Reviews for Trigun Maximum
Back to MangaHaving been an old Trigun fan (since they showed the anime in the old Adult Swim) this is such a great treat. I remember I once read the original Trigun manga but I don't remember it as well... Moving on, Trigun Maximum is the best manga I've read in a long while. It's mostly good because we get to see the Vash/Knives fight work itself out and meet a good bunch of characters. STORY: It mostly consists of Vash's vow to never kill another human being and having to go on about the world, spreading his "peace and love" routine while having enemies that randomly showup (because after all he is Vash the Stampede) or enemies that are thrown his way because they want to please Knives. The story is great! We get so many great comedic moments that leave you laughing for a long while and yet the fights draw you in so hard, it's pretty hard to put the manga down. It doesn't get too dark until the end... and even then, it's not extremely heavy. It's just the final fights that are like "WHOA!"
ART: Is good enough for us who know of Trigun to begin with. Lovely fight scenes with so much detail it kinda makes your jaw drop.
CHARACTER: The character development is great. As usual, Vash is the tranquil aloof good guy but it's fun to see his interacting with everyone else. There isn't much of a movement in his character until the very end unlike with the other characters (i.e. Wolfwood with whom we get to see a great deal of his struggle of Vash's idealism and his background story and all that is great to read upon). All the characters we encounter have a great background and it's great to read who they are, what they have done and what winds up happening to them in their end.
ENJOYMENT: As previously mentioned: I have not enjoyed a series as much as I did this one. It took me a few weeks to finish the entire series but it annoyed me so much that I had to wait for the rest of the books. *laughs lightly* Seriously, once you get a book, you don't want to put the series down.
OVERALL: This series kept me glued. The ending was nice and sweet... Kind of like the beginning. I was glad that by the end of it all, all was somewhat right with the world, plants and human beings lived in harmony and a certain someone who was causing trouble saw the right way to see life and gave them another chance. I really recommend this part of the series to all who have watched the anime and read the original manga. There's so much more to this one that it'll stick in your mind much more than the original and you'll feel grateful to put a great ending into a series that you have probably lived with for over 10 years.
Thank you, Yasuhiro Nightow.
I was very careful with this criticism. Trigun was one of the first manga I read, and also one of the best. Tells the story of Humanoid Typhoon Vash the Stampede. Vash is the most feared gunslinger in a desert land, with a reward of 60 billion double by his head, and held responsible for the complete destruction of the City of July. However Vash is a staunch pacifist who avoids aggression to the fullest and not admit killing under any circumstances. Regardless of like violence or not, haunts him: the places visited by Vash are always devastated by their well-meaning interventions or people seeking the reward.A couple of Bernadelli insurance company agents (Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson) follows him trying to minimize the damage caused by its passage.
Best of Trigun certainly is Vash. It is iconic, it is only one of the best players I've ever seen in manga. And even with a main character of these, the side not devalue, all with a style, a way, a way to mark you. Of course, especially Wolfwood. How many manga you see a priest with a machine gun / lance / Granadier cross-shaped ?.
The plot flows well, knowing balance the humor, action and tension. Action sequences are well crafted and very creative, append that at times you have to pay close attention not to "lose". You are surprised when the story takes more serious air, is a nice super environment and science fiction touches will give a more style fuck yeah cool yet.
As for anime, it's done well and has one of the best voice acting I've ever seen. But it has not even a tenth of the impact it has on the manga, is faced with "just one more". The best thing about anime is probably the ending (here follows: http://www.mp3.animaniaclub.com.br/download-mp3/947/).
"But then, Nomuro-sensei?"
Trigun has amazing and remarkable characters. The plot is unique, designed and fun to read. I recommend to western lovers, to those looking for action, and who wants to see a manga with a deep end.
Trigun is, without question, an anime classic. It has endearing characters, and intriguing storyline, and interesting world, and a wonderful ascetic. It is a show that I recommend to anyone as they start their journey into anime fandom, and it is an excellent example of what anime can be, even without today’s animation standards. Trigun Maximum, however, is one of the very few times that I enjoyed the adaption better than the original. Trigun Maximum is a continuation of the original Trigun manga that was cut short. It follows the further adventures of Vash the Stampede, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and the Bernadelli Insurance girls as theytravel across the planet Gunsmoke and attempt to stop Knives from destroying the human race, 2 years after the events of the end of the first Trigun manga. It expands the Trigun universe to some very interesting places, but at the same time offers ridiculousness on a scale that’s often unnecessary. As much as I enjoyed the amount of backstory certain characters got, I was often annoyed with plot devices or twists that just seemed lazy, rather than creative.
