Creative Staff
Story & Art: Shouji Sato
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Mikoto is crippled during an operation, but is saved at the last moment by the sudden appearance of the masked vigilante – “Fever.” But rescue isn’t on this black-clad beauty’s mind; she’s looking for revenge. Not every crime fighter shares Black Label’s scruples, but more than her ruthless methods, it is Fever’s true identity that proves the bigger shock to Mikoto…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Contains nudity.
I’m a huge fan of publishers that can put together a clean and slick looking book. Triage X volume four is a great example of a job well done with color pages and an extensive extras section. Not only does this extras section include information about the members of Ampoule 0 and Ampoule 1, but it also includes breakdowns of their weapons of choice. I read a lot of manga, so for ongoing series that only come out every few months, it is great to have a quick refresher of who’s who and everyone’s name.
Mikoto strikes out on her own as she refuses to make amends with Arashi. With a family score to settle, Mikoto won’t let anyone stand in the way of her revenge. She already took out one of the brothers leading the Kabuto Gang, and now she knows where the other brother is hiding. She has no qualms about killing the Kabuto leader, but when the vigilante killer known as Fever appears and reveals that she is Mikoto’s friend, Chikage, things get ugly. Chikage believes they are the same kind of person and should be best friends forever. Unfortunately, Mikoto sees Chikage as an unchained killer without a direction.
I personally don’t see too much of a difference between these girls. They both kill the dregs of society; only Chikage works solo and Mikoto works as part of a larger organization. Regardless of my feelings, Mikoto is in serious trouble because the Kabuto Gang isn’t exactly playing fair. Mikoto is injured and without backup, confronted with the knowledge that her friend is the vigilante killer the Mochizuki Hospital wants to terminate, and the Kabuto Gang has her stuck between a sword blade and a flame thrower. Is this the end for Mikoto? Will Chikage turn her back on Mikoto and leave her to die?
In Summary
Triage X is my guilty little pleasure. Yes, this series is full of fanservice and lots of female characters with big boobs, but it is also a ton of fun! I mean, I can’t read shonen adventure series and serious seinen series all the time. Sometimes I just want some mature, kick ass fight scenes and a good chuckle at an artists attempt to display some gravity defying boob physics.
Seriously though, this series does have some decent storytelling to go along with awesome action and hot chicks. Mikoto’s brief friendship with Chikage shows how lucky Mikoto was that she ended up with the Mochizuki Hospital and not some random guy that would have used and abused her like Chikage’s fate. Plus, everyone working for the hospital has a past that pushed them into this line of work and it has been fun seeing these characters reveal their secrets. There is hopefully still a lot to come as we have really only learned details about a third of the Ampoule members.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 29th, 2013
MSRP: $14.00
