TriMax 6 Chapter 5

[tiggymalvern]

Chapter Five - 'Iro Naki Soubou' (Colourless Features)

More scanning decision traumas - so much going on in this one, with Vashiness and major turning points in relationships and plot.


Sumire's full translation here.

Page 123. Yet another town. Milly's helping one of the local kids with painting, and looks surprised to see Vash heading into the church.


Page 125. Meryl and Milly discuss Vash - he's acting the same as he did before, but Milly knows something's off.


Page 127. Vash listens to the sermon, thinking there's no-one who can forgive his sins. He can't forgive himself.


Page 128. Vash is confronted by one of his old Wanted posters, and his laughing attempts to deny his identity aren't working.


Page 133. Outside the church, there's a whole gang of armed men waiting. They're laughing at Vash and throwing bottles at him. Meryl and Milly are among the watching crowd. Wolfwood hears the commotion and initially takes the cautious approach. I love that central picture of Vash, heavily shadowed.


Page 134. The scene is interrupted by an announcement from the radio that was playing - there's been a mass murder with a huge blade.... (Vash's clenched fist at the top - so good.)


Page 136. And with Knives on the move again, Wolfwood figures it's time to stop pissing around in this crappy little town. No pistols, the big gun's coming straight out.


Page 143. Several pages of gunfire later, and there's a bullet headed right for Vash...


Page 144. ...until an Angel Arm tendril snatches it right of the air. Vash's face at the bottom there...


Page 145. Meryl screams, flashing back rather unpleasantly to fucked-up-crazy!Vash, and Milly grabs her. Vash hits the deck, and the bullet drops out of the curling feather.


Page 146. "Shit," says Vash. Oh, yeah. That's now one very scared and angry mob glaring at him. Again with the starkly shadowed face at the bottom - I seriously fangirl Nightow's art choices sometimes ♥


Page 147. The mob start throwing anything they can lay their hands on - rocks, mostly. They're not at all inclined to listen to Wolfwood at this point.


Page 149. Vash, with blood running down his face, thanks the girls and apologises. He reaches out to Meryl, who shrinks back further into Milly's arms.


Page 150. Milly cries and clutches Meryl as the guys head off fast, and a little kid tries to stop the stone-throwing. "Stop it, Vash isn't like that!!"


And so Vash is down to one person who'll stick with him.

Comments

[jaina.livejournal.com]

You didn't scan it, but the panel where Vash is smiling after Meryl shrinks away just KILLS me every time. Meryl's reaction is kinda understandable, but gah...I want to cry when I see it.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually missed anything out there - I think Jaina must be mis-remembering. Those 2 pages where Meryl shrinks away and then the guys run are the last two. There's the page before, where he first approaches Meryl and Milly through the hail of rocks and he's got this awful, pained smile on his face as he tries to reassure them. That's really sad.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The decision to stay away from Vash at this point is really the only sane one. He can't control the Angel thing, he's a genuine danger. Any sensible person would keep clear, and I don't blame Meryl for that in the least. It would have been better for Vash if she'd come to that decision logically rather than giving him the leper moment, but it's honestly no surprise.

Wolfwood's something of a special case. He's playing a very different game with much higher stakes, he has no real expectations of dying of old age. But Meryl has plans for a long, quiet life, assuming Knives doesn't blast everyone to bits, and it makes sense for her and Milly to stop following Vash.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's even so much that as it is that if the last time I saw a guy do the angel thingie I got blasted with tons of his most traumatic memories, I'd freak the next time I saw it, too. That's the way other translation-y people have always described it, anyway.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Either way you read it, he genuinely scares her, and that's not exactly unreasonable.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I adore this book for chapters 1,2 and 5, and this one is probably my favourite, yeah. There's so much going on in it, and Vash just kills me.

The contrast between Wolfwood here and the last time we saw him is impressive - for a guy who was considering shooting Vash in the head not long ago, he's so quick to defend him here. One thing I love about Wolfwood is he doesn't do things half-way. Once he's decided he's sticking with Vash, that goes for all circumstances and nothing shakes him now.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

They're in no hurry to let go of my brain. Eighteen months of complete obsession adn counting....

