Trigun

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

Trigun Volume 3: Wolfwood

By otaku_kei
18th Apr 05

Trigun has become a fan favourite across the world, and has been hotly anticipated here in the UK for quite some time. This shows mixture of action, drama and the lashings of comedy have garnered a lot of fans, but so far the first two volumes of this series have been quite meandering, with little sense of direction and only hints of a darker undercurrent to the proceedings. Here we have the third volume in a series of eight, and it is about time we start to get some direction to this show... or maybe not, lets face it with Vash at the helm anything could happen.

At the end of volume 2 Vash was seen clutching to the side of an armoured land train than has been commandeered by a bloodthirsty group of desert brigands. This classic staple of the western with the train being chased down and highjacked by bandits was handled well in the last volume, and here we have the climactic attempt by the hero to not only stop the villains, but also bring the runaway train to a stop. Vash on the other hand is far from competent when it comes to this type of thing. Cue the ridiculous shootouts where Vash dances about like a loon as all the bullets ricochet about him but almost always result in Vash coming out on top. In fact Vash's pacifist doctrine helps him to overcome this situation in the end, but of course never in the mosy obvious way.

The next two episodes of this show feature the introduction of one of the most popular characters of this series Nicholas D. Wolfwood! Much like Vash, he is a drifter, a gunman, and a man with a past that is only hinted at. Sure he may have his lighter side, butb in many ways this is the dark foil to Vash's irrepressible slapstick humour. Wolfwood's introduction also starts to bring out more of the murky history that surrounds Vash, clearly these two are being set up to become firm allies but Wolfwood is also being used as a way for Vash to bring out his more serious and introspective side. But whilst we start to get a further deepening of the serious side to the show, the action never slows down.

Trigun has had a slightly rocky start with the first two volumes being a mix of comedy and action, but not really hinting at a plotline, but that has started to change with this volume. Trigun is now starting to come together, and with the introduction of Wolfwood a darker current to proceedings is starting to come to the fore. If you have been hotly anticipating this series, but felt that the last two volumes were not delivering all that you had been promised then I really do recommend this volume as this show is starting to deliver on some of its hyped promise.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English Language 2.0; Japanese Language 2.0; English Subtitles; Weapons Design Gallery; Image Gallery; Trigun Trailer; MVM Trailers

Release information: 23rd May - Coming Soon

Notes: Once again Trigun comes packaged very nicely. The audio tracks are both faultless (as far as I can tell anyway). The menus are quick to navigate is a bit plain. The extras are slightly better than the usual UK DVD release as so far with each volume whilst we may receive the obligatory image gallery, we also get a gallery of production artwork - nice to see how much effort goes into even the littlest of details for these shows that we enjoy. The main problem with this release though is the picture quality. Not at all a fault of the discs or the DVD authoring but this show has aged quite badly, almost prematurely from when it was first made, and it is quite clear to see.

-- otaku_kei 18th Apr 05

Trigun Images