Ahhh, Vash. Everyone loves Vash. His blonde broomstick hair, his massive red leather coat and those oh-so-stylish sunglassesc. It seems everyone loves Vash, especially since there's this huge bounty on his head that reaches in nose bleeding high digits...

Trigun, the popular anime series distributed in the US by Pioneer, is now available in manga format by Dark Horse Publishing and translated by Digital Manga Publishing. This first volume covers the introduction of Vash and his inevitable meet up with Meryl Strife and Millie, the members of the Bernadelli Insurance Society that make sure this walking disaster area doesn't do any more harm.

Most translated tankoubons are short, running at about 180 pages a pop. This book is twice its size, with only 1/2 more of a normal tankoubon title. The first book covers the first episode, the sandsteamer caper, and the desert farm episodes in full, going into detail missed in the anime series. The best examples of these are when Vash tries to save the townsfolk that tried to shoot him, and trying to help out the young boy on the the sand steamer after Vash finds out what the boy is up to. You see just how much of a pacifist right from the start Vash is, and how he treats those around him, trying to believe in the good in every person, and by doing so he seems to make it happen, even in the worst of cases.

There are some things of note, although the book is huge, the story itself covers just the beginning of the animated series. Only Millie, Meryl and Vash are introduced, with the only other characters that even come close to a repeating role, the Nebraska family. However, this is not a problem, as the time spent on these three gives much more depth to their characters than what could be done in the series. It will be very interesting to see what happens with other characters when they make their appearance, such as Wolfwood and Knives.

The translation is fluid and clean, the dialogue natural sounding and appropriate. The artwork is a very unique style; this is very different from what is shown in the anime, with some strangeness in the facial design. However Yasuhiro Nightow has put onto paper the crazy energy that is Trigun's story, keeping panels fluid and quick moving. Unlike some manga, Nightow is able to translate animated energy onto static with ease, almost trumping the animated series that came after. One can burn through the book in one evening, unable to put it down once and feeling as if no time has passed.

For those who like the anime, Trigun the manga is a chance to meet up with old friends and learn something new about them. For those new to Trigun, this is a fantastic opportunity to read the original story that the anime series was based on.