The disjointed narrative combined with the art often made the book hard to understand. I found myself questioning what was going on at pretty much every fight scene and most chapter changes (and often in the middle of a chapter, when the scene would change almost randomly). The art is often gorgeous, but I had some trouble telling characters apart and making out what was happening in the midst of the incredibly detailed fights.
Despite all of this, Trigun Maximum was an enjoyable series and an interesting expansion of the story. The manga is completely separate from the anime, so it is something that every Trigun fan would enjoy. I do, however, feel as though I would much rather see an animated adaption of Maximum, rather than read a story that obviously needs to be moving.
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Hello! Try not to read the original dark horse translation for Trigun. Online, you can find Trigun Overhaul, which clears up the plot so it's more digestible. Be careful about any possible scanlations, because they can also be written poorly. Physical copies for re-release is expected to return in December, the original manga is generally hard to come by. Review: Trigun Maximum is a gut-wrenching story about a blonde pacifistic gunslinger in a desolate desert planet. The themes in the manga get darker than it ever did in the anime, and it's worth reading all the way through. The lore itself has little to no explanation insome parts, however the main point still gets across when it comes to those story elements.
To those who are looking forward to reading Trigun for themselves, Trimax offers devastating moments, heart-felt words, and a super hot sexy priest.
The main weaknesses are the translation offered from Dark Horse, and overall, the art can get extremely confusing. The flow in fights do not quite translate unless you stop and process each section carefully to understand the fights. However, that's not to say the art is bad. In fact, the art improves more as the manga continues, and there are legendary, beautiful panels inside each volume.
If you start this manga, I recommend reading a few chapters per day, so you can fully process each section of the manga. It's extremely easy to get lost. When reading, I absolutely fell in love with the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it more than its anime counterpart.
10/10 would smash vash
SHORT REVIEW FOR THOSE WITH LACKING PATIENCE A story with extremely well developed story and characters, insane art and fights, only held back by small things like translation and paneling issues, Trigun and Trigun Maximum are everything you could ask for in a story, with great comedy included. Give it a try, it's less than a tenth of the length of One Piece it can't be that hard to find the time! FULL REVIEW FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE I would like to start this review off as a reminder to anyone who hasn't read, or at least watched an iteration of, Trigun to do so as soonas they can. I would also like to tell those same people that they must not go into it expecting massively developed plot points like Attack on Titan, or absolute masterful world building like One Piece. This series capitalizes on being a very personal, and therefore reserved, story. It isn't written to blow your mind, but for only two reasons, one of which having been given by the author, Yasuhiro Nightow, as his main motivators during the writing of Trigun. To look cool, which is the authors stated reason, and to expand on the question of human morality (what I feel is one of many deeper reasons). It's a very simple, yet extremely open, way to tell a story and it allowed the author to write my personal favorite example of character and plot development that has ever come into my life. Now that I have gotten that out of the way I would like to get to the actual review!
Translations 5/10 -
The most important thing to do right in a manga is translation, so I'm gonna start off with my first of two negatives for this manga. There are only two translations that exist that do their job correctly, and they are the official Dark Horse comics translation, which is present in any English physical copy of Trigun and Trigun Maximum, and the translation project Trigun Manga Overhaul. I highly recommend both but the problems they have are quite unique compared to other manga, such as Japanese idioms and phrases not being translated into even comprehensible sentences (Dark Horse), or the overuse of the F-word to show the cultural difference between some of the main cast (Overhaul). Overall the translations I would rate as a middle of the road 5/10.
Panel and Speech Bubble Usage 3/10 -
Since I'm on the topic of negatives for Trigun, I would like to bring attention to the only other bad thing about this manga, the sometimes nigh incomprehensible fight paneling that occurs throughout, and the speech bubbles covering important parts of the art presented. This needs very little explanation. It's simply difficult to follow some fights, even ones extremely important to character and plot development, and some very well drawn panels have speech bubbles put in very questionable places. It brings this section down to a very mediocre 3/10.
