Turning this Sideblog into a Trigun blog bc I'm going insane
@crimson-yogurt
Literally just temporarily making this into a Trigun blog because I've never been this autistic about a story before. This hyperfixation might not even last. But I need to get my thoughts out or I'll explode.
I do wish we got a little more of Vash and his sisters and what he did about his brethren in the manga. It's obvious that they're fond of him from what little we see from their perspective at the end, but what kind of relationship they had... who knows.
We know next to nothing! Even in these pics, it is always connected to humans (Sandsteamer, little Arcadia and the additional plant that was found in the beginning of Trimax). We know next to nothing about how Vash feels towards his sisters beyond that. Does is feeling of unworthyness, wrongness extend to his sisters, too? Or are they exempt from it? They birthed them, but is their wrongness the fault of their mother? Or is their wrongness just the result of a plant gaining independence? (In a way, falling from grace, isn't it?)
Why can he tolerate how humans treat them? Knives cannot, but Knives also uses them to justify his hate for humanity. And Vash knows it is more complex. But what are his sisters' takes on this? We know from an interview that plants see humans as their creators/God and that they like to help humanity. Have Vash and his sisters talked about it?
And how do they communicate? We know it is not by means of speech. Is it via images, feelings? That leaves up so much for interpretation. Miscommunication is easy. And if we get back to Knives, he outright uses his sisters sharing their memories to silence the sisters that have good memories of humans. He seeks out sisters that have died/are dying prematurely and absorbs them as reaction to his sisters showing him good memories.
Taking a step back in time, did the twins have a connection to their mother? She died in the Great Fall (most likely, I mean... Conrad survived the ship crashing.). But did Rem show the twins to her? Did she try to make them connect? The little scene we are shown is more or less the plant having pooped them out and leaving them at the bottom of her tank for Rem to find. That does not imply parental instinct from the plant. At the same time, how would the human idea of mother contrast with the reality of their mother plant and Rem as their adoptive mother? How do the twins find balance there?
So, S2 is gonna be called Trigun Stargaze & some fans are already abbreviating it to Tristar, which is super cute.
A lot of fans have pointed out how the og/standalone name 'Trigun' is a nice wink to Vash, who has his gun, his prosthetic & the Angel Arm. But upon hearing 'Tristar', yk what I thought of? Them:
And the one star that was never given the chance to shine but forever haunts their orbit: Tesla.
i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good
The ultimate reference sheets for all of Vash's outfits in Trigun maximum (with commentaries)
IT IS DONE. I'M FREE. Now I can forget all about Trimax and draw Trigun stampede designs only hahaha (just kidding I have things for Trimax on the stove).
Trigun bookclub was an awesome initiative, I loved the manga with my all heart and wanted to honor Nightow's designs ;w; I also wanted to help my fellow artists with references for Vash's clothes because DEAR GOD it's difficult to understand how the hell he dresses himself in the morning. I have a lot of fun dressing and undressing him like a barbie doll. My hyperfixation is completely healthy.
I put a "read more" section to avoid spoilers :) !
The July coat
The very first coat in Trigun chronology and the one he wores during the destruction of July ! There is not a lot of panels to take references but I tried to stay as close as possible to the manga. I don't know what number of prosthesis he had before but let name this one Prosthesis 1.
Scars map
Next, nakey Vash ! There's A LOT of changes between one panel to another. Scars changes places and forms panel to panel and the design evolved from the first chapters of Trigun, the time we see him naked as Eriks and his undressed state while he was a prisoner on the Ark. I drew the scars that appeared more than once or were in clean view in a panel (but really you can do like Nightow and draw as many scars as you want without thinking about consistency, this boy has been in a meat grinder)
After July underclothes
Or the jumpsuit that gave me grey hair. His suit does not make ANY sense, I don't know how the hell he dresses himself in the morning with this. My solution is that it's very long gloves and chaps strapped to a belt. The position and shapes of the belts changes IN EVERY PANEL. Same for his knee guards, sometimes they're here, sometime they cover his shins, sometimes they are tiny..... I gave up in the end and draw them as we see them in the very last panel he wears this suit. But damn he looks good in it.
