--UPDATES--

3/26/04

Translations of Trigun Maximum chapter 68 and 69 up at the manga translation page.

3/25/04

TriMax chapter 70 now up! Lots going on! BTW, I have one last copy of the very rare Yasuhiro Nightow 2001 Trigun Maximum Calendar for sale, mint in unopened box, $24 plus $6 shipping worldwide. E-mail me for pics. The 2002 edition, also mint in box, is $19 plus $6 shipping. Both calendars contain original Nightow illustrations unavailable anywhere else, as well as plenty of YKOurs cover art.
LATER: Also added chapter 67. Little by little, I'm catching up.

3/8/04

Updated the sale pages with some rare items and a direct link to the doujinshi pages.

12/14/03

Put up a translation of TriMax chapter 66. There's so little dialogue in this one, I was able to finish the rough draft in under half an hour.

12/4/03

Jeez, sorry, it's been nearly a year since my last update. Blame it on a big move, a demanding new job, and a (temporary, I hope) loss of interest in anime and manga.

Anyway, in the time since then, you guys in the 'States have gotten not only Trigun on TV but the first volume of an official English edition of the manga. Woohoo!

Since I live in Japan, the focus of this site will continue to be on Japan-based developments, mainly my translations of new chapters of Trigun Maximum as they come out each month. New today at the translations page: chapters 62 and 63.

By the way, if you didn't already know, the Gungrave anime series is on TV in Japan right now. Like Trigun, it's animated by Madhouse, with Yosuke Kuroda writing and Tsuneo Imahori doing the music. It's not bad.

12/26/02

A belated Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate that. Hope you got lots of goodies from the guy in the red coat. (No, not that guy in the red coat.) Me, I got this new top illustration of Wolfwood from Go-Chan. Domo arigato!

I still haven't found any further details, but for anyone who hasn't heard the news yet, it looks like Trigun is poised to break big-time in the US. According to a 12/3 bulletin at Anime News Network, Trigun has been licensed by the Cartoon Network for its Adult Swim block (along with Lupin the Third and the Peter Chung/Madhouse collaboration Reign, a.k.a. Alexander Senki). And a 12/11 brief at AnimeNation contains the tantalizingly vague information that the Trigun manga "will be published in English," according to a Yasuhiro Nightow interview in the pages of Raijin Game and Anime Magazine. Keep your eyes peeled (eww) for further confirmation!

10/7/02

More manga translations--I've completed TriMax vol. 7, and Shadowslash has started in on Trigun vol. 2.

10/4/02

New top illustration by Jillian, and completed translations for all but one chapter of Trigun Maximum Vol. 7.
For those of you who still want to order Vol. 7 from me, go ahead and PayPal $12 (which includes airmail shipping to North America/ Australia/ Europe) to sumirechan@yahoo.com and I'll hook you up. If you'll be paying by money order, write me and we'll work out the details by e-mail.

9/30/02

Added some mini cosplay photos from the All-Star Project event, over in the Memos section.

NOTE: Nightow-sensei took a three-month break, so there haven't been any new Trigun Maximum chapters since August. The manga will resume in the December issue of Young King Ours, going on sale at the end of October.

8/14/02

NIGHTOW TAKES A BREAK, AND SO DOES SUMIRE! Last month, Nightow-sensei's official website issued "Today's Give-Up," an apologetic announcement that he would be taking a break. It turned out that meant no new chapter of Trigun Maximum in Young King Ours this month. Now, he's added the following addendum:

Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement. It may seem a bit long, but [I'll be taking] about three months [off]. It's as though all these years of overwork have hit me all at once. Right now, I'm throwing myself wholeheartedly into resting. (translation by sumire)

No new TriMax for three months? Will oceans rise, stock markets fall, society collapse? (Words fail, buildings crumble, the ground open wide?) Bulletins to come!

Or maybe not. I happen to be in the midst of apartment- and job-hunting, and will be unable to update this site until things settle down again. (Although given my track record this year, I probably could have said nothing and you wouldn't even have noticed.) However, I will still be posting sporadically to the Trigun Mailing List, so join up if you wanna be on the cutting edge of fandom.

