Trigun Stampede

[neflight86]

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"* Based on a post-apocalyptic gun-action manga by Naitou Yasuhiro.

On the forbidding desert world of Gunsmoke, a mysterious bounty hangs above the head of Vash the Stampede, and the gunslinging pacifist can't seem to find a moment's respite. Vash is no ordinary pistolero, packing a weapon capable of punching holes in a planet, which explains why the locals tremble at the very mention of his name. But sixty billion double dollars is no ordinary reward, and every trigger-happy psycho in creation is aiming to claim Vash dead or alive—preferably dead!

Source: Dark Horse"

Genre(s): Western, Sci-fi, Action, Drama, Comedy

https://subsplease.org/shows/trigun-stampede/

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1-2

I would be remiss to not lead off with Trigun this season. Trigun (OG) was among my first anime to get me into the hobby ~25 years ago. Sadly, while my other virgin series, Cowboy Bebop, aged quite well, Trigun when revisited many years ago was... unwatchable by my standards today. Nevertheless, the series still holds a nostalgic place in my heart for how into it I was at the time.

(Maybe mild spoilers when comparing to the original):

Well... how does this compare? Firstly, the elephant in my room was obviously going to be the animation, and I can confidently say... for CG, it's pretty decent. While some background characters and walking animations are jarring, it is made up for by the general action direction and some great facial work. I don't know the work flow of studio Orange, but extra attention is clearly given to these two things. The staged action set pieces are great fun to watch and the facial posing is simply radiant at times.

Story-wise, it seems to be a retelling that may or may not more closely follow the manga. I never read the manga, so I have no opinion on that, but it is already markedly different from a story perspective. Here, we start with the seed spaceship catastrophe. It's truncated, but I expect it to get fleshed out later. Also different is the characters off the bat. Meryl is now a rookie reporter accompanied by a senpai/day-drinker Roberto instead of Millie, the weakest character in the original, and I'm already loving what he brings. Vash is roughly the same except for the revised character design. A younger me could have been frustrated by his character for being so 'soft', but (much) older me gets the context of him being a literal higher being trying to not hurt the children throwing temper tantrums around himself.

When I watched the old version, one thing that captured my adolescent imagination was the (imagined) promise of other western (genre) style anime, the disappointment of which I'm still living with today... Bitter memories aside, this captures, in broad strokes, some of my favorite vestiges of the western discipline- the desert landscapes, isolated towns, and frontier justice that somehow isn't detracted from by the contrasted sci-fi and cyberpunk elements, and that's a feat to me. The OP slaps, too! Does it compare to the original? You decide.

TLDR; Would I recommend Trigun Stampede? Yes... yes I would!

[Munsu]

I'll give it a try later... I was put off by the trailer I saw.

[neflight86]

One thing I might say to further 'sell' (this) Trigun is that, if you watched Beastars, imagine that animation being honed for a series that could make proper use of it; an uplifting action series instead of a somber, moody, horny character study.

[neflight86]

3

...that took a turn. Just when I thought this was going to be happy-go-lucky like the original, despair came like a thief in the night. I like a menacing villain, and Knives is way more so this time around. And I'll admit, his knife coat/abilities only... benefit from this being cg. There, I said it, you happy?

This is surprisingly interesting for having no core story yet.

[DarthEnderX]

If there's one thing CGI excels at, it's metal shapes.

[neflight86]

4-5

... this is becoming much less interesting. Vash, somehow, has been neutered into an even bigger pacifist than he was before (og series). That may not be technically true, but it feels that way because there used to be some levity and jokes about the dire situations Vash found himself in, but here it has been so far mostly dour and downtrodden. He can't save everybody, but he loses them so often he should stop acting so surprised. At thiis point, his crying sounds more like whining, and that is definitely not what they are going for.

Wolfwood is a nice addition, but he hasn't gotten anything to do quite yet. Knives' plan remains murky and awash in language that makes my ears shrivel in fear like 'distortion' and 'awaken'... bringing back memories of the most disappointing abstractions in anime-plot history.

Things aren't looking great for Trigun Stampede currently. It's too early in the run to be feeling episodic and out of ideas. I hope things turn around quickly, because I'm struggling to watch currently.

[neflight86]

6-7

I really, really don't like the tone of how conflict is resolved in Trigun Stampede. Vash has no plan to keep people from getting killed but still insists that it is possible while gun-kata fighting with an assassin on a run-a-way landcrawler. Wolfwood is now infected by this idiocy and says they will save the town and orphanage with guts and willpower. Huh? He's like 8, so the lack of logic makes sense, but that is at odds with the edgelord Punisher persona and language/tobacco he uses that seem like an older person. Perhaps that large heavy cross object could hit the superhot valve more effectively than turning them with your bare hands? But then where's the drama? Of course it works out somehow because the show needed some sort of set piece climax to finish this episode out with. Brilliance Dynamite Neon was a much more interesting interpretation of this arc in the OG series because he had charisma as a villain and a code that drove his actions. This was entirely a conflict with an out of control vehicle while the villains smugly watched from the peanut gallery. The gang was inconsequential and unnecessary; what a waste.

Roberto is increasingly the only character that is relatable because he possesses common sense when it counts. Don't know if this is going to be worth another 5 episodes.

[DarthEnderX]

Perhaps that large heavy cross object could hit the superhot valve more effectively than turning them with your bare hands?

Or at least use your jacket.