Manga Review: Triage X by Shouji Sato
This is an entry in the ever popular “vigilante justice” sub-genre. Mochizuki General Hospital is the secret headquarters of Black Label, a small group of assassins that target “seats of disease” that spread the cancer of crime. All but one of the field agents are well-endowed young women, with a token high school boy. (The head of the group is an old, terminally ill man.)
As is traditional in vigilante fiction, the police are either useless (having been bought off by wealthy criminals) or stupid (so they don’t figure things out as fast as the vigilantes do.) The main police character, Detective Tatara, is more in the latter category, though he might get something done if he weren’t constantly on the same investigations Black Label is.
The violence levels are about what you’d expect for a vigilante series (TRIGGER WARNINGS: torture, attempted rape), but the fanservice is overdone. The naked shower scene is excusable as a plot point to reveal the male lead Arashi’s horrifically scarred body (and that he, unlike his female teammates, does not have nipples.) But frequent and intrusive shots of underwear, cleavage and suspiciously clingy clothing leave no doubt that the primary audience is horny young men.
Aside from the medical terminology and some use of chemicals, it’s a fairly standard vigilante plotline with villains who are cardboard cut-out evil and nothing creative in the way of plans. If this is your first vigilante series, and you likes you some gratuitous fanservice, it’s not bad, but it’s nothing to write home about either. (This does not preclude better villains in future volumes.)
There has been an animated adaptation, which I have not watched.