Art 9/10 -
The art in Trigun, with the exception of some very specific panels, is absolutely badass, cool, and essentially any other word you can come up with that fits the same idea. While this can sometimes make characters do things that are biologically impossible for their bodies to do, like make their shoulder five times longer so their arm can just kind of do what looks cool, it never takes away from the fantastic characters designs, fight scenes, and especially the emotional moments present at the end of the manga. An undeniable 9/10.
Characters 10/10 -
To explain why the characters are good would be to spoil every major development the story presents to you. You just have to trust me when I say that Vash, Knives and Wolfwood are some of the best, if not the best characters to ever come out of Japan. Easy 10/10.
Fights 10/10 -
While the fights can be held back by aforementioned issues, once you begin to understand the weight each fight presents to the story, the reasons the powers of certain characters are present despite never been explained to the reader, and the insanely well choreographed movements, I highly doubt in my mind that anyone would dislike the fights in this manga. If they did it is simply a problem with themselves and them not being able to understand what had been presented to them. Another 10/10.
Story 9/10 -
While I did mention in the first paragraph that the series doesn't have a massively developed plot, that is simply due to its length. To say that they story presented isn't masterful would be doing a disservice to Nightow as it is very obvious how much time and effort went into making this story work the way it did. The best way to explain why it's so good, without spoilers, is to simply explain the similarities between the 1998 anime and the manga. Despite the 1998 anime finishing the Trigun story, Trigun as a manga would not conclude until 9 years later, in 2007. Yet despite this, the major plot twists and character developments within the last half of the manga are still present within the anime. How? The author requested certain elements and scenes be added in order for the story to land in way that would tell what needed to be said, while still allowing the studio in charge to interpret what was being written. The author knew what he wanted to say with these characters and their experiences in his story years upon years before ever writing them into it, showing a care and dedication as impressive as Tite Kubo's Bleach and Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist. I would even expand beyond series such as those, and say that it could even rival Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan. There is not much more to be said, because when an author cares that much about writing a story, there is no doubt in my mind that what is being said has extreme value. 9/10.
At the end of the day, Trigun is a series with many interpretations, all coalescing into what can only be described as the most human and heartfelt story I have experienced to this day. It transitions between lighthearted comedy and deeply intriguing moral questions as easily as typing out the word "the" is for anyone who has a keyboard and can spell. An impressive dive into the emotions shown by humankind, and how despite the massive shortcomings we as people can exhibit, the horrible things we can say and do, we truly deserve the chance to live, to make change, and to never let the sacrifices our ancestors and the people we care about made go to waste. For simply allowing the reader to think on what is being presented, hoping for us to make a change and not forcing us to make a decision based on the content, this series has gone from what would have been a simple 8/10 based on the content it presents, to a 10/10 for being not just bold in its themes, but trusting in it's readers.
Trigun Maximum is an experience even more than it is a story. You will laugh, cry, get angry... It's an emotional rollercoaster if you're ready to invest in its world/narrative. ART (10/10) Some of the panels in this manga are absolutely breathtaking. Nightow uses high contrast imagery incredibly well to create graphic sequences that really pull you in. The designs of each character are very unique and appealing. CHARACTERS (10/10) This manga has some of my favorite all-time characters. Each character is complex, with both gifts and deficits. Making moral judgements on the characters isn't easy, and, as each backstory is revealed, your understanding of their motivationsand personalities grows deeper. Also the amount of sheer bad ass-ery in the varied designs of each character and their weapons keeps things exciting throughout.
STORY (9/10)
At the end of the day, Trigun Maximum is a manga about healing from trauma (very different from what is portrayed in the 1998 anime, which is why I recommend reading over watching). It is a beautiful and complicated tale of individuals, communities, and societies dealing with harsh environments and antagonizing memories. Each character is trying to manufacture their own salvation, and we follow them on their journeys to rediscover and re-evaluate what such a thing even means. The relationships between the characters are deeply emotional and immersive; it is difficult not to be invested as a reader. While, I believe that some parts of the story could have been fleshed out even further (especially towards the end), I am completely satisfied with this manga's final destination.
