Trigun is a sci-fi western anime series adapted from a manga of the same name written by Yasuhiro Nightow. Produced by Madhouse animation studio in 1998, the series originally debuted in America on Adult Swim in 2003 and has a total of 26 episodes. With the recent announcement of a new adaptation coming in 2023, I decided to watch the original series on Hulu as I never watched it growing up.

The story follows legendary outlaw Vash the Stampede, who has a price of sixty billion double dollars on his head. The series chronicles his adventures across an unnamed desert planet. He is constantly pursued throughout his travels by two women from the Bernardelli Insurance society who have been assigned to handle any claims for damages caused by his destructive reputation. Upon finally meeting Vash, the girls discover he isn’t anything like his reputation would suggest.

I’ve heard a lot of positive things about this series over the years and enjoy a good western, but as with any anime I am cautiously optimistic going into it. I’ve often found myself disappointed by a majority of popular series touted as the greatest among the genre by fans and am easily irritated by common storytelling tropes that abound in anime. Nonetheless, I will always give each series a fair bit of leeway if the narrative manages to grab me.

Let’s discuss general positives first. I love Vash’s character design. He oozes style and looks quite different from the typical cowboy of a western series, which helps him feel distinct. I also enjoy the creative weaponry that many of the antagonists utilize throughout the series. It makes every encounter feel unique and ensures some nice diversity amongst the gun battles. The music is also very enjoyable. It’s subtle but has many distinctive instrumentals that add to story moments. Unfortunately, the editing often hampers this and there are a few moments where the background music doesn’t fit the tone of a scene, creating some unintentionally funny moments.

Though the series starts off very episodic in nature, hints of a more in-depth overarching narrative are scattered throughout the first half. Although this causes the first half to be somewhat dull, I like that we don’t know everything about Vash right from the beginning. It helps to build up the drama later when it is revealed how Vash gained both his fearsome reputation and the strict moral codes he lives by.

Most of my criticism for the series revolves around these early episodes, as the plot meanders a little too long introducing a variety of goofy gags and side characters that become quickly tiresome. Even though 26 episodes is rather short by anime standards, I think this could be cut down even more. There are quite a few episodes that provide needless filler. They enforce the same themes over and over as Vash tries desperately to avoid conflict and yells at people to not kill one another.

The dub here is also awful, with so much goofy, awkward dialogue. If you’ve ever watched those classic 80s kung-fu movies, it’s just like that. I only mention this because I’m sure it’s easily remedied by watching the original audio with subtitles so if that bothers you I would recommend finding that version. For me though, this wasn’t a huge issue as I think it is part of the charm of these late 90s anime.

The second half of the series is certainly much stronger. Vash encounters the Gung-Ho guns, elite assassins under the employ of the main antagonist who have orders to kill Vash and provide a nice challenge for his skills. The introduction of Nicholas D. Wolfwood to the group adds a much-needed active personality to contrast Vash’s pacifism. This helps to flesh out his internal struggles later on. Episodes begin to discuss more complex themes focusing on the cycle of violence, post-traumatic stress, guilt, and the imperfection of humanity. It’s here that the early filler episodes pay off as the friendship between the characters is so believable that it breaks your heart a little to see them in pain.

The final four episodes of the series deliver an extremely satisfying final conflict with a decent enough ending. Although the religious allegory is constantly bashing the viewer over the head, I still enjoyed the way things play out. I feel the episodes “Paradise” and “Sin” are the series’ strongest as the characters face legitimate consequences for each action taken.

The story presented by Trigun is far from perfect. There are aspects of the worldbuilding the series chooses to leave ambiguous. As a result, this causes confusion in later episodes. The editing really could use work and often exposed more plot holes or had me questioning what exactly happened in an action scene. However. I still ended up enjoying my time with the series. I wouldn’t say it’s as fantastic as most people would have you believe, but If you haven’t seen much anime and want something fun to watch I would give it a try.

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Trigun

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Cool weapons and final fight
• Engaging second half

Cons

• Terrible editing
• Lots of forgettable episodes
• Grating humor