Review of Trigun

26 episodes of a revolutionary anime that mixed comedy and drama flawlessly. This anime found great popularity in the U.S. and for good reason. Like Wings of Honneamise, it very thoughtfully combined religious themes and pacifism in a morality tale. The first half of the series introduces the characters, and may turn some people off by its silliness, but it makes sense throughout the second half. If the entire thing was completely serious, Vash's character development wouldn't have the same effect. The music is very subtle and gets the job done. It's not overly noticeable, and compliments the scenes quite well. I heard one of themembers of the band Black Mages composed the music. The music is very recognizable and memorable for how simple it is.

The characters are extremely well developed and human. Vash the stampede is one of the most multi-dimensional characters created in anime. You may be constantly asking yourself questions about him. So is he a womanizer or a gentleman? Is he a killer or a pacifist? A goofball or a serious, stern person? All of it is very well developed and lets you know that Vash doesn't have just one side to him. His friend Wolfwood is also very multi-dimensional and developed.

The animation and drawings in Trigun are not so great. They are in fact very mediocre, which is a shame. Many of the lines are drawn poorly, unevenly and the movement is often very choppy and of a low frame-rate (some of the episodes don't suffer from this, however). The lower quality animation is probably a budget issue, so it's a little easier to forgive. It must be extremely difficult to craft such a great series under so much pressure.

However, it's definitely one of the greatest moral dramatic comedies I've ever seen. The last few episodes left an impression on me; the show has a very clear and valuable message that has staying power. If you are up for a nice 26 episode series to laugh and cry with, give Trigun a whirl.