#trigunbookclub 2.0

[deludedfantasy]

I’m now on my third read of the Trigun manga, so be aware that large portions of my posts for book club will contain major spoilers, including this one (massive spoilers for the end of Trimax in this one!). You’ve been warned.

I did something a little interesting when I first read Trigun. Almost immediately after I finished volume 14, I went right back to the beginning and started the story over again. The brainrot was very strong at the time. And I got slapped in the face by something incredibly poignant. The first and last pages of Trigun are mirrors (though you could also argue they’re exactly the same). 

Look at how even the paneling is similar! An image framed by a black border. Despite the fact that the text is similar, the contrast of the images says so much. In the beginning, we’re met with a wide view of the sky and the destruction of July beneath it. But in the end, all that’s left is the wide open sky, Vash running full tilt towards it, a promise of a new future.

The story is bookended neatly by these pages. It starts and ends the same way, though Vash is in a very different place at the end of the story than he was at the beginning. The bright-eyed, bushy-tailed Vash of the early Trigun volumes is nowhere to be seen by the end of Trimax. He’s been through a lot and lost so much. But the story ends the same way it begins, with the song of humanity continuing on. 

Because that’s the thing, isn’t it? Despite all the pain and hurt he’s endured, despite everything he’s lost, life goes on. And Vash goes on with it. 

The cyclical nature of life is one of Trigun’s core themes. The story opens with the destruction of Lost July and ends with the near destruction of No Man’s Land. It explores the cycles of abuse and the bad thought patterns we can get stuck in. But the ending pages hold a slightly different weight. I hesitate to say the ending of Trigun is necessarily happy, but Vash is alive, the world is saved, and there’s hope for the people of No Man’s Land that wasn’t there before. That’s something. And Vash, ever the optimist, a believer in the blank ticket, sees that and runs straight for it. That’s something. 

Some stories would play this cyclical nature of the universe as a tragedy. While Trigun, in my mind, could be classified as a tragedy, I don’t think this part of it is. It’s just reminding us of a very ancient piece of wisdom: this too shall pass. Good will follow bad and bad will follow good. That is the nature of life, and you can survive it. Trigun’s other big theme is hope, that you can find it even in the darkest times. I think both the beginning and the end are trying to remind us we can always keep going and find that thing that will help us survive just another day, week, month, or year because surely, good will come around again. You just have to believe in it.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Trimax Thoughts Vol. 14 Pt. 2

We're in the home stretch... last stream of consciousness post! The story ends with these last four chapters...

Oh. Ok. Immediately hitting me with this on the first page. "What's there left to see?" "Let's see the world together." "I wanted to see tomorrow with him." Just another way of showing us that Vash is not driven to survive this fight anymore.

!!! The lights again! He heard Meryl!!! AGHHHHH

I'm actually a little unsure of who is saying the "hey, come on, Vash the Stampede" lines. I'm assuming he's saying this to himself. I don't think anyone else makes sense.

The ambiguity of this situation is so fascinating, and it all comes from the way we almost never see the Plants' true perspectives. We know, at least, that they talk amongst themselves. Before the battle began, the ones who were not fused were concerned and worried over the outcome, and what the right decision is. Knives claims here that they were all united in their hatred of humans over the abuse they suffered, but we also see these dreams that Knives sees also of a mix of human cruelty and kindness - the same thing they transfer to the humans when the feathers start falling. They also all know and seem to like Vash - honestly, I'm of the mind that the Plants feel somewhat neutral about humans overall, and are primarily concerned with not hurting their own kind - which includes both Knives and Vash. Unfortunately, they have very little control or free will in this situation. There are two possibilities for the emotions of the fused entity here:

Knives, having walled himself from truly fusing so he can still direct it and maintain his sense of self, is simply feeling his own hatred, intensified by the power boost from the rest of the Plants - and Vash's interference is something he feels due to having a stronger connection with him specifically.

The Plants, having a less defined sense of self in general, feel whatever the dominant consciousness feels - so all the fused Plants really do feel hatred for humanity. When Vash connects though, they feel his grief and sorrow, as he is the one with the stronger Gate.

I think the second option makes more sense - and this kind of makes this whole situation even more tragic for the Plants... it makes it even harder to glean what they actually want. (Though the situation could be drastically improved if they were recognized as conscious entities - that at least would be a start.)

I like that we still, even in the final act, see Vash allowed to be a bit afraid and hesitant - he definitely knows this is going to be overwhelming and probably going to hurt a lot. With him being as exhausted and prepared to die as he is, he could've just been written as utterly indifferent to the pain but no, even with all that, he's still got a bit of a preservation instinct. It's very real actually.

"I felt that! Where are you?!" "Don't touch me!" <- ...brothers...

Oh it's actually breaking apart... but um. What happens to the Plants...? :(

"I beg of you... once again... grant me that ticket." 😭

MERYL YOU ARE THE STRONGEST PERSON IN THIS MANGA I LOVE YOU FOREVER

YES!

Also this means they're all going to see Vash too, doesn't it?

