Trigun: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!! Vol. 2

Trigun [トライガン] #2

by Yasuhiro Nightow, Justin Burns (Translator)

BANG BANG!!!

There's a mysterious past buried in the mind of the affable, yet somehow incredibly dangerous Vash the Stampede, and everyone on this desert planet seems to know about it. Not only that, they've been trying to hunt him down for the sixty million double-dollar bounty on his head. Well, enter two insurance adjuster ladies, claiming that the man is a localized disaster, and voila! No more bounty. But that doesn't seem to end Vash's troubles, or his trail of destruction.

This is the world of Trigun. Chock full of hi-jinks, frantic action, dusty western poses, and a resounding theme: Peace and Love! Join us as Vash continues his adventures across this kooky, unfortunate landscape, seeking something to end his tragicomic journey.

From the the talented & twisted mind of Yasuhiro Nightow (1967-), here comes another volume full of huge guns, signature characters, wild shoot-em-up action, and funny writing. Celebrated for both his writing and art style, the Japanese manga artist is well known for his magnus opus 'Trigun' (1998). Beloved by many, it has also been adapted into a hit anime series and film. He is also behind the design of the characters for the iconic video game and anime series 'Gungrave' (2003-2004).

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Westerns, Fiction, Comics Manga

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

内藤 泰弘. Traditional transliteration would be Yasuhiro Naitou. Author uses "Nightow" for better pronunciation by English natives.

Reviews

[Loveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am genuinely, sincerely, completely, and utterly flabbergasted that vash lying upside down with his legs spread is an actual honest to god panel in the original trigun. i thought people drew that as a babygirl joke. 11/10

edit: just want to add that the person vash is fighting in this scene is a tall, broad-shouldered woman dressed like an old school sheriff, she's an assassin, and (this is very important) her name. her name is dominique.

[Your_Average_Magical_Girls_Fan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, nice but not mindblowing stuff. Unfortunately The last quarter is really rushed and underdeveloped, I guess because the author knew the magazine on which this thing was originally published was on the verge of being closed so he rushed everything as fast as he could without giving a resolution to the gung-ho confrontations and without presenting the main villain in a convincing way, while things just happen because reasens. Age has not been generous with this volume overall.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first volume. The gung-ho guns show up and the story finally starts to move. This was right around the time the anime started to get good.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

my only problem with this is that a lot of the action scenes are hard to follow. too much going on.
apart from that it was great!

[Para (wanderer)]

This volume was so blazingly fast-paced and confusing, what the fuck? What just happened? I feel like I missed three volumes in between even though I'm pretty sure I have the right copy. Can we get a little space to breathe? Also the grossest joke from the '98 anime is, in fact, from here. Ugh. Not my fav volume.

Okay, onto Trimax now...

[sadaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[• Meldie • · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venga ahora toca leerse Trigun Maximum 👁️🫦👁️

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved! However... I was disappointed that the weird forced romance between Vash and Meryl is starting to pop up in the manga. I knew it was in the anime, but I thought Yasuhiro was better than this 😞😞. Also, the random creepy comments Vash makes feel so out of character?? Like. Why did we add this? It wasn't funny.

[Tom The Great · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zrobiło się ciekawie dopiero kiedy pojawił się Knives.... był tylko w jednym rozdziale 👉👈

[Olivia Thames · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit that I did not fully enjoy the second volume in the "Trigun: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!!" series as much as I did the first. However, that does not by any means give me reason to part with one of my favorite manga characters of all time.

Unlike the first volume, the second one gives readers a spoonful of what Vash the Stampede is TRULY capable of if and when he forgets his way. Yes, our loving and peaceful goofball is "still in there" so to speak, but once Vash's other half comes out to play everyone and everything in his path beware.

I am curious as to how this part of the story unfolds in the anime. Given my schema of the western genre, especially the space western genre in anime, I am sure the dramatic pauses are delicious given the tension leading up to the firearm leaving the holster (or sleeve). It is one of the reasons I absolutely love this genre of anime: the execution of that pause, often, is brilliantly timed. It can be tricky to elicit a similar response in a manga, as viewed here in "Trigun", but that does not mean it is impossible.

