Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Trigun Badlands Rumble is an okay movie but could've been better if the story was about Vash's journey to face Knives rather than the plot we got instead.

The mains story of Badlands Rumble is centered on a robber named Gasback which leads to bounty hunters to gun him down for the reward money, however the film's main characters aren't very dominant onscreen as it leans more towards Gasback & Amelia; a woman who has a grudge against Gasback. The main dilemma is Vash sparring Gasback's life leading his morality being put into question as the criminal managed to get away from judgment. While it brings ... an interesting study into Vash's lifestyle the movie tends to not completely focus on that subject.

While Vash still remains true to his pacifist convictions, he comes as a bit too naive & goofy in this film with showing very little of his serious side. Wolfwood, Meryl, & Milly also partake in the film but like Vash seem to play second string to Gasback & Amelia.

Action is just the right amount as it is supported by its updated animation as Mad House in 1999 (Trigun anime) is nothing compared to its current visuals. One of the aspects I enjoyed from the movie is the "Trigun World" as much detail is placed into the bounty hunters with very wacky & strange character designs but remains true to the spirit of Trigun.

Trigun Badlands Rumble does have the heart & soul of the Trigun series, but Vash himself has a minor role to the film & his perspective on morality doesn't come into play until the scenes played in the credits, proving that his way of life may indeed be correct. At the end of the day, Badlands Rumble seemed to be a film that expresses the zany yet cool style of Trigun with showing very little of its more complex philosophies. I personally preferred if the movie focus more on Vash's journey to confront Knives & The Gung-Ho Guns as it would've made a theatrical feature much more rewarding, thus showing a interesting tale of a gunman questioning the death penalty.

Trigun was a manga series that originally came out in 1996 in Japan that spawned a sequel or reboot in Trigun Maximum in 1998. Together they birthed Trigun the 26 episode anime series that became hugely successful in Japan and the United States. The late 1990's to the early 2000's was a great time for anime in the United States and in general with a boom in popularity with shows like Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Zoids: Chaotic Century, Outlaw Star, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Trigun, Blue Gender, Fullmetal Alchemist and others. I had always been an anime fan growing up with anime ... shows like Transformers, Robotech and Voltron, but that was the time I truly became an avid fan of the genre. Still originally I skipped Trigun the anime series. From the trailers and previews I had seen it looked too much like an over the top comedy series, but my older brother convinced me to give it a try and loaned me his VHS tapes. For those of you who don't know Trigun takes place on a distant planet after generations ago humans left earth to settle on a new world and the story follows Vash the Stampede who has also been nicknamed the Humanoid Typhoon for all the destruction that follows him. The anime follows this carefree guy who doesn't seem like the guy who brings chaos and destruction with him, but sadly for him and the people around him it seems to happen. I was surprise at how good the anime series was and is. Sure at the beginning there is a lot of comedy and there is humor throughout the series, but I think it's there to lighten the mood of the series, because without it Trigun would be a very dark and bleak series and it works as the anime series manages to blend drama, action, humor and even romance almost perfectly. Oh it the series has one of the best death scenes a film or anime series ever. It has become one of my favorite anime series of all time, so when I heard about there being a Trigun film being made back in 2008 and 2009 I was very skeptical. I really didn't think it was necessary especially if it wasn't going to be connected to the anime series like the Cowboy Bebop film was connected to their anime series. The film was released in Japan in 2010 and in the United States a few months ago. I finally got to see the film a few days ago. Was there need for a Trigun film no, and was the film good and again the answer is no.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble barely there plot starts twenty years in the past where a gang of thieves led by the huge man Gasback who enjoys showing off and the big robberies. Things go smoothly for them as they get the money. That is until Gasback's men turn on him shooting him in the eye. Things look bad for the gang leader until Vash stumbles in clumsily and saves Gasback's life. Does Gasback thank him as his former comrades make off with all the money and the bank is surrounded by the police no he doesn't. Instead he hits a button and launches a whole bunch of missiles laying waste to the town and the bank. Twenty years later Gasback has formed another gang and is looking for revenge on his former comrades. One former comrade runs Macca City where Gasback is headed with his men and his body guard Wolfwood. Vash is also headed on a steamer where he runs into the beautiful Amelia who is after the 300 million double dollar reward for Gasback. They hang out in the city until Gasback attacks and things get out of hand from there.