Also in all of the 13 volumes, there is not a single panel with a clear view of his holster (I checked...) so here is my interpretation.
This is prosthesis n°2, the design is a little different from the first one so I guess Prosthesis 1 got destroyed (this happens a lot).
After July coat
The very first Trigun coat he wears in the manga ! Very simple, very basic, it gives him impossibly wide shoulders but Vash deserves it. The first one is worn Post July until Vash's confrontation against Brilliant Dynamite Neon. The second one is the state of his coat after the sandsteamer incident. He loses his prothesis after his fight against Monev the gale. He meets Wolfwood with only one arm and stays that way while he fights Knives for the first time.
Eriks
I took liberties with colors because there's no colored panels with Vash as Eriks. Yes I drew him without suspenders because he has them for like 5 panels and then Nightow drew him without them for the rest of Eriks arc so I made choices ;w;
I love the fact that Vash choose to wear tight jeans even in his casual outfits, this boy will not let his skin breath. This is now Prosthesis 3 ! It's way less advanced than the ones he wore in the rest of the manga, the other ones seem to replicate skin.
After his years as Eriks
And now the first Maximum coat, he wears it until the famous Yuri hospital arc! Finally an undersuit that makes sense, I love it, too bad Nightow-san decided that I had to suffer and changed it again to add BELTS EVERYWHERE. We only see his legs in this part of the manga so I gave him the same top because I can.
The tubes he has on his waist are filled with bullets, he can connect them to his prosthesis to have a mini machine gun.
We are now at Prosthesis 4 !
Hospitalization on the Home ship
The famous Yuri hospital phase! Vash definitely shared his wardrobe with Wolfwood, you can't tell me otherwise.
The first outfit still shows Prothesis 4 but he keeps it for like 5 minutes and lost it again against Nine-lives. I don't really know if the prothesis comes with the integrated glove or if there's synthetic skin under it but why would he keep the glove on if it's not intergrated?
The second pictures is the different outfits he wears during his convalescence. I took liberties with the colors, I drew this in like 10 minutes, everything seems easy when you don't have to draw BELTS. We are now on Prothesis 5 ! Nightow drew it as a regular arm so I guess Vash wears gloves on top of it??????
Back on the road in pursuit of Knives
He wears this one after his stay at Home, throughout the Dragon's nest ark and until his 2nd fight against Knives.
I liked the design of his jumpsuit until I looked closer at the panels and saw that the design change ON EVERY ONE OF THEM. Knee guard on only one knee? No kneeguards? Two??? WHO KNOWS ??? I tried to make it work but really go wild with this one, even the author does not know how his pant looks.
Still prosthesis 5, BUT UNTIL WHEN?
Prisoner on the Ark
THEY MASSACRED MY BOY. Did they even feed him at least in 7 months? Those pictures are the definition of the drenched kitty cat left under the rain. Give this man a blanket and a therapist.
Bye bye Prothesis 5 ! And see what I mean when I say that his outfit does not make sense????? It comes out in parts????
After his imprisonment on the Ark
The last suit in the manga! He keeps this coat until the end of the story. From this point, only his hair changes (or the color of his coat).
I adore the little angel wing symbol on his left arm, such a cute addition. Too bad it appears in one of the most traumatic event of his life.
Speaking of his jumpsuit...The return of belts.... But at least this outfit stays relatively coherent except for his kneeguards who appear and disappear panel from panel but most of the time he doesn't have any, so no kneeguard it is. Prosthesis 6 hello !
Final battle and end of the story
It hurted to drew those outfits ;w; And working on the design of his coat when he fights Legato made me realize where Orange studio took inspiration to chose the colors for Vash's coat in the final episode of Stampede ! Great job ! I tried to color the same effects as one of the illustrations showing dark Vash but I'm not really good with colors..... He actually radiates energy but with some purple undertones, I took some liberties because those are my drawings I do what I want.
I'm not sure at 100% that he has a tuft of blond hair left when his outfit turns black but his hair is all black at the end of the fight. His prosthesis is destroyed at the end of the fight. He got another one in the final chapter. So 7 prosthesis throughout the story!
