Vash the Stampede, an outlaw so dangerous, so fearsome and so demented that he has a bounty of $$60,000,000 (that’s double dollars for you!) placed on him. Men and women hide and their children quiver in fear under their beds just at the mention of his name, for he is known as a Humanoid Typhoon that leaves nothing standing after his passing. But bounty hunters are not the only ones looking for this man, 2 women from Bernardelli insurance company, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, are sent to evaluate the Humanoid Typhoon and keep track of him. But even tracking Vash the Stampede is not without a challenge. No one actually knows what he looks like with rumours ranging from huge man with a mohawk to a man in red with a giant gun.
Welcome to the planet Gunsmoke, a place of sand, tumbleweed, gun totting lunatics, mad scientists and plants that serve as a power source. What’s there to say about Trigun? It’s kind of anime that doesn’t need much said about it, apart from that it’s funny and entertaining to watch. It’s a kind of blast from the past you have to watch, if you are a true anime fan.
The story itself is very simple, Meryl and Milly follow around Vash the Stampede, on this very neo-westernisk world, as part of their insurance duties, trying to minimise damage done by the Humanoid Typhoon, no small task, since it’s hardly his fault for the most of the times. Later on the trio is joined up by a mysterious (aren’t they always) travelling priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, with a giant cross on his back, that serves both as a giant machine gun and a rocket launcher, talk about divine punishment! The gang gets into various random situations during the 1st half of the series, from being a bodyguard to a water magnate to getting caught up in a train robbery. Once the Gun-ho-guns show up the tone of the show turns slightly more dark, exploring slowly why these individuals hunt Vash and who Vash the Stampede really is.
Good going, Meryl!!
Speaking of Vash as a character, while all of the main cast are well rounded characters, Vash stands out a bit more. Through the whole series it is not clear what are his motivations. Is he an accidental hero, who just happens to be lucky and gets in trouble because of his wackyness? Or is it all a charade put up to fool everyone, including his friends, who is real Vash the Stampede? A hopeless pacifist who uses his extraordinary marksmanship to shoot not to kill, a man who’s responsible for destruction of a whole city, leaving only rumble behind, a man with a $$60,000,000 on his head, or something else completely? Nicholas is also another interesting character, being a sort of anti-Vash in philosophical sense. He throws aside all Vash’s beliefs, saying that all life cannot be saved without making someone else suffer.
For a 1998 anime it looks great, I was never a big fan of over caricatured villains but they are just funny to look at. While art is in itself is great, animation does suffer time to time, it didn’t really bother me much and not that noticeable unless you are really looking for faults. I really didn’t think much of Trigun’s music but Tsuneo Imahori’s guitar really grown on me over the years, I went from almost hating the opening theme to loving it. There really some awesome tunes like Blue Funk and Rem.
It's all in the doughnuts.
Summary: Trigun hardly only relies on it’s action scenes to keep the viewer interested, story, characters, humour and even philosophical musings are all there to make the ride that is known as Trigun as enjoyable as possible. It is a true classic of the anime, do yourself a favour and don’t miss out on it.
Language watched in: English, Japanese
Language recommendations: I liked both English and Japanese versions but I have to say I’m a big fan of the English dub, it’s one of those rare gems where it actually manages to sound convincingly good and fitting, just like Cowboy Bebop dub.
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There were 5 doughnuts and Marisa ate them all :/
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Last edited by TheChaos0; 01-29-2012 at 01:20 PM..
Reason: jeez amount of rubbish you write when not paying attention :/
I never watched this is along time but I have the DVD set when it was released. Its one of my most Favorited Anime ever. I remember that almost all the cities were based on Months (Augusta, May etc). Also everything was measured with a D (Gallons= Dallons). Easily worth a check out for anyone who hasent seen it. It has action, comedy, romance, drama, sci-fi all rolled into one.
05-23-2011, 12:11 AM
Linear Mode