WAIT. HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE PLANTS. They call him Red Brother? That is so cute... And they are convinced to give love and peace a try because Vash knows and loves both of them... humans and Plants...

(I actually am now thinking, because of the feather we saw on Vash before, that he wasn't talking to himself but that was in fact the Plants urging him to get up... I wasn't aware they could use speech or just images/emotions, so I wasn't sure.)

:') (I was so scared for them guys. But this is interesting - can progress be made so they don't have to live in the lightbulbs? That would be a good step towards instating more autonomy for them.)

AAAAAAAAAAA :''')

"But I will not yield. Our past and our future will not allow it." <-Sunk cost fallacy again. I wonder just how much of the conflict in this series are the characters feeling unable to change simply because they've "come this far". Might be interesting to go back and look on a re-read.

Knives... :(

"I was the one who broke away." 🫠

That's what she told him??? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

IN COMES CHRONICA WITH A STEEL CHAIR

Vash saved him!!!

Oh. The wings... they each only have one... because they shouldn't have been separate like that...

Help girl I am. On the floor. Crying.

"Oh and welcome to No Man's Land." Livio you are so funny

WHAT WAS THE REASON. I AM ALREADY CRYING STOOOOP

Love the return of Vash's old wanted poster. Lol.

Hair down Vash with dark hair :)

Knives... I find it so interesting again that Knives immediately tries to barter Vash as necessary to these people so that he'll save him. But the doctor was actually convinced by the sight of Vash's injuries and the desperation in Knives' voice. It's so minor but it's still such good characterization and further proof that the ideal of kindness is present in ordinary people.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The symbolism of him creating an apple tree as a gesture of what is both thanks and trust... but Knives, ffs, why would you just disappear on your brother without telling him. UGH. He used the last of his power, didn't he. Healed Vash's injury as much as he could then created the tree. Is he dead, or did he just lose corporeality or something? I'm honestly not sure. Either way, Vash lost his brother too after they just got each other back.

Begging him to start singing his murder song again

It was at this moment he knew. He fucked up.

Aww! They are going to be such a good team now that Vash is going to hopefully stop running off. DUDE.

HJHSBJHCBZJHVSBJV WHAT

I did not get the song I was expecting, but the fact that these two apparently play a song about Vash to signal the start of their broadcast is so funny. What is happening.

OMG Sheryl and Lina!!! Badwick and his family! Brilliant Dynamites Neon!

LIVIO!!! And the kids and Miss Melanie... at Wolfwood's grave... (Livio I love your new look.)

:')

"The same song of humanity still sang."

What a beautiful end to this story... thank you everyone in the book club (and to Rev for organizing it!); I had so much fun with this. I can't wait to go through the tag some more and go back through everyone's posts again - I fell behind a few times so I want to do a re-read of everyone's analyses and thoughts. I'll have a few more posts probably, but for now... thanks for what was a really fun experience everyone! I think this manga's story and characters will stay with me a long while.

[trigunbookclub]

One Month Until TrigunBookclub 2.0!

Are you ready? 👀

[trigun-manga-overhaul]

TRIGUN ULTIMATE OVERHAUL SEPTEMBER UPDATE

OVERHAUL UPDATE 09/01/23 - Upcoming release schedule changes and Japanese scans.

Hey there and welcome to another monthly update!

Work continues steadily on the page cleaning front, both Japanese and English versions are being finished. The main translation work for the English 2.0 translation is still on hold until the cleaning work has come a little further. We are gathering a lot of notes, though, all from dedicated people working hard on double checking our old translation and sharing their findings. It still remains a great help!

However, there are a few change of plans since the last update. Despite the poll result showing a preference to have the Japanese scans uploaded with a chapter a week, it might not be possible anyway.

Due to legal issues, something we embarrassingly overlooked in our excitement to share our work, it is best if we share these scans in as few posts as we can. To avoid too much attention, we've decided to instead post a volume a month starting October 2nd. The English release of Overhaul 2.0 will only begin some time in 2024, as the entire volumes a month will be a top priority to stick with the posting schedule. Even with this change of plans, we hope to avoid legal scrutiny. We might be forced to change our plans again, but we will keep everyone informed and we apologize for the the inconvenience.

For the future in 2024, it is quite possible that we'll join forces with @trigunbookclub for the release of Overhaul 2.0. We hope to partake in yet another great event, and look forward to reading everyone's potential responses to our new scans and new translation.

Until then, we have a few Trigun Vol 2 double-page spreads to show off, and a little surprise:

~~

And as always, the goal if for the middle to appear seamless, at least for the first itself. If you can't tell where the seam was before, then I've done my job correctly.

~~

And for the last little surpise.

Overhaul has always used the provided existing outline of how the chapter index would look for both Trigun and TriMax, but this time we're doing something new and more exciting. Inspired by how the Japanese Omnibuses catalogue chapters, we've decided to keep it both minimalistic, but also with a big splash of color from amazing official art.

Here's the first look into the new Overhaul 2.0 indexes:

For the Japanese verison.

