Posted in: Anime, Crunchyroll, TV | Tagged: anime, Crunchyroll, manga, Trigun, Trigun Stampede, Vash the Stampede

Trigun Stampede: The Space Western Reboot That Brings Back the 90s

Trigun Stampede might feel familiar, an epic Space Western comedy adventure. That's because we've been here before. Originally adapted from a manga series that ran from 1995 to 1997 back in 1998, the original Trigun was a key anime that set the stage for Cowboy Bebop, which also premiered in 1998.

Vash the Stampede, our hero, is a sweet-natured, pacifist gunslinger wandering a desert colony called No Man's Land with a massive bounty on his head for mass destruction and murder. Trigun Stampede starts at a different point In the story, with rookie reporter Meryl Stryfe and her drunken, cynical co-worker Roberto de Niro chasing the story of Vash to find the truth about him. Instead of the evil mass murderer, they find an amiable goofball beloved by local townspeople but relentlessly pursued by the fascistic cops of the conglomerate that rules over the colony. There's something bigger at play, of course. The first episode opens with the reveal of Vash in childhood, surviving the destruction of the L5 space colony he grew up on, brought about by his evil brother Knives, who will be the Big Bad of the story plotting something big and apocalyptic for No Man's Land.

Trigun Stampede is an anime updated for 2023 with slicker CGI artwork that's smoother than the hand-drawn wackiness that showed the artists' personalities. This updated reboot retains the goofy character comedy of the manga and 90s anime and compensates for the new slickness with elaborate camerawork, and even more ambitious action set pieces than ever, done in a single take with a roving camera that can only be achieved through CG. The first episode is a slow burn with Meryl and Roberto discovering Vash's gunslinger skills and misunderstood true good guy self. Vash the Stampede is a classic good guy who wanders into town and saves everyone before hightailing it out of there before anyone can thank him. He shoulders the burden of being the bad guy, so nobody else has to. Once again, the series starts out comedic and will gradually get serious as it goes along when Vash's origins are revealed.

The revival of Trigun suggests the anime field is opening up its range of genres again after the flood of high school stories during most of the 2000s. Trigun Stampede is a reboot for a new generation of anime fans who didn't grow up with everyone's favourite pacifist cyberpunk gunslinger who does the right thing out of duty.

Trigun Stampede begins streaming on Crunchyroll on January 7th. The original Trigun is also on Crunchyroll.

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