Review of Trigun

(PS: Originally posted on June 27, 2011) Now to be honest I wasn’t exactly going into this with high expectations. But I got to admit that I actually started liking it right when the first episode started. It really just clicked that fast for me. This review contains minor spoilers so I won’t be discussing the plot in great detail just so people can read my review and then watch it if they want to. Vashe the Stampede at first glance seems like your typical bad ass western shooter who can’t miss anything he aims at. Well the second part is definitely true but he is definitelynot your typical bad ass. If he was then it honestly would have been boring. Right in the first episode when they introduce him, he takes aim with his gun towards the villains in this whole cool looking fashion, but then he runs away screaming because he just realized that he forgot to reload his gun. Not only was it funny, but it was very surprising…and I loved it! Vashe the Stampede is a fantastic protagonist who is very unpredictable, and that is what makes him so fun to watch. The thing people also will notice is how the tone of both the story and Vashe's character changes half way through the show. Vashe goes from a comical character to a very serious and dark one. It all feels very natural however and even with all the crazy stuff that happens to him he still manages to slightly keep that comical side of him.

The other cast of characters that follow Vashe through out the story are also pulled off well. Meryl and Milly were surprisingly very good and entertaining. The character that really surprised me however was Milly. At first she seems like a dumb, dorky female who would most likely contribute nothing but comic relief…wow, was I wrong. Milly ended up being a person who might not be all there (in the brain that is) but she’s very kind hearted, strong, and willing to achieve whatever she desires. She kind of reminded me of Forrest Gump. She even gets into a relationship with the other supporting character called Wolfwood, who is also very well developed and acts like the opposite of Vashe who believes in different methods of tackling problems and situations. Wolfwood and Milly’s relationship kind of ends sadly but my problem with it is that it could have been a lot better done and even more impactful. Wolfwood and Milly share a relationship that is hinted at through out the show but we never really see much dialogue between the two. If the relationship was a lot more developed, the sad conclusion to it would have been a lot more depressing (in a really good way obviously). As for Meryl she also has her own character arc and she is kind of there to serve as a female support for Vashe. A relationship between Vashe and her is also hinted at but it never goes anywhere...again. Damn it Trigun, if you developed your relationships better, you could have been an amazing Anime!

When it comes to the enemies in Trigun, this is where the problems start showing up. The enemies and the actions scenes they contribute to are really great to watch, but my main complaint is, who exactly are these damn enemies? The bad guys are called the “Gung-Ho Guns” and they honestly come out of no where. Who are these people, why are they so strong, and why do they follow the main villain called Knives? Knives on the other hand is actually pretty cool, well developed, and has a pretty good motive. My only problem with his motive is that it basically comes out of no where as well. At first he seems like a very normal boy who is optimistic even though humans treat him like crap, and then two seconds later he’s gone evil and is killing everyone…why and what the hell happened? His story arc after that is good but that beginning part always bugged me. Also, the powers that Vashe and Knives have at their disposal are very intriguing yet it isn’t really much touched upon. Those are some serious crazy powers! Aren’t you going to look into it more…no…fine, be that way!

When it comes to the actual story, it is very well told and even though the villains have not much back story, they still contribute to the plot and to the development of the main characters quiet well. Also the futuristic aspect of the story is very cool and I never would have guessed where it was going. I actually watched the English dubbed version of Trigun so sometimes characters would talk when their mouths weren’t moving. I didn’t really care much however because the reason this was done was to have good or at least decent dialogue, dialogue that could not have been achieved if they actually followed with the lip movements of the characters. I’m not exactly sure if I should comment on the animation since I know nothing much about stuff like that, but from what I saw it was ok.

In the end, is Trigun actually worth checking out? Yes it definitely is and I had a lot of fun watching it. The characters are very good, especially the main protagonist and if your protagonist is amazing then that is definitely a good sign. I could nit-pick at the shows episodes individually by pointing out all the stupid things. An example would be in episode 21 where in which a friend of Vashe is killed at the end of the episode. They make a very big deal out of it but the problem is that Vashe only knew this friend for like 2 episodes which in Anime time was only a couple of hours. So when Vashe was crying for the loss of his friend, he would enter flashbacks of the only scenes him and this friend had together which happened literally in that episode. It was like, “how could you die friend I’ve only known for a couple of hours and I’ve only been with a couple of times!” Showing those pathetic flashbacks of them being together in that same episode just made it even worse and really funny at the same time. This of course is nit picking and I wouldn’t do that because this show is actually very good and really entertaining. It gets my recommendation stamp :)