Triage X Volume 6 Review

Yes, readers, I am alive. Since my last review got a good response, so here's my review of Triage X Volume 6.

First I want to take the time to commend Yen Press for bringing such an excellent product to English-speaking manga readers around the world. Their books have been getting better and better, and in my opinion the quality of their releases has far surpassed most other publishers and most scanlations and is at least on the same level as the best. This volume is no exception.

You can see all of the great manga Yen Press has to offer on Amazon.

First off, we get a lovely pullout color spread of Mikoto, holding a...er...mushroom. The reverse side of this is a bath scene illustration that's a couple years old now.

This volume begins right in the middle of the action, during the NEO TV terrorist crisis that started in Volume 5. Oriha is trying to deal with the terrorists from within while Mikoto and Arashi are on their way to help. The last volume was mostly slow-paced, giving the setup story for future chapters. This one, on the other hand, is all action from start to finish.

If you got into this series for the pure nonstop action, then you will enjoy this volume much more than the last one. I liked the plot progression we got in Volume 5, but this one is a return to Shouji Sato's developing style of giving plot amidst the action, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the highly-acclaimed Akira. I think Shouji is improving as a storyteller, and we are finally going to see a richer story as a result, one that doesn't rely on meaningless violence and doesn't lull into half-baked back story.

In other words, there's plenty of action, but this is not just a mindless action manga anymore.

Of course this is Inazuma-sensei we're dealing with here, so there's no shortage of mindless fanservice. But even this ecchi-heavy scene has a purpose (unlike the famous HOTD bath scene) as it helps characterize one of the major antagonists going forward.

In fact, despite the high level of action I've mentioned, this volume does take time to move the plot and introduce this arc's major antagonists. It seems the new drug we got a glimpse of in the last arc is making a return, and this time the people controlling it may be more than our favorite assassins can handle. This volume ends on an uncertain note, so we'll have to wait a few months to find out just how dire the situation is. (If you kept up with my raws, you may already know how it goes, at least for another volume or two).

Some of you may still be asking, "Should I buy this volume?" Well...

I mentioned in my review of Volume 5 that there was an unusual lack of nudity. I think they made up for it with this bath scene. There is more to it that I'm not showing here.

Overall, I really enjoyed this volume. It's my favorite so far and seems to indicate that the series is going to keep getting better. I strongly recommend fans of the series buy Triage X Volume 6 at Amazon.



It seems a joke about televised media and its typical audience translates quite well into English, particularly for Americans (though I'm sure the message is quite universal among developed nations).

Triage X Volume 5 Review

So I just got my copy of Triage X Volume 5 from Amazon, and I figured I'd give anyone still keeping up with this site a review. By the way, if you want to read new chapters of Triage X you should buy this volume; I don't think there will ever be a scanlation now.

First off, I'd like to talk about the Yen Press edition itself. This is the first Yen Press item I've purchased since HOTD Volume 3, and I have to say I'm impressed by the amount of improvement here. One thing I really like is that the color page is a pullout just like the Japanese version.

The quality is still cheaper than Japanese manga (most noticeable in the rough paper and lack of a dust jacket), but it's vastly better than the first HOTD volume. I also think the black and white levels can improve a little. As you can see below, the greys are pretty well intact, but I think a little bit of detail is still being lost (again, though, not nearly as bad as early HOTD volumes).

Overall I'm very happy with the work Yen press is doing. The translations were great, and I love the way they do SFX. This was a pleasurable reading experience.

Now onto Volume 5 itself.

I (like many of my readers) spoiled the story for myself a bit by looking at the raws when they originally came out in Japan. Maybe that was why I didn't feel like a lot happened in this volume. Then again I do remember the NEO TV crisis dragging out for quite a while.

These chapters are largely centered around setting up the new arc and introducing a new adversary for the Black Label group. The Hunting Party is an organization bent on exposing humans for the animals they are--namely those in the Black Label--and are led by Wild Hunt.

 

Even if it is all exposition, this chapter has everything you love in this series: action, comedy, and plenty of fanservice. And of course it has that certain grittiness Shouji Sato is so keen to weave into his series. Innocent people die and gloom hangs over each panel. One characteristic of Sato-sensei's work that is notably absent is nudity. There's only one nipple in the entire book.

