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Anime Expo - Friday - Yasuhiro Nightow
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In 1998, manga artist Yasuhiro Nightow attended Anime
Expo as part of a Madhouse promotion which included the animated version
of his Trigun series. That appearance helped launch Trigun in the U.S.,
leading to a rash of Vash the Stampede costumers and the release of the
series on U.S. home video. Nightow was welcomed as a conquering hero when
he returned to Anime Expo in 2000 - and he was pleasantly surprised by
the fans' reaction. |
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"I was feeling pure delight. I was speechless. I
couldn't think of anything right to say," Nightow recalled about the cheers
he received at the Friday morning opening ceremonies. "On the other side
of the Pacific, it's hard to tell if that's happening." Not only is Trigun
selling well in the U.S., it's spawned a series of action figures to be
sold by Todd McFarlane's company in North america, Nightow noted. |
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While Nightow's drawings don't look American, he
takes much of his inspiration from U.S. comics such as Hard Boiled and
Hellboy (enjoying that series' minimalist, impressionist art). Nightow
keeps track of movies, fashion magazines and even garage kits for elements
to put in his stories (he really likes Art Storm model figures). Nightow's
biggest opportunity may have come when he was hired for the manga adaptation
of the Samurai Spirits video game, where "I could create what I liked with
the plot," a dream come true for a man who said he's a fan of that game. |
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Ironically, the original Trigun manga had a ignominious
fate in Japan when the magazine folded that was publishing that series.
Nightow scrambled to find a new publisher and the series is still running,
but he had to make a small change in the title (to Trigun Maximum) to please
the new publisher. despite the name, the new series is a continuation of
the original Trigun. |
