Trigun

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Trigun

Trigun manga, volume 1 (English version)
トライガン
(Toraigan)
Genre Adventure, Weird Western
Manga
Author Yasuhiro Nightow
Publisher Tokuma Shoten
English publisher Madman Entertainment
Dark Horse Comics
Chuang Yi
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Shōnen Captain
Original run February 1995 – February 1997
Volumes 3 (originally), 2 (current)
Manga: Trigun Maximum
Author Yasuhiro Nightow
Publisher Shōnen Gahōsha
English publisher Madman Entertainment
Dark Horse Comics
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Young King Ours
Original run 1998 – 2007
Volumes 14
TV anime: Trigun: Vash The Stampede
Director Satoshi Nishimura
Studio Madhouse
Licensor Madman Entertainment
Geneon
MVM Films
Network Animax, TV Tokyo
English network G4techTV
Adult Swim
Original run April 4, 1998 – September 30, 1998
Episodes 26
TV anime: Trigun: Maximum
Director Satoshi Nishimura
Studio Madhouse, Gainax
Network TV Tokyo
Original run July, 2009 – ongoing
Game: Trigun: The Planet Gunsmoke
Developer Red Entertainment
Publisher Sega
Genre MMORPG
Platform PS2
Anime and Manga Portal

Trigun (トライガン Toraigan?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow, published from 1995 to 2007 and spanning 14 collected volumes.

The manga was serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Shōnen Captain from the series debut in 1995 until the magazine's demise 1997. The series continued in Shōnen Gahosha's Young King Ours magazine, under the title Trigun Maximum (トライガンマキシマム Toraigan Makishimamu?), where it remained until finishing in 2007.

Trigun was adapted into an animated television series in 1998. The Madhouse Studios production aired on TV Tokyo from April 4, 1998 to September 30 1998, totaling 26 episodes. An animated feature film is expected in 2009.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Screen capture of the sixty-billion double-dollar bounty poster for Vash the Stampede (from the opening credits)

Known for its Space Western theme, Trigun is about a man named "Vash the Stampede" and the two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees who follow him around in order to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the "60,000,000,000$$" (sixty billion "double dollars") bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July. However, he cannot remember the incident clearly due to his amnesia. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter.

As the series progresses, more is gradually learned about Vash's mysterious history and the history of human civilization on the planet Gunsmoke. The series often employs comic relief and is mostly light-hearted in tone, although the tone shifts toward darker and more dramatic situations as it draws to a conclusion. It also involves moral conflict pertaining to the morality of killing other living things, even when justified (i.e. self-defense/defending others).

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Trigun characters

Vash is a very lighthearted, expert marksman that tries to promote peace and happiness. He is a very merry person that dislikes seriousness, but is constantly forced to be due to the situations he finds himself in. Also known as Vash the Stampede and The Humanoid Typhoon, he is a wandering gunman with a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head. Every town he passes through either labels him "an act of God" or "a human disaster".

Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson are two Bernardelli Insurance agents sent to evaluate claims regarding the Humanoid Typhoon. Initially, they dismiss the idea that the real Vash is the legendary Humanoid Typhoon (Partially due to the lack of an introduction), but the two eventually learn that this is the person they are assigned to track.

Knives The main antagonist, and Vash's "brother". Most of the situations Vash ends up in are, in one way or another, connected to Knives.

Rem Saverem Vash's mentor and childhood friend, who taught him the value of life. It is mostly because of Rem that Vash is who he is. Vash constantly finds himself asking what Rem would do in his situation.

Nicolas D. Wolfwood A superb gunman, almost equal to Vash himself, and arguably the most skilled human being with a pistol in the series, Wolfwood is a priest who wields an enormous cross "to carry his sins". Nicolas and Vash get into many conflicts over the morality of murder. According to Wolfwood "sometimes we are driven to become the devil himself". Wolfwood is a tragic figure in that his redemption comes at a terrible cost.

[edit] Publication

See also: List of Trigun media

After leaving college, Yasuhiro Nightow had gone to work selling apartments for the housing corporation Sekisui House, but struggled to keep up with his manga drawing hobby. Reassured by some successes, including a one-shot manga based on the popular video game franchise Samurai Spirits, he quit his job to draw full time. With the help of a publisher friend, he submitted a Trigun story for the February 1995 issue of the Tokuma Shoten magazine Shōnen Captain, and began regular serialization two months later in April.

