One quick glance at any of the pictures related to Trigun Stampede is enough to tell you that the makers have struck out in a completely new direction in terms of aesthetic. I can't say I was too keen on the new style, but since the 1998 adaptation was one of the first anime I watched and enjoyed as an adult, I decided to check it out despite my reservations. For old times' sake.
The resulting experience was … interesting, to say the least.
I'll be honest, my impressions of the 1998 version is etched deeply, and perhaps because of this, I couldn't help but compare this new version against the original at every turn. Unfortunately, Trigun Stampede does not hold up well in these comparisons, at least not for the first half of this season.
First, let's get the elephant out of the room and into the open: the CG. I'll preface this by saying that I did not think much of character designs of the original, with their blush lines making them look like children's sketches; nor do I consider myself as someone anti-CG who would shudder at the mere thought of using CG in anime. So it's as much of a surprise to me that I soon found myself yearning for the hand drawn look of the original that I felt lukewarm towards to begin with! The CG has polished away the rough edges of the original design, but it's also over polished away a lot of the visual flair that gave the original personality, as well as the aesthetic that so suited the dusty, grimy wild west feel of its world. Beyond the art style, movements such as how hair sway and how the characters move feels too smooth and so deeply rooted in the uncanny valley that they distracted me from focusing on the story. The CG is especially ill suited to the goofy antics and over-the-top gunslinging action inherent to the franchise. Even Vash's red trenchcoat - so iconic in the 1998 version with its plethora of straps and buttons - becomes just an unremarkable looking red trench coat in Stampede. The only place I can think of where the CG does well is in animating Million Knives' weaponry, as it had the effect of giving them an unsettlingly alien and phobia-inducing creepy quality.
It's obvious that Trigun Stampede was deliberately made to distinguish itself from its predecessor, and the visuals was just one of the ways that signalled this intention. One of the producers even said that they wanted to attract new audiences with Trigun Stampede, but to me the show actually does the opposite. The backstory involving Rem was perhaps THE major emotional climax as the 1998 Trigun entered its final straight; here, it's revealed in the opening episode. Moreover, the major players all appear early on with their ulterior motives laid bare as the outline of the plot is sketched out. That takes a lot of the tension out of the story, meaning there's no sense of mystery; no hook in the plot to reel the audience in; the characters haven't even been built up enough to make you care about their backstories yet! The only way I could see it working was if Stampede was intended for people who've seen the original and are just here to see the characters they know and love in a retelling of a story they're already familiar with. And even in this, I think they fall short - I'm pretty fond of the original Trigun, but I spent disappointingly long stretches of the first half of Stampede feeling bored.
The characterisations also mostly misses the mark: Wolfwood, who was so effortlessly cool in the original, just comes off as someone trying too hard to be cool here; the newly introduced Roberto de Niro fits so snugly inside the archetypical jaded senpai mould that the only remarkable thing about him is his name - and most disappointingly, he's not even voiced by Robert de Niro in the dub! One of strengths of the 1998 Trigun was how well it juggled the goofy humour with the pathos; in Stampede, the balance feels out of whack as it discarded most of its goofy side and ramped up the angst instead, and the little goofiness that remained feels forced and out of place. It's not even very good angst: there's a lot of shouting but the lacklustre character chemistry and the unremarkable script meant that it felt more annoying than anything else in my emotionally detached state.
The strongest emotion I felt while watching the first half of Trigun Stampede was nostalgia, and not in good way for this new instalment. As the series touched upon familiar characters, familiar references and familiar features of this imaginative world, it evoked in me an appreciation of how well conceived the original concept was, and how much better it was done in the 1998 adapation. Almost the only improvement Trigun Stampede makes comes from the writers realising that, as much as "Knives" makes for a badass antagonist name, it's a ridiculous one to give to a child. So here, they made the main antagonist's birth name "Nai" instead.
To its credit, Trigun Stampede eventually gets its shit together and finally came into its own for the second half. With the caveat of it being so long since I last saw the original that I've have forgotten a lot of the finer details, I felt that Stampede aimed for and succeeded in fleshing out Vash and Knives' origin story a lot more. Most notably, Knives was simply a coldly logical and blood thirsty killer in the original, and here he becomes a much more sympathetic character, with his contrast against Vash feeling rather like that between Magneto and Profession X. One particularly harrowing scene of plants in their "last run" is one of many that makes Knives' case against humanity quite damning, and they provide especially poignant food for thought in this current era when climate change and living off the planet sustainably are such hot topics. I kinda wished we got to see more of Rem though, especially when the prolific Maaya Sakamoto lent such an experienced, star quality to her voice that she stole almost every scene in which she played a significant part.
The final part of Trigun Stampede wasn't without issues, the most glaring one being the technical aspect of the plot descending into incomprehensible, gobbledigook jargon jungle. That said, the ending provides an intriguing twist (one that I might have guessed had I re-familiarised myself with the original adaptation before embarking on this one), but you'd have to have seen the original to appreciate it. Yet again, this was an instance of the series throwing a bone to a familiar crowd that the newbies to the franchise would miss.
Before I finish up, I want to give a nod to the music production of Trigun Stampede. While the series abandoned the snarling electric guitar solos and the twanging sound of the blues of the original, what they replaced it with is at least as good. The opening is a modern, stylish chiller of a song with the auto-tune effect serving as a fitting parallel to the CG laden visuals; the ending is a melodic soother, gentle like a summer drizzle. Combined, they represent one of the best OP/ED combinations I can think of in recent anime. The background music is also good, serving up an array of distinctive styles to suit distinctive sceneries. This is one anime for which I want to check out the sound track!
So, how do I feel about this new adaptation of Trigun? Try as I might, I can't extricate myself from my impressions of the original to give an independent assessment of Trigun Stampede, different though it may be in both style and substance. My best guess though, is that newcomers to the series will find it underwhelming. But for existing customers, it's not bad, with a strong second half salvaging the mediocrity of the first. The more in depth origin story makes it a worthy supplement to the 1998 adaptation. At the very least, it has sold me on the next season, and I'm feeling just a little a spark of excitement about how they'll continue the story.
Personal rating: +0.5 (decent)