7/11/02

New today: Top illustration by Erica (if you missed Jillian's pic early this week, it's up at the gift-fanart page). Sorry about the quick turnover--I have a HUGE backlog of fanart I want to put up. Also up: a translation of the final chapter of Trigun Maximum by Shadowslash.

7/6/02

New today: Top illustration by Jillian, and translations of the final two chapters of Trigun Vol. 1 courtesy of Shadowslash! (Sorry for the delay... ^^)

7/4/02

New today: Rare Trigun items for sale (manga calendars, Vash glasses, Trigun:Final Definitive Edition, and Nightow-sensei's first professionally-published book, the Samurai Spirits manga) and some lowered prices at the for sale page, plus a translation of the latest Trigun Maximum chapter. (Sorry--it's like I've only been HTMLing every other chapter lately-- check the mailing list archives for more.)

Other hot news: Trigun Maximum Vol. 7 will hit Japanese stores on August 7. (Sorry, but due to real-life circumstances, I won't be selling copies until further notice.) And by now you all ought to know that your favorite manga-ka and mine, Mr. Yasuhiro Nightow, will be a guest at Otakon (July 26-28 in Baltimore).

5/23/02

Er. Sorry about the three-month(!) hiatus. MALLBIYS is back in business, with a new top illustration by Necee and four new manga translations by me and Shadowslash. Separated the fanart into two pages (mine and others.)

While I'm getting this page back on track, you can catch up on Trigun news at Trigun Machine. (Gungrave! Games! Toys!)

2/24/02

New top illustration, courtesy of Necee. Arigato! As always, the previous top pic has been moved to the fanart page.

In other news, Japanese audiences were treated to a rare Wolfwood-Midvalley conjunction Friday night as both Ulfuls and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra co-guested on pop showcase Music Station. There was no obvious contact between Tortoise Matsumoto and Atsushi Yanaka, but SkaPara's latest single has debuted in the top 10, and Ulfuls' theme song for Matsumoto's TV drama is hanging in there. Go Gung-Ho-Guns! ^_^

2/13/02

Two heads are better than one! Put up the first of the manga translations (Trigun vol. 1, chapters 1-3) from very special guest Shadowslash.

1/18/02

Updated Gungrave news with a rough translation of the current trailer. This one makes it clear that one of the characters is named Harry MacDowel, not Harry MacDougal as was previously reported. Apologies to all the Outlaw Star fans for the confusion.

10/9/01

Not really an update, just fixed the screwy garbled text on the 2002 calendar news below. BTW, the capsule toy mini-busts are supposed to come out mid/late October.

10/5/01

The hottest Nightow news from Japan is GUNGRAVE. (See link for my original post on the subject.) And in MALLBIYS news, I've redone Nightow-sensei's profile, uploaded a translation of Vol. 4 Ch. 1, and reformatted the Vol. 6 chapters.

10/1/01

Translation of the latest Trigun Maximum chapter 45, lots more links (and more still to come), and a long-overdue new top illustration courtesy of DuonoPocky (click to see a larger, 146K version). My apologies to anyone who's sent me pictures--I will get them up eventually! The old top illustration has been moved to the fanart page.

In other news, Shounen Gahousha has begun accepting orders for the 2002 Trigun Maximum calendar. If past years' ones are any indication, it's going to be really nice, spiral-bound with about nine big pages of color illustrations by Yasuhiro Nightow. This calendar is available only by direct mail-order from the publisher and is not sold in any store. As before, I'll be taking orders for people outside Japan--it'll be $34 including airmail shipping (or $30 shipped SAL). The deadline is November 14, so don't miss your chance!

TRIMAX VOL. 6 HITS STORES 10/5
The release date of Trigun Maximum vol. 6 has been set for October 5. No word on whether or not it will contain "Freed Bird" and "Satellite Lovers." I'm now accepting preorders ($11 including airmail shipping.)

9/9/01

Ahem. Sorry for the delay; I was working on the Trigun doujinshi pages, and then my job started... If you really want my latest updates as soon as possible, I post news, translations, and more to the Trigun Mailing List (you can sign up via YahooGroups.)

