Trigun Maximum Volume 4: Bottom of the Dark

Trigun Maximum #4

by Yasuhiro Nightow

This time with feeling!

So, you thought since Vash and Wolfwood survived the battle with hoppered the Gauntlet and Leonoff the Puppet Master, maybe they'd get some peace, have a little rest? You thought wrong.

There are more Gung-Ho Guns where those other oddballs came from, and you can bet those coming are just as strange as those who came before. Meet Midvalley the Hornfreak, a man who carries a saxophone and plays some really "killer" tunes. And then there's Zazie the Beast, a cute little fellow, but he's got something up his sleeve, or tucked into his eyelid (and it's probably got wings and multiple legs). Sound interesting? It is.

Trigun Maximum marches into more crazy battles, full of gunfire and humanity and frantic energy, a freaky mixture of pain, comedy, and mystery. Never a moment of rest for Vash the Stampede, a man whose body contains a planet-destroying gun, and whose credo is "Peace and Love!"

From the the talented & twisted mind of Yasuhiro Nightow (1967–), here comes another volume full of huge guns, signature characters, wild shoot-em-up action, and funny writing. Celebrated for both his narratives and art style, the Japanese manga artist is well known for his magnus opus 'Trigun' (1998). Beloved by many, it has also been adapted into a hit anime series and film. He is also behind the design of the characters for the iconic video game and anime series 'Gungrave' (2003-2004).

Edition MSRP: 9⁹⁵ US / £5⁹⁹ UK (ISBN 1-59307-314-3)
Printed in Canada

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Seinen, Comics Manga

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

内藤 泰弘. Traditional transliteration would be Yasuhiro Naitou. Author uses "Nightow" for better pronunciation by English natives.

Reviews

[bea ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'M SO READY FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS ABOUT TO COME

(also, i love this cover so much it does something to my brain)

[Para (wanderer)]

Very much feels like a middle volume. The necessary moving of pieces, a little more backstory, but no resolution of the arc yet. Not much to say about it, really.

[Your_Average_Magical_Girls_Fan]

Nightow NOT remembering how his own characters acted during the first two non-maximum books (I'm looking at you, Millie) is the prime example of how the idea of mangas being the canon in the manga/anime diatribe is simply bollock. Paper thin story with no consistency, Vash already changing his behaviour in small parts, humour completely disappeared, how in the hell I bought and managed to read all this series ten years ago is a complete mistery to me. Good riddance.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5!

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting suddenly cancelled almost at the beginning of the story (due to its magazine folding out), I think, really hurt Trigun's flow. It picked up well enough, but still. It left a scar.

[⋆ ࣪˖ ִֶָ sel ་༘࿐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tell me more.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a little bit meandering but sets up some very important things related to Vash and Knives alongside with more great fights involving three Gung-ho Guns. While I don't have too much to say on this one I do want to note again the much more developed and interesting Gung-ho Guns.

I won't go into details but all three of the main players of this book have significantly more backstory and care given to their abilities, it makes the fights much more than just cool showdowns and adds some depth to them.

Overall I'd give this one a 3.5 if I could, it suffers from having to wrap up the last volume at the start and not having the time to finish up it's own story either. Obviously this is a small flaw if you're reading them back to back but it's just the nature of volumes.

[María Ferre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Después de una gran tormenta no viene la calma: llega el huracán. Los Gung Ho Guns atacan a Vash y Wolfwood a la desesperada en un intento por complacer a Knives.
Este volumen empieza a asentar todo el peso de la relación entre Vash y Knives y desvela las claves de sus idententidades. En ese aspecto es muy importante. Sin embargo, quitando el hecho de que el manga ha tomado un sentido más serio respecto a los volúmenes anteriores, noto que Vash está un poco extraño. Y no me refiero a los tortazos de síndrome post-traumático que le dan de vez en cuando (sigue estando bastante pachucho en ese sentido), sino a su manera de actuar en general. Lo mismo me pasa con Millie, como si hubiese perdido algo de su esencia.

