Customer Reviews

Trigun Maximum Volume 1: The Hero Returns

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the wait was intense, it was well worth it. The book had many new and unique things about it, different from the ever popular anime. Many times it is hard to fully understand the action that is being illustrated, but in the end, you get the general idea of what has happend. The illustrations sometimes leave me wondering "This is awful", and again, some illustrations are wonderful. In the end, it really does not matter as long as the stroy gets told. And in the end, I found Trigun Maximum #1 to be a well spent $10.

The "love-and-peace'n", irritating, moronic gunslinger is back, and nothing's going stand in his way for doing what he does best...expect for donuts and babes. (YAY!)

[1-VOL REVIEW]

Trigun Maximum isn't so much a new series, as it is a continuation of an already popular manga in the US. Yep, America loves it, and Japan wants to forget it(hey, facts are facts). From this point on, the things you knew from the anime series is completely different with this one; it parallels itself from that counterpart. I mean, come on, look at the black sides from Vash's hair in the book cover; IT'S DIFFERENT! With its new physique, expect some additions and differences onto this new adventure: new companions, new enemies, and from this manga ongoing, Nicholas D. Wolfwood doesn't die...hopefully.

The parallel thing doesn't start, yet. The first volume pretty much covers episodes 18-20 of the anime series, which is Vash leading a new life with a new identity as he lives with a young girl named Lina and her granny, but after being forced to bark like a dog in the nude by those sasafrassin' baddies and later got into a bullet blitz with Nick Wolf on his side, he realized he can't avoid what he is, so Vash the Stampede was reborn and left the caring ones behind to avoid harm. Enter the two stoogettes, Meryl and Millie, plus the conflict on the kidnapping and family vengence, and it's the whole celebro hoo-ha. There's only some key differences between this and the anime, i.e. Vash getting his new outfit during the feud chapter instead of the flying ship episode from the anime and this manga actually took place two years after the Fifth Moon instead of the five years in the anime, but other than those, I can only assume the true parallel act can happen in the second volume.

This is actually my first Trigun manga ever bought. I would like to buy the first two 300-page volumes, but I've seen the whole anime as it is, so why read the chapters originated for the ones I've already seen? That, and plus I don't want to pay five extra dollars more than the average TOKYOPOP manga for each volume(yea, I'm a cheapskate). Thankfully, Dark Horse made the TM series more accesible by making it cheaper, while keeping the same format and quality as the last two. In other words, the sound effects remains untranslated, and strangely, the honorifics are there as well. Not to be biased with the honorifics, if its there, it means that Digital Manga is doing great with the translations, but I don't recall ever seeing or reading a western medium where someone called the superior "sempai." It's just weird, that's all.

Some guy isn't kidding when he warn me about the art style of the manga, and I should've heed his words, cause that's the manga's biggest flaw. Trigun Maximum is VERY SKETCHY. I've read manga with sketchy designs before, but this is the creme de la crop. Characters are angled and not that detailed and polished, even some of their clothes are just scribbled in. And the panels within are so messy, even if they're big, I can't determined what's happening; like in one panel for example, and I was thinking, "What the-? Is someone playing paintball or are those gunshot wounds? WH-WHAT'S GOING ON?!!" That's the reaction I have with this design, and it made me lose track from fluently guiding through the whole story. Although the design does provide a positive message to future comic book artists: "Kids, you can draw as crappy as this, and you can still make a lot of money on your work."

Trigun Maximum is a great way to continue what's already a funny and stylized action series, and make it a little different by its looks. The messy art style alone prevents me from giving it a perfect grade, but it doesn't destroy what's good about this series, either. If you bought the other Trigun books, you probably have one in your hands right now, but if you haven't read the first two volumes, and have seen the entire anime series, Trigun Maximum is a perfect start to continue along this seemingly fun westerner. I Reckon'men'd this here book.

Short review-
Dark Horse is doing an excellent job on their translations for Trigun. All honorifics are left in.

About the actual content- This volume's mostly filler, following the fifth moon incident. Wolfwood's huge cross is revealed to be a machine gun, and Vash is still a god with his revolver. The art is pretty sketchy, but I still love Nightow-san's syle.

Also, there's been some talk about Vash's 'new' look. Most Americans have seen the anime, in which he keeps his original look the entire time, before reading the original manga, in which Vash's look abruptly changes in Maximum. Vash's new coat is a little crazy looking, but/so it fits Vash's personality a bit more. What's more, does it really matter what Vash looks like? He's still Vash.

9.5/10

I was to my disappointment that Trigun didn't continue after Volume 2. I kept on searching every retailer and only saw Trigun Maximum. I actually read the review for it and found that Trigun crosses over to Trigun Maximum.

Trigun Maximum takes place after the Angel Arm incident on Jeneora Rock. A few years have past, and we witness the return of Wolfwood, The Gung-Ho Guns, Knives, Legato, and most improtantly Vash The Stampede.

This book was so great I bought Volumes 2 and 3 right away. The action is easier to understand in the Maximum series. Keep up the good work Nightow!

Trigun Maximum picks up where Trigun volume 2 left off. Story wise, we jump 2 years after the end of Trigun. However, nothing has really changed. When Vash is found the story again returns to the old "wild wild west" antics and gunfights that were the bread and butter of the old Trigun manga. So has the addition of the noun Maximum added something to this franchise?
It sure did. The art style looks much better than the old Trigun. In the old Trigun the action was not drawn very well and most times I couldn't understand what I was seeing. This time the pictures are more refined and works well for the most part. The main characters all have a new and very detailed look. This might not be too obvious when looking at Vash himself, but it's amazing how the once generic looking Meryl gains a real personality in Maximum. Little new details in the story about Vash's history and body also cover for the almost slapstick fighting scenes. Dark Horse chose a better paper for Trigun Maximum than that of the old Trigun. Looking and touching the pages feels much better and the cover art is way better.

That said, some of Triguns faults have transferred into Trigun Maximum. The story seems to move much faster, but the old formula of Vash getting to a town, discover that villains are corrupting it, and then save the day is getting really old. It almost appears like this volume is an entire filler. Moreover, Yasuhiro Nightow goes into great details when drawing the main characters, but backgrounds and all the other people that appear in the manga are drawn very poorly. It even gets worse in some parts: when Vash starts acting all goofy he is drawn in a comedic goofy sense (that reminds me of Bart Simpson) and remains so for a couple of pages. This goofy Vash, when coupled with the really poorly drawn people and backgrounds, made me feel this isn't even a manga but a really bad American comic. Luckily this only effects 1/8 of the manga, the rest of which looks very good. Another problem is the English translation, which can be very lacking at times. There were some pages in which I could not understand if the good people are saying a sentence, or the bad people confronting them are the ones saying it. At times a sentence is cut to fit the text bubble and becomes meaningless. Dark Horse also chose to leave some Japanese words untranslated and just transferred them to English. For example the Japanese word "oi!" was left as is without being translated into the more daily English word "hey!", and the Japanese word "gasha" stays as is instead of being translated into the English "rattle/ruffle".
The book is also very short, and Dark Horse could have easily bundled it with volume 2 for this price. In the future I hope an omnibus edition of this and the next volumes appear because this volume is a little on the short side.

All in all I found this manga a good buy. The story picks up, the quality of the printed paper is better, the art is much better and the jokes are still funny.