It’s hard to sum up one of the quintessential anime titles of the 1990’s, but I’ll give it a go. Trigun revolves around Vash the Stampede, a man known all over the planet Gunsmoke as “The Humanoid Typhoon.” That nickname is, apparently, well-deserved because wherever Vash goes there is always a good deal of property destruction left in his wake. Now, to be fair, this is generally caused by would-be bounty hunters after the sixty billion double-dollar reward on his head or by him wandering into bad situations at the wrong (or perhaps right) times. Our light-hearted hero seems very difficult to take seriously with his doughnut-eating antics and almost wishy-washy nature—that is, till you see him slinging a gun. I remember my thought the very first time I ever watched episode one of the show so many years ago. “This guy is either the best gunslinger ever, or the worst. I can’t tell…” And that thought still aptly sums up Vash the Stampede in my mind. He is the Jack Sparrow of Western-themed (as in cowboys and the like) anime, minus the drunkenness most of the time.
And woe unto the poor Bernardelli Insurance Society agents, Meryl and Milly, who have the onerous task of tracking Vash wherever he goes to try and keep tabs on him to try and minimize the damage that he allegedly causes. You can see where this is doomed to fail from the get-go. Because none of the damage is actually ever caused by Vash himself (except for some stray bullet holes), most of the reports get chalked up as human or natural disasters. And, surprisingly enough, there is never any “collateral” damage. Vash always asserts himself as a pacifist in that he refuses to shoot to kill or harm anyone. The show starts out very episodic this way, and, even though it’s endlessly entertaining, you almost have trouble finding a strong plot point. Enter the Gung-Ho Guns! The appearance of this group of skilled assassins and their leader, Legato, opens up the pages of Vash’s strange past that mainly revolve around two people—Rem Saverem, the woman who took care of him as a child, and his twin brother, Million Knives. (Who the heck named those boys?!) But our dear boy in red isn’t without helpless allies. The insurance girls are pretty handy with guns themselves, and along the way they meet Nicolash Wolfwood. He’s a preacher of questionable morals at best and a soft spot for orphaned children. Vash’s boundaries and sanity in the wake of a disastrous event around the middle of the series and all will culminate in an epic showdown at the end.
It’s hard to find fault with that kind of mix of cartoonish comedy and action mixed perfectly in every episode. But, to some the part of the series that has the most plot-related meat seems to move too fast and skimps over a lot of details. How old IS Vash, exactly? And why does no one know about the people he takes care of? What are those weird plant things? These are all questions you have to suspend because the anime was made when the manga was first hitting its stride in popularity. Naturally, all these questions get answered in the manga later on, but the anime had to kind of breeze through them. It’s not surprising, since the manga only concluded in 2007.
So, don’t sweat the small stuff like that in watching this show. It’s really a small matter in the grander scheme of the overall series. Trigun is full of action, no small amount of comedic relief, sprinkled with drama and a few plot twists thrown in for extra effect. Sit back and enjoy watching the train wreck unfold. It stands tall among some of anime’s most memorable shows to date.