Trigun was one of the anime I first remember watching back when I got into checking out anime again back in 2012, what I especially remember about it since I went in blind was that the show had the coolest opening ever(and it's still awesome now) where Vash is portrayed as this most badass dude ever who seemed to be this really competent gunslinger and the first episode happens and he's like the opposite of how he is portrayed in the opening, I remember that aspect hooking me, I also remember the rest of the show being pretty good and having one really good villain through Lagato Bluesummers. However, watching it now, especially the more the show goes on, I start questioning what I even found appealing about the 2nd half to begin with. It made me realize I was overly harsh on Stampede and while I don't think that show is good, it at least seemed more skillfully written than 90s Trigun. What should've been a fun trip down memory lane just got me more and more aggrevated while watching causing me to write this review in the first place. I have experienced so much fiction whether it'd be anime or other mediums that does what this show does but better.
Before I start going into what made me so apathetic towards the show as a whole, I will praise the first couple of episodes of the series. These episodes are pretty entertaining stuff, it's like if a series like Slayers were to take place in a pseudo wild west setting rather than fantasy, it's dumb over the top slapstick fun. Vash is as a protagonist is at his most tolerable here since the tone is lighthearted and silly and the episodes basically have that sitcom approach and anticipation of how will a moron like Vash get out of this wacky situation. There is a moral at the end of the episode like many of those kinds of shows, but these episodes made me realize that Trigun is really at it's best when it's more of a goofy comedy than as a serious story about morality. These episodes prevent from calling Trigun an "awful show". The character of Nicolas D. Wolfwood also carried me through the later episodes too, much like Stampede, he was the character I often rooted for over Vash, and if he wasn't in the later episodes of 90s Trigun, I doubt I would be able to get through even if his death was underwhelming.
Then Lagato Bluesummers show up and while the writing heads into sort of questionable terrority with how Vash's no kill rule causes more problems than it solves, it doesn't get extremely insufferable...yet.
Where Trigun does start to lose me is in the flashback episode with Vash and Knives in space. Apparently Vash has an evil twin brother named Knives and he was barely alluded to and didn't even make an on screen appreance beforehand, when Knives popped up in this flashback episode, if I didn't watch the series previously, I'd be like, "how the hell is this guy?" I'm also asking other questions like why is the whole idea of humanity looking for a new planet to live on suddenly being mentioned now? This is where I say Trigun Stampede is improvement because at least with that series, Rem, Knives and Vash and humanity is shown at the very first episode so you know this is a thing where in 90s Trigun, it comes so out of left field.
This is pretty much where 90s Trigun starts to annoy me more the show goes on. A serial plot gets introduced and it just feels incredibly half baked in almost every aspect to to me. On top of all this, it can all feel bizarre and out of place too. If you were one of those people who liked the show for the goofy episode comedic portions, the sudden appreance of a darker serial plot can feel out of place. At least in a story like Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex, the police case nature of the show had it's episodic crime drama feel more natural within the story since the Laughing Man case often had dead ends and the titular character himself would hide and reappear after a couple of episodes. Samurai Champloo is about over the top wacky hijinks with occasional serious episodes with a loose excuse plot about looking for the Sunflower Samurai.
This leads me to my next issue, the pacing is absolutely dreadful from episodes 18-23. Knives gets spotted in some abandoned town and it's established that he is Vash's archnemesis and he has to stop him but it takes at least 5 episodes to actually get to the town where Knives is spotted, this wouldn't be so bad if the show was episodic but this is the writers' attempt at a serial story and as a result, you could go to episode 18 and skip all the way up to episode 23 and nothing of geniune value would be lost, at the most all you have to do is just fast forward and skip to when Meryl and Millie meet Vash again and that's it. Wolfwood even knew where Knives' true location was the whole time which makes these episodes even more pointless.
Next isssue are Trigun's villains and I remember particularly Lagato being well written and after watching the show again now, I'm not so sure. His introduction and his conclusion are good but everything inbetween is just dull and boring. All he does is send in Gung Ho Gun members after Vash and that's about it. Speaking of the Gung Ho Guns, they graudated from the Metal Gear Solid 3 school of villain characterization where they have over the top names and looks but often don't survive more than one encounter against the heroes and don't have much in the way of characterization other than they are evil and they in the way of Vash and Wolfwood. The only Gung Ho Gun who actually amounts to anything is Wolfwood's teacher since he killed the guy but he gets killed off in the first few minutes after the Wolfwood death episode, you think he might be important but no.
This is where I propose that Lagato should've been cut out of the story entirely and should've been Knives doing all the dirty work the former was going. The backstory of Lagato and the Gung Ho Guns are never explained or even how Knives' doomsday plan or goals of wiping out humanity was going to work or what plants even are? If Knives was the one giving the orders to Gung Ho Guns, was the one who killed Wolfwood, and was the guy making Vash's life a living hell instead of Lagato, it would make him a much more memorable villain. Stampede even does this to varying degrees where Knives in that show destroys towns and is more of a geniune nuisance to Vash and did more outside of killing Rem. Sure, the part where Vash has to make the decision to take a life would a little harder to do since Vash does need to fight Knives at the end but you could have a new villain introduced where he antagonizes Vash for a while and almost kills Vash's friends and he is so powerful that Vash has to take his life. It's a little weird but considering how little Lagato does after his intro, nothing of much value would be lost. Knives being the one who killed Wolfwood would make the latter cross weapon getting the win for Vash that much more poetic.
