Arashi and the girls have a gang war of massive proportions to deal with; pushing their weapons and mettle to the limit.
Creative Staff
Story & Art: Shouji Sato
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
When two police detectives get involved in their operation, the nurses of Mochizuki Hospital must wield their instruments – katana, machine gun, and pistol – with even greater precision to excise the cancerous Masaki. As each nurse uses her particular specialty to dispatch Masaki’s thugs, Arashi pursues the root himself. Arashi may struggle with his piecemeal identity, but treating this human virus is something both sides of him are sure of…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Contains nudity.
This Masaki guy that Arashi failed to kill in the first volume has assembled a lot of gang members around him with the idea that they will be enough to fight off Arashi and the girls from Mochizuki Hospital. It probably wouldn’t have worked for Masaki, but things get complicated for Arashi’s group when the nosy detectives show up and get caught by the bad guys. This puts Mikoto in a terrible position as she’s in solo with no backup and only two choices; screw the cops and shoot everyone or surrender herself to protect the cops.
The task of taking out Masaki and his gang is big enough that even Yuuko leads her team into the hornet’s nest along with Arashi and his team. Arashi, Mikoto, and Oriha are the teenagers and they proved they are pretty tough in volume one. Yuuko, Miki, and Sayo are the twenty-somethings, and they prove that Arashi’s team has a lot to learn. Yuuko’s baddassedness with a katana is a bit cliché in manga and anime, but Sayo wielding a freaking gatling gun like the beast of a gun that Jesse Ventura carried around in the ‘Predator’ movie is impressive. Yeah, Sayo is pretty and tough.
Ultimately, things get messy and don’t go as planned for the vigilantes from Mochizuki Hospital. Masaki is a slippery weasel and has a few tricks up his sleeves. I enjoyed this angle as the author throws a few monkey wrenches in that I didn’t see coming. Will Arashi be able to kill Masaki and make up for letting him slip away the first time? Will Mikoto work herself out of the jam she got into or need a rescue? Will all the girls bathe together in every volume?
This volume closes some problems but opens a lot more. Like the new drug that was used to control the girl from the first volume and the unknown vigilante girl that suddenly appears and seems to be going after the same evil targets that Mochizuki Hospital is after. What is her deal and why does she burn everyone to death; seriously disturbing way to kill people.
In Summary
While the idea of this story being associated with a hospital and its staff was interesting, the first volume felt a little forced with the medical terms being flung around to describe bad guys and dealing with them. This volume relaxes on that front and gets away from trying too hard; making it a much better outing. That aside, I like the large cast of characters and the potential character development for so many different people. Good art and character development are the two most important aspects of a series for me, regardless of its genre. So far, ‘Triage X’ has plenty of great art and action, and some character development, but only time will tell how good this story will be. To be fair, though, even if the story doesn’t get better, the art and action is still plenty entertaining to keep me around.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: February 26th, 2013
MSRP: $13.99