The plot isn't very good. The problem with it is it doesn't follow any continuum whether it be the manga or anime so it will be confusing for a fan of the manga or anime series like me let alone a new comer. If you haven't seen or read the anime and manga and try to check out this film you will be completely lost. The writers don't bother to introduce or give any background to Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl or Milly who are from the Manga and Anime series. The writer and directors just assume that a newcomer will be able to follow or care about these characters, and even with my love for the anime series and manga I barely cared about the plot or the characters. I love Vash he's a great character and he was again the best character in the film, but even he was a letdown. The story just didn't carry the depth, humor or emotional impact that one episode of the anime series did.

What can I give praise to is the animation down by the great anime company Madhouse. The same company that has done great anime series and films like Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Gungrave, Wicked City, Record of Lodoss War, Ninja Scroll, three Batman films and more. The detail in this film is amazing from the facial expressions to the vehicles Madhouse did an outstanding job bringing this film to life and honestly it was the best thing about Trigun: Badlands Rumble.

Going into this film I wasn't expecting much, but I was hoping for a good anime film. Sadly that isn't what I got. Trigun: Badlands Rumble fails to entertain newcomers or fans of the series and manga with a weak plot, lack of character depth or emotional connection, good music. The only thing that the film has going for it is the excellent animation done by Madhouse, so sadly I can't recommend this film to a newcomer to anime or a fan of Vash. Instead if you are interested in Vash I would recommend you read the two manga series or better yet check out the anime series which I consider the best of all of them.


You can see more of my reviews at http://www.movieweb.com/u/huntsman

I know I'm going to get a lot of slack for this. I've read people's reviews, and forum posts on this film, and I did not get the same feelings as most of them did with Trigun: Badlands Rumble.
This is coming from someone who loves the original series (Nostalgia), and is very interested in reading the manga (I own it).
I must say though, this is probably one of the best extra's you could get after watching the series. But I would not call this an amazing film. It's an amazing special for fans.

Lets talk about the story. It's a simple story, and I'm all for ... cliche stories, but it's all in how you execute it. Was it entertaining, were the fight scenes breathtaking, were the comedy bits funny, was it emotional, ect. ect.
For me, the execution of this story was not as good as the anime at all. I do not think it has the same feeling as the original series does. I'm actually amazed it's the same director and screenwriter.
In the series (Excluding the first 8 or so episodes), you get the feeling Vash has a reason for (or try) saving lives. There's this emotion that he's conveying that whenever he had to get down to the nitty gritty and shoot someone, there was this terrible sadness in his actions, like he's trying to make up for the mistakes he and his brother have made.
In this series, I did not get that impression at all, even at the end. And that makes me sad that they couldn't fully use the emotions that Vash always keeps inside.
I also get the feeling that most of this film was just action with no emotion behind it. I'm okay with that, but the action was not very stylish of breathtaking in my opinion. As action pictures come, I was surprisingly bored.

The sound is quite good. No seiyuu felt out of place or out of character.
The music was surprisingly disappointing compared to the original series, almost 40 minutes in was when I realized there even was a score in Badlands Rumble. The re-arranged "H.T. Theme" at the end was great though. They should have made more rearranged tracks for this film, such as "Never could have been worse" or "Scattered Rain".
The SFX were great as well.

The art and animation in this series is excellent, especially when compared to the original series. There's a lot of detail, and smooth movement.

