Trigun

In a distant future, a man known as "Vash the Stampede" has earned a bounty of $$60 billion ("double dollar") on his head and the nickname "The Humanoid Typhoon" (人間台風) after accidentally destroying a city with his supernatural powers. However, whenever he is attacked, Vash displays a pacifist personality, as noted by two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who follow him around to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of his bounty. However, he cannot remember the incident due to retrograde amnesia, being able to recall only fragments of the destroyed city and memories of his childhood. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past. As the series progresses, more about Vash's past and the history of human civilization on the planet is revealed.

Vash and his twin brother Knives were originally two children with a slow-aging process found in a spaceship who escaped from Earth after mankind had exhausted all its resources. Rem raised them, but Knives became nihilistic and had most of the people in the ship disposed of. As a result, Vash lives to find his twin and have revenge. Vash is targeted by Legato Bluesummers from the Gung-ho Guns assassins who are followers of Knives. Vash and Knives both possess the Angel Arm, which Knives forced Vash to use to destroy the city of July, ending the Trigun manga in a cliffhanger as the true nature behind Vash's identity is questioned by Wolfwood after seeing the power.

In Trigun Maximum, Wolfwood finds the missing Vash and both continue their fight against the Gung-go Guns, which often causes the two clash with each other over Vash's obsession with pacifism. Gung-ho Guns Hoppered the Gauntlet, a survivor of July, seeks revenge on Vash, but is killed by his partners as Knives ordered them not to kill their target but tormenting him. Vash eventually fights Knives, but is defeated. However, Wolfwood, revealed to be one of Knives' subordinates, betrays him and saves Vash. In the aftermath, Wolfwood dies after using a drug while fighting one of the Gung-Hos; his friend, Livio , joins Vash's cause while grieving for his friend's death. As Knives approaches the city with the "Ark", a floating ship designed to leave humans without any resources and end life on the planet, Knives begins dueling with Vash. Following his past battles that required him to use the Angel's Arm, Vash has transformed into a regular human, as signified by his blond hair turning black. Vash breaks his pacifist vow by killing Legato to protect Livio. Knives also starts losing the powers he stored with the Ark through Vash's actions. Vash then saves his brother from the vengeful ships from Earth. Following his defeat, Knives uses his remaining power to help his weakened brother by creating a small fruit tree to feed him. After his brother's death, Vash continues his travels on the planet with Meryl and Milly.

After leaving college, Yasuhiro Nightow worked selling apartments for the housing corporation Sekisui House, but struggled to keep up with his manga drawing hobby. Reassured by some successes, including a serialized manga based on the popular video game franchise Samurai Spirits for Family Computer Magazine, he quit his job to draw full-time.^[4] With the help of a publisher friend,^[4] Nightow first published a one-shot of Trigun in Tokuma Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Captain [ja] on January 26, 1995; This would eventually lead to creation of a full serialzied work.{{efn|The one-shot was released in the March 1995 issue (cover date).^[5]

The series was conceptualized as a mix between Western and science fiction, as Nightow realized it was a previous unseen combination of genres in Japan. To distinguish Vash from the typical heroes in action films, Nightow portrayed him as a pacifist since he did not want his lead character to be a murderer. As such, throughout the story, Vash avoids killing enemies by disarming them and avoids inflicting mortal wounds during combat. His cheerful personality was used to highlight this trait, with his catchphrase being: "Hey, sorry. Love and peace?"^[6] The title "Trigun" originated from Vash's multiple weapons he uses in combat including his normal gun, the prosthetic and lastly, the supernatural "Angel Arm."^[7] Other elements of the manga were based on real life. For example, Wolfwood's name was taken from the lead singer as his image for the priest. He is also modeled on Tortoise Matsumoto from the band Ulfuls.^[8] In order to create "warm" environments, Nightow drew several eating scenes.^[9]

To make Vash's appearance distinctive, Nightow often changed the character's hair color throughout the serialization.^[10][11] Although fans questioned if this was relevant to the story, Nightow chose not to reveal his reason for it. In the series' climax, it is revealed that Vash's blond hair turning black is a secondary effect of overusing his supernatural powers. Despite his efforts in the designs, Nightow regrets giving Vash and antagonist Legato Bluesummers detailed eyes because he drew them inconsistently in the manga.^[10] In addition, Nightow had trouble designing Vash's gun as he aimed for it to look visually attractive and effective to use. Although he originally wanted to create a gun with unlimited bullets, he replaced it with a traditional one after consulting a picture of an upside-down barrel for inspiration. Besides Vash's guns, Nightow portrayed him as having a supernatural power known as the "Angel Arms," where his arms mutate to form a weapon. The Angel Arms adopt a feminine form and can create or give birth to matter.^[12]

While making the manga, Nightow attempted to draw the fight scenes carefully as he had "all these images running through my head of characters moving this way and that, and contorting into all sort sorts of amazing action poses, but thinking about it and putting it to paper are always two different things". In regards to the narrative, Nightow used a "logical and intuitive manner" as his modus operandi to allow readers to follow it.^[13]

Trigun Maximum won the Best Comic category at the 40th Seiun Awards in the 48th Japan Science Fiction Convention in 2009.^[53] In October 2003, the manga's first volume by Digital Manga Publishing and Dark Horse Comics sold 30,000 units upon release in English regions, leading to a reprint of 15,000 copies.^[54] The second volume concluded the original series early the next year, and went on to be the top-earning manga release of 2004.^[55] The series has sold 5 million copies.^[56]