Gathering all the meta re: plants' bioacoustics and how that is visually and auditorily represented throughout Trigun Stampede (2023) into one post 👇 👇 👇
Did you know that plants speak?
Stressed plants also cry out when injured or dehydrated, "[producing] ultrasonic noises that may be audible to animals and plants as far as 16 feet away."
Sound familiar?
As fellow plants, Vash and Knives are the only ones who can hear their sisters' cries.
"Vash, you must have heard them. Their screams."
[...]
"Didn't you hear them? Their dying cries?!" (S1, EP 9)
In an interview, Akira Kondo—the VFX artist for Trigun Stampede—confirms that Chladni figures were intentionally incorporated into the series.
Ernst Chladni (1756-1827) is regarded by many historians as the 'father of acoustics' for his seminal experimental work on vibrations.
Chladni is best known for . . . his invention of a method for visualizing the patterns of vibrations on mechanical surfaces.
Chladni figures are the geometric patterns that appear on the sand in the opening sequence of Trigun Stampede.
A static version can also be found all over the plants' bodies, glowing on Vash and Knives's face (and presumably bodies as well since in a few scenes the markings clearly extend to their necks) when communicating/connecting directly with plants, and on the bodysuits the twins wear as children—which Knives continues to wear as an adult.
From the single close-up frame we have of Knives to compare, it appears that Vash and Knives's Chladni pattern is the same, which makes sense as they are identical twins.
As @marxistmandalorianndalorian put so beautifully in a two-Tweet thread:
"...[T]hese cymatic patterns are such a fascinating addition to the meta; how [Vash and Knives] communicate and/or interact with this plane of existence- a visual representation of their voices as plants [and] the frequency with which they resonate with the universe, or one another."
Because plants operate at a frequency that the human ear cannot detect, there is indeed logic to Vash being able to hear Zazie The Beast's buzzing sound.
Vash: "That unique mosquito sound... So you're the one controlling the Worms."
Zazie: "That's odd. It should be inaudible to regular humans." (S1, EP 4)
In a 2019 study, scientists discovered that Oenothera drummondii flowers "can sense natural airborne sounds."
TikTok user @/cowboylivio astutely identified that the plants have a musical motif.
In a flashback of the twins' childhood on the Project SEEDS Ship, Vash says the melody just comes to him unbidden and feels familiar.
Knives: "What's that song?"
Vash: "It just comes to me. It calms me down when I'm nervous. I feel like I know it from long ago." (S1, EP 12)
In the finale of Season 1, after Knives syncs with Vash to forcibly open his gate and access the dimension where the plants' core is located, Vash starts humming the melody again. Immediately after, you can hear the melody in the background music of that scene as Meryl struggles to climb the overgrowth of vines, trying to get closer to Vash and calling his name.
This "plant motif" is also represented in the OST on the track "KNIVES's Piano" by strings which can be heard starting at 1:38.
It's interesting that only Vash knows and hums the "plant motif," further reinforcing him as the twin who is more in-tune with his sisters (no pun intended).
Vash also seems to instinctually know how to calm and soothe distressed plants. We're never shown Knives communicating with the plants, so it's unclear if he's able to the way Vash is.
I think what some people don't see about Wolfwood's death is that the saddest part about it is how borderline happy it is.
It's almost celebratory. The kids of the orphanage and miss Melanie throw confetti and welcome him home as he draws his last breath. It happens away from any sort of action or battle or bloodshed. It happens right next to his best friend, in a moment of serenity and peace, while they share a drink together. He succeeded in saving and sparing his brother's life. He succeeded in saving the orphanage from the clutches of Chapel and what he represented. He has achieved all of his goals. His worst nightmare, being recognized by the orphanage, has turned into relief as they feel nothing but warmth towards him, simply glad to have him back. The church bell rings and confetti falls from the sky. There's nothing left for him to do. He's serene, he's content, his family recognized him and it was OK. His one and only friend is next to him for his final moments. Almost like for a moment everything in the world is OK.