New today: Quick'n'dirty translations of the September and October chapters of Trigun Maximum, plus several pieces of kinda-late news:
RUMOR OF NEW TRIGUN ANIME DENIED
TRIGUN CAPSULE TOYS FROM KAIYODO/MOVIC
KURONEKO-SAMA LOOKALIKE TOY

7/7/01
Happy Tanabata! I'm leaving on a three-week trip tomorrow, so if you e-mail me, don't expect an instant response.
Before I leave, I've put up an unformatted translation of TriMax chapter 42, as originally posted to the Trigun ML. It may not quite have the answer to life, the universe, and everything, but will you settle for young Vash, Knives, and Rem? Definitely not to be missed. Selected manga scans available!

6/27/01
Translation of the latest chapter of Trigun Maximum, a few small corrections to vol. 5's translation, and put up the new, unfinished Manga Summaries page.

6/2/01
Put up a very short FAQ. As I was working on it, I got three more e-mails asking some of the questions on it, so believe me, these really are frequently-asked questions. As you can see, there's also a new top illustration of Legato Bluesummers, aged seven.

5/25/01
I realized it's kind of pointless to have a separate "updates" page when I usually end up listing most of my updates right here in this box, so from now on, this will officially be the space for both updates and free-talk/diary essays.

New today: translations of "Freed Bird" (first half and second half). "Freed Bird" is a Wolfwood-only side story that first appeared in 1999 and was recently reprinted in the Young King Ours May Special Issue. This issue also contains a reprint of a rare Nightow non-Trigun piece called "Satellite Lovers" from 1997. Hopefully, both of these pieces will eventually be perpetuated in tankoubon form.

5/23/01
Whoops, there I go again, letting the site lapse for a month between updates. I haven't been slack, though, I've been working on a new site. Yes. The inevitable has finally happened. Any time you want to, you can now Make a Little Hornfreak in Your Soul. (If the images aren't loading, try again later--I blame Geocities.) At the moment, there's not that much there, but it's a start. Also new: caught up on my Young King Ours TriMax translations with chapter 38 and chapter 40. (Chapter 41 goes on sale next week.)

4/21/01
Whoops, forgot to upload that translation of TriMax vol. 2, chapter 1 last time. It's up now, along with vol. 2, chapter 2. However, I'm probably going to postpone the next chapters of the Rai-Dei fight, 'cause it's so much trouble to translate anything he says. (How the hell did people manage to translate Kenshin!?)

4/18/01
New top illustration (Wolfwood, by DuonoPocky), translation of TriMax vol. 2, chapter 1, finally put up a cover scan of TriMax vol. 5 on the book page, and two new rubber stamps. More to come!

3/25/01
Linked directly to the new For Sale page, and put up the first of the doujinshi for sale.

3/23/01
Translations of TriMax vol. 5, chapters 2 and 3 up. These are only first drafts--there are a still acouple of points I need to consult with Yo-chan about--but this marks my first completion of an entire book!

3/15/01
Added translation of TriMax book 5, chapter 1.

3/9/01
I'm sick. Not badly, but enough so that I wish I weren't sick. Nevertheless, I roused myself enough to scan some rubber stamps and change the top illustration to Meri's Midvalley (slightly downsized).
::blows nose::

3/1/01
Translated Trigun Maximum Chapter 39 from the April issue of Young King ours, which went on sale yesterday. Revelations abound in this installment, told from the point of view of Knives' doctor.

2/26/01
Revised the manga translations to match TriMax Vol. 5.

2/23/01
Trigun Maximum Chapter 37 up.

2/21/01
Added descriptions of all the Gung-Ho-Guns, noting the differences between the anime and manga, to the characters page. HTML'ed TriMax Chapter 36 (you know, when TriMax Vol. 5 comes out this weekend, I'm gonna have to go back and change all those chapter numbers to "Vol. 5, Chapter 2" and stuff.) And fixed Layla's picture, which somehow acquired a strange glitch when I was resizing it. More translations are underway...

2/19/01
I've got not one but three manga translations that need to make the transition from scratch paper to html, plus a FAQ and a yaoi-coupling chart under way, but for the time being, I've changed the top illustration. The Midvallicious madness continues, thanks to Layla Lawlor.