WORLD (10/10)
So cool. Cowboy Bebop meets Mad Max.
READABILITY (3/10)
The one downside to this manga is the fact that some action sequences are extremely hard to parse. The paneling and speech bubbles can be really confusing. This manga is jam-packed and if you miss one thing that can lead to even more confusion down the line.
Overall, if you are looking for something more than just entertainment and want to deeply consider the world and the self through the lens of a dope science fiction manga, then Trigun Maximum is the one for you!
If you enjoyed the anime for its cute uplifting nature at times you might not enjoy the manga but if you liked the anime for the subtle sci-fi elements and darker twist it had near the end then you’ll probably definitely love the manga. They are very very different stories so don’t expect it to be too similar when you jump in if you’re already a fan of the anime. Trigun Maximum is somewhat of a post apocalyptic space western that takes place on a desert planet that humanity crash landed on 150 years prior to the setting of the story. It’s mainly aboutthe conflict between a pair of mysterious not quite so human twins. One is a mega super pacifist and outlaw and the other is a reclusive genocidal man that lives more in the shadows. The story focuses more on the pacifist character as he is “the protagonist” but a major theme of the story is it’s critical lens on morality. Neither the antagonist or protagonist are entirely right in their beliefs. A very action oriented story and not one for the faint of heart as it touches upon hard topics such as trauma, suicide, self harm, child abuse, rape, etc and has heavy amounts of gore blood and body horror.
I really enjoy this series because of it’s unique stance to actually criticize the actions of the protagonist. An emotional roller coaster that truly explores the morally Gray rather than the black and white of a situation.
The biggest flaw about this manga is truthfully the bad official translation and the readability of some of the artwork. Some of the dark horse translation has confusing and sometimes offensive dialogue. The artwork can also very cluttered at times during action scenes. Going back to skim through the books after reading often cleared up any confusion I had though. These flaws didn’t take away from the story too much for me personally but it will definitely make it or break for some people.
All in all I think it’s a series definitely worth giving a read, especially if you enjoy eldritch space horror, guns and sci-fi. it’s not too long (16 volumes in total) so won’t take up much of your time so I say give it a go!~
Warning : If you read the manga, The anime wont be able to satisfy you since its 90% filler. So watch the anime before the manga. Now on to the review, Firstly when I read the first couple of chapters, I honestly had so much trouble figuring out the artwork, and even dropped the manga at one point but decided to give it one more chance and from that point onward it actually became one of the best manga I've read or one of the best stories I've read actually. Secondly, This is a sequel to the OG Trigun manga, DO NOT SKIP THAT! Give thisa chance people! Its a Legendary manga, the anime has its own cultural significance but the manga is just Goddamn amazing.
Story : It really engages you from the get, especially the ending of the first volume. Makes you question so much stuff and ultimately its one of the most well written and conclusive stories in my opinion (9).
Art : The art can get messy at times and can actually take some getting used to tbh, I wont say that its for everyone but once you get the hang of it, its all gunz blazing and mindblowing action nonstop (8).
Characters : This is where it shines through, It has one of the best duo I've seen Vash and Nicholas, Also Vash has become one of my all time favourite characters because I can resonate with him so much and he just gives off such a pure vibe. Memorable cast too.
Overall enjoyment : When I finished reading this manga, I honestly had no doubt in my mind about what score this manga deserved, It was just a no brainer 10/10. Enjoyed it very much.
The overall Trigun franchise is so frustrating, because pretty much every single version of the story gets a lot right but has something holding it back. The original anime had pretty good direction, used 'filler' to actually develop Vash in interesting ways, and had a great main cast, but had sub-par animation and a poorly planned story. The recent stampede has great presentation, a better plot, and a better main villain, but a lot of the style and uniqueness was lost from the original and the pacing felt a little rushed. Now we have the manga, Trigun Maximum (As well as the original simply named Trigun.They are, at the end of the day, part of a bigger story.) It has a solid plot, great characters, the subversive change from comedy to action that the original had, and the art is very detailed. You may note that I said 'detailed', because calling it 'good' is kind of down to how you define what art is in a manga.
