Review of Trigun

Trigun is about a man called Vash the Stampede and his exploits on a dusty and western oriented planet where morality is about as abundant as trees in this world. There are like, no trees by the way. There are a couple, but they are few and far between. But that doesn't do the characters or the story justice. Not at all. Which brings me to how I want to talk about the characters and how the show itself lays itself out. Vash the Stampede I think, could be considered one of the most unique protagonists of all time. We see how skilled he is, infact he is godlike levels of skilled mentally and physically. But Vash is far from perfect and part of what makes him so great is his inner struggle to do what's right the right way, and whether or not what he does and how he thinks is right à la our primary foil Nicholas D. Wolfwood (another likable yet somewhat anti heroic character) and the various villains he meets. However, Vash himself can also be a major turn off from the show itself because I have found that people find him obnoxious and grating. I would have to disagree as whatever he has that makes him obnoxious or grating is also part of how well his character is written, but he is for sure a make-it or break-it for this show, as it's all very focused on him.

Now of course what's also important is Trigun's "structure." The first half of Trigun is highly episodic and fleshes out it's interesting if not gritty world and it's characters, especially our blonde blue eyed hero Vash and to a degree the other proteagonists that remain constants like Milly, Meryl, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Vash's foil). This episodic approach works pretty well and because of it the cast is incredibly hard to forget. Part of this episodic approach is also mainly because it is a sort of "filler" from the original manga (read that shit too) but despite this is still highly entertaining. So for bit, Trigun remains a show that is part action, part comedy, part philosophical, a bit dark, and entirely fun.

Then, we have the second half. It keeps all of the action, most of the comedy, but gets much darker. Because in the second half of Trigun we get a concrete plot and an exploration of Vash's past and the part he plays in the world that has been developed. It's here I think that Trigun really hits the top of my list and stays there nigh unmovable. It's here that Trigun's themes of morality and doing the "right" thing are examined. It introduces bad guys that directly conflict with Vash in more than just a physical sense leading to the end villain: The cat in every episode. Yes, it's the cat. Just kidding, you'll have to watch the show to see how everything plays out.

Now, you have to keep in minds that this came out in the 90's and it looks a bit dated. It is nonetheless very fluid with it's animation and the action is fantastic. You could also argue that it's dated look adds to the show's charm in how gritty the world of Trigun is. Over all, it does it's job well and I have for the most part have no complaints with it despite the age.

So now we have one more category I would like to address. That would be the sound which includes both the OST and voice acting. The soundtrack, is in fact great. It has a slight shriek to it along with fitting guitar and funky synth. It works incredibly well with Trigun and to top it off the voice acting is pretty much perfect as well, subbed and dubbed. The subbed version is great, the voice actors all fit and do excellent jobs. Yet, I have to say watch the dub. Because as well as the Japanese actors fit nothing can compare to the English ones. I will defend Trigun's dub to the very end due to A. how well it fits the western theme and B. because of the voice actors themselves. Now I will tell you that I want to have sex with a couple of voices in this world. Two of those are Johnny Yong Bosch and Jeff Nimoy. Guess who plays Vash and Nicholas? Those two, and to this day I think there are not more perfect voices for them, Johnny with his ridiculously soft and almost... angelic voice which is perfect for Vash and Nemoy's cool but kind of rough voice that does Wolfwood's original kansai dialect English justice.

So if there's anything that I hope you got from this 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 (holy shit) paragraph review it's that I thoroughly enjoyed Trigun and I think you might too if you give it a shot.

Trigun gets a 10/10 from me and I do not regret watching it.