An all-time classic manga returns to print as Trigun gets Dark Horse’s deluxe edition treatment. On the forbidding desert planet of Gunsmoke, a sixty billion double-dollar bounty hangs over the head of Vash the Stampede, a pistol-packing pacifist with a weapon capable of punching holes in a planet. Every trigger-happy psycho in creation is aiming to claim Vash dead or alive – preferably dead! – and although Vash believes in nonviolence, he won’t go down without a fight. And when Vash fights, destruction is sure to follow!
Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun was one of the most popular manga to be released in the early 2000s. A hit anime shortly followed which struck a chord with millennial manga/anime fans. An anime film followed in 2010 and a new anime series was released last year. Despite this, the original manga has been out of print for the last few years. Now Dark Horse has brought the series back in their acclaimed deluxe edition format.
A clever blending of space western and action with a dose of comedy – Trigun remains a highly entertaining read. Vash was a unique leading character in a time when a lot of the popular heroes of action manga were silent stone-faced or cool-headed killers. As an overly cheerful pacifist, Vash refuses to kill his enemies and always wants to take the peaceful route. This is somewhat offset by the sheer level of destruction he tends to cause in his wake largely due to his incredibly powerful gun. Nightow also creates a terrific foil for him in the form of Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a priest who acts as an ally to Vash whilst having a very differing ideology to Vash’s pacifist ways. He additionally wields an iconic cross shaped machine gun/rocket launcher combo that is one of the series most memorable visuals.
Having successfully showcased other classic manga like Berserk and Hellsing, the deluxe format proves to be the perfect format for Nightow’s work. Much like those series, one of the key parts of Trigun’s success is Nightow’s dynamic artwork and character designs. The oversized format and higher quality paper go a long way in highlighting these with it being easy to see why the creator is held in such high esteem for both his storytelling and astute sense of design when it come to characters and world building.
Trigun remains an iconic manga series that should be in any fan’s collection. This deluxe edition release provides a perfect excuse for new fans to jump aboard and old fans to revisit this legendary series in a grander format.
Trigun Deluxe Edition is out now from Dark Horse (9781506738710, h/b, £47.99)
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