For those of you who might be newer members to the Anime Vice community. You may have never seen the First Date segments. It's basically a quick introduction to a new series that many of you may have never even heard of. I used to think the name was silly, but it's oddly appropriate. Much like a first date, you are still trying to feel each other out. It's been quite a long time since I last tried out a brand new manga series. I discovered the Triage X manga while I was doing some research of the Highschool of the Dead artist, Shouji Sato. With H.O.T.D. on an indefinite hiatus. Shouji Sato has been working on a series of his very own to keep himself busy. That'sTriage X.
tri·age: (noun \trē-ˈäzh, ˈtrē-ˌ\) The sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care.
Currently, in Japan the series has two volumes released and a third on the way. It's being published bi-monthly in Fujimi Shobo'sDragon Age magazine. This is an action adventure series that has the most "comic book" vibe I've ever really felt out of any manga. A basic run down. The city of Tobioka of Japan is overwhelmed by crime and corruption, and it's spreading like an infectious cancer, leaching away at the life of the people. The police are ineffectual and the politicians are almost as corrupt as the criminals. The secretBlack Label organization is a team of vigilantes that hunts down the very worst of the city and eliminates them. They have no allies in the city or the rest of the world, but with a teams like these. They shouldn't need much help.
If I was to try and explain this story as simply as possible. It has a feel that really reminds me of the movie WANTED (I know it was a comic first, but I only ever saw the movie), but with a much more interesting protagonist and more sexy women. After an evaluation, the criminals are judged, and the mission - or triage - is handed out to the teams to carry out. What comes out of it is a gun-action series with some pretty cool scenes. There's still come classic manga high school drama since three of the team members are still adolescents. Seeing how Shouji Sato is the artist of HOTD, it shouldn't surprise anyone that there is a lot of fan service in this story. A lot of fully-exposed naked breasts, but since this cast has more women in their twenties. It doesn't seem as awkward. This is not a series for the young in that sense.
I'm having a lot of fun with this series, and I really hope that a publisher, such as Yen Press, really looks into bringing this officially to he U.S. I've taken the liberty of filling out the wiki on the series and written full synopsis for the first two volumes.
-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ animevice / @ FoxxFireArt
naked titties on the first date?
I've been doing it wrong all these years!
LOL
True.
@sotyfan16:
Thanks, I felt the title needed to be cleared up since that could be pronounced a few ways if you weren't familiar with how triage is spelled.
There is so little information out there about this series, on English or Japanese sites. Anime News Network doesn't even have it listed as existing, nothing on wikipedia, and the Triage X fan-wiki for this series has almost no information on it. If you put the characters name into Google. Many of their Anime Vice profiles rate very high or number one.
@Noire:
Thank you. I would also hope you come for the extensive wiki of anime and manga that me and many others put a lot of work into. Glad you enjoy my articles. As far as H.O.T.D., I've only been hearing rumors. I don't like treating rumors as news so I've been hesitant to state what I've been hearing. It's basically people are saying the hiatus is due to Daisuke Sato not writing the new chapters. Some people think it's Shouji Sato. Though, the fact that Shouji Sato is working on Triage X as bi-monthly makes me think that he wasn't to work and it's more likely that Daisuke is the one holding the series back. Maybe he's slacking off or maybe he's seriously trying to retool the story for the final few volumes. I can't really say. Fujimi Shobo has really invested a lot behind this series. They even still use H.O.T.D. girls on the covers.
Black Lagoon is another matter. The last volume published of Black Lagoon in Japan came out in October of 2009. I follow Rei Hiroe on Twitter hoping for any information on the series coming back. He's an active writer on Twitter but no comments on Black Lagoon's return. He's in the middle of a new story arc that is just in limbo. I don't even think it's enough to publish as a volume. I would think with the completion of Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail they would love to have the return of Black Lagoon.
If you like my writings. I write plenty in my profile's blog and for the front page.