There is certainly more to be shared about the legend of Vash the Stampede, and the lives he has saved as well as the lives he has banished, and I am on board for the long hull!

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was much better than the first part. Not only did it go deeper into Vashs story, but we found out who 'he' is. Knives.

On top of all that we are introduced to two of the best characters in the series, Legato Bluesummers, (and one of my all time favourite anima characters) Nichlas D. Wolfwood. :)

These two books consisted of a sorta seperate story arc from the regular series, but at the end of the book is the first chapter of Trigun Maximum, which is the Pilot episode of the tv series. It was great to read this first chapter, but now I want to read more.

I will end this with a quote from Vash the Stampede.

"LOVE AND PEACE!"

[Izzy Crawford]

hes just a little guy !!

oh he's a little fucked up !!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 2 of Trigun kicks off the main story arc of the manga involving the Gung-Ho Guns along with Legato Bluesummers, Knives, and other related characters further down the line. If you felt like the first volume was meandering around this is the one that will immediately grab your attention.

We finally see Vash go up against opponents that challenge him, and especially his staunch no killing policy and desire to keep everyone alive. The stakes are much higher and we see just how far the bad guys are willing to go to punish Vash.

Alongside all of this action we learn of both Vash's backstory and the backstory to the entire setting itself and are introducing to long running character Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a dangerous priest with a huge cross shaped object that he keeps wrapped up with him. While this volume mostly concerns itself with introducing Wolfwood and then moving on in the story (the anime again I feel does a better job of introducing him earlier and giving him, Vash, and the insurance girls time to spend together before everything gets crazy) he becomes a crucial foil to Vash's own character in future volumes.

Being that this is the first action heavy part of the story I'd like to take a moment and talk artwork. Nightow's art is truly beautiful and his use of panels and dramatic 2-page spreads really enhances the story telling. He has a knack for both drawing things that like massively detailed grim hitmen with chains, spikes, and complex machinery while also being great at drawing goofy faces for comedy. It never feels like he's recycling a face or a pose whether for intensity or comedy and each one feels lovingly crafted for the situation.

With that said an often cited criticism of his artwork is that it can extremely difficult to follow during action sequences, which is true. His use of dynamic perspective and action lines can make it difficult to track what you're actually looking at sometimes, and the sound effects being untranslated certainly doesn't help. I would almost consider his art "hard mode" manga reading, because it's absolutely incredible but isn't easily parsed. You may not always know exactly what you're looking at but you'll always know the intensity and speed it's trying to convey.

All that said, I feel much more strongly about my 4 star rating on this one. It's just good stuff all around and aside from an abrupt ending feels strongly paced.

[Ryofire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like volume 1, for a shonen from the 90s, it's quite typical, and if that's something you're looking for, particularly something that mixes science fiction and westerns, this is probably the thing for you. While I still respect the talent and detail in the artwork, I still cannot stand the art style, and still find it quite difficult to follow a lot of the time because too much is happening. The character designs continue to be pretty terrible (and are actually somewhat worse in this volume). I also think the story is worse in this volume than in volume 1.

Milly is still my favorite character. I like Meryl, but her characterization feels kind of random. I also find it hard to sympathize with insurance regulators/inspectors or whatever they are. I'm sure there's a deep joke here I'm just missing, but it just feels like a very silly conceit. I suppose it's meant to be funny that we might want Milly and Meryl to fail because insurance companies suck? Or something? It's funny they're so bad at stopping disasters? I don't know.

All in all, if you want a classic shonen from the 90s... well I can't say I exactly recommend this, but if you really like "s-CRY-ed", "Cowboy Bebop", "Outlaw Star", "Marchen Awakens Romance", "Flame of Recca", or that kind of thing, this might be for you. If you like "Trigun: Stampede", there will be a number of elements here that you can see I the anime, but a lot was changed.

[Nickonero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estos dos primeros tomos de Trigun son, en realidad, las puertas de un prólogo para la obra verdadera de Nightow: Trigun Maximum.