If it was a stereotypical Sad and Melodramatic Anime™️ Death it would have been so unremarkable and predictable. It's calm and somewhat joyful and THAT'S what makes it DEVESTATING. It's heartbreaking in unspeakable ways that it would not have been otherwise. It's so inherently tragic in a way that's ten times more nuanced.
I still have many thoughts about Elendira's possible gender situation in Stampede and the way the fandom has kinda reacted to it. On the one hand, I share a lot of the concern and paranoia that the show could indeed end up erasing her identity, and that's the last thing I want to happen. On the other hand, seeing people so adamantly convinced that "they made her cis" even though nothing of such has been ever implied or said yet is... really weird? Like I understand being worried, but I've seen people act like that's confirmed or something. Between Nightow implying this version of her is intersex (which doesn't really say anything about her transness, intersex people can be trans, cis, genderqueer etc, but there is a big overlap between the two communities) and her voice actor being a cis man (really wish they'd gotten a trans voice actress, but as usual the industry never gives trans roles to trans people), I think the evidence points more to her still being trans.
Why would they even change that about her? I know we live in a world of a lot of transphobic media, but considering how accurate so many elements of other characters are to their manga incarnations, it would be really damn weird for Studio Orange to just change her like that. Not to be that person, but I'm starting to think some people are buying into the transphobic narrative of "kids can't be trans" and implying that they don't read her as such exclusively because of her young age in this version. Starting to think maybe some of you think trans kids aren't a thing, a known reactionary narrative.
Anyway, here's to hoping season 2 doesn't drop the ball, might be copium but I really want them to get this right.
Thinking about how in Trimax Conrad is meant to be a direct parallel / mirror to Rem, and how they relate & project onto each other over the Tessla incident when he accidentally wakes up from cryosleep, and how he serves the role of the first human (after Rem) to accept the boys, vaguely making him a sort of absent father figure to them. And then thinking about how Legato is meant to be a parallel to Vash (”I see now. You’re just like me. You don’t long for this world.”), and how Knives literally grafted his brother’s arm to him, and how Knives’ horrific abuse of Legato is that of an adoptive guardian / older brother trying to control him so that, unlike Vash, he doesn’t leave and betray him. And then thinking about how Conrad and Legato are the two people that Knives surrounds himself the closest. Like he is maybe perhaps trying to rebuild his original family through vague replacements. I’m going a bit insane.
Also in Tristamp specifically they make it so obvious that Conrad had a father-daughter type relationship with Tessla (perhaps being closer to her than Rem was) and he is ALSO projecting her onto Knives (and later on Elendira I’d say). So this retroactively becomes even more fucked up. In the “Vash’s arm gets cut off” scene / episode in Tristamp you can hear Bill’s desperation in his voice when he screams “don’t touch him” to those random humans when they approach Knives. Like he is soooo totally projecting his dead daughter onto him. “Don’t touch her” is what he wishes he had the guts to say back then to the rest of the Sinners, but he didn’t. He sees it as a second chance where his ultra guilt-ridden ass gets to redeem himself by allowing this murderous teenager to punish him as much as possible.
Heartwarming! This toxic father-son duo project dead family members onto each other and make each other worse for 150 years!
Also in case you’re wondering “But in Trimax, Knives also includes Elendira in this inner circle, so who is she the symbolic parallel and replacement of?”.
I think Tristamp making her literally PART TESSLA (implied she has Tessla’s eye, and possibly a form of chimerism as a result which explains her human-plant hybrid situation) answers the question. Which is why Conrad clearly acts like a father to her too, as mentioned earlier. It all comes together.
Trigun's main theme is arguably the idea of the body-as-weapon. In this case, it then makes sense as to why Elendira the Crimson Nail is such a strong character with no backstory or motivation to speak of. She, as a transwoman, has fully mastered her body to be what she wants it to be. She has made herself look how she wants to look, turned her body into a weapon against self-hatred.
In this way, too, she becomes a foil to Vash. Vash, who hates himself, and especially his own body. Vash, whose physical identity as a plant goes against what he wants to be (a human), to be mirrored in Elendira's rejection of her gender at birth, which was based on her physical appearance.
