in this first place. That being said, it bears mention that if you watched HSOTD and mused to yourself, “This really would be much better were the breasts three times as large.”, you’re in luck! Triage X very much has obliged in that regard.

I sound maybe a touch snide putting it like that, so it may surprise you when I manage to work myself around to being positive about the show. But, first, details.

As noted above, Triage X is about Black Label, a group that deals with the sorts of criminals who manage to operate beyond the reach of the law in modern Japan. In fits and starts, there’s a wan connecting thread throughout having to do with a mysterious and dangerous drug called Platinum Lily, but it’s perfunctory at best. Instead, the show takes a mini-arc approach where several of the characters get the spotlight for two episodes at a time and get to work through some of their issues against a backdrop of stabbing, shooting, and slashing unpleasant people at the behest of a world-renowned surgeon. Unfortunately, while a couple of these stories have seeds of promise, the severely truncated run-time of the show (ten episodes to adapt roughly ten volumes of manga) prevents them from developing any of that potential.

Speaking of potential, as for Yuri, it’s all in the land of subtext and implications. One of the female doctors has a coterie of female nurses who clamor for her attention and for the privilege of getting to massage her, and there’s a mildly homoerotic undercurrent to her relationship with her physician’s assistant. The strongest eau du Yuri at hand comes in the mini-arc concerning high schooler/assassin Mikoto, who manages to befriend a girl who then turns out to be the nemesis she’s been jousting with during Black Label missions. The two manage to work up a good deal of tension in the short time they get together.

On a different note, it may sound like a silly thing to bother drawing attention to, but I was quite happy that Triage X ended up featuring female doctors in addition to male ones. It’s a very minor point, but I had fully expected to be stuck with the typical “male doctor with lots of female nurses” set-up and felt a sense of relief when that didn’t end up being the case. Leave it to the garbage fanservice show to acknowledge the existence of female doctors, apparently…

I think Triage X will appeal to folks who have enjoyed Ikki Tousen, and from my point of view it’s a very good garbage watch. There’s definitely something satisfying in watching women stab and hack away at the scumbags of society who victimize others, and if I have to endure threats of sexual violence against women in pop culture, the least I could be given in return is the chance to watch these women respond by kicking the crap out of the ones who threaten them so.

Art – 4 (absurdly-proportioned breasts and terrible animation)
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 10+

Overall – 7 (it might be garbage, but it’s my kind of garbage)

Erica here: “Leave it to the garbage fanservice show to acknowledge the existence of female doctors, apparently…”

Japanese evening dramas include female doctors, laywers, cops and the like, although rarely as the lead in a non-comedy, but as for otaku culture, which we know is weirdly conservative and timid, this may well be the truest thing I’ve read in weeks.

I watch Ikkitousen as my garbage watch, so now I’m wondering if I might be able to tolerate this. Probably not. ^_^ Thanks for another fantastic review!

You know, I kind of had high hopes for Volume 3 of Kampfer.

Hahahahahahaha, just kidding, of course I didn’t have any hopes at all for Volume 3, because I’m a realist and I’d seen the anime.  I knew perfectly well that nothing of importance would happen and nothing would be explained.

Instead, Volume 3 is a lengthy diversion into the workings of Japanese “fan clubs” in which several self-appointed “fans” assign themselves the role of extorting other fans for the chance to spend a moment with the celebrity du jour.

Also so new characters are added, but as none of the old ones have any real purpose in the story, it’s meaningless plot complications all the way down. ^_^

It still doesn’t make any sense, but hey, if you’re this far in and still reading, you might as well keep on, only there is no more in English to read. DMP apparently has given up on this series and who can truly blame them?

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 2 Not even an attempt at one
Characters – 3
Service – 8
Yuri – 4 Girl Natsuru is the school idol.

Overall – 4

I would like to very much thank Okazu Superhero Day for contributing to my sleeping well. This was the book I was reading last at night so that my eyes would just sort of naturally close and I’d drift off. ^_^

I was going to write “I wish someone had made entrails animal plushies” then realized that no, no I didn’t.

At the beginning of the year, I was ambiguously pleased to review Kampfer, Volume 1 on Kindle, the manga of a short-lived and utterly forgettable anime series about a guy who turns into a girl and has to fight for reasons that remain obscure through the series. Now, through the good will of Okazu Hero Day, I am able to assure you that two volumes in to Kampfer, we are no more well-informed about the situation than we were.

In Kampfer, Volume 2,  on Kindle, from Digital Manga Publishing, Natsuru has to get into the girls’ section of the school. In a normal situation this would not be particular difficult, but this school has strict segregation, enforced with high walls, security (and barbed wire fences, probably.) Why? Who knows…add it to the list of “whys?” for this series.

Natsuru has learned that the President of the Student Council is a little smarter than the rest of the Kampfers – in order to force Natsuru over to the girls’ side, she’s kidnapped Sakura. Natsuru plays the hero(ine) and rescues the happless damsel, who was already in love with her girl form and is now completely gaga over her. Sakura asks girl-Natsuru out on a date, causing boy-Natsuru to die a little inside.

For no reason, Natsuru accepts and we are “treated” to girl-Natsuru dress-up dolls. No new plot information is revealed. So, basically, the entire volume had a single chapter’s worth of content.

I am shockingly not filled with despair at the idea of a third volume as, at this point, I want to see how long they can string this along without having to actually do anything with the plot. Much like the Battle Club manga, I expect nothing from Kampfer. Not even so much as an explanation, much less a resolution.  It’s already had the same Yuri we saw in the anime.

At the end of Volume 2 we have exactly the same amount of no idea at all why anything is as we did at the end of Volume 1. On to Volume 3 for more nothing!

Ratings:

Art – 7 Good enough that with all the service, I can’t read it in public
Story – 3 Nothing, with a side of who cares
Characters – 4 Sakura would be cute if she weren’t a doofus
Service – 8
Yuri – 3

Overall – 4

Bets on Volume 3 being any better? I didn’t think so.

Along with Kampfer, there is some actually good Yuri manga available on the Digital Manga page of the new Yuricon Store. Check it out for titles old and new for your Kindle device or app.