The biggest issue I have with the serialized episodes of Trigun if Vash himself especially now that the story takes itself more seriously. I'm not a big fan of pacifist characters in fiction but Vash is a sub standard one even within the context of those kinds of characters. Everything about Vash's morals and everything he knew was because he got brainwashed by Rem, not because he geniunely came to those conclusions. Every time he comtemplates anything, it's often what, Rem would do not what he would do. It's hard to take a character seriously when they got brainwashed by a woman who has been dead for so long.
Compare this to characters like Kenshin Himura and Thorfinn, they both killed many people and often have to struggle with the horrible things they have done but eventually when they choose the life of a pacifist, it isn't because someone told them to do it, the conclusion was because of their struggles.
The biggest problem with Vash however is just how much his actions geniunely doesn't lead to anything beneficial especially in the long term. He spares the villain or takes too long to neutralize them and many innocents die. The worst of this is when he destroyed the lives of the people on the Flying Ship and even caused Brad's death, or how not killing the Gung Ho Gun attacking the plant destroyed the ship. It's never even explained what happened to those people but the show just keeps doing this. Every time Vash shows compassion, it either leads to even more undesirable outcomes and humanity hating him even more. The show ultimately proves that Knives was right but not because of his actions but because Vash's idealism gets him nowhere. It rarely if ever gets to anything desirable.
Compare this to other stories like Dragon Ball where Goku sparing Piccolo and Vegeta actually turns out to be a positive in the long run and turns out to be very valuable allies.
In superhero hero stories like Superman, Spider-Man and Batman, in many of the versions of these characters, the respective cities for these characters come to accept these characters.
The DCEU has Superman initially be mistrusting of humanity, but throughout Man of Steel, he gets the respect of Lois and the military and by the Synder Cut of Justice League, humanity embraces Superman as a symbol of hope. Does Vash really get any of this? My issue is that a lot of what Vash does never leads to anything long term, Meryl and Millie respect him, some villagers do but at the end of the day, most of humanity fears and hates Vash even by the end of Trigun, not much has changed.
This leads to my final issue, the ending is just awful. Not much has changed and that promised land that Vash was telling Wolfwood about and took the moral high ground on him over never even happened. Did Knives realize the error of his ways or was his crippled so hard that he can't move anymore? If it's the former, then the face turn is too sudden and if it's the latter then Knives probably prefers to be dead than live with Vash. The whole thing felt like the animators ran out of money.
Overall, I wanted 90s Trigun to be a fun trip down memory lane but all it did was make me question what teenage me saw in the show. The comedic episodes are fun but the show stops doing them and introduced a seralized plot that is just half baked and poorly executed that if it weren't for the sunk cost fallacy and Nicolas Wolfwood, I would've dropped a while ago. I wouldn't call Trigun a terrible show since I enjoy parts of it but I do not want to watch it again.
Badlands Rumble Review:
I'm not the biggest Trigun fan in the world and even back when I was a fan of it, I always remembered this movie being boring and dull. I decided to watch it again for a 3rd time to see if that opinion of mine still held water and yes, it still does. Anime movies based on TV series tends to be a hit or miss but Trigun Badlands Rumble feels like it got made because Madhouse wanted a quick buck. Compared this movie to Cowboy Bebop Knockin on Heaven's Door and everything about the former feels like a bad unfunny joke. I'm not the biggest fan of Cowboy Bebop either but Knockin on Heaven's Door was solid. Badlands Rumble isn't.
First of all, I'm just wondering how this movie is even for this if you never watched Trigun, the movie never goes over enough of the bare minimum to understand the characters and the world. At least Dragon Ball Z movies pre Battle of Gods was just a small diet version of what you find in the DBZ show and even movies like Full Metal Alchemist the Conquer of Shamballa and Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex Solid State Society were extended epilogues of their own series. As Trigun fans, Badlands Rumble offers barely any interesting fights, villains or even new plot relevations that weren't in the show. It almost feels like an anime filler episode with a budget.
I already dislike Vash as a character and this movie made me question his philosophy in life even more. In the series, it was questionable that the only reason he has pacifist morals is because a woman long dead told him to do so but in the movie, I just question what on earth does Vash gain by not even at the very least neutralizing his enemies. Vash thinks by not inflicting pain on top of not killing prevents possible slippery slopes from occuring but that is some questionable logic, and Vash ultimately proves that his ideals don't always work since he ends up shooting a guy in the hand and neutralizing Gasback anyway.
At the start of the movie, Vash not only lets a bank get robbed, he doesn't even neutralize Gasback from possibly ruining the lives of other people. To add insult to injury, Vash always had the ability to beat Gasback with geniune ease but chooses not to because of some lousy and questionable sense of righteousness that still causes slippery slopes to happen.
Speaking of Gasback, he's sort of okay due to his english voice actor, but the only reason he's even a threat at all is because Vash refuses to take action in stopping him, he's pathetically weak otherwise. It also doesn't help that Vash gets a clean win over him in less than 5 minutes towards the end of the movie which is also their first and only fight they have even the most forgettable of DBZ movie villains put more of a fight than Gasback does.
The action is pretty forgettable and so are the characters. Wolfwood is nothing more than a hired gun, has no unique subplot of his own and we learn nothing new about him. Ameila is just dull and boring since her relationship with Vash is the latter trying and failing to hook up with her and the movie doesn't even do a good job at establishing that Amelia is good with guns or why she hates men so much. Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson are just there too.
Overall, I disliked this movie when I watched it and I dislike the movie now. I'm only writing this review at all so I can just bury the hatchet it with this series and honestly, I'm not even sure if I have the energy in me to watch the 2nd cour of Trigun Stampede due to how much I can't stand Vash. I'd honestly rather watch stuff like Yugioh the Pyramid of Light over stuff like this, however I can't say it angers me as much as Saint Seiya Heaven's Overture does but that is saying very little.
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