2/5/01
Moved the Yanaka stuff to a page under the Memos section and put up my first two homemade Trigun stamps on the top. More manga translations are underway. And I really need to make a new top illustration... (The old "Winter" top illustration has finally been put up on the fanart page.)

1/21/01
Put up a sizeable chunk of the Yasuhiro Nightow interview from the Manga no Mori newsletter. He talks about quitting his job to become a manga-ka, and clarifies just how the transition from Trigun to Trigun Maximum was handled, among other things.
Also changed the talk on the main page--more Midvalley-band news! Incidentally, looking at TSPO CD-jacket photos, it's really funny--there's Yanaka, seducing the camera while all the other guys are looking off to the side; Yanaka, wearing a leather jacket and no shirt while all the other guys are wearing sweats and buttoned-up suits and stuff--how does he get away with this? I mean, if I were one of the other guys in the band, I'd insist he at least have a paper bag over his head at all times just to keep things fair.

1/11/01
Got my photos developed, so here's my very short Comic Market 59 report. I got three Vashes and a Legato!

1/5/01
New top illustration, a little late. Just realized I forgot to work a lightbulb in there. (It's in the basket with Legato. Yeah.) I guess I'll just change my website name to Make a Little Hornfreak in Your Soul (God knows I've got one in mine). Sylvia turned out pretty well, after much reference to TriMax vol. 4. My sympathy goes out to whichever Nightow assistant was on Sylvia duty during this past arc of the manga. (If Nightow was drawing the sax himself, he's crazy.)

Also added the Trigun Final Definitive Edition to the book page.

12/15/00
Took a break from translating the latest chapter of Trigun Maximum to do one of my favorites, the chock full o'Midvalley "Bluesy Killer Horn" from Trigun Maximum Vol. 4.

12/9/00
Changed the colors back. That was just too depressing.
More news on the top page.

12/8/00
A temporary color change reflecting the current dark days for Trigun in Japan.

12/7/00
Added the long-awaited translation of "West Slang" (it's missing one of Milly's lines, though) and the first page of the Yousuke Kuroda interview.

12/2/00
New top illustration for winter! The first one in color! The first one with more than one character in it! I'm kind of proud of how this one turned out.
Past top illustrations have been put up in the new fanart section.

11/12/00
New top illustration--number two in a series! Collect 'em all!
I'm dying to get all defensive and self-conscious about my pictures, but personally, I hate reading other people's "my fanart sucks"-type declarations, so I shall refrain. (I'm quite fond of all the little lightbulbs in this one, though.)
Coming soon: a translation of "West Slang" from the Second Donuts and a review of Kaiyodo's muy cool Wolfwood preacher/gunman/whore action figure.

10/31/00
Put up my translation of the latest chapter of Trigun Maximum (a scant 48 hours after it hit the stands in Japan! I have no life! :D) Happy Halloween!

10/29/00
Made a minimalist banner for my page (see the links section), and started selling manga. Shipping from Japan is bloody expensive, but I do have fast turnaround time.

10/25/00
My very first top picture, just in time for Halloween. Drawn in oh-so-classy ball-point pen. ^_^

10/13/00
Added translations of some of the comedy skits from the Trigun: The Second Donuts soundtrack.

10/8/00
Put up the translation of Trigun Maximum Chapter 34 (::sigh::), information on Yasuhiro Nightow's doujinshi, and cover scans of all the comics. Moved the Trigun is Muzak story to its own page.

8/31/00
Spent the last day of summer vacation HTMLing my translation of Trigun Maximum Chapter 33. More to follow. Also put up some publisher information on the comics.

8/30/00
The new issue of Young King Ours came out today.
I always read magazines before I buy them, but maybe I should stop. Today I started crying in the bookstore... ::shiku shiku::

8/2/00
Augh! It's August already!
Finally put up some pictures on the characters page. I drew them myself, if it isn't too obvious. ^_^

6/28/00
Redid the interviews to hide the spoilers. Now they're written in white on a white background, so if you want to read them, just highlight them with the mouse.

5/22/00
Website officially "created," after finally coming up with a title that feels right to me. (I've actually been making this site since 1998. Yeah, I'm a slow mover.)

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