The quickest explanation I could give for the appeal of this show is "Cowboy Bebop if it were Indiana Jones". It's a rollicking space western action romp that soars on the strength of its immensely fun characters, slowly working in more serious elements as time goes on. The plot centers around Vash the Stampede, a legendary bounty hunter who's infamous through the desert planet of the show's setting for the destruction he leaves in his wake. But when two insurance agents named Millie and Meryl manage to track the legend down to keep him under their watch for risk assessment (how's that for a unique motivation?), they discover that he's actually a gigantic goof who loves donuts, regularly gets in over his head, and lives a life on the lamb dedicated to saving as many people as he possibly can. No matter how crazy the shootouts and standoffs he gets in are, he never shoots to kill; he believes in fighting for a world where all humanity can live in peace, and he lives that ethos by always seeking to help the people he comes across, no matter how bitter or jaded or dangerous they are. And as the two ladies follow him across the landscape, meeting a bevy of eccentric personalities and cool locations, it becomes clear that for as silly a man as he is, he carries some real trauma underneath his peppy surface, past regrets that start coming back to haunt him in the form of an old enemy who stands at the nexus of all his pain.
Of course, it’s the goofiness of Trigun that stands out most prominently upon first glance, and the show’s often wacky nature is an essential part of its charm. This is a marvelously fun time, with stellar character interactions, excellent comedic timing, and a set of dub performers clearly having the time of their lives hamming up the antics of Vash and company. There is so much goddamn heart in every single interaction, from Vash’s lovable tryhard loser shtick to Meryl’s pragmatic exasperation, from Millie’s airheaded sweetness to Wolfwood’s hard-bitten lunkhead affect. It’s the kind of show you keep coming back to episode after episode because you genuinely don’t care where the plot goes as long as it goes there with these characters and this chemistry, which isn’t something you can say about every quasi-episodic series. Meanwhile, the show’s stellar direction gives it a sense of lived-in authenticity and grit, capturing a varmint-ridden portrait of the Old West in space that sparkles with a real sense of tactile presence. With very little exposition, you can instantly buy that Vash and his merry band of losers are people from this unfamiliar, familiar world, that they’ve lived their lives there and treat it as naturally as we treat our own. And that verisimilitude becomes a critical stepping stone when Trigun eventually starts transitioning into heavier, more plot-driven fare; it’s only because you buy the world so intimately that it’s able to shift between emotional extremes so seamlessly.
And while there may be some clunkiness in the tone as the show goes off in bigger and more bizarre directions in the second half, it sticks the landing so triumphantly that it hardly matters in the end. Through Vash’s simple desire to save everyone he possibly can, Trigun weaves a deceptively complex narrative exploring the nature of doing good itself, its challenges and limitations, and the importance of pursuing it in the first place. From its goofy, silly origins, this show expands into an epic of genuine emotional resonance, with characters who grapple with hard questions and go through intense trials, challenges of will and morality that aren’t so easily overcome, and an examination of how goddamn hard it can be to do good in a world where selfishness and expedience is so often the easy way out. It goes to dark places you aren’t prepared for, hitting harder than you ever could have expected. But it never loses the heart and passion that endeared it to you in the first place, always coming back to those wonderful characters and their desire to find a better path, no matter how hard or insurmountable that might seem. I found myself constantly shocked at how deeply invested I became, how immensely I felt for Vash and his friends as they struggled against the weight of their demons. Trigun isn’t afraid to get messy and dangerous, to let pain truly sink in and loss truly resonate. But it always finds the right rope to pull itself out of the darkness, never losing faith in the better future it sees on the horizon.
Trigun is the kind of show I love to love, a story that hits on so many things I like seeing in fiction- great characters, cool action, worthwhile themes, sincerity- and does them all so freaking well. I honestly find myself a little challenged to find much deeper to say than that, but that’s kind of the magic at play here. Trigun doesn’t need that much explanation for why it’s so great; all of its strengths are so self-evident and readily apparent that you’d have to be a fool to miss them. It’s a rollicking good time from start to finish, fusing electrifying pulp storytelling with beautiful character work and a heartfelt dedication to being the best possible version of itself it can be, minus some occasional editing inconsistencies. Bottom line, this show is a blast of exhilaration and resonance alike, a fantastic action spectacle with real heart behind it.