Does this make Vash trans, too, by virtue of parallels and foils? Considering that he and Knives are the only "male" looking plants, His self-hatred of his plant-self, and the way the narrative places him in typically female scenarios, I'd say yeah.
Elendira is one of Trigun's most powerful villains, not because of simple shonen power scaling, but because of her ties to Trigun's themes.
I've always been meaning to ask- It's generally known that Wolfwood has a Kansai dialect in the original Japanese, which you've chosen to localize in English, but what I'm curious about is: does Livio have any sort of dialect or accent in Japanese as well? It seems the way he speaks in your translation has a some of the same quirks as Wolfwood, so that really got me curious.
Hey there and thanks for the ask!
Yes, it is 100% clear in the Japanese text that Wolfwood speaks with a Kansai accent. I remember reading in an interview long ago that Nightow imagined this accent to be southern or very cowboy in English, but I do not have it on hand so I can't back it up. Either way, we decided to go with the southern twang for Wolfwood, to ensure that his distinct speech prevails.
Now, Livio is a very interesting one with his language, as it goes through a metamorphosis during the time he has in the manga. It changes a lot, and that goes hand in hand with his character arc.
The first very obvious change that happens to Livio's speech, is his move from very polite, controlled and submissive speech as we meet him. Obviously this reflects his position as a pawn to the Eye of Michael. The key factors in this are the lack of dialect and his usage of "私, Watashi" to refer to himself.
This changes as he becomes Razlo.
Razlo's speech is pretty distinct. No, he does not have a thick Kansai dialect like Wolfwood, but he does pronounce words in certain ways. His speech is the kind that Japanese people would describe as vulgar; low class, gang-like. Razlo is a punk in every sense of the word when it comes to how he talks, both in the pronouns used towards other character, always the most hostile ones you can pick, and always speaks in a disrespectful manner towards anyone who isn't Chapel. This is also where we see "俺, Ore" used towards himself, a pronoun considered rude, or very masculine, if not used casually with your close friends.
When Livio is finally freed from Chapel and the Eye of Michael, he transforms more into his true self. He begins to use "俺, Ore" towards himself, his speech becomes more casual, occasionally playful, but also with some force. This is where it gets interesting.
Livio's speech pattern is reminiscent of the Japanese masculine stereotype of the Kyushu Danji, the macho man, or as would be perceived in the West, a core picture of toxic masculinity. However, since this is Nightow we're talking about, the idea is turned on its head.
Livio, despite being portrayed as a big, muscly, tough guy in almost every way he can be, is instead called Crybaby Livio. His emotions are on the outside, he's gentle, loving, and polite towards women. He even tries to imitate Meryl's very proper speech when he meets her, wanting to be respectful. He is everything that a Kyushu Danji isn't, yet speaks a lot like such a person when it comes to the patterns of his speech.
On the topic of this trope; Wolfwood tries his hardest to be a person like that, a Kyushu Danji, and it causes him mostly suffering. Wolfwood is indeed a victim of toxic masculinity himself, which makes it very interesting how this behavior is portrayed in the series. One suffers because of it, another turns the whole trope on its head and gives us the opposite.
Just more of those tiny Nightow things that I personally very much appreciate, especially for its time.
The short answer:
Livio does not exactly have the same written dialect in the manga like Wolfwood, however his speech is supposed to be crude, and "low class", something the Japanese often connect with the Kansai dialect. So, we decided on the team to give Livio a similar dialect to Wolfwood.
Tried to analyze the majority of Stampede's OST purely by listening to it every day for 6 months. A lot of these are personal observations and thoughts, and I didn't include every song but, yeah. Some of these are attached to their scenes by memory, but granted, I've watched this anime about 3 times.
Anyway, I need more people to talk about the usage of leitmotif and musical-storytelling of this show.
idk if these have been posted here already, but here are some of the character sheets from the published trigun 98 ttrpg book! they also have some neat uncolored pictures of the characters on them, and some info on character stuff.
gamechangershow
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
andulkaphoto
