--COMMENTS: TRIGUN MAXIMUM VOL. 5--
2/26/01
Well, Trigun Maximum Vol. 5, subtitled "Break Out," is in stores now. The cover has an Angel-Arming Vash on the front and Knives and the GHGs on the back (Elendira prominently featured.) It's probably the worst cover so far--on the front, the color scheme is sort of strange, and while I don't mind Nightow-sensei's "Mean Vash" in rough b/w, with the highly 3-D shading and eerily luminous blue eyes, he's really creepy. The back's not bad (it's got one of the most normal-looking depictions of Knives I've seen), but with the GHGs' numbers dwindling, and the absence of M&M and Wolfwood, it's just too damned sparse for a Trigun cover. The baseball-manga Dokaben parody cover underneath has some pretty good gags in it, though.
--While I'm complaining, this book is the first Trigun manga ever to not include the standard postscript essay-manga. I have no idea why.
Ultimately, though, don't think that this is an inferior installment. Secrets of Lost July, the GHGs, and the human survival conspiracy are revealed, plus the story overflows with tragic pasts and master showdowns.
2/28/01
I actually noticed this two days ago, but I was too sleepy to write it here.
When I was updating my old Young King Ours translations to match the page numbers of TriMax Vol. 5, I noticed that Chapter 6 is not exactly as it originally appeared in the magazine. Nightow-sensei has added four pages of flashback scenes of Vash and Knives, an additional page of reaction shots, and redrawn, rewritten, and expanded Vash's memory of his friends by two pages.