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Great plan! That must mean you owe us all a couple of porn pieces :-)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Hon, if you write it, I'll want to eat it XDDDDD

I do like plot, I do! I gave you all the non-porny Daibousou love, didn't I?

[andmydog.livejournal.com]

I approve of this plan! This is a good plan!

[techno4tomcats.livejournal.com]

*burbles with fangirly-happiness*

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

This chapter does that to everyone, I think. It's just perfect Trigun, all painful and lovely.

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

For me is one of the saddest chapters in all the Maximum's mangas. Yeah, are beauty images, like Vash in the Church, or be surrounder by the mob, or when the bad guy speaks clear and loud about Vash sins...very painful, but more than anything,to see Vash being rejected by Meryl. ;_;

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's hurting all through this chapter, and then to have Meryl so scared of him at the end there, that's got to cut deep. But at least Wolfwood sticks with him. I find it really lovely that Vash never thinks he won't. Even after Meryl treats him like that, he just assumes Wolfwood is still coming with him.

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Aw, poor Vash! This is one of those Awww, things. And you're so right, some of those artistic scenes are wonderful! That shading is superb. However, I think I must be one of the few people in the world to actually prefer Anime Meryl over Manga Meryl. Don't know why the Meryl as I've seen her here so far is a bit... meh. But you know, maybe I'm not seeing the right bits.
But anyway, I LOVE Vash's wanted poster, his BIG grin for it! So very sweet!

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

yes, the anime meryl is so proactive about her feelings.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Really? You think so? She's utterly repressed, incapable of expressing her real thoughts to anyone but Milly as I see her. That's the one respect in which manga Meryl and anime Meryl have anything much in common.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

You're not alone. I like her better, too.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Nightow's design choices here are really inspired in places. Just gorgeous.

I have problems with anime Meryl. She's very anal, and she spends a lot of time living in her personal fantasy construct, both qualities I find really irritating in people, living or fictional. Manga Meryl is someone I could see as a friend, practical and brave and fun-loving. If I met anime Meryl I'd want to slap her and tell her to get with the real world. I just don't have much patience with romantics. It's a very personal reaction, and one that's going to be different for other people.

Vash's Wanted poster is just so very early Vash, isn't it? And that's why it's such a perfect contrast with the guy sitting in the church. But, of course, being Vash, he switches personalities to the grinning idiot in a second in reponse to the situation.

I love Vash. So much.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

She does. And that must mean a hell of a lot to Vash, especially then.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Nightow makes the mob look very sinister, all shadowy figures with glowing eyes. Talk about the stuff of nightmare.

So it's down to him and Wolfwood. Which feels right, somehow.

Inevitable, I think. Those two know and understand what's going on, and are prepared to deal with it, in a way nobody else really can. But hey, I don't hide my biases!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

And more XD

Randoms squeeings...

[andmydog.livejournal.com]

The expression on Vash's face when the Arm catches the bullet... my god but Nightow just keeps improving with the faces! Vash looks fucking terrified with a side of "the fuck?! and just a dash of "oh, that was useful".

And the shadows, and the utter isolation with the silhouettes and the shading lines... so pretty.
Page 127. Worn hard and put away wet. Nice contrast with the poster the next page down.

Re: Randoms squeeings...

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

There's so much going on in that expression. He's just been angsting over all the bad shit and the dead people, and there it is again, his freaky power, and he had absolutely no idea it was going to happen. That's got to be some scary stuff.

P127 - worn very hard, yeah. All the lines, the dark shadows under his eyes. Damn, he's having it rough. And it just gets worse....

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Meryl's reaction is so right and logical and self-preserving-- but that's what makes it so devastating.

I agree with andmydog; there's just something about Vash's expression in that bullet-snatch panel. "That would be really cool if it wasn't completely freaking my shit out."

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Vash already knows himself that he's out-of-control dangerous, and then his friends hit him with it like that. Poor guy.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

...and then there's Wolfwood. Guh.

[glass-bullet.livejournal.com]

It's almost enough to mkae me feel sad for him. :[

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Oooh, harsh ;-)

[glass-bullet.livejournal.com]

hehe. He needs a hug, but I don't feel for Vash very often.