Unfortunately, this lonely milk missile leads into a painfully absurd and somewhat contrived scene where all of the captive females fight over who gets to become the personal love toy of the bad guy. It's ridiculous in terms of the story, but I guess it's great if you're a big H fan.

Other than that little hitch in the story's flow, this was a decent volume. It's definitely far from my favorite, but I do look forward to what it sets up.



I noticed this otaku who looks suspiciously like Kohta from HOTD from behind. If you look closely, you'll notice that the figure on the left of his desk seems to be Saya.

October Raws and Announcement

Big-boob Glasses-san got the food and is all ready to serve her boss-chan. Too bad M-sama needs a new toy.

Triage X c39 raw

It really doesn't look like this series will be picked up, so to continue reading I would suggest you go buy Volume 5 on Amazon. It may or may not ship early (official release is Jan. 2014).

Remember that time back in high school when you slept over at your young, hot teacher's apartment for private lessons and you accidentally saw her panties a lot and accidentally made her rather large breasts pop out? Me neither. Takeru, you lucky bastard...

Maken-Ki! c63 raw


I've been anticipating this for a while and have thus been hinting at it, but it's time to make the official announcement: I will no longer be getting Monthly Dragon Age each month. This means I will no longer be posting raws of Maken-Ki! and Triage X. I hope you will all understand. I'll still try to keep up with any relevant news and post it here, but it won't be quite the same when I don't have the original source. This was a necessary move for me, so please don't hold it against me.

Necro;Chronicle will hopefully be done soon.

HOTD and Triage X: Answering Questions

Over the last year or so I've been getting a lot of questions that have increased in frequency of late as to when/if I will continue the Triage X (and HOTD to an increasingly lesser extent) scanlations. I think my answers have been a little vague, but the truth is I wasn't really sure what I was going to do until recently. It's time to bring you some clarity.

First off, I've been saying this more or less for a while, but I guess I can make it official: I will no longer be involved in scanlating HOTD or providing related raw scans--that is, aside from illustrations and stuff that appear in Dragon Age. Now that Yen Press will be releasing chapters right away and even selling their versions of other material like the art book, there is no reason for me to continue. I'll continue to give you links to new chapters and of course updates on any news out of Japan, but I will not allow any link to free pirated versions of Yen Press' published material on this site.

That was an easy decision; Triage X, on the other hand, gave me a lot more trouble. As some of you know, I've been struggling to find a translator for the series for some time now with no luck. All the while Yen Press has been slowly catching up on their releases. Since YP releases a volume every 3 months or so and a new Japanese volume comes out every 5 months roughly, I think it's safe to assume the official translations will catch up to the Japanese at some point and simultaneous monthly chapters are a logical step after that. Because of this, my inability to find interested translators, and my general desire to move away from licensed series I have decided to officially drop Triage X. I will still give you monthly raws (for a while at least), but scanlation will not continue as far as I'm concerned.

So to make it clear: I will no longer be involved in scanlating HOTD or Triage X. I have officially dropped both series. I will continue to bring you news and announcements about both series, though.

I'm not closing shop just yet. I still have Necro;Chronicle and Maken-Ki! Kai!! and I have a few things that I may get to in the future (even one for HOTD fans). And of course, monthly Dragon Age updates will continue as long as I can afford it or enough donations come in. Really not much has changed except that I took a few links down and I can now give a definite answer to the questions I'm getting.

For good measure I've decided to start helping English-speaking fans find official material and support the series, so I'll be providing links to the products. Here are the latest releases for each series on Amazon:

Triage X Volume 3 (latest release)
Triage X Volume 5 (pre-order)

HOTD Act.30
HOTD Color Omnibus 2 (pre-order)

I know some of you will be disappointed, but please try to keep comments civil. I am a human being living in the real world, and I'm doing my best to balance this hobby from my college days with real life.

Monthly Raws - September

The astute Star Wars fan will notice that Mikoto is wearing the famous Slave Leia outfit (sans loincloth). That must mean the tentacle monster she's being raped by is the Sarlacc?

