I plan on buying it. I've read some of it, fantranslated and non. I don't know Japanese, so I guess I couldn't really "read" what I've seen not-fantranslated.
I don't mind gore. In fact... most of the time, I rather like it. Seriously... you should be in a dramatic-style roleplay with me sometime... gah! I love writing creepy things. I'm also a fan of such titles as "Petshop of Horrors" (both the anime and the manga, in which I found the most disturbing thing - in both... the thing with the rabbit/babies. I won't tell you what the thing with the rabbits is, to avoid spoiling), and "Blade of the Immortal". (Blade of the Immortal is terribly, terribly gorey. It's a great story, but it is filled with vengence and blood). I also watched the anime Hellsing and enjoyed it. In fact, during the first episode I was all ecstatic: "BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" If you are squeamish about gore... I say to definitely stay away from Hellsing. Nearly every scene is bloody.
Because of some of the stuff I've written in roleplays... I was dubbed by one of my friends "the master of gross".
I plan to put warnings when I post a link to my webcomic. I have... a weird, post-apocalyptic webcomic. It has heavy Christian themes in it (NO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BOOK OF REVELATION AT ALL!), but... major themes in it are war and death, and I do put a lot of blood in it. I've told my roleplay friends, in a disscussion of things like Porn without Plot in writing (which is something that I WILL NOT read)... that if I were to write something pointless and "all bad"... it would probably be splatterpunk.
Really, I am a gentle soul. I have a high respect for life in all its forms. I frequently get Rem Saverem on "What Trigun Character Are You?" quizzes. (Like the one MillyFan has in her sig... I got the same result)... but, in fiction, I rather like blood. I am a strange, morbid individual.
A friend downloaded and burned to CD for me (because my internet is fricking slow) all of the first Trigun manga with fantranslation in the actual panels. I greatly enjoyed reading it. I found things I like better about the anime, and things I like better about the manga. For instance, I like the manga Plants better. They seem to be a little more elaborated on and I love the way they are drawn. (I'm a freak for well-drawn feathers). I like Vash's personality a bit better in the anime, though. He's a little... gentler and goofier. Manga Vash still fights for Love and Peace, though! I like his scars better in the manga, though, because there seem to be more of them. This is understandable - that's an animation thing. The fewer details you have in someting, the easier it is to keep consistant with the mulitiple drawings it takes to do animation. (I'm still flabbergasted by the level of detail in the Petshop of Horrors anime... Count D's robes... those animators must have had nearly the paiteince of God!)
There is more blood shown in the manga. In first run Trigun,
SPOILER!
Vash finds Monev crucified out in the desert. One of his legs is cut off... trailing blood. Rather gorey.
I own a copy of Trigun Maxium 3, without translation. My boyfriend got it for me when he went to Otakon and had it signed by Nightow. ^_^. It deals with the events that were, in the anime, the battle in Sky City, with some diffrences.
SPOILERS!
I liked many aspects of it. In the manga, Hoppered isn't in the Sky City... instead, Vash fights Leonof. There are the vast armies of evil puppets. Vash finds out that there are real people mixed in with the puppets who try to kill him. He accidently shoots a girl in the shoulder, and he winds up carrying her around, trying to protect her. Aww.... I also loved the scene where Vash was trying to save Leonof's life in the end...
Wolfwood's battle with Grey the Ninelives... was A LOT gorier. I mean A LOT! In the anime, Grey is a robot. In the manga... he's some sort of flesh-puppet controled by nine dwarves that are inside him. Wolfwood blasts away at Grey, but the surviving members just keep coming for him... there are scenes where blown apart Grey is walking towards him... ribs all stuck out and trailing massive entrails. There is also this scene where Wolfwood, trying to escape Grey, seals a big door on the ship while Grey is coming for him. This cuts off one of Grey's hands... WHICH CONTINUES TO COME FOR HIM! Ooooh, that sent delicious chills up my spine!
I plan on buying and reading the translated Trigun manga myself... all of it I can get my hands on. From what I read, I do think I like the anime better (and probably I like it better mainly because it has a conclusion... where as the manga just seems to be going on forever... I always have the fear that if a story goes on for too long, that it will get ruined, like "The X-Files"... I like open endings, but after a while, things just must end). I am interested in the alternate storyline, and I'm interested in learning deeper stuff about Vash, the Plants, the Gung Ho Guns, and the world in general. I have undying respect for Nightow for creating the world that he created, and the character of Vash, and I love his cute little humor autobiographical comics at the end of the volumes. ^_^. I hope I'll like the manga, I really hope I do. I believe I can stomach it, certainly. I don't mind gore.