Old School Review
I'm introducing a bit of a new segment for this blog. It's called Old School Review. In each one I will do a review of an anime from a year or more ago that I've recently finished watching. This time it's the anime classic Trigun.
Trigun will always have a strong place in my heart, which is why you can expect that my view of it would be at least a little biased. I originally saw Trigun back when it was airing on Toonami way back when. It was the first action anime I'd ever seen, even before DBZ. For my money it is also one of the best anime ever made.
The story of Trigun follows a man by the name of Vash, known by most as Vash the Stampede or the $$60 Billion (Sixty-billion double-dollar) man, or the Humanoid Typhoon. The series starts a little slowly as it introduces you to this man, Vash, who seems to so easily find himself surrounded by death and destruction, usually not of his own direct making. When you're on a desert planet far in the future where humanity must make a new home, trouble tends to show up quite regularly. A gunslinger of unsurpassed skill, he is able to put an end to conflicts and disputes with that skill, without killing anyone.
For me this is what sets this series apart from most anime either from that period or more recently. It would be all too easy for the protagonist Vash to be some base hero with no skills and only conviction, never questioning himself, or some anti-hero with all the skills in the world just killing anyone who gets in his way left and right. Trigun doesn't do this. It takes the higher road. Vash is strong and has high convictions about not killing. These are centered on his memories of the woman Rem Saverem, a scientist who taught and raised him aboard one of the colony ships long ago.
Vash journeys spreading his message of love and peace, acting the part of a perverted fool chasing skirts, drinking alcohol like it's water, and acting like an incompetent dunce. This is the source of much of the comedy, as the rest of the cast generally plays off Vash's attempts to disarm situations simply by being jovial and making a fool of himself. Like many comedies of the time, the show strives to being laughs not by being over-the-top or dirty or complicated inside jokes that have become the hallmark of modern anime comedy. It is a lot of direct or physical humor; tripping over oneself, pratfalls, saying something plainly stupid but not necessarily offensive.
The strength of the show comes from the way the story progresses and tackles the matter of Vash's oath and the source of his tribulations. Vash is repeatedly tested in his vow not to kill anyone, the writers having him not even drawing his gun until several episodes in just to enforce that point. Even once he does start drawing his gun it is for disarming his opponent, not to take their life. He will deflect enemy fire, shoot their weapons away, actions like this that bring about non-lethal end to the event. But because his opponent is not always just someone down on luck but otherwise virtuous, it calls his will into question, whether or not he can really protect people without killing his enemy.
Given Vash's character, his brother Knives is probably the perfect enemy to put against him if you are looking to test not only his skill but his motives. Knives is a man who shares many of Vash's skills, but whose mentality is deeply twisted. Like any lunatic his words hold some modest glimmer of truth or reality, but his response to those facts is corrupted. For Knives it is the disgust with the greed and wastefulness of humanity that led them to create him and Vash, and leave the dying Earth humanity poisoned. Knives answer is to condemn all of humanity to death and aspire to creating a new species with him and his brother at its head.
It's unclear how much of the last bit of his plan Knives was supposedly to have thought out. A more modern anime would not have hesitated to cast a female in the role of either Vash or Knives and use that as an opportunity for a lot of fan-service and dirty jokes. Not that it wouldn't be a bit of fun, but Trigun a story that strives for something a little more than just that.
The animation quality of the series is fairly good for its time. It has its moments where it breaks down and looks like the budget started running dry, but for the most part it is consistent, which is the first step that has to be cleared for a good experience. The music is decent, nothing amazing, though Rem's song is beautiful. Have loved that song since I first heard it and can even to this day recall me and my brother spending so much time trying to figure out how to play it on the keyboard.
All told, Trigun is one of the best anime in the last 30 years. If you want a serious drama, its not hard at all to ignore the comedy and see that drama. If you want action there's plenty of that each episode. They even manage some romance, although it doesn't have the same kin of payoff many fans clamor for nowadays. If you haven't seen Trigun before, you should head over to Funimation's website and see it. If you've already seen it, you should see it again.