Triage X c38 raw

Ouken's grandchildren are back, and they brought reinforcements. It's not exactly clear if this is the beginning of a new arc or a continuation of the last one. We'll see.

Maken-Ki! c62 raw

Monthly Raws - August

The thing we were all expecting to happen didn't happen after all, and something none of us thought would happen happened. Nice job, Inazuma!

http://www.mediafire.com/?i4i067hzz3tyqal

Takeda-sensei overdosed on boner pills. This is what came from it.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/t6b3la41cic3wl9/Maken-Ki!_c61.5_raw.rar

Monthly Raws (July 2013)

I apologize for the lateness. Because of how late they already are and because I have other things to do, I did absolute minimal editing. These are as fresh off the scanner as anything you will ever see from me. I might actually do it this way from now on to save time.

How many months is this fight going to drag on for!?

TriageX c36 raw

I knew they should have killed big-boob glasses-lady!

Maken-Ki! c61 raw

Triage X and Maken-Ki! Monthly Raws

Each month there is an advertisement on the title page of this series for the available volumes on sale, and each month the ad is in Japanese. This month, for some strange reason, the ad is in English. This just seems like a risky business decision since you have no way of knowing how many readers know enough English to read it. It makes me wonder if someone is keeping an eye on what I do here...

In case I'm not just paranoid: Hey Sato-sensei! I really love your work.

http://www.mediafire.com/?g6e367qfi6ua6ba

Don't forget to support the artist and buy the volumes.

If you're wondering why this is labeled c35, I was off on my numbering and I decided it was time to correct it. Sorry for any inconvenience it causes you.

On the extreme improbability that anybody visiting this site is a mother, happy Mother's Day. For the rest of you deviants, honor the woman who brought you into this world today by looking at these drawings of scantily-clad high school girls:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?44dk43bt4j3u816

I believe the translator for Maken-Ki! will soon be back in business, so the scanlation should get back under way soon. I'm not sure yet how much I will be involved, but whatever the case I'll keep you updated. See you.

Triage X c36 raw

We get a lot of panty shots and breast shots in this series, but I find myself wishing for more bare-ass-under-billowing-hospital-gown shots. Well, Shouji Sato must be telepathic because he delivered in this chapter.

http://www.mediafire.com/?apxqy9axsdx2w7i

It looks like he may be delving into the supernatural a bit now. Nothing wrong with that.

By the way, if you want the scanlation of this series to resume, you can help by aiding me in my quest for a translator. Ask around any manga/anime forums you frequent, and even talk to other groups on their sites. If you see my requests on various recruitment boards, bump them or share the links with known translators. I can't do this alone.

Maken-Ki! won't be done until tomorrow probably. Thank you in advance for waiting patiently.

Monthly Raws - Triage X c35 & Maken-Ki! c58

Himegami-senpai!!! P- Pantsu!?

Maken-Ki! c58 raw


Looks like either a new arc will be starting soon or fake Ouken will be back bigger and badder than before. In any case, it appears the story is going back to Tenbi Academy.

Hipster-san wears those glasses ironically...but he did it before it was cool, so it's okay. Molester-san wears that tie sincerely...does that mean he's cooler?

Triage X c35 raw

I'll put a little something together with the full color Volume 7 covers and stuff tomorrow. See you then.

Monthly Raws - Triage X c34 & Maken-Ki! c57

Looks like we'll have to wait another month to see if Hitsugi will pull through.

Triage X Chapter 34 raw

To those of you asking about when the next Triage X scanlation will be out, I don't have an answer for you. I can't even give an estimate at this point. I'll let you know, though, as soon as I start on my part of the work.

Takeru is a super saiya-jin.

Maken-Ki! Chapter 57 raw

Oh and since I forgot to say it earlier, Maken-Ki! Volume 10 comes out March 9. For reference, the last scanlated chapter was about midway through Volume 9.

I'm going back to DDL links for a while. If I run out of bandwidth, I might just go back to regular links rather than buying more.

I'll try to put something together in the next day or two with some scans from the HOTD booklet and FCEs. See you then.

