Trigun is a 26 episode anime from 1998 and is one of the definitive examples of the "Space Western" sub-genre that gained popularity in Japan in the late 1990s and in the United States in the early 2000s with Joss Whedon's Firefly. It takes place on a mostly desert planet called "Gunsmoke" where a colony ship crashed a little over a century before the story begins. The technology on this planet could only be described as Steam Punk to the extreme. If you haven't heard of this slightly older series, why not give this review a read? I promise I won't ramble THAT much!
Trigun not only tells a fun and at times moving story, but brilliantly pays homage to the great Westerns of old. For example, in one of the first episodes there is a quite lengthy shot of an old creaking windmill. This is a direct reference to a famous scene from Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. In another episode the characters walk down the dusty street into a ghost town with scared civilians slamming their shudders to hide. This is yet another Sergio Leone reference. I could go on, but there are too many of these to list.
Story 9/10
Trigun starts out with 2 girls working for an insurance company attempting to find the world's most dangerous and destructive man and kindly asking him to stop wrecking things. The man is called Vash the Stampede and has a 60-billion-dollar bounty on his head!!! Considering the fact that Osama Bin Laden only had a 25-million-dollar bounty, this tells you that Vash is a VERY wanted man. Trigun starts out with zany action of the shonen variety and later gets significantly darker and more serious, becoming more seinen if anything. The manga also made the transition from being published in a shonen magazine to a seinen demographic magazine, but the manga actually ran from 1996 to 2008. The anime did this heavy transition in just 26 episodes. After meeting the insurance girls and going on a few largely episodic adventures, Vash reveals his dark past and must confront his maniacal brother Knives and his frightening, nihilistic minion Legato Bluesummers. I won't spoil anything but know that this series will take you on quite a ride.
Characters 10/10
Trigun has very well fleshed out characters that truly make the viewers care about them and desire to know them better. The main character is Vash (French for cow) who despite being the world's most wanted man has never actually killed anyone and is a devout pacifist. However, destruction and massive property damage seem to follow him wherever he goes. Vash prefers to run rather than fight and rarely ever uses his gun, unless he absolutely needs to. He also will at times spontaneously start babbling in French. Vash is easily the greatest French super hero in the history of comics. Vash's humanistic ideology is the product of his being raised by an idealistic dreamer named Rem. Yes, that is the name of the brain waves that occur during dreaming, Trigun has many name puns. Vash's brother Knives was also raised by Rem, but rejected her teachings and believes that humans are worthless vermin that destroy the environment of every planet they inhabit. Knives wishes to wipe out all humans in order to save the various animal and plant life of the desert planet Gunsmoke. We are also introduced to the badass Catholic priest Wolfwood and his giant gun shaped like a cross. Did I mention Trigun gets very silly at times? Wolfwood doesn't follow any of the clergy rules and smokes, drinks, womanizes, and has little aversion to killing whenever threatened. However, he has his own strong sense of justice and is a loyal ally. There are plenty of other great characters, but this paragraph is getting lengthy already, so just watch the show if you want to learn more.
Soundtrack 9/10
Trigun has an excellent jazz soundtrack with plenty to offer for lovers of the Sax. Hell, there is even a villain that used a fucking saxophone as his primary weapon in a later episode. Trigun also has tracks that are heavily influenced by the Spaghetti Westerns that it so obviously loves and often emulates. The soundtrack will get your adrenaline flowing and make you in the mood to see a ridiculous gunfight.
Art 8/10
Trigun is very well drawn for a 1990s anime and has aged quite nicely. The stereotype for 1990s and especially 80s anime is that is terrible with its use of key frames, recycled animation, barely animated lip flaps, suffers from a very low frame per second rate, and is in general both lazily and cheaply animated. This was the time before Japan followed the Americans and exported all the animation to the Koreans, who work very hard for very cheap. Trigun is a shining example of 1990s anime art that shows that not all anime from that period was absurdly lethargic and shitty like Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon.
Enjoyment 10/10
Trigun is an absolute blast from the past and will leave you wanting 26 episodes more. The well written story, fun characters, fluid animation and epic gun fights, all come together to make this my favorite space western of all time. Yes, I actually like Trigun over Firefly. You can post your hate comments on my wall if you absolutely have to. I loved this series when I was 15, I love it at 26, and will love it until I am dead and rotting in the ground.
Overall: 10/10
Trigun is one of my favorite anime of all time! There are a couple series that barely edge out Trigun, but really not many out there are better than this. If you haven't seen Trigun yet, I would highly recommend it. All episodes are free on youtube on Funimation's page, so it won't cost you anything. If you see a few episode and just absolutely hate it, you don't have to watch the whole thing. However, it is a series that absolutely everyone should at least try.
