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Anime Expo fans who attended the Madhouse panel on Friday got an eyeful
of Trigun, a late-night anime series airing in Japan. The retro-future
techno-punk Western has a striking design. Trigun is based on a manga series
created by Yasuhiro Naito, who was a last-minute addition to Anime Expo's
guests of honor. |
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Naito wanted to draw a "gun action" story, but "I needed a situation
where even if you fire a lot of guns you won't have any police around."
That led Naito the set his series in the American West, but with mecha
and cyborgs. Since the biggest mecha on the frontier in the 1890's were
steam engines, Naito had to create the alternate universe for Trigun. |
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Like most manga and anime, Trigun is a melodrama at heart, and Naito
said "The theme is rather sentimental." The main character is not a typical
outlaw: while he's a master gunfighter, he's also a pacifist. "He'd rather
apologize then get into a gunfight," said Naito. Ironically, Naito said
that he has not seen many Western movies. |
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Trigun is Naito's first serialized manga series, and helped cement
his move away from a salaryman's life and toward an artists' career. While
Naito was working at an ordinary job he was drawing doujinshi. He won an
award from Super Jump magazine for one of his doujinshi, which led to his
professional contract and then to the Trigun manga, which then led to the
anime. |
