#just opening up the prologue 'ohgod here we gooo' and i know i CAN'T maintain every ch's in depth detail as i go either

[the-nysh]

👀👀 I'm already loving the level of detail noted in all these commentaries! And definitely excited for more (with my popcorn ready to share) as the deeper lore and mysteries get revealed.

Cause one of the best things about rereading is immediately recognizing the last page of this prologue, "the same song of humanity still sang," as a complete 'bookend' loop, both beginning and closing on that message of continuing hope. Humanity still lives on and survives, even long ago in a galaxy far far away on a distant, desolate planet (or 'paradise') amid death & destruction the debris even resembles cross-like graves the 'same' way that we (the audience) have long survived and will continually live through on earth. :') The song of life still beats--without being lost in silence; the familiar, comforting essence/heart of humanity can still endure.

Some additional notes from these few (4) prologue pages:

The blast crater is visibly long, with a clear directional impact. As opposed to a symmetrical, circular impact crater from a fallen meteorite or a......(post-Hiroshima) dropped nuclear bomb. This 'blast' is uncannily large but different, as if it'd been aimed or shot/released parallel to the ground, sweeping up most of the viable yet unsuspecting city of July along in its wake. Chilling and ominous, like a mysterious, unknown type of disaster reported.

The overhaul translation (vs Dark Horse) gives us some additional units of time. This July city incident coincidentally happened in the month of July (the 21st, yr 0104 measuring from the start of...this land's origins) eleven hours before the current time at 1pm...so that means the initial blast happened at 2am the night prior, likely while the city was still asleep. D: With the extra implication that this mysterious lone figure sitting there in the epicenter, lost and bundling himself hunched among the rubble at ground zero, had either been there (as a survivor or suspect) for the entire 11hrs, or...this moment at 1pm marks when he arrived (or woke) later to take in the desolate expanse of the scene. 👀

"The layer we see beneath the cloak is protective, those belts holding together who he is" -- I really like the way this is described, as I've seen people describe his many intricate Tetsuya Nomura belts & buckles akin to 'bondage' gear - but it makes sense that he's tightly wrapping, bonding, and locking himself away. Both with tight restraints of confining suppression and layers of supportive protection holding together what's left of the tattered person inside. :') Yes we CAN go deeeeper~

The 98anime does happen to include vague, reoccurring bits of this scene from ep6: 'Lost July' as fragmented memories recalled by another original character's pov - from a citizen of the city who survived to tell the tale. Which yup is very different from how the manga goes! As the images of the figure in tatters and destruction amidst an ominously wounded red sky are familiar, but it's presented almost like a miracle: where the entire city is destroyed but somehow no one died from the blast (they killed each other in the fallout's chaotic in-fighting later.) Which is a pretty huge divergence! (as indirect human consequences of the disaster as opposed to direct, caused by something [redacted & undetermined]) Because the manga's actual truth is horrifically shocking in contrast. That coming in from the 98anime, with this information in mind, really does feel like enlightening whiplash for the severity and tone of this important incident alone.

Lastly, this ch00 'High Noon at July' (which Stampede references as the title for ep12), as a brief 'ground zero' prologue to set the mystery and tone, is completely different from the ch00 pilot - aka the 'proof of concept' chapter included as a one-shot omake in vol2. The latter which was also adapted in the 98anime's ep4: 'Love & Peace' and characterizes an early prototype version of Vash with traits before his Trimax personality was really settled. (Another reason why 98 Vash behaves so differently from Trimax Vash.) So noting this here in case there's confusion on which 'ch00' officially starts the manga's story!

High Noon at July

For the first post of @trigunbookclub​, I’ll start at, where else, Chapter #00 of Trigun Volume 1, High Noon at July!

The way the manga opens is so drastically different from the way either anime opens; it’s sparse in detail, simply an atmospheric opening, and yet it immediately tells the reader so much about this story.

I won’t usually do this, but since this “chapter” is so short, I want to go through it page by page. I’m also still figuring out how I want to do this, so this post might lean more analysis-heavy than others, though I’ll still keep this spoiler-free.

It opens looking on a blast crater, in the center of an otherwise pure black page, with the text telling us the time and place. It notes that this city, july, had been destroyed 11 hours prior. 

The next page (really a double-page spread) shows the destruction in greater detail, and introduces a figure, wrapped in tattered cloak, the only person visible in this desolation. Did they cause it? What exactly happened here? 

There’s no answers given, however, as the next spread zooms in on the figure, but still nearly everything about them is indistinguishable, covered by the tatters of the cloak. (honestly, it looks a bit vincent valentine from ff7, lol.) It’s a wonderfully composed page; the shadows of the cloak are done in a stark black that draws the eye, and only afterwards do you look closer to see the intricate details that make up the clothing: belts and buckles and metal plates.

(Not to dig too deep into just one page, but you could really take this depiction as symbolic of Vash’s character: he hides who he is beneath an eye-catching exterior, the myth of Vash the Stampede. It’s a tattered cloak, sure, and maybe it also makes things more difficult, as the cloak in this page covers his eyes, but still it covers what he doesn’t want others to know. Yet, even the layer we see beneath the cloak is protective, those belts holding together who he is.)

Finally, the last page shows another shot of the crater and the sky above against a pure black page, this time from the point of view of the figure. The text on this page says “Far from here, in a distant time and place, the same song of humanity still sang.”

And that’s really the thesis of the manga, isn’t it? (or at least a thesis, you can make a case for a lot of things.) Even in the midst of utter destruction and desolation, humanity lives on. 

And the particular choice of words is interesting too! Saying the “song of humanity still sang” technically has the same meaning as “humanity still lived”, but feels vastly different. There’s more hope to it, more life, in a way.

I will have much more to say about these lines later, but in the interest of keeping this spoiler free, I’ll leave it for now.

These four (counting the double page spreads as a single page) pages tell you a lot about what this story is going to be about. It’s science fiction, as evidenced by the use of “stardate” on the first page. The title, “High Noon at July” is reminiscent of a western, and thus suggests that perhaps it was a duel or a confrontation of some sort that caused this destruction. Yet, in the destruction, there is hope.

We’re still left with questions, however. This chapter doesn’t answer anything, simply gives the reader some imagery and details that leave you wanting more. And, of course, the next chapter answers none of them, but that’s another post!

(scans are from @trigun-manga-overhaul by the way!)