Trigun, en realidad, como pasaba casi siempre en los noventa, es un título que no significa nada.
Vash, la estampida, es un optimista pacifista perdido en un planeta desértico plagado de homicidas y criminales que no pierden los anillos por disparar a cualquiera con intención de matar.
Él, sin embargo, que tiene habilidades que sobre pasan lo humano, se pasa la vida persiguiendo a Knives, un hombre que tuvo la culpa de una desgraciada barbarie hace ya más de 150 años.
Todo en Trigun es épico, desde las poses hasta los escogidos y recortados diálogos que sólo buscan alzar a sus protagonistas hasta cuando se encuentran en las situaciones más deprimentes.

Esta es la historia de cómo un hombre fue declarado desastre natural y de cómo después horadó (hizo un agujero) en la superficie de la luna.

De momento no encontraréis aquí (como pasa en la vida real) amores verdaderos ni demasiadas palabras sinceras. Ya lo dice Vash: por el precio de una bala uno podría comprarse hasta cuatro porciones de pizza.
No quiero imaginar cómo de cara estará aquí la sinceridad.

Y con unas palabras que rezan TURN TO THE MAXIMUM!!! Comienza la verdadera historia de Vash, la estampida. El hombre de los sesenta millardos de doble dólares.

[Ilaria Vigorito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho molto apprezzato questo secondo volume, dove si vede che il tratto di Nightow va "chiarificandosi" e la successione delle vignette si fa meno caotica. Apprezzo moltissimo il Vash del fumetto, come ho già detto nel commento al volume precedente. Il suo pacifismo suona molto più genuino, su un personaggio che non passa il suo tempo a fare il cascamorto con le donne in maniera fastidiosa. E poi è arrivato il reverendo, finalmente cominciamo a ragionare.

Non lo avevo detto prima ma apprezzo tantissimo il worldbuilding di Trigun, è eccessivo, esagerato, molto estetico ma ben radicato in ogni tavola. Un Far West futuristico e devastato che mi fa apprezzare anche un genere che io solitamente trovo abbastanza noioso. Si percepisce che c'è una lore sottostante abbastanza corposa e una buona parte viene fuori proprio in questo volume, che ha il sapore di una conclusione "temporanea", proprio perché la rivista su cui Nightow disegnava stava chiudendo. Una conclusione dovuta a eventi esterni che però è stata ben gestita. Non si ricomincerà da zero con Trigun Maximum ma da tre, per così dire.

Da Nicholas, da Milly e da Meryl. Alla ricerca di un Vash che sembra scomparso. Non vedo l'ora di cominciare la nuova serie!

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I thought that this series was going to be a western/action type of series. You know, like those western movies that take place in a small town that’s right in the middle of the desert that looks more like the Sahara Desert instead of a U.S. southwestern desert. And so the manga proved to be exactly like that. It was just an action flick that followed the main character and his fights against people wanting the bounty on his head.

It seems very similar to the manga Rurouni Kenshin. The main character is a powerful samurai and everyone he comes across wants to defeat him because he’s labeled as Batosai the Man Slayer. The difference between the two series is the ending. And I’m talking about Trigun Deep Space Planet without the Trigun Maximum series. So if I missed a couple of plot points then I apologize.

The story is about a man with a huge bounty on his head named Vash the Stampede. He is known as the cause of destruction for the city of July and so he’s labeled as a dangerous criminal. For three volumes, a lot of criminals or bounty hunters try to hunt him down to collect his bounty.

Most of the manga was kind of boring due to the repetition. It's the same thing over and over again. Vash enters a city and there just happens to be trouble and he has to deal with the villain with a goal of a typical hero and not kill his enemies. The first couple chapters are okay but after volume 1, it gets old really fast. It also doesn’t help that the series is too comedic. Now I have nothing against comedy, in fact I love manga comedies. One of my favorite mangas, One Piece, is a comedy and it's fantastic. The problem with the comedy in this manga is that it's in all the wrong places. It seems like there’s going to be a badass action scene but then it places in some comic relief in the middle of it. The difference with the comedy in One Piece is that the comedy is inserted in places that make the comedic moments quick and clever. Here, the comedy just ruins the action because it’s really stupid. But that's most likely due to the time when it came out.