Trigun will always have a strong place in my heart, which is why you can expect that my view of it would be at least a little biased. I originally saw Trigun back when it was airing on Toonami way back when. It was the first action anime I'd ever seen, even before DBZ. For my money it is also one of the best anime ever made.
The story of Trigun follows a man by the name of Vash, known by most as Vash the Stampede or the $$60 Billion (Sixty-billion double-dollar) man, or the Humanoid Typhoon. The series starts a little slowly as it introduces you to this man, Vash, who seems to so easily find himself surrounded by death and destruction, usually not of his own direct making. When you're on a desert planet far in the future where humanity must make a new home, trouble tends to show up quite regularly. A gunslinger of unsurpassed skill, he is able to put an end to conflicts and disputes with that skill, without killing anyone.
For me this is what sets this series apart from most anime either from that period or more recently. It would be all too easy for the protagonist Vash to be some base hero with no skills and only conviction, never questioning himself, or some anti-hero with all the skills in the world just killing anyone who gets in his way left and right. Trigun doesn't do this. It takes the higher road. Vash is strong and has high convictions about not killing. These are centered on his memories of the woman Rem Saverem, a scientist who taught and raised him aboard one of the colony ships long ago.
Vash journeys spreading his message of love and peace, acting the part of a perverted fool chasing skirts, drinking alcohol like it's water, and acting like an incompetent dunce. This is the source of much of the comedy, as the rest of the cast generally plays off Vash's attempts to disarm situations simply by being jovial and making a fool of himself. Like many comedies of the time, the show strives to being laughs not by being over-the-top or dirty or complicated inside jokes that have become the hallmark of modern anime comedy. It is a lot of direct or physical humor; tripping over oneself, pratfalls, saying something plainly stupid but not necessarily offensive.
The strength of the show comes from the way the story progresses and tackles the matter of Vash's oath and the source of his tribulations. Vash is repeatedly tested in his vow not to kill anyone, the writers having him not even drawing his gun until several episodes in just to enforce that point. Even once he does start drawing his gun it is for disarming his opponent, not to take their life. He will deflect enemy fire, shoot their weapons away, actions like this that bring about non-lethal end to the event. But because his opponent is not always just someone down on luck but otherwise virtuous, it calls his will into question, whether or not he can really protect people without killing his enemy.
Given Vash's character, his brother Knives is probably the perfect enemy to put against him if you are looking to test not only his skill but his motives. Knives is a man who shares many of Vash's skills, but whose mentality is deeply twisted. Like any lunatic his words hold some modest glimmer of truth or reality, but his response to those facts is corrupted. For Knives it is the disgust with the greed and wastefulness of humanity that led them to create him and Vash, and leave the dying Earth humanity poisoned. Knives answer is to condemn all of humanity to death and aspire to creating a new species with him and his brother at its head.
It's unclear how much of the last bit of his plan Knives was supposedly to have thought out. A more modern anime would not have hesitated to cast a female in the role of either Vash or Knives and use that as an opportunity for a lot of fan-service and dirty jokes. Not that it wouldn't be a bit of fun, but Trigun a story that strives for something a little more than just that.
The animation quality of the series is fairly good for its time. It has its moments where it breaks down and looks like the budget started running dry, but for the most part it is consistent, which is the first step that has to be cleared for a good experience. The music is decent, nothing amazing, though Rem's song is beautiful. Have loved that song since I first heard it and can even to this day recall me and my brother spending so much time trying to figure out how to play it on the keyboard.
All told, Trigun is one of the best anime in the last 30 years. If you want a serious drama, its not hard at all to ignore the comedy and see that drama. If you want action there's plenty of that each episode. They even manage some romance, although it doesn't have the same kin of payoff many fans clamor for nowadays. If you haven't seen Trigun before, you should head over to Funimation's website and see it. If you've already seen it, you should see it again.
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