Now the character here can be tricky. Most characters are introduced like they are people you have met before, like people who watched the original series.
As for the new characters:
Gasback just wants to be the best robber there is, the flashier the better.
His minions in the past Cain, Dorino, and Michio are running from him after stealing his money 20 years ago.
Amelia is the new comer that has a dark past (anymore would be a spoiler).
Vash is Vash, he's the funny Vash with no problems like the first few episodes in the series. His reasons behind saving people is just "It's better to live". but the way he conveys this is not serious at all like in the series, and that bothered me.

I enjoyed this series to an extent. Not a very outstanding film, but this is an excellent extra for the manga and series, I would highly recommend watching and reading the original before watching this. Or maybe vise versa would be better, because the TV series and manga are much better, you'll be able to know more about the mysteries of how these characters know each other. Mainly Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl, and Milly.

Overall:
Trigun: Badlands Rumble disappointed me compared to the series. But it is an extremely good special for after watching the series and reading the manga, or vise versa if you are interested in the adventures of Vash the Stampede.
I mean, you couldn't ask for a better special than this, it's definitely better than getting nothing!

Trigun: Badlands Rumble - 6/10

Very good for a movie, feels like an episode of Trigun done in eyecandy graphics and extended to 1.5 hours.
Seriously, i loved it and i think it was perfect, truly enjoyable, just like the show itself.
The story is a little cliche and reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door movie but i think this one had a bit more to it, especially the difference in visuals and artwork just makes it all better

If you adore Trigun, you'll most likely like this movie; however, if you aren't a fan of the series, it's best to look the other way, as you're not really missing much.

Here's what you should know.
This movie has some heavy Black Lagoon vibes, and the action scenes are beautifully animated.
The story is simplistic and predictable, with many memorable quotes and the trademark Trigun introspection about whether killing is moralistic and the consequences of going through with it or not.

Overall, the movie is good for what it is. But, despite its positives, it doesn't add to the series.
You could completely ignore this movie, ... and you'd be missing out on nothing, as the events from it don't seem to be connected to the main series.
It feels somewhat detached from the story, like a filler episode.

Lastly, it's a good watch for good old-fashioned midwest action. It succeeds at that.

I admit that I am not much of a fan of Trigun. I really liked the show, but it's not one of my favs and some of the episodes were either boring or bad. Although, from what I've seen in the series, it's pretty decent. When I heard that there was a Trigun movie that already came out (but not in America) back when I was watching the show, I was skeptical because I have a friend who is a huge fan of Trigun and was ecstatic when he heard that there was a movie coming out. I was planning on watching with with my ... family for my Birthday party which was a few days ago and I announced that we were all going to watch Trigun. Once I sat down and watched it, I thought the audio was decent for a private school-type movie but when I got more into the movie, I found out that I decided it was not for the kids and they were preceded to leave by themselves. Yet, there were kids ages 9 to about their teenage years watching it and personally, I wouldn't let anyone watch this movie unless they're 18-21.

The story was extremely difficult for me to follow until a cousin told me that he understood it was about Gasback who takes over the city to let people contemplate that it was Vash. Everyone here except for my cousin was having a hard time following the plot unlike me, who has seen the entire series couldn't understand it either, but I know it is about a bank robber named Gasback who ihas taken hostage innocent criminals and are threating them, until an outlaw known as Vash the Stampede pops out of nowhere and starts screaming helplessly at Gasback for crushing his donuts and proceeds by begging him for a replacement. This changes Gasback, therefore no one is hurt.

Fast foward twenty years later and we see the Insurance girls riding on the bulls (or something) into town. Later, we meet a bounty hunter named Amelia, another one of those women with a tragic past.

The plot was pretty much between interesting and uninteresting with the more intense action to appeal to those who LOVE action (including myself) but was quite disappointed to see that the plot didn't seem to pull off thus I couldn't understand what was going on. To tell you the truth, I nearly turned it off, which results to dropping it on my list, but proceeded to see what was going on to see if I could take a liking.