[Nickonero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, vamos a hacer recuento.
A un protagonista le falta un brazo y tiene el cuerpo putisimo reventado. El otro, que es yo literal, acaba de quedarse ciego y estamos en el cuarto tomo de catorce.
¿Qué va a pasar? ¿Qué me espera? ¿Qué cornada hay a la vuelta de la esquina?

La serie está siendo emocionantísima en este punto. Empieza a vérsele la cara a Knives y ya hay cada vez menos chistecitos idiotas. La cruz de Wolfwood ha recibido el nombre de *PUNISHER* y hay otros sinvergüenzas que son todavía más peligrosos que los Guns Ho Guns. Pues vamos, aquí me tenéis. Todo se está tensando. Estamos ante el tirachinas más largo del mundo.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understand people might have trouble to follow the story so far but I think the sudden serious tone is very interesting. We got the revelation about Vash and Knives real identity and also a bit more about Vash past. We also got to see an other side of Millie’s personality by how worried she was for Meryl. She might look naive and easygoing at first but she isn’t. She understood the path Vash and Wolfwood’s took and wanted to go for Meryl’s sake despite how scared she was. Wolfwood understood that too that’s why he choose to prevent it. I think it was a pretty interesting volume and I look forward to read more of the series.

[Zian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m reading this solely to keep learning about Vash, since the story gets confusing at multiple points due to how the fight scenes are don. I’m very curious about what’s going to happen in the next volume. Aside from Vash, I think my favorite character is Milly.

[merlin513 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The line work is gorgeous! The action sequences are disjointed and confusing and the storyline is ‘whuh’!?!
Don’t know if it’s the clunky translation or what, but the flow of the story is more of a disjointed cataract going thru a water wheel, clunk clunk clunk splash panel! clunk clunk clunk

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of background lore and world building in this one! Again, my old eyes have trouble discerning what the heck's happening in the fight scenes, but I can still kinda follow.

Millie is my favorite.

[una]

lovedddd seeing midvalley's pov on the situation and meryl !!!!!!!!!! tristamp spoilers ig but I just realised that roberto takes a similar position to meryl when she's collapsed in the cell when he dies... exploding everywhere

[Ramsey Meadows · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one felt a little disjointed. I was confused what was going on almost the whole time unfortunately. Maybe it will make more sense when I watch the Anime.

[Shin Donghae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seiring dengan banyaknya adegan laga artwork dan pot berkembang dg cukup baik

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the anime is ultimately the better way to experiences the story of Trigun, but Nightow's art is so excellent that it more than makes up for whatever narrative shortcomings the manga has.

[Sol · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 estrellas porque ver a Wolfwood desatado contra el Hornfreak ha sido un gustazo. Se nota mogollón que el personaje se dibuja solo, pero es que también las escenas de Vash son *chef kiss*

[Door l · Rating 4 out of 5]

wolfwood there as a guide to serve cunt in a god honoring way

[baillie ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do I understand what’s going on? No 💜

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milly!!!!

[Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

one star off cause I just find hoppered so goddamn annoying. otherwise some killer panels especially of wolfwood.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hoppered the Gauntlet, what a cutie.

[Franny · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Senia · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm not sure if it's a bad scan + wonky translations but this volume just felt like a mess? luckily i gobble up anything related to vash and/or wolfwood so i'm super excited for the next volume !

[Ryofire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still don't like the art style and find it difficult to understand. I know there are people who love it, and there's a lot of skill on display. It just looks ugly, and the character designs are still bad. The story in this one is quite bad, and the second star is mostly because the fight scenes are well-drawn, even if I can't stand the style of them.

[Miss Ryoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the fourth book was a bit easier to understand, but the I never really know who the dialogue bubbles belong to. So I just make guesses half the time as to who is saying what - haha! I'm waiting in anticipation for the confrontation with Knives! (which probably doesn't happen until volume 11 or so...so I have a ways to go :-( )

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand: Zazie! Worm lore!
On the other: I still don't know what the fuck Hoppered the Gauntlet's deal is, and I understand fight scenes involving him even less than most of the action in this manga.

[Yvensong · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Gung Ho Guns gang action. Murder by music. Some really strange folks(?), creatures(?) that Vash the Stampede and Wolfblood have to battle to save one of the insurance girls and stop these members of the gang killing more innocents.