If you are wanting to become a comic artist, this manga is a MUST READ. Because despite all this manga has going for it, this manga is held back tremendously by its presentation. As stated before, the art is detailed, that's not the problem. Moreso, the issue is that it can be very difficult to tell what's actually happening in many action scenes. More simple scenes are usually fine, but when it's more complicated, it can honestly take some concerted effort to have any idea what just happened. I think this is really due to multiple issues. A lack of establishing shots in action scenes, a lack of contrast to highlight focal points, the angles not always showing the best view of things, a lack of action lines, speech bubbles never showing who's talking, and many other issues contribute to this. You may never notice the energy trails in Dragon Ball, the consistent angles of Fujimoto's work highlighting specific motions, the often adapted use of having black pages during flashbacks, and even the often-ridiculed blood splatters in many series that show on no uncertain terms that an attack landed until they're gone. As much credit as I give the two aforementioned series to teaching me how important presentation can be for manga, Trigun Maximum is just as important, as it shows how much bad presentation can hold a series back. If the presentation was good, this manga could very well be a 9/10, so it's a shame.
I know I skimmed over the rest of the manga, so let's go back. Vash is still great here. He's introduced as goofy until his backstory is eventually revealed, and his struggle is as great as ever. Wolfwood is certainly at his best here. His arc of regaining faith in humanity and being succeeded by his friend that he helped save was probably the best outcome his character could have. And most importantly, Livio is a good character too, and doesn't feel like a replacement for Wolfwood. As stated earlier, I think Stampede has the best version of Knives, and Maximum really doesn't come that close. I liked how he saved Vash at the end, but he's usually just racist, and it's not that interesting. Meryl and Millie are also super fun, even if they take a backseat as the story progresses. We also see far more of the world here, and there's much more continuity than in the original anime.
But once again, many moments are just so hard to appreciate because I just can't tell what's going on. The presentation does improve as the series goes on, but clarity can be an issue to the very end. So yeah, 7/10, just like the other two versions of the Trigun story. Maybe Season 2 of Stampede will be the one to reach excellence, but we'll have to wait and see.
https://youtu.be/M5lSPB4LFmA (video contains spoilers but text review does not) trigun was good, and trimax is even better. just like with the trigun review, this is coming a good bit after the video review, and i also don’t think i can properly do the series justice yet, but i do want to try. nightow took everything from trigun, the art, characters, story, all of it, and just made it better. the second part of the story is amazing, improving upon one that was already quite good. it even changed/solidified my favorite character into being vash, but meryl is still a close second, or maybe tied.
This is a manga review for both Trigun and Trigun Maximum. It is not easy to depict action in the form of manga. Trigun is one of those works that fell victim to flashy art style that becomes overly convoluted and confusing for readers to follow. Trigun started out as a light-hearted comedy where we follow Vash the Stampede and how having a mega bounty on his head attracts nothing but trouble. Beyond his happy go lucky exterior, we soon find out his dark past and his conviction of never to take one's life away. Gradually, the mood shifts especially during Maximum where it becomes darker andbloodier. Maximum also introduces to use a myriad of new characters that are, undoubtedly cool, yet most of them lack much substance.
It's not to say that there isn't any characterization among the cast of Trigun, Vash himself is very well characterized, his background and personality are clearly detailed over the course of the story. Then, we have the insurance girls Meryl and Milly, most badass priest Wolfwood, as well as Livio etc., are all great characters.
Personally, I am not a fan of what they did to Knives in the manga as compared to the anime. Knives is nothing more than a power hungry and one track minded bad guy here, which makes him a pretty generic villain.
As I mentioned earlier, the artwork can often become very messy and confusing during the action scenes, it felt like Yasuhiro opted for style over substance as the story goes on, as many of the characters having freaky-badass-multiple forms just to showcase their badassery. This reminds me of another mangaka Oh Great! which also favors style over substance in his works, but sadly Yasuhiro's art isn't as good as Oh Great!'s.
Enjoyment wise, I kinda liked the non-action parts (ironically), but for most part, I have no idea what's going on during the fights.
Trigun is truly decent as an anime, but as a manga, I must say it is a disappointment, due to how messy the art is, and the story was mostly ignored for the sake of stylish action.
Overall: 4/10 Hopefully we can somehow get the latter half of Maximum to be adapted into anime, as there are indeed some badass action going on.