Now the art and animation I could highly praise has gotten some room for improvement. The animation is 100% beautiful with nothing off and seemed to fit the layout and the landscape just like a 3-D or a CGI-movie would do. It would be pretty intriguing if this film would be re-released into theaters which have an accessible 3-D feature so that we can all enjoy the movie better.

The music was pretty fitting for its desert-like scenes, but usually, I never really pay attention to music, thus giving it a 5 out of 10... sorry. Although, I did notice that most of the voices were replaced, but the new actors here seemed to do a decent job matching the voices of the old ones thus fitting the characters' personalities. Warning, Johnny Yong Bosh sounds almost completely different in this film, which is probably because it has been around a decade since he last voiced Vash in the T.V. series.

As for the characters, I'd have to say they are pretty reminiscent for the ones for the T.V. series; Vash's wilful yet somewhat stubborn pacifism, Milly's sweetness, Wolfwood's likeable coolness. The only character that needed work was Meryl because Meryl didn't seem like a tsundere towards Vash in fact, the characters don't even seem to know each other very much. And, I heard that this film takes place between episodes 11 (Escape from Pain) and 12 (Diablo). Aren't Wolfwood and Vash supposed to be companions now and Meryl is trying to impress Vash's stubborn way of not even trying to love her back? The new characters I guess needed some work too, and didn't seem to interest me very much. Amelia was an O.K. character and Gasback, to me, wasn't a very impressing villian.

All I can say is that the movie was very difficult to follow and regardless of the characters' personalities being almost the same as in the show, they don't seem to know each other. I don't really believe that this took place between episodes 11 and 12, I believe it might've taken place before episode 1 [well, that's just me ^_^].

Not to mention, the movie reminded me a lot of the Bebop movie because in both, you have a character who's involved in the action and are later shot off into what it appears to be a near death experience. Thus, they both have a male protagonist with a female sidekick (except the womanizing yet cute-as-a-button, Vash had a crush on this one.)

Another disappointment is that Trigun is supposed to be something of a teen show yet, for me, it doesn't seem to pull off much as a 'teen' movie and instead, more of like an 'adult' movie. I should've not let the kids watch this, I should've instead bothered to show them the television series instead (which I think is more appropriate for the kids at the party.)

Very disappointing movie, also for my friend too, he expected a LOT more. I would suggest you to watch the show or read the manga (I haven't read Maximum yet) but you won't regret it. The movie I guess is alright if you're a fan of Trigun or even an anime fan, but I wouldn't bother if I would you.

To be honest, I expected more. This movie/OVA has it's flaws and strong points.
This is coming from a HARDCORE fan of the original TRIGUN Anime, btw.
I expected a psychological thriller like the Anime. They could have done more. Didn't a lot more Plants survive after the starting of the original Anime? Yes! The were contained in the Ark. There was nothing to grasp except a lacking NEW Plot. I wanted there to be more people like Vash and Knives. Something to drive chills down my spine, more comedy and humble beginnings, more heartbreak, something to have m enjoying it.

Flaws:
- Little to NO Character Development.
- New, ... simplistic Plot.
- Forgettable Characters.
- No reason for anyone else to fight. Wolfwood is filler.

Strong Points:
- Music (H.T. In "Badlands Rumble")
- Comedy near the beginning. Worth a few chuckles and laughs.
- Visuals and Effects
- Action

So, to end this off, Badlands Rumble is not terrible, but very, very, VERY lacking. To say the least.

I have a few things to say about this movie if that's alright:

While the movie was fantastic with the music, the animation and the returning characters, I already knew that everything was gonna be alright at the end. Because I had already watched the rest of this series, another anime and two TV Show seasons before watching this movie, I was pretty out-of-the-loop. Some people say that it took place after Episode 9 and before Episode 11, others say it takes place after Episode 10 and before Episode 12 and I was just jumping into the movie without too much context to go off of. ... While it's a very good movie, I think I just needed to watch it with the anime. I'd still recommend it to you regardless but watch it while you watch the series, not after.