Trigun

Writer: Yasuhiro Nightow
Director: Satoshi Nishimura
Production House: Madhouse
Review Type: Anime
Status: Completed
Genre: Adventure, Action, Western, Sci-Fi
Vintage: April-September 1998
Episodes: 26


Synopsis

Trigun follows the adventures of Vash the Stampede, and the two Bernadelli Insurance Society employees who follow him, in hopes of minimizing the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. The damage is not intentionally inflictied by Vash though, and most of the damage attributed is caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the 60,000,000,000$ (sixty billion 'double dollars') bounty on Vash's head, seemingly out due to his destruction of the city of July. Vash however is experiencing amnesia at this point, and could not recall the incident clearly due to this. Vash is an advocate of non-violence, and tries to save lives without using force (his gun is even loaded with four bullets to further emphasize this point). Throughout his adventures, he is occasionally accompanied by Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a priest who like Vash is a skillful gunfighter with a mysterious past.

We gradually learn more about Vash's past as the series progresses, and also the history of human civilization on Gunsmoke (the planet where the story is set). The series is mostly light-hearted in the beginning, but the plot shifts to a more dramatic and darker situations toward its conclusion, involving moral conflict in regards of killing other living beings, even when justified (self defense or defending others). Despite all this, Vash soldiers on in pursuit of his goal, which remains shrouded in mystery until it is revealed towards the end of the series.


Chibi's Stampeding Comments

I actually came across a few of the Trigun merchandise before actually watching the anime, buying a Vash the Stampede action figure way back in 1998 (it's still standing proud in my bedroom), and upon doing some research on it a few years later (eight to be exact), I decided to give it a shot.

To my surprise, Trigun is totally the opposite of what I expected. It's an interesting series, and although you would not realize it in the first half of the series, its a deep one as well. Although the hype it generated was for different reasons, it was thoroughly deserved. The story begins like your average run-of-the-mill comedy series with its silliness, and although the characters manage to maintain the sense of humor throughout all but the most serious parts of the series, it has a definite path to where the story is going, building up to an impressive climax. The generic episode progression is merely a distraction to where the plot is heading to, and much like its characters it takes its time to get there.


Trigun is not exactly a quality series, in the sense that it has a compelling back-story and sticks to it from beginning to the end. Some of the episodes are made of unconnected incidents and are absolute no brainers, the overarching plot is not strung along with any precise writing and the drama is not heavy-handed, and it does not really seem to care. Despite this setbacks, Trigun manages to be a lot of fun, and even tackling the true meaning of pacifism in a surprisingly deep and effective manner, partly because of the feeling of the series' honesty in it's less polished production, the earnest emotional storytelling and also that of its characters, and also its apparent refusal to let things work out cleanly in its conclusion. This is what makes Trigun so memorable; it's unpretentious yet brave enough to tackle the really hard questions.

Trigun is essentially more like three series in one with very different stances on each aspect. The first half of the series rubs you off as a more classic comedy anime, with loads of likable characters, with enough depth and funny hi-jinks to keep you glued to your seat. With a feel of the Wild West coupled with an appropriate weird back-story, this series is a reasonably creative one with tons of gun-slinging action. The most appealing aspect in my opinion is the earnest examination of the love of life, forgiveness and redemption.


Trigun does an excellent job of combining the three aspects of comedy, action and moral drama surprisingly well. After a relatively light-hearted first half, it declares a change of mood with it's recap episode (all anime series has at least one to bring the viewer up to speed), reminding the viewer of it's important bits of the main plot scattered throughout the series, and even so, it paces itself slowly enough to make the transition as painless as possible. The end result is pretty enthralling, and provokes deep thought on some issues.

The selling point for me is the unusually interesting array of characters in the series. The two Bernadelli employees Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, for example, are not your usual anime babe stereotypes, with both being over 20, and a pretty refreshing change of pace. Their target, who is also a target for a whole bunch of bounty hunters, and also the center of the entire mess, is the protagonist Vash himself. In spite of being the ultimate gunslinger, Vash is also incredibly lucky and also a complete dumb-ass. This just scratches the surface on who he really is, and despite all the skill and emotional burden that plagues him, he is really a goofy kid at heart, which I really enjoyed watching.


Vash alone is more than enough to make this a quality comedy anime; with his ability to take a serious situation and turn it into an idiotic mess right before the situation gets sappier is horrendously funny to watch, and thus saves the series from taking itself too seriously. The other aspect which got my vote for Vash being one of the best leads in an anime is his unswerving and stubborn refusal to kill anyone, insisting that anybody could be forgiven for their past. This seems a little illogical at first, but it makes for some enthralling moral drama towards the end of the series.

As a contrasting character to Vash is the travelling priest Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who despite the trappings of holiness, is more merciless in his treatment of life than Vash, and the arguments between them coupled with Wolfwood's struggles with redemption, makes him a really interesting character in his own right.


The series, through Vash, emphasizes on a simple precept of 'thou shalt not kill'. A concept largely ignored, rationalized and dismissed throughout history, Trigun addresses this issue head on, and even though it does provide clear answers to the issue, a variety of differing opinions are raised by certain characters and situations, and the series is hiding plenty of gray areas behind it's obvious philosophies.

The backdrop for all this is the Western world with a sci-fi twist that doesn't come into play until the later episodes. Although the setting doesn't come off as too creative at first with its 30 feet tall mutants walking about, it is later explained how things came to be on planet Gunsmoke, and it was certainly not what I had expected.

Whilst the art and animation isn't wildly creative or spectacular, there are some nice touches in the character designs, and production quality is always good enough to keep you interested. The strong point however, is in the music of the series. From the shred-worthy guitar work in the opening (it blew me away) to a few very mellow Western tunes and a beautiful song that is a factor to the main plot, this anime has a lot of stuff to listen to.


In conclusion, Trigun is first and foremost a comedy series, and a hilarious one, added with real substance in the latter half. There's enough gunfights and goofiness to keep anyone happy with a deep engaging story that is more on a serious note, coupled with a gripping conclusion laden with serious, powerful, and thought-provoking subject matter. Best of all, the themes are comfortably compartmentalized, so it all fits together into a thoroughly enjoyable series with a message that sticks with you after it's over. Definitely worth a look.



Chibi's Review



Storyline: 4/5
Character Development: 5/5
Art: 3/5
Originality: 5/5