Triage X Chapter 33 raw

You may think I got this done faster than usual, but the truth is it's just a really short chapter. It doesn't appear to be a side chapter or "32.5" or anything like that; it's just short. Considering all the releases Shouji Sato has next month, I'm sure he needed a semi-break like this.

http://www.mediafire.com/?anmkrfn00cir0n2

I just got a new scanner and am still getting to know it, so my raw chapters will look a little off this month while I figure everything out. Eventually, I should be able to produce higher quality scans than I could before.

I already covered all of the Triage X/HOTD/Shouji Sato news in the last post (Dragon Age February update). Go read it if you haven't already because there is plenty of news. That is to say, more than we've had in a while.

Maken-Ki! will come later today or tomorrow.

Monthly Dragon Age - February (1/9/2013)

The Highschool of the Dead hiatus will not end next month; however, there does appear to be something coming next month.

First of all, the official announcement for Triage X Volume 6 and for HOTD Full Color Editions 5 and 6 appeared in this month's Triage X chapter. TX Volume 6 will be out next month. There does not seem to be a specific date, though I would assume it is the 9th since they almost always come out on the same day as the magazine. The new FCEs are also apparently out next month. There is no date, but after some investigation on Amazon, I found that they will be released February 9. It seems strange that there wasn't more of a buildup.

Now, to elaborate on my cryptic opening sentence, there was a small announcement on the preview of next month's issue. I will include an image here and a full scan of the two-page spread with this month's Triage X raw. The preview focuses on Triage X (meaning it will likely be on the cover), but there is this little corner dedicated to HOTD:

From what I can make of it, it seems there will be a HOTD booklet with next month's issue celebrating (or promoting) the new FCE volumes. I'm not sure if this means there will be a color chapter or just illustrations, but I'm guessing I will be scanning whatever it is. I will update this post when I have more information. I doubt it is a new chapter, but we will see.

There's not much more to say about this issue. Triage X has a shortened chapter this month, which is no surprise considering everything Shouji Sato has coming out next month. I'll have the raws for it and Maken-Ki! posted sometime today or tomorrow. See you soon.

Some News from Shouji Sato

In a very rare update to the Diary section of his personal website, Shouji Sato gave us a bit of news to end what has been a barren stretch of no information. He announced Triage X Volume 6 will be out February 9. I guess this is the first official announcement, though volumes are usually announced earlier. He also announced that Volumes 5 and 6 of the Highschool of the Dead Full Color Edition will be released some time in the future. There is no date, but it appears he has begun working on them. Thus it seems Yen Press wasn't acting alone entirely, which is a good sign. This also means, however, that the ad seeking artists was possibly just looking for people to help color the new Full Color Editions. This wouldn't necessarily be proof he is not also working on new Highschool of the Dead. In fact, he could be hiring extra people to take over the coloring process entirely so that he can focus on drawing for two series again. We will have to wait and see.

I am almost certain he also talks about the HOTD manga itself in the post, but I am waiting on some translation help to see exactly what that is about. I can assure you there are no specific dates or time frames. I will update this post as soon as I have more information.

UPDATE:
I don't really have much more information yet, but I did promise an update. The post by Shouji Sato does not mention HOTD returning. I saw "HOTD" and "thirty" in the post and got excited, but after further investigation, it appears he is simply pointing out how Triage X has passed thirty chapters, thereby surpassing HOTD in number of chapters. He notes his development as an author and artist while working on Triage X.

I hope to have more for you in my monthly Dragon Age update, which should come in a few days. See you then.

Triage X Chapter 32 Raw

I am very sorry it took this long, and that it will be even longer for Maken-Ki!. I've been so busy over the last few weeks that I have hardly had time to sleep, much less work on this stuff.

http://www.mediafire.com/?okbhusuo9u9xcjz

I have a bit of news for you. I could have announced it earlier, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of what could be nothing. Before I say anything, I want to emphasize that what I'm about to say contains a lot of speculation. Please DO NOT start rumors around the internet using this post as a source. With that being said, there is a request on page 3 of this release (next to the ad for the BD box set) which is asking for artists to help Shouji Sato's studio with drawing. HOTDcups tells me these types of ads are not unusual, but they do not usually appear in the magazine like this. Assuming Shouji doesn't just need help for Triage X, this could mean he is about to start working on something additional and needs the extra help. The date in the ad is January 8, so we'll have to keep an eye on what develops in the next few months.

