Trigun

Director
Satoshi Nishimura
Production
Madhouse, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
1998

Trigun

By Eric
23rd May 04

Vash is a dork!

Seriously, Vash the Stampede may just be the nerdiest, geekiest protagonist EVER, anime or otherwise. And yet, I just love the guy. He's bound to grow on you.

He may just seem like an ordinary poindexter, but watching Vash, you slowly come to realize that he is more than he allows people to see. The $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head makes him a popular target, yet he always manages to get out of a scrape virtually unharmed, and he rarely even draws his weapon. When he does, he's a crack shot, though.

On his adventures, Vash meets all sorts of people, including two insurance girls who follow him around to make sure he doesn't become a liability for the insurance company they work for and a gun-toting priest. Sounds like it's not really going anywhere, does it? Well, for about 13 episodes, it doesn't. Around half of the series is used just to establish the characters and show the viewer what kind of person Vash really is. It's useful information, but there's no continuity, and isn't continuity something that all (decent) animes have?

The second half of the series really picks up, and Vash must confront his past and a team of assassins hired by...well, that'd be a spoiler if I told you. Needless to say, it's very action packed.

It's a great series with likable characters, but there are some issues to be addressed. In addition to the continuity problem, Trigun sometimes sets up a potentially exciting and action-packed scene, only to end it in a disap pointing way. While the final episode has one of the best gunfights ever seen, Vash's prior showdown with the evil Legato is one of the lamest things I've ever seen, even if the outcome is important for plot development. Also, the villains of Trigun are motivated only by hatred. They have no reason to want to kill every human on the planet, they just don't like people. It's hard to take a villain seriously when he has an attitude like a nihilistic teenager in a mosh pit.

Don't let this shy you away from Trigun completely. It's still a decent, fun anime to watch, and it has a very large (but specific) fanbase. Try watching a few episodes before you plunk your money down for the DVDs. It might turn out to be the anime you've always wanted, despite its flaws.

7/10

-- Eric 23rd May 04

Trigun Images