Triage X

There are several young recruits who work as nurses and such at Mochizuki General Hospital, but it is all a charade. The hospital is home base to an organization known as Black Label, a vigilante group who takes the law into their own hands and execute criminals, undesirables and other "cancers" of society--a cancer they want to stop the spread of infection.  Arashi, the only male member of the team, takes his job very seriously and wears a helmet on during his jobs--a metaphor for wanting to hide his expressions or his feelings, feeling no emotion or sympathy with the criminals he executes. He even gives a gun to a target in hoping he would shoot himself. The main female member Mikoto questions his dangerous tactics, until he sees scars on Arashi's body. The targets quickly become more dangerous and wild, putting everything on the line and thinking they can win against Black Label, even using a hostage against them. Of course the team are one step ahead of them but realize that all these insane criminals are part of the same group. The police meanwhile try and catch up with BL, as their actions are not part of the department and of course illegal. On top of that officers are getting injured dealing with the wild criminals. Mikoto remembers that Arashi was badly injured in a terrorist attack which killed her brother, and Arashi was saved using her brother's organs. Now things get more complicated when a lone vigilante starts stepping on BL's toes, burning criminals to death...

I wasn't sure what to expect from this title, and the plot synopsis I thought was interesting enough. But from the first episode this series was pretty engaging and the action is fantastic. The character designs are great even though there are tons of fan service going on here. The swordswoman can barely fit in her bikini if not all of her clothes, and of course the main group of female characters are all curvy and either have cleavage-a-plenty or wear less down below. A lot of the situations involve ladies in peril by some rather sick men too, so this definitely not a title for kids. I'm not sure why it had to be so extreme, for the villains to treat the women the way they do. In the end they do get their come uppance, boy do they! I do like the main characters such as Arashi, who feels like some sort of creation, like a Terminator who wants to kill without remorse, because of what he's been through. And Mikoto, who's basically his partner and who's brother was Arashi's best friend, killed in an attack and now whose organs Arashi has in his body. How is she supposed to interact with him normally knowing all of this? There are some other fan characters, like the teenage idol of the group who's all bubbly and yet is a demolitions expert. And the fire loving vigilante is another layer to add to this adventure. She meets Mikoto in school and becomes overly friendly with her, insinuating some sort of yuri relationship. But this is THAT kind of series, adult themes, fan service to bring in the guys, violent action and some humor too. On that basis, I like this series. Thumbs up.

 Space Adventure Cobra

In future we meet a guy named Johnson, and has a boring office job like everyone else. His robot servant named Ben suggest he try to have some and go try a "trip," a virtual reality kind of dream mechanism that seems very real when experienced. His Trip changes though from what it was supposed to be programmed for. In it, he becomes a super cool adventurer named Cobra, exploring space and has a female android named Lady Armaroid. He battles with a man named Valken, head of the pirate guild--a crime syndicate--and reveals his powerful Psycho Gun, where his fake left hand covers it up. After waking up and driving home he comes across a man who looks a lot like Valken the Guild leader. A confrontation leads to the truth that the man really is Valken, who asks where Cobra is. In the heated argument. Johnson points his left hand at Valken, and he is blasted. Johnson sees the Psycho gun on the end of his left arm, and realizes he is Cobra. Returning home Cobra starts to remember and finds a hidden room. Suddenly armed assailants storm in and attack. Ben reveals itself to be Armaroid and she and now Cobra make quick disposal of the bad guys. Cobra remembers he altered his looks to hide from the Guild and live a peaceful life, and the Trip unlocked his previously forgotten memories. Their adventures resume with more Guild bad guys to pursue and plenty of dangerous space babes...!

This is another title I didn't know what would be like, but since it's a classic series I wanted to give it a go. I was NOT disappointed. I guess this week is like "fan service week" for the 2 titles I viewed. Cobra is no exception, though the service is more muted since we are in the 80's. That doesn't mean the space ladies are featured in various forms of undress, or skimpy outfits. That aside: this is an action packed series, with plenty of twists and turns, violence, humor and good pacing of everything. The setup of the story--with Cobra apparently losing his memory and it being revived by a futuristic dream device, reminds me a lot of Total Recall (Arnold's movie), and I seriously wonder if that movie basically ripped off Cobra rather than come from Phillip K. Dick's sci-fi stories. And both movies have lots of action and violence and sexy women to boot. The animation is again pretty fluid for an 80's series, and it's interesting to have cigar chomping hero--something you never see nowadays. I hope there is more backstory to Cobra, like what he did before he lost his memory and if there is more to him than meets the eye. There's lots of opportunity, and I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed. I'm not so far. Thumbs up!