And the English version.

The design is still up for potential last second changes, but this will be the new groundwork for all future volumes.

~~

That's all for this update, next time will be after we begin the new uploads. Hope you enjoy it then!

SEE YOU GUYS NEXT MONTH!

[revenantghost]

Just wanted you to know that if we end up doing book club 2.0, I've convinced my mom to read the manga along with us hehehe

Working on getting my friend to as well :D I am doing my part in spreading the Trimax agenda

(I'm super excited actually for my mom to start reading it, and hopefully my friend too, as we all read things very differently and I'm so so excited to see what they take away from it, and if it'll be similar or different to what I did!)

(Hope this is ok to send and not kind of random and unasked for... feel free to disregard if so!)

YESSSSSSS, MORE VICTIMS READERS!!! For sure we'll be doing a bookckub for Overhaul 2.0, even if I myself have no time and just reblog their posts to the @trigunbookclub blog every week :D That'll be next year probably, but it'll be here before we know it I'm sure lol

Me @ absolutely everyone:

And you're totally fine! Sometimes it takes me a hot minute to respond, but I enjoy asks :D

[trigunbookclub]

TrigunBookclub Afterparty!

Hello there! As bookclub winds down to a close, there a few things to announce:

Bookclub Afterparty!

Bookclub may officially be over, but the Trimax brainrot continues! There are some bonus comics, the Multiple Bullets anthology (with all its great and terrible stories), and some folks have fallen behind, have essays left to write, or have things they wanted to create or share and haven't had a chance. I myself fell behind since life has been a bit hellish on my end, I'm two volumes behind--and I don't seem to bethe only one in that position!

So, I want to invite people to keep using and watching the tag until the end of October! Discuss, share theories, thoughts, art, shout-out posts and ideas that you love, just have fun! You can discuss the entire series and all related materials--hell, you can even do a read/reread it if you want to. Whatever goes, so long as it follows the guidelines.

Bookclub 2.0!

I've been talking with the @trigun-manga-overhaul team, who we all know has the best Trigun manga translation out there--but it's about to get better with Overhaul 2.0! When it drops probably next year, it will be at the pace of a chapter a week, and I plan to run the bookclub during that time to celebrate! This gives much more time for discussion, comparing, analyzing, and keeping up with posts. Since it will be a longer reading time and it's round two, spoilers will be allowed, though I will ask that they be tagged.

I also highly encourage everyone to feel free to use the tag when the hardcovers from Dark Horse are released to celebrate and discuss!

Bookclub Archive!

Since social media has a tendency to be ephemeral at best, the lovely @versaphile has taken it upon themselves to archive the bookclub posts of everyone who gives permission for them to do so! This way you can binge meta and posts and find everything much more easily. You can find the archive here, and see an example of archived posts here. If you're interested in or okay with being included in the project, please contact @trigunreferencelibrary!

Bookclub Stickers!

Multiple people have talked about wanting a badge of honor for participating in/keeping up with bookclub, and I think that might be a bit tricky... but how about some stickers? I figure that this way, the shipping is affordable even for international folks since I've seen a good amount of people around the world participating and lurking! I'm going to try and find printing for as affordably as I can (if anyone out there knows any good distributors for smaller batch sticker orders, please shoot me a DM!), and it won't be something to profit off of--just in memory of a great time! The only thing is I have two options, and I don't know if either of them are even what folks want. So...

And that's all that I can think of for now! I'm a bit exhausted and run ragged at the moment, so feel free to ask for any clarification on anything. When I started this project, I honestly didn't think I'd get many if any people following through--I know people lose their focus easily (myself included). But instead it turned into a huge celebration of a beautiful manga that is finally getting the attention it deserves after kind of getting buried by time. I've met some absolutely amazing and brilliant people throughout this event, and I just want to say thank you to every single person who made a post, supported others, and/or just lurked. You guys are fantastic and made this an amazing experience.

[trigunbookclub]

Hi! I was wondering if you were intending to do the Trigun book club next year also or if this was a one-time thing?

Hello!

Well, the short answer is no, I don't plan to make this a one-time thing, but also no, not an annual thing either!

As most bookclubbers know, Overhaul has the best current translation of Trigun and Trimax, though maybe not everyone knows that they'll be dropping an updated translation at some point too, with the plan being to release a chapter a week! I'd honestly been hemming and hawing on what to do for bookclub after this, but considering how much time bookclubbers spend analyzing lines and comparing versions, it only makes sense to host bookclub throughout Overhaul's 2.0 release! And I've been talking with an Overhaul team member who says they're on board with this too :D

I figure that the slower schedule allows for more people to keep up, and there's more time to make memes, draw art, write meta, create fics, compose edits--whatever! Because it will take so much longer and this may be a second readthrough for a lot of people, I will allow spoilers to be posted though I'm going to request they be tagged as such so first-timers can block it ("TrigunBookclub Spoilers" or something like that), which will allow for wider scopes on a lot of analysis and questions.

What do you guys think? :D