18 November, 2003
Trigun, Vol. 1, Yasuhiro Nightow (360 pp, PB, 2000)
"Deep space planet future gun action!!"[1]
One sci-fi Western, please, hold the Engrish.
Trigun the anime is one of the best animated shows I've seen in any language. It's so well-done and self-contained that I had no idea it was adapted from a comic. When I found out that it was, and that there was much more manga than there was anime, I was unhappy that it wasn't available in English. Now it is, hooray!
The twelve chapters in this volume are pretty much exactly the same as the corresponding episodes of the anime, so there's nothing new, but it's still good to revisit the world of Vash the Stampede, and the book is a lot cheaper than the DVDs.
The one thing I don't like is Dark Horse's decision to leave the sound effects (you know: BANG! POW! and that sort of thing) untranslated. It was really disconcerting. My guess is that they did it to preserve the purity of the art, but it makes some parts kind of hard to follow.
Next volume (out next month) should introduce my favorite character, the gun-slinging priest Nicholas D. Wolfwood. I can't wait.
[1] This ridiculous motto notwithstanding, the translation of the text is just fine.