TRIGUN 1998
An anime series that came out back in 1998
an action, post-apocalyptic, space western, sci-fi, comedy series with 26 episodes.
There will be some spoilers so read at your own risk for those who has not seen
the series. Not sure how this article will affect the reboot but there were a
lot of changes.
The series is written by Yasuhiro Nightow for both the manga and the anime series. The story follows the main character Vash the Stampede or the Humanoid Typhoon in a world similar to wild wild west in a desert planet. He is the character that has yellow hair fashioned like a broom, an inverted broom like Street Fighter Guile hairstyle.
To start off the story begins with two girls looking for the Humanoid Typhoon but they only know the name but not what he actually looks like. The name Vash the Stampede is popular for both those who are avoiding trouble and those who are looking for trouble or start trouble. The name is like a trigger for those types of people.
The series is popular even now, not to mention recently a reboot or rather a retelling of the series just came out with almost the same set of characters as well as the flow of the story where Vash is a wanted criminal with a huge bounty on his head with 60 double billion dollar. Comparison for both series will be made once the reboot is over.
The series also introduces two the girls in the series named Meryl and Millie who are part of the Bernardelli Insurance Society sent to evaluate the cost of damage that involves Vash the Stampede. They mistook Vash for someone else at the same time another bounty hunter mistook Vash for the same person Meryl thought was Vash until the tables were turned into a three-way mistaken identity situation. Vash is a walking disaster so to speak everywhere he goes destruction follows and the two girls sent after him are no bounty hunters but rather more like damage control to make sure that Vash does not destroy anything else or minimize the damage at the most. I cannot help it but mention in the new Vash Stampede series Meryl is now partnered with a guy replacing the character Millie and she is now working as a rookie reporter and not someone from an insurance company.
Back then since I barely have internet access I thought the opening for Trigun was an edited opening using just the instrumental part of the intro theme since well Philippines dubbing anime in Tagalog usually does that back then not sure now. Anyway, Trigun is a post-apocalyptic series where humans travelled into space but an incident occurred where the transport carrying millions of humans in cold sleep died and the only known survivor are Vash and his brother Knives as well as a number of humans who survived the crash in the desert planet now called Gunsmoke.
A fight for survival and a fight to avenge the death of Vash’s important person and the innocent humans who died due to Knives doing is the plot of the series. Brother against Brother one wants to destroy as the other wants to protect. Vash in a flashback is shown being controlled by his brother to use a weapon called the Angel Arm a weapon that both of them posses where their arm with their hand gun transform into a giant cannon that can destroy anything. A city shown being destroyed in the flashback and it was Vash’s Angel Arm that destroyed the said city.
Vash’s left arm is also a prosthetic arm since his left arm was taken by Knives and is now attached to one of his henchmen named Legato. Legato is not the only one hired to locate Vash but also the mercenary group called Gung-ho Guns are out to take Vash out. Other than the random bounty hunters coming after Vash he also has to keep on evading the ones hired by his brother. He meets another gunfighter named Nicholas D. Wolfwood (not related the D family from One Piece for all I know) teams up with Vash and helps him in any way he can.
The series is filled with countless gunfights in every episode, I cannot remember if there was an episode that does not have a gunfight, maybe that flashback where Vash remembers Rem the woman whom he loved and took care of him and his brother Knives. Rem died in the ship as she rushed the brothers to get into an escape pod to escape the ship that is about to explode. In the end it was Knives all along that plotted the death of the humans. Vash and Knives are beings who age slowly since they are not human but a human-like plant or inter-dimensional being in the series he is already 131 years of age. Again, I don’t recall much of how the origins of the brothers were shown in the original anime series except that they were found in a ship and were cared for by Rem whom Vash seemingly fell in love with.
The series ends with the brothers fighting and Vash surviving the duel. Wolfwood sadly did not make it to the end of the series but he did a huge part in the series by leaving Vash his cross like gun container that helped Vash in one of his fights.
The series back then was mixed a lot of comedy, action, drama as well as a love story that seemed balanced for the series. It was not that overwhelming to watch even the animation back then was smooth so to speak and the comedic art which some viewers does not like to see are not that exaggerated since it was part of the comedic effect for the series.
This is one of the series that I will recommend to those new to anime if the genre falls to what they are looking for.
Rating:
Animation: 8 out of 10
Story: 7 out of 10
Music intro: 9 out of 10
Music outro: 7 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10 a highly recommended for
those new to anime, those wanting to see the original series of the reboot as
well as those looking for something new to watch. In my personal opinion.
Pictures from the Internet