The ending was really confusing and the scenes with Vash and his past are all done a little too quickly. There’s no flowing story to them because the scenes are just bits and pieces of his memories. One example is this character called Knives, who we don't know about, because the third volume was never clear on his identity. My first impression of the guy was that he was a computer program that took the image of Vash and held a hatred for humanity that we haven't been made aware of yet.

There’s also scenes of this backstory of humans trying to alter the planet so that humans can live on it. Apparently humans used all their resources and now the planet is unable to support the human race. So there are hundreds of large spaceships orbiting the planet with the whole human race in hibernating tanks except for a few people. If memory serves me correctly, I only remember Rem, Vash and Knives. Now whether the rest of the human race was like Vash and Knives, is made unclear but the way Rem communicates with them makes it seem like the two of them are one of a kind. This is confirmed towards the ending of the first Trigun when Knives woke up and during their fight something about angels is mentioned and how the two of them were powerful beings that were above humans. (This could be a translation error but I saw them mentioning beings like angels.)

Now this little plot twist could be going one of two ways. I'm only making assumptions because I can't remember the rest of the manga and I also have no desire to read the rest.

One, is that these 'angels' they talked about could be a fantasy element about divine beings that live in a higher existence than mankind.

Two, is that angels could be a name that is resulted from some scientific experimentation that resulted in Vash and Knives developing their abilities and being different from humans because of these experiments.

But those are the two most common possibilities. I'm sure there are probably more.

Since there wasn’t a huge cast of characters I’m only going to talk about three. The three characters are Vash, Millie, and Meryl.

Vash is the main character and he’s likable enough. He’s your typical hero that is nice and decent. He’s a bit of a pervert, kind of stupid but he’s so nice that you can’t help but like him. He’s kinda funny but he also has the overused attitude of ‘I’m too dangerous so I keep my distance from people’. This is not the first character that has this trait and he surely won't be the last.

Millie and Meryl are okay but the problem with them is that they aren’t shown very much in the manga for them to have any character development. Millie is an airhead so she’s used for a lot of comic relief. Meryl is uptight and always yelling at Vash and . . . that's about it. These ladies don’t have much personalities at all. They are boring but to the manga’s credit they are not in the series a whole lot. If anything, they're kind of in the background doing whatever needs to be done to keep the plot moving.

The other characters are not that interesting and completely forgettable. Nicholas D. Wolfwood is about as interesting as a box of plain Cheerios without the honey flavor. Wolfwood is intended to be this nice guy who’s a bit of a flirt but also has some sort of dark history. But we barely see him and when we do, he doesn't leave a big enough impact to be memorable.

The villains are also boring. While they do, admittedly, have neat fighting techniques to make interesting fight scenes, the downside is that the personalities are dull. They don't have interesting motivations for their evil schemes, they don't have any specific character traits that would make them stand out from any villain, and they don't have an interesting dialogue about their scheme. They talk smack to Vash and that’s about it, which doesn't make it interesting.

I know some people loved this series but I’m sorry. I didn’t like it and I probably won’t read Trigun Maximum. I’ll just watch the anime and see what happens.

[María Ferre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanto la nave como la Planta están fuera de control y solo Vash puede solucionar un problema tan complicado. Sin embargo, es por ese motivo que empiezan a surgir contrincantes que se cuestionan su papel en el incidente de Julio y otros que aseguran conocerlo.
Un salto de calidad bestial respecto al volumen anterior. Seriedad y puro crack a partes iguales en un spaghetti western espacial; es que está hecho para mí y mi obsesión con el universo de Borderlands. Además, Meryl y Millie me caen súper bien y están muy bien hechas para ser personajes femeninos en un manga relativamente antiguo. En conclusión, me hace muy feliz.
No le doy las cinco estrellas porque creo que le falta pulirse más todavía. Un poco de aire en los paneles y un momento para respirar entre escenas nunca viene mal.

[Jessica Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up these from a local Half Price on a lucky buying spree and it was awesome to reacquaint myself with this series after watching Stampede and growing up with the original Trigun anime. I really can't wait to get a hold of Maximum and see how the story progressed.

