Trigun Review

Next up is Trigun, another I'm surprised I haven't done before.

Set on a Western stylized planet, Trigun is an anime of two halves.
The first half follows Vash the Stampede, a tall blonde man dressed in red who can out shoot anyone but is goofy, cheerful and a pacifist; he's followed by Meryl and Milly who are trying to piece together the destruction Vash leaves in his wake for their Insurance company not really piecing together that said tall blonde man they keep running into is actually Vash expecting someone more destructive to match the image of a 60 Billion Double Dollar bounty for destroying a town.
The second half features Vash crossing paths with the Gung-Ho Guns, a group of assassins led by Vash's brother Knives, revealing the terrible powers hidden inside Vash and the tragic past he had forgotten.
While largely forgotten today, Trigun stands the test of time far better than most anime, it's a Western epic that sees a more human side to the often tumultuous Western genre of constant bandits and gun slinging, the fact that Vash didn't even draw a gun until episode 5 is a testament to how well Vash is written as a character, the series has an insanely good cast that you can easily find yourselves rooting for even one episode characters, it's a rare anime that can envoke every emotion, something that only a few anime can match.
But I did say it was largely forgotten today, that's because of a few factors.
1. Westerns are hardly popular in the medium in Japan but often do better in the West.
2. Other media surrounding it has failed to make it relevant (time will tell if the reboot will succeed)
3. It's rivals were Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star making for an already inflated market at the time.
4. It worked just fine the first time.
One of the strengths of 90s anime was getting it right first time in the 24-26 episode limit they were given, all the endings of Trigun, Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop were perfect and wouldn't continue in a sequel, spin off or remade in a different format, looking at you live action Bebop.
But one thing all three have in common, was none of them had any real problems bar nitpicks, 1998 was arguably the best year in anime history.
Dub is top tier especially with Jonny Yong Bosch as Vash.
Final Verdict: A western epic that deserves high praise in the same category as the best anime of all time.

End