The entire first third of the episode is committed to volume nine’s massive onsen spectacle. It does not disappoint.
Really the pictures say it all. There is probably as much A grade service in episode ten than all the previous episodes combined.
One thing I would mention quickly is that the onsen scene had a lot of close up headshots with boobs off screen. Normally this hints at screen cropping, but I have a hunch it’s not in this case. Usually with screen cropping you can sense the pixels look a bit squeezed or the shot feels unnatural. But these shots didn’t feel that way.
The only close up shot I expect to see expanded is Sayo pulling her top off. That’s just too good to leave as is.
I only bring it up because the number of these shots seemed unusually high, but maybe that was to give us little breaks to make us feel like we weren’t trapped in a cloud of convenient steam for nine minutes straight.
There’s also a scene where Sayo points at the other girls and her nipples are covered by blue stars. This is basically the same method Akio Takami used in the ED sequence for Maken-Ki! Two , and those stars remained on BD. I’m guessing those stars will disappear this time around though, as they are not attached to her body but kind of floating there. Looks like they were easily added and therefore, easily removed.
There’s also some blank boobs when Sayo gets ‘punished’. I’m sure this will be fixed on BD.
As was pointed out in the comments, there were censorship fails in this episode as well. Previously this series had been so careful to do double layered censorship, so that even when turning up the contrast you’d always find a second small area of opaque white or black around where the nipples would be. Usually that’s what happens, but they missed a couple this time.
That second one with Sayo, we actually get a very good look. It looks like Takami is as good at drawing nipples as ever.
After the onsen scene ends, there’s several nice PG-rated cheesecake shots, particularly if you are a fan of thighs and ass.
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So with all that out of the way, the episode itself was once again using the manga as a blueprint, matching it panel for panel. It was probably the best episode in the series, and the art levels were as good as ever. It was a wise move to conserve some money for this episode to make sure it looked great.
The ending was a bit weird, as it just shows Arashi walking down the street for a solid minute. It ends literally the panel before Princess is revealed in the manga. The last shot, with Arashi being seen through a spyglass, is viewed through the eyes of Princess. I have to think this will be changed on BD to show the final two frames of this arc in the manga.
The onsen scene takes place over the first nine minutes and occurs over the OP. As such, there are credits running on the screen during some of the juiciest service shots. Hopefully Xebec has the sense to offer a creditless version of episode ten’s ‘OP’ in the extras, or else that text could be cumbersome.
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There’s still an OVA to go, but it’s not expected to be canon so this is basically the end of the series right here, barring a second season.
Overall, I would say this series was exactly what I expected. It followed the manga very closely, which is generally a good thing. The art may not have lived up to the manga, but I don’t think anyone will be complaining too much when the uncensored versions start coming out. Or rather, even the complainers will still be spanking their monkey to it.
You will never care about the characters or what happens to them, but that’s okay, because even though Triage X is meant to be serious, at the end of the day it’s exploitative as hell, just the way we want it. Guns, explosions, fast rides, and of course: tits and ass. What’s not to like?