Vash is such an interesting character, especially once his past is revealed. The juxtaposition of guilt and who is to blame in a world where people hold each other's lives in their hands with a single bullet is so interesting. I highly recommend this series, even if you're not generally a sci-fi or western fan, try it anyway. This series has something for everyone and the way it keeps reinventing itself over the years is really interesting to watch.

[Jaimie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It must be a lot longer than I remember since the last time I watched Trigun, because I barely remember some of the stranger details of the story. I recalled that Vash was trying to track down an enemy who killed someone he loved, but I had totally forgotten that he was some type of otherworldly being who was mixed up in the attempted revitalization of the planet. With the end of this volume we see the publication switch to a slightly more grown up tack, so we'll see if I'm any more into the series. In paper format it's not quite as engaging as the anime, since the artwork makes things a bit challenging to follow, so we'll see if I can make it through 14 more volumes.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The action is a bit hard to follow sometimes. However, we’re introduced to longstanding villains and characters that will not move in and out of the story, unless of course it’s their untimely death. Flesh now envelops the story. Crazy, crazy stuff happens. Even with the story aligning itself, the manga feels like it’s all over the place. I don’t know, probably another case of me riding nostalgia high. Not that Trigun volume 2 is bad. It is objectively better than volume 1, I think.

And yet here I am unwilling to throw those 4 stars that I gave to volume 1. It’s weird.

[Viktorija B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ghhh so many amazing visuals i love this artstyle and worldbuilding! Vash and Wolfwood also had such a lovely spark together!!!!!!
While sometimes a little hard to follow during the action scenes (but maybe thats just a Me problem, the last few pages of the story were great visually but story-wise I was just "?????"), the second and final volume was excellent and far too short! It should've been another volume just to do more with the alien plant storyline. Or maybe less is more?

[Camila Santamaría · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sabes que es un buen volumen cuando empieza con Vash recién despertado entrenando con sus pistolas, tan bello. Tambien tiene su primera aparición Legato, que para mi opinión no hay ninguna otra que tenga tanta aura como esta, y por ultimo tambien se introduce a WolfWoof que wow, si vieras a un tipo de traje negro cargando una cruz dime si eso no se mira súper épico.

[Zian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was a bit more interesting than the first volume. However, just like the first volume I’m confused on some things.
It does have a very interesting concept (from what I can understand) and as odd as Vash is, he has a certain charm to him.

[Lev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one even more than the first volume, but I'm also biased because Wolfwood is one of my favorite characters of all time!
Also: "So you /can/ smile." Wolfwood saying that to Vash is gonna make me lose my mind!!!!

[una]

seeing vash's anger never ceases to send chills down my spine... when he points his gun to monev's eye............ shrieks

also the fifth moon incident... throws up everywhere knives you are sick it's such a horrifying scene. incredible stuff thank you mister nightow

[Emilou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one better than the first. The art looked better. However, I was a little confused by the ending. It felt rushed.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid volume that concludes the original Trigun series. Not much to be said; had a lot of fun reading this as a kid and coming back to it later in life has proven fruitful.

[Paula Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the continue to this series. I was sad that it ended. Vash is a wonderful character surrounded by good friends. He has villains after him, but his friends are there for him.

[Chase Riebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigun #2 is an unbelievable step above its predecessor in nearly every way. Vash's vague ideology and motivations are pushed into intentional specificity with the introduction of Legato and the Gung-Ho Guns. It is with this conflict that the seemingly naive and silly antics of Vash are replaced by the captivating identity of a man tortured by his mistakes. This volume introduces the depths of Vash's stratified mind and entices the reader with the journey that is to come. Without the first volume, this sudden introduction of nuance to a seemingly shallow character would seem unexpected. However, this volume serves to reveal the profundity Nightow possesses when crafting the character of Vash the Stampede. Trigun #2 is the infatuating introduction that Vash's story deserves.

While undoubtedly better than Trigun #1, Trigun #2 is by no means flawless. Clunky action and some hard-to-follow scenes throw a wrench in the story's continuity at times, and the humor can still be seen as cute rather than comical. However, these issues only improve themselves as Nightow improves his craft in later volumes and does not detract from the profound story that is only beginning to be told.

8/10