However, Shōnen Captain was canceled early in 1997, and when Nightow was approached by the magazine Young King Ours, published by Shōnen Gahōsha, they were interested in him beginning a new work. He was however troubled[2] by the idea of leaving Trigun incomplete, and requested to be allowed to finish the series. The publishers were sympathetic, and the manga resumed in 1998 as Trigun Maximum (トライガンマキシマム Toraigan Makishimamu?). The story jumps forward two years with the start of Maximum, and takes on a slightly more serious tone, perhaps due to the switch from a shōnen to a seinen magazine. Despite this, Nightow has stated[3] that the new title was purely down to the change of publishers, and rather than being a sequel it should be seen as a continuation of the same series. The 12th tankōbon was published on July 26, 2006.

Shōnen Gahōsha later bought the rights to the original three volume manga series and reissued it as two enlarged volumes. In October 2003 the US publisher Dark Horse Comics released the expanded first volume translated into English, keeping the original right-to-left format rather than mirroring the pages. With the anime series already well known in the US, the first print run of 30,000 sold out[4] shortly after release. The second volume concluded the original series early the next year, and went on to be the top earning[5] graphic novel of 2004. Trigun Maximum followed quickly, and as of November 2008, thirteen English-language volumes have been released. Translations into French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish have also been released.

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] TV series

Trigun was animated by Madhouse, broadcasted on TV Tokyo, produced by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in 1998 and directed by Satoshi Nishimura with scripts by Yosuke Kuroda, character designs by Takahiro Yoshimatsu, mechanical designs by Noriyuki Jinguji and music by Tsuneo Imahori. It is licensed in the United States by Pioneer USA (now Geneon).

Nightow has stated that due to the finality of the anime ending, it is unlikely any continuation will be made.[6]

In 2003, Trigun was broadcast as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, and is currently broadcast by Cartoon Network in Latin America.

[edit] Feature film

The October 2005 issue of NEO includes an interview with Masao Maruyama, Madhouse's founder and series planner. In the article he reveals the studio is working on a Trigun Movie that will be released in "a couple of years". The November issue of Anime Insider also confirms this news.

In May 2007, Nightow confirmed at the Anime Central Convention that the Trigun movie was in the early stages of pre-production with a near-final script, although he did not divulge any plot information.

In February 2008, more details about the Trigun movie emerged on the cover of volume 14 of the Trigun Maximum manga, announcing that the movie was scheduled for 2009.[1]

[edit] Video game

A video game, called Trigun: The Planet Gunsmoke, based on the Trigun manga, was in development for the PlayStation 2 system. As of 2009, no word on development has come out by its developer Red Entertainment or publisher Sega. Sega has issued a "no comment" on the current status of the game's development.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Trigun Movie Coming In 2009". Animekon. http://www.animekon.com/news-449-Trigun-Movie-Coming-In-2009.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-27. 
  2. ^ "When Young King Ours invited me to do some work for them, they were hoping for a new piece, but I was troubled by leaving Trigun unfinished. I told them I wouldn't feel like I had done my work unless I finished it, plus I was attached to it, and I asked them if they'd let me finish it." interview with Nightow in the September 2000 Manga no Mori newsletter, translated by sumire.
  3. ^ "Nightow stated that there is no difference in the story between the two titles, and the only reason for the change is because of the switch of publishing house." summary of discussion panel with Nightow at Anime Expo 2000, in Anaheim, California.
  4. ^ "The first volume of the English language version of Yasuhiro Nightow's Trigun manga sold out an edition of 35,000 copies at wholesale within days of its release... Dark Horse is going back to press for 15,000 additional copies" from ICV2 article posted on October 29, 2003.
  5. ^ "The top earning manga release of 2004 was Dark Horse's Trigun #2, which sold less copies that Fruits Basket or Rurouni Kenshin, but sold at a higher, $14.95 price point." from ANN news article posted 2005-01-04.
  6. ^ "When asked as to whether or not Trigun could spawn a sequel, he said that it would be unlikely given the story brings itself to a natural close." from discussion panel at Anime Expo, as above.
  7. ^ Dunham, Jeremy (2004-02-10). "IGN's Missing in Action: The Lost Games of the PlayStation 2, Part II". IGN. 4. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/491/491347p4.html. Retrieved on 2005-05-26. 

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Trigun
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