Trigun [DUB] (1998) Review

 Trigun [DUB] (1998) 9.5/10

“We're nothing like God. Not only do we have limited powers, but sometimes we're driven to become the devil himself.” -Nicholas D. Wolfwood.

Hello everyone. Before I dive back into Durarara, I wanted to revisit one of the best anime to ever touch our screens: Trigun. Trigun is a Shonen anime that ran from April 1 - September 30, 1998, with the show clocking in at 26 episodes long, with Studio Madhouse producing the show. Trigun has a special place in my heart as this was one of the first anime that I watched back on Toonami and one of the first shows that I binged. Rewatching it now, I realized that I’ve been sleeping on this masterpiece of an anime. Let’s begin.

Our story follows Vash the Stampede, the infamous outlaw with the $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head. With the nickname “The Humanoid Typhoon”, Vash has a tendency of leaving a trail of destruction through any town that he comes across, but not one person seems to be killed. Deemed as “the first human disaster”, an insurance company has sent two of its workers, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, to track him down and keep an eye on him, minimizing any damage that he may cause. This is the story of Vash as he wanders from town to town trying to do any good that he can do. Along the way, he’ll be facing a group of assassins called the Gung-Ho Guns that’ll force him to come to terms with his dark past.

I fucking love this show. Its story is a very emotional one that’ll tug at your heart strings and make you feel for its great cast of characters. Vash is a lovable goofball, but is an ace gunman, being able to always hit his marks. He has a dark past and as you continue to watch the series, you’ll feel that he’s trying to atone for a horrible thing that he did. As the show continues on, Vash goes through some serious shit and the way he tries to always see a brighter side of situations reminds me of myself. Meryl and Milly are great side characters and are also great support characters to Vash and Wolfwood, the traveling priest. Wolfwood is such a beast, carrying a cross wherever he goes. He spreads the word of God and if he were to come across any orphaned children, he’ll have them come back to his orphanage. The thing with Wolfwood though is that there’s more to him than meets the eye. I love his marksman skills and his attitude towards life is a very surreal one. His final atonement near the end of the series hits like a truck.

The series takes an episodic approach on how to tell its story. There is an overarching story about Vash’s past, but it seems that each episode is self-contained except for whatever greater information was revealed (whether about Vash, his past, Wolfwood, or the Gung-Ho Guns). With each episode, the show distills a lesson to the viewer, and this is shown directly with the preview for the next episode. Why do people drink? Lie? Act the way they act? This show goes into these topics in a very mature way and a general life lesson on the subject is given. I wish more shows did this as it gives the viewer something to think about besides the plot and characters.

The art direction is easily one of the show's best aspects. Trigun looks so fucking unique and the way everything is drawn and how the world looks is amazing. I love the world of Gunsmoke, despite it being just a desert planet. I love how these towns look, the way the weapons are designed and the clothing for everything screams western, but it’s done with so much respect and it’s in space, which makes it better. I love the character designs for everyone, especially Vash. I love his spiky blonde hair, his red trench coat, and his orange tinted glasses, and the best part, there’s a reason why he dresses like that. It’s not just some random design choice. The show goes into why he dresses the way he does. Hidetoshi Kaneko did a phenomenal job with the show’s art direction.

The sound design for the show is top notch too. All of the guns and explosions sound great and everything is in great quality, despite this show being almost 30 years old. The music for the show is amazing as well. Using a completely original soundtrack, Tsuneo Imahori gave Trigun such a unique sound that can’t be replicated. This is easily one of my favorite anime soundtracks. It’s so good that I even own the soundtrack physically. The OP “H.T.” is a banger with great guitar work and the ED “The Wind Blows To The Future” is such a calming song. The song “Sound Life ~ LEM” hits you in all of the right spots for an easy listening song. Honorable mentions to “Philosophy in a Tea Cup”, “Blood and Thunder”, “Never Could Have Been Worse”, and “Fool’s Paradise”.

The voice acting is great as well. Vash being voiced by none other than Johnny Yong Bosch, he gave Vash so much personality with his excellent voice work. Jeff Nimoy (Wolfwood), Dorothy Fahn (Meryl), Lia Sargent (Milly), Kirk Baily (Knives), and Richard Cansino (Legato) are great as well. Also, Steve Blum is in this as a side character and I love it.

Honestly, my only downside to this show is that it ended too quickly. The show is a good 26 episodes long, but for the final episode, I was hoping we got to see Vash and everyone after his final fight with Knives. Maybe one more episode to help wrap things up, kinda like what Durarara!! did with its last episode OVA before the first season ended.

Overall, the show is a must watch masterpiece and I hate myself for putting it off for so long. If you want a great show that isn’t too long that’s filled with a great cast of characters and life lessons, please go check this out. Trigun is an instant classic and I can not recommend it enough. Some time in the future, I’ll be touching the movie Badlands Rumble, but for now I’ll let this show sit for a little bit.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.