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Reviewed by Hannah King “Somehow the past has placed a sixty billion double dollar bounty on Vash’s head, and the gun slinging pacifist can’t seem to get away from money grabbing, itchy-trigger-finger citizenry. Find out why Vash is worth so much dead!” Not a promising overview, but Trigun happens to be one of my favourite manga. I’ve read it a hundred times already and still enjoy it every time. The story is that of Vash the Stampede, a mysterious young man who, though proficient in the use of projectile weapons, is the ultimate pacifist. Vash lives in a world very reminiscent of the American mid-west in the 1800’s – just replace horses with giant anteaters and remove the Indians. In this world life is tough and everyone has at least one gun. Vash is being followed around by two representatives of the Bernadelli Insurance Society – Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson. They started by following the wave of destruction left by The Humanoid Typhoon (aka: Vash the Stampede) When they first meet him, neither of them believe him to be the real thing, however, they end up following him around anyway and soon learn that he is who he appears to be. Throughout the book hints are given to Vash’s past, as well as to his peculiarities and to the reasons behind his overwhelming insistence on never killing, even in a life or death situation – an oddity in world where killing is the norm – but nothing is made completely clear, you’ll have to wait for the following books to find things out properly. As a character, Vash is fantastic, he is lovable, gullible and clueless, while at the same time being intelligent, somewhat scary and deeply troubled by his past – there is a bit of a difference to this typical manga hero mix, as it is all a façade to hide the real Vash. Meryl (aka: Derringer Meryl) is an opinionated, head strong character with a set of morals as hard as steel. Her co-worker Millie (aka: Stungun Millie) is innocent and happy-go-lucky with a hidden depth of intelligence that isn’t often shown. Both girls carry guns, the weapons that gave them their nicknames in fact, and they can both take care of themselves, often getting caught up in Vash’s fights where they hold their own rather easily. Artistically this book is a joy to behold. Nightow cannot draw women particularly well (they all appear ungainly) but you soon get used to this as you take in the whole of the style – it is apparent that Nightow knows guns and he pays a great deal of attention to detail in absolutely everything. I heartily recommend this book to everyone, whether you’re into action, drama, sci-fi, mystery or even romance (though that plays only a minor part) – it satisfies all quarters. Comment on this review of Trigun v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
8 October 2008
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