Trigun

Admittedly when I watched this anime as first, I thought it was kind of stupid. Damn how wrong I was. Something I thought was goofy turned out to be pretty dark and cleaver and now I give it a lot of respect for a truly great lead character in Vash the Stampede.

Trigun is the story of the world’s greatest, most notorious fugitive Vash the Stampede, known for wiping out an entire town all by himself. He’s being pursued by Meryll Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two insurance agents trying to caputure him for the high insurance costs he causes as well as the slew of others who want to cash in on the sixty billion double dollar bounty on Vash’s head. He appears as a tall drifter in a long red coat, long buckled gloves, spiky blond hair, and amber tinted granny style sunglasses armed with a big ass revolver. At first glance he’s intimidating until we start to see him as a clumsy, childlike idiot that uses seemingly uses dumb luck to evade his captors. Slowly we discover Vash’s true nature as a highly calculated badass who refuses to kill. He forms a friendship with the ladies trying to book him and a lonely priest named Nicholas Wolfwood with a huge badass cross. In the end we discover vash’s true tragic origin and how he was forced into his horrible crime by the only person as mysterious and dangerous as Vash, his maniacal and bloodthirsty brother Knives…

I applaud this anime for tricking me so convincingly into thinking it’s something it’s not. As I said, I thought it was a western spoof in anime form. It is but isn’t. Vash is a deep well as character, both fun but tragic, and I’d say one of my favorite heroes in anime. I love the old west setting. The characters are memorable and with a second rewatching, the series gets better. My only real complaint is Knives is a little bit cookie cutter and underutilized but still great. Definitely check it out on Hulu and as always, thank you all for reading, special thanks to our old friend and Battlebuddy Sniperelitest for introducing me to the anime in the first place, and my the gaming gods be with you.