Review of Trigun

I saw Trigun long before Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III or Samurai Champloo. That was almost 20 years ago. I am conflicted and it's likely that I am not the only one. 10 years ago I started my first rewatch of the series. Full of anticipation and certainty of all the goodness that has faded from memory and would provide both comforting nostalgia and crispy cool freshness. I was surely in for a blast. - But then I wasn't. Vash the Stampede was a game-changer for me as a young boy. Growing up with Hero magazines from Marvel, DC and Calvin & Hobbes.. I had thetwisted yearning for being expressively special.
Vash was the first character that I was not identifying with, yet found genuinely likable. Understanding a character is vastly different from wanting to be it. Vash will forever be synonymous for the embrace of awkwardness, curiosity, unassuming play and pretend. For the progression and liberation from skill and ability.
While Alita, Son Goku, Tsubasa, Shinji, Spider Man, Spawn and the rest of the ragtag bunch kept spiraling in perpetual progress: getting stronger, meeting someone stronger than them, facing a problem beyond their ability, falling headfirst into traps and ridiculous encounters,
Vash presented a radically different view I believed - and it taught me an important lesson on whats beyond the unforgiving path to Mastery.
Its the reason why no Hero could ever be allowed to actually become one: a Master can only progress to a Dilettante.
And to me, this is the only lesson worth learning from Trigun.
For the past 10 years I have attempted numerous rewatches of the show.. and if it weren't for my unshakable positive first impression, I wouldn't have bothered to keep trying.
The show features a bunch of memorable characters, each of which has great potential, but fails to bring them to life. Nothing really comes together and at no point the story or people follow through. Just endless repetitions of characters acting themselves out.
The jokes, satirical plays, witty remarks and jumbled up world-setting are worn down after two or three episodes. What follows is an arduous exercise of waiting through same same and potaito potahto, tomaito tomahto for the occasional "reveal".
As Triguns characters are widely set in stone there is not much progression overall. Instead it works the angle of disclosing parts of their inner workings that shed light on the goofy facade of comic relief.
However: the mind, heart and soul, along with the past, are closely guarded secrets - and behind every dirt-road, sand-pile and saloon door waits the next mad max punk, creditor, bounty hunter, crazy priest and pistolero. everyone is penniless, homeless and aimless. Yet they manage to lay waste to whatever little there is.
It keeps the cast busy and in dire straits - and a reason to limit the "reveals" to a breadcrumb trail.
Vash the gunslinging master evades and ducks and redirects whatever this hostile world throws at him. Whats missing aren't just the throws - they're merely the visible representations of a show that barely makes contact at all. Trigun has many inspiring elements.
That it inspired others who made it count might be its only justification as a highly acclaimed classic.

Or am I missing something?