As of yesterday, Scans of the Dead has been operating for two years. I really can't believe it has been that long. I have very much enjoyed these last two years, thanks mostly to all of you readers. Without you, there's no reason for me to do any of this. I hope the next two years will bring just as much growth and excitement as the last.

Triage X Chapter 31 Raw

The pseudo-zombie corpses are on page 18. You can look and see if you agree with me that they bear an uncanny likeness to the HOTD zombies. There's also a new bad guy in this chapter who fights with a spear like Rei's mother. Perhaps Shouji Sato wanted to show off some spear fighting he never got to include in HOTD before it went on hiatus. On the other hand, maybe I'm just looking too far into this, and it's all just coincidental.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2i1d7a2mojj747f

Maken-Ki! is coming soon.

Triage X Chapter 30 Raw

This month, we meet a pair of new enemies. As you can probably guess, one of them is a scantly-clad female with a great set of torpedo tits, and, of course, she is a skilled fighter. Shouji Sato really seems to be fond of masked villains lately.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uml8ld3346tlbpm

I still plan to post Maken-Ki! Chapter 53 raws, and it still will probably be Monday at the earliest. See you then.

Triage X Chapter 29 Raw

Back to the main story this month after last month's side chapters. Part of this chapter takes place in a strip club, but apparently nothing had to be censored. That is, unless some of the girls' tops were meant to be transparent, which doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, there's more fanservice than usual in this chapter. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zhra31en1rz9cnv

For those of you waiting for Maken-Ki! raws, it's going to be a while. You'll probably be better off looking somewhere else because I simply won't have time to get it done anytime soon. If you're wondering, it is another flashback chapter and it looks like there will be at least one more after this. I'll try to scan it as soon as I have enough free time, but I can't say when that will be. See you then.

Triage X Chapter 28 and Extra Case Raw

The first chapter is actually a side chapter, but I'm calling it Chapter 28 since I'm continuing XLG's numbering method for this series. The second is another extra case. I think this is more of a break in the arc rather than the beginning of a new arc.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?jyt6m741avgb82d

From what I can tell, neither of these has much to do with the main story. Chapter 28 has another bath scene, but you'll have to wait for Volume 6 to see the good stuff. Unless this series goes on an unexpected hiatus, I would expect that to be out in January.

Maken-Ki! is coming soon.

Triage X Volume 4

Triage X Volume 4 is here. This is the first release that HOTDcups and I worked on together. Expect more to come.

Bitupload (no longer active; see below)


The chapters in this volume were already scanlated by XLG before they dropped the series, but this is a new translation by HOTDcups. It has the higher quality of the volumes, and the bath scene is totally uncensored. This also includes extras such as early concept sketches and weapon profiles. Enjoy!

We had to use an alternate file host (Bitupload) to upload the volume in one part due to Mediafire's size limit. As you may have noticed, we typically use a much larger page size than most groups because it produces higher quality images. The downside is that it makes file sizes large, and in some cases the files are too large to upload to an easy and trustworthy file host like Mediafire. Sites that allow larger file sizes usually have delayed download, limited file lifetime, and other restrictions that can make them a pain to use. I would like to ask you to please donate so we can pay for a service that will allow us to upload files without size restrictions and host DDLs. I think this will make everyone's experience better. Any amount helps, and any extra donations will either roll over to the next month's payment or go to purchasing the next Monthly Dragon Age. Thanks in advance.

Volume 5 will be released August 9 along with the art book and the September issue of Dragon Age. We should get started on Volume 5 much sooner than we did Volume 4 since we've already planned on scanlating it. I think a surprise release or two may come before that, though. I'll have my usual Dragon Age update and monthly raws in about a week and a half. See you then.

UPDATE: 
There was a problem with the upload, so I upgraded my Mediafire account with faith that you guys will donate. Please help us out if you can.

Mediafire

UPDATE 2:
It seems there was a problem with the DDL, so it's a normal Mediafire link now. While I try to work out the problem, you can use this torrent to download the volume. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Torrent