TriMax 5 Chapters 1 and 2

[tiggymalvern]

So, yeah, some scans from earlier volumes of TriMax 'cos a few people said they wanted to see pics to go with plots. I'm starting with 5 since 4's out in English now and most of you have it.

For those of you really out of the loop, the main plot of vol 4 involved Meryl being kidnapped by Zazie. Milly found the guys, and they all set out to rescue her. Midvalley and Hopperd were waiting to ambush them, and they were separated. Wolfwood was knocked out by a blast from Midvalley's sax, and woke up blind. He promptly slugged Milly unconscious to stop her from coming with him when he went after Midvalley again. Vash, meanwhile, got involved in a scuffle with Hopperd, who revealed he became a GHG because he had a very personal hatred for Vash over the destruction of July. And Vash started to remember....


The cover - Vash in less-than-cuddly mode. The volume is titled 'Break Out'.


Chapter One - "THE CITY--AND THEN THE BANQUET OF THE DOGS"
Sumire's translation is here. I haven't translated this myself; we're all just believing Sumire on this one XD. She's translated from the tankubon, not YKO, so no edits for me to worry about.

Page 8. Vash mid-flashback as he remembers July.


Page 9. Vash sobbing aloud, remembering his friends who owned the restaurant where he was working and their family, and the regular customers.


Page 15. Vash thinking of Meryl - he can't stop now, no matter what else is going on.


Page 16. The first incarnation of Zazie, the young teenage boy, guarding Meryl imprisoned in an old elevator.


Pages 24-5. Hopperd attacks and kills the unsuspecting Zazie.


Page 27. The sandworms outside the town going crazy as Midvalley watches and thinks how he didn't want to have to trust them. I love the way Nightow's drawn them here, they look great. And that reflection in Midvalley's eye.


Page 28. Midvalley looking cool as he waits for the next round.


Chapter Two - "BREAKOUT"
Sumire's translation is here. Or you could just click the continued link at the bottom of the last page XD.

Page 38. Hopperd as a beggar without legs in July, and the blind girl he was protecting there.


Page 41. Midvalley ready to attack.


Page 45. Wolfwood coming after Midvalley again as Midvalley thinks what a pain in the arse he is to fight, because he's too unpredictable and he never stops.


Page 47. A very worn-looking Vash finding Meryl, who's yelling to him to get out, it's a trap. Hopperd's lurking in the rafters.


Pages 52-3. Hopperd launches himself at Vash, as Midvalley prepares to attack Wolfwood.


Page 56. Milly has woken up and followed Wolfwood anyway, and fires a barrage of bolts...


Page 57. ...disrupting Midvalley's plan for a carefully timed attack.


Page 61. Midvalley and Wolfwood do ballet :-)))


Page 62. Guns to one another's heads at the end of the chapter.

Comments

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

That ending panel kills me every time. Guh.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

We just like pissed-off, threatening hot guys XD

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes we do. XD

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's really good stuff. It's great to see characters like Midvalley, Zazie and Hoppard in their manga form. I adored the picture of Midvalley silluetted before the sandworm explosion thing. That was just adorable and BEGGING to be made into an avatar! Really great stuff, thanks so much for putting this up!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Nightow's art style was picking up fast from the start of the TriMaxes, but I think this volume is the one where he really hits it and everything seems to come together. From here on, loads of good stuff!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

This volumes owns. One of MANY reasons is the fact that Nightow for the first time (on one page you scanned) manages to draw Meryl as being pretty.

Yes, I'm shallow.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it does - another reason I started with this volume was just 'cos from here the art and the plot are so damn good. He'd got the hang of drawing a few sexy guy shots by now, and it's starting to creep into the girls some too.

You've been hanging around my LJ for how long, and you think you're shallow? *snort*

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Vash just breaks my heart in this book. Again.

No clue what's with the outfit at all. We still know nothing about the background of either of the girls.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

There is much mangaverse-based Wolfwood and Midvalley fanfic, and all of it justified. The revelations of what those two were planning that come later in this book are scary in their scope.

What exactly IS Hopperd?

He's a guy who has nothing. Whether he was born without legs or lost them through injury we don't know. What we do know is that because of July he joined the GHGs and had all kinds of stuff attached to his body just so that he could fight Vash. He was already a social outcast as the manga well illustrates in pages I didn't scan, so I guess he thought it didn't matter what was done to him as long as he had the chance to get revenge.

The personally-affected-by-July idea has been used a lot in fics by anime fans who have no clue that it was already canon in the manga. Nightow has pretty much everything covered. The man's a genius :-)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

It won't be years. Nightow announced a year or so back that he was in the process of wrapping it up, and from the chapters that have been coming out lately in YKO that's certainly happening.

[hibem.livejournal.com]

Midvalley and Wolfwood do ballet :-)))
As usual, you've made my night.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Well, they do. I can kind of see Wolfwood flying through the air for his ex-lover comrade to catch him. Are you saying that's just me? XD

[kendokat.livejournal.com]

*g* . . . they do ballet . . . yeah yeah I can see it . . . snarks! ^___^

[hibem.livejournal.com]

:points at inside cover of Max 2: It's not just you.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I love Nightow's sense of humour so much XD. I'm particularly fond of the Swan Lake Rai-Dei myself, complete with frilly cap! But the ongoing joke with Wolfwood and the blow-up dolls is my real favourite :-)

[kendokat.livejournal.com]

You know this is such an intriguing story and Nightow really does do a super job with his visuals doesn't he? Everything really is right on . . . such intensity is communicated and his charas really can be reveting. Gonna see how I do at following along here . . . slowly very slowly but sure. ^___~

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

It's possible to follow the story just from Sumire's translations where they're complete, but not always that easy because she doesn't give a whole lot of description. I'll scan more of the next chapters, that's for sure - these two had a lot of pages about Hopperd and Zazie, characters that aren't that big with the fans, so I skipped. Stuff gets really interesting after this XD

This all occurs shortly after the manga splits from the anime. The kidnap of Meryl is the next big thing that happens after the fight with Leonov and Ninelives for the Seeds ship, which Vash and Wolfwood did manage to save in the manga. The big variation from the manga is that Vash has, by this point, already seen Wolfwood kill someone, forgiven him, and admitted that Wolfwood has a point....

Gay much?

[glass-bullet.livejournal.com]

Okay, I officially need to write more Wolfwood x Midvalley pr0n.

Re: Gay much?

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Midvalley comes across very, very gay. And we all know about Wolfwood XD. Add to that their cozy little backstory, and the way things suddenly change when they get to talking, and you get some distinct vibes!

Re: Gay much?

[glass-bullet.livejournal.com]

Midvalley is very gay, and a whore - that goes without saying. (Ever read the drabble about Midvalley's great grandpa or whatever?) ..But that whole gunfighting-ballet-panel almost killed me. Now I have visuals. @___@

drools

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

Not just the images (nigthtow is the best) the commentaries are very interesting and he makes me blow my mind...uowwwww n_n