It's not a very good manga, the art is shitty and badly detailed, I had trouble seeing what was going on in a lot of panels. The character development is non-existent. The action doesn't work because of the aforementioned poor art and I'm just more of a edgelord who prefers to see the protagonist kill his enemies so I guess the whole premise of Trigun just wasn't for me. (Although the series does get darker later on) The comedy was not very good so the darker turn when it became seinen was welcomed, but overall I just didn't care for it.
Rating 3/10 For both Trigun and Maximum. Trigun is a disappointment. The manga keeps letting itself down at every turn. Here's why: Setting: Trigun's setting is similar to Cowboy Bebop, with mankind having populated another planet far away from the ruined earth. However, Trigun does absolutely *nothing* with this environment. The planet is a sand ridden landscape and gives off a wild west feeling, and is intentionally designed to look uninhabitable for story reasons, but it makes everything look the same, bland and boring. Not only that, but Trigun never stops to explain locations or simply walk around and take in the sights. Every single locationhas only one purpose, to set the backdrop of whatever fight happens there. There is practically no explanation behind the social structure of the world, the people living and working there and what kind of troubles they encounter on this hazardous planet. I'm pretty sure we don't even know the planet's population size, the planets size itself, how many moons and suns it has, and just where exactly the planet is in the universe. Trigun just doesn't respect its' setting, and completely ruins the intrigue by ignoring the basics of environmental storytelling. Unlike media set in our present reality, media set in fictional settings NEED to explain how they work. Because there is no prior knowledge going into this unlike how we know how our present earth functions. There are a few great shots of vistas, but the fact that Trigun ignores them completely alienates me from the world.
Art/structure:
Trigun's art is fine, with some actually great art here and there. However there is a massive problem with how the art is presented. Many, many times when reading the manga, there are panels where I need to stare at the art for a few seconds before actually noticing what has been drawn. Many doubles takes have happened due to the art's horrible composition, there's just simply too much going on and very poorly laid out on the page, causing confusion and making my eyes hurt. This is a problem with many manga with guns, but Trigun is unique in having this problem with a greater magnitude compared to something like black lagoon, which had a simpler art style with bolder lines and cleaner layouts. This is a 90's manga so there's an endearing drawing style and emotes, with similar era humour. The character designs are top notch for the most part, and actually have visual story telling within them. Another issue with this manga is speech bubbles. Many times you just DON'T know who is supposed to be speaking, leading to even more confusion. One of the biggest issues with this manga is the official English release version I read. The official English version does NOT translate sound effects at ALL, not even a little text box underneath the SFX explaining what it is, they don't even bother putting them below a panel or anything. This is extremely lazy and while I DO know hiragana and katakana, Japanese is NOT my first language and I'd much rather have the sound effects be in English. This issue must be even more apparent to people unlike me who DON'T know Japanese characters. This is inexcusable because the English version releases YEARS after Trigun ended, so there is absolutely no excuse for this lazy official version people pay for. (SPOILERS) There is also an issue with the main villain being the twin brother of the main character, so fights between them compound the previously mentioned issues even more (end of spoilers)
Story:
An absolute mess. It's a revenge story. But the main character is a pacifist. With a large overarching message about the value of human life. Pretty standard, however the manga spends far too much of its time on story, constantly rushing along to the next plot beat or fight with no In-between time to worldbuild or even for exposition. Leading to a very empty narrative. The time skip is practically useless as nothing happens in between, unlike one piece, everyone remains the same more or less. Take it out of the story and nothing would change. There is no character development, and when characters change, they don't do it because they had been built up, they do it for plot convenience. Leading to some of the biggest ass pulls in the manga. There are a few decent moments here and there, but for a manga that sacrifices everything else just to get the villains and heroes to collide as much as possible, as fast as possible, it's extremely bland, predictable and cliche. There is also a humour issue, like Demon slayer, where the tension is completely revoked, e.g being a severely injured character in one panel having their face exaggerated when touched by someone, usually with "owowowowowow!" which takes away from their supposed injuries.
Overall:
This was one of the most boring manga I have ever read. It has some incredible character and gun designs, Vash in particular, however the manga is let down by poor art composition, a cliche bland story, and forgettable characters with no natural development in a boring planet that's only there to provide a backdrop for the mediocre and boring fight scenes devoid of tension.