The anime debut is still a month away, but we’re starting to get a better picture of what that anime may look like.
Back in December, we got the first key visual. This anime is co-directed by Akio Takami, best known for his “chubby girl” character design style that was put on display in anime such as Kanokon, Ladies versus Butlers, Upotte!! and Maken-Ki! Two .
This was cause for some mixed feelings. One one hand, Takami’s previous ecchi works have consistently been “god tier”, and if there was a creative mind that you could trust to make the anime even more ecchi than the manga, Takami is one of the best of the best.
But on the other hand, the biggest strength of Triage X was the art style, basically the same exact kind used by Shoji Sato (aka Inazuma) in his other credited works such as High School of the Dead . There might not be anyone on earth who can draw a sexy babe better than Sato can. Sato’s sharp, gritty looking style is almost the perfect opposite of Takami’s soft, full-figured version.
Whereas Takami likes girls with larger and more realistic proportions, Sato indulges in the hyper-sexualized unrealistic type. Super skinny girls with huge racks and round asses, the kind that would post ridiculous three-size measurements. Characters with chiseled good looks and athletic bodies. Characters that fit seamlessly into an action anime.
So while it was exciting to see Triage X handled by a card carrying perv with a phenomenal track record in ecchi, I was really bummed to think that the Triage X anime would lose its defining feature (character designs) in the process.
Well, some more recent key visuals have been encouraging (note, these are super-high res):
A definite improvement here, particularly the first key visual. You can still see a bit of the Takami influence though it is subdued significantly. Oriha’s key visual in the second one still feels too husky, though in the manga her body type could be borderline “thick” at times (relatively speaking) so if they are going to do this for any character, it would make the most sense for her.
Thankfully, Oriha’s form seems to recover some in the third image above.
Takami’s impact on his ecchi anime is indelible, but until now he had never actually directed any of his ecchi shows. This marks his first time as director, actually as a co-director with Takao Kato. Kato had previously directed Upotte!! and the first season of To Love-Ru (the only season which had the guts to show Mikan’s nipples, albeit just barely).
Like Maken-Ki! Two , it looks like Takami’s degree of influence will fluctuate. Here’s another image of Oriha posted on the Triage X twitter page:
Did she just lose 30 pounds? Compare that to this:
Back to being a fatty again.
Check out the face models in the lower left corner by the way. Very much like Maken-Ki! Two .
Here are a few other character design sketches from the anime’s twitter page:
The character design style seems to be all over the place, but if Takami can keep his character design quirks under control I think the character design will be good enough to remain a strength. I still think Takami’s design habits clash with the style of a Shoji Sato manga, but it will be worth it if Takami’s presence means Xebec gives us the usual service overload on BD, adding to what is already one of the better ecchi manga around.
In terms of voice acting, the cast isn’t fully announced yet but the main characters are noticeably lacking an ecchi veteran. Two of the seiyu are brand new to the business, and most of the remaining ones are completely new to ecchi.
The closest any cast member gets to being an ecchi veteran is Masumi Asano as Miki Tsurugi. Asano had previously played Hakufu Sonsaku from Ikkitousen and Mai in Popotan. Two significant ecchi roles, but only two.
I’m probably extrapolating too much, but the casting makes me wonder if perhaps the anime will aim to function as an action series while saving 90% of the best fanservice for the BD extras.
Update: A preliminary trailer has been released, and I also tossed in some artwork and character sketches I forgot to load before:
The preliminary trailer:
More news:
An announcement from Kadokawa mentions an after series OVA for Triage X as well. Specifically, this OVA will be an “unaired” 11th episode, which would seem to infer that the TV anime will only be 10 episodes. You might recall that the same studio and staff also did Maken-Ki! Two which also ran 10 episodes plus an OVA.
