Trigun

In the 32nd century, a man known as "Vash the Stampede" has earned a bounty of $$60 billion ("double dollar") on his head and the nickname "The Humanoid Typhoon" (人間台風) after accidentally destroying a city with his supernatural powers. However, whenever he is attacked, Vash displays a pacifist personality as noted by two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who follow him around in order to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the sixty billion double-dollar bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July. However, he cannot remember the incident due to retrograde amnesia, being able to recall only fragments of the destroyed city and memories of his childhood. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past. As the series progresses, more about Vash's past and the history of human civilization on the planet is revealed.

Vash and his twin brother Knives were originally two children with a slow aging process found in a spaceship that escaped from the planet Earth after mankind had exhausted all its resources. Rem raised them but Knives became nihilistic and had most of the people in the ship disposed of. As a result, Vash lives to find his twin and have revenge. Vash is targeted by Legato Bluesummers from the Gung-ho Guns assassins who are followers of Knives. Wolfwood himself is a Gung-Ho Gun but was hired to make sure Vash does not die and instead suffer. Vash and Knives both possess the Angel Arm, which Knives forced Vash to use in the series' beginning to destroy the town.

Vash eventually fights Knives but is defeated. Wolfwood betrays Knives and saves Vash. In the aftermath, Wolfwood dies fighting one of the Gung-Hos; his friend, Livio, joins Vash's cause while grieving for his friend's death. As Knives approaches the city with the "Ark", a floating ship designed to leave humans without any resources and end life on the planet, Knives begins dueling with Vash. Throughout his past battles that required him to use the Angel's Arm, Vash has transformed into a regular human signified by his blond hair now turned black. Knives also starts losing the powers he stored with the Ark through Vash's actions. Vash then saves his brother from the vengeful ships from Earth. Following his defeat, Knives uses his last powers to help his weakened brother by creating a small fruit tree to feed him. After his brother's death, Vash continues his travels on the planet with Meryl and Milly.

Yasuhiro Nightow, writer and illustrator of Trigun.

After leaving college, Yasuhiro Nightow had gone to work selling apartments for the housing corporation Sekisui House, but struggled to keep up with his manga drawing hobby. Reassured by some successes, including a serialized manga based on the popular video game franchise Samurai Spirits for Family Computer Magazine, he quit his job to draw full-time.[4] The series was conceptualized as a mix between Western and science fiction as Nightow found it not seen in Japan by the time he started writing Trigun. To contrast Vash from the typical heroes in action films, Nightow portrayed him as a pacifist since he did not want his lead character to be a murderer. Throughout the story, Vash avoids killing enemies by disarming them and avoids inflicting mortal wounds during combat. His cheerful personality was used to highlight this trait with his catchphrase being: "Hey, sorry. Love and peace?"[5] Other elements of the manga were based on real life. Wolfwood's name was taken from the lead singer as his image for the priest. He is also modeled on Tortoise Matsumoto from the band Ulfuls.[6] In order to create "warm" environments, Nightow drew several eating scenes.[7]

In the making of the manga, Nightow attempts to draw the fight scenes carefully as he has "all these images running through my head of characters moving this way and that, and contorting into all sort sorts of amazing action poses, but thinking about it and putting it to paper are always two different things". In regards to the narrative, Nightow uses a "logical and intuitive manner" as his modus operandi in order to make readers being capable of following it.[8] While Vash is the manga's protagonist, anime director Satoshi Nishimura used Meryl Stryfe as the main character. In the anime, she searches for the Humanoid Typhoon and initially does not believe it is Vash due to his childish behavior.[9] To create suspense, writer Yōsuke Kuroda suggested that Vash would not shoot a bullet until the fifth episode, which causes Meryl to realize he is the famous gunman.[10]

First tankōbon volume cover of Trigun Maximum

With the help of a publisher friend,[4] Yasuhiro Nightow, first published a one-shot of Trigun in Tokuma Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Captain on January 26, 1995;[lower-alpha 2] it began its regular serialization in the same magazine two months later on March 25.[lower-alpha 3] Monthly Shōnen Captain ceased publication on December 26, 1996,[lower-alpha 4] and the series was put on hiatus.[17] Tokuma Shoten collected the Trigun chapters in three tankōbon volumes, released from April 25, 1996,[18] to January 20, 1999;[19] Shōnen Gahōsha republished the Trigun chapters in two volumes, released on June 2, 2000.[20][21]

When Nightow was approached by Shōnen Gahōsha's seinen manga magazine Young King OURs, they were interested in him beginning a new work. Nightow, however, was troubled by the idea of leaving Trigun incomplete, and requested to be allowed to finish the series.[4] The manga resumed its publication in the magazine, under the title Trigun Maximum (トライガンマキシマム, Toraigan Makishimamu), in the October 1997 issue.[17][22] Nightow said that there was no difference in the story between the two titles, and that the only reason for the change was because of the switch of publishing house.[23] Trigun Maximum finished in March 2007.[24] Shōnen Gahōsha collected its chapters in fourteen tankōbon volumes, released from May 23, 1998,[25] to February 27, 2008.[26]

In North America, the manga was licensed by Dark Horse Comics, who announced its publication in June 2003;[27] they released the two volumes of Trigun, based on the Shōnen Gahosha's edition, on October 15, 2003,[28] and January 7, 2004.[29] In March 2004, Dark Horse Comics announced that they would also publish Trigun Maximum;[30] the fourteen volumes were released from May 26, 2004,[31] to April 8, 2009.[32] In September 2012, Dark Horse Comics announced that they would release the series in an omnibus edition;[33] Trigun was released in a single volume on October 9, 2013;[34] Trigun Maximum was released in five volumes from November 21, 2012,[34] to November 5, 2014.[35]

An anthology manga titled Trigun: Multiple Bullets, featuring short stories written by several manga artists such as Boichi, Masakazu Ishiguru, Satoshi Mizukami, Ark Performance, Yusuke Takeyama, Yuga Takauchi, and Akira Sagami, was released by Shōnen Gahosha in Japan on December 28, 2011.[36][37] The volume was released by Dark Horse Comics on March 6, 2013.[33][38]

In May 2023, Dark Horse Comics announced deluxe hardcover editions of Trigun and Trigun Maximum. The deluxe edition of Trigun will release in December 2023, and the deluxe edition's first volume of Trigun Maximum will release in April 2024.[39]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Trigun.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trigun.

• Trigun Stampede official website (in Japanese)
• Trigun (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia