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 soon
...
as 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.
Apr 7, 2023
Trigun Maximum
(Manga)
add
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 soon ... |
