Trigun Stampede transformed the Trigun anime to be faithful to it

If you had told me before last year a new Trigun anime was coming out in 2023, I wouldn’t have believed you. That’s the impression I sensed from most longtime Trigun fans I talked to in the wake of the announcement that Orange, the anime studio behind such lauded 3D CG animation like 2017’s Land of the Lustrous and 2019’s Beastars, would be creating a new anime based on Yasuhiro Nightow’s space Western action manga: a complicated mix of unvarnished enthusiasm, incredulous curiosity, and guarded expectation. And it’s got the fan base split.

Where? Trigun StampedeReactions to the announcement of the new Trigun anime were mixed when it was revealed for first time at Anime Expo 2022. The announcement of the Trigun’s first anime series in more than 13 years was met with almost unanimous approval. However, reactions to the actual production of the anime were divided. American Trigun anime fans have been critical of many aspects of the 1998 original. Trigun Stampede since its debut in January, with particular disapproval for the redesign of characters like series protagonist Vash the Stampede, the apparent absence of particular fan-favorite characters, the orchestral-heavy score as opposed to the 1998 series’ rock-oriented soundtrack, and the quality of the series’ CG animation. The fan base was initially confused about how the series would be presented. Trigun Stampede fits into the chronology and canon of either Nightow’s original manga or the 1998 anime adaptation, if at all.

This is how you answer the second question. Trigun StampedeThis is a reboot that retells its own story, character beats and events from both the original manga (1998) and the anime. The series takes place at a time earlier in the Trigun history than any prior iterations. All that being said, I’m here to present the compelling case why Trigun Stampede deserves your time, unpack the complicated history of the series, and explain how Orange’s new anime is true to the spirit of the franchise while iterating on the core ideas and themes of its universe in ways the creators of the 1998 anime never had the opportunity to. Trigun StampedeDoes this happen in the same manner as the original? Trigun anime made this happen: It took the source material and transformed it into an original story.

[Ed. note: Spoilers for the Trigun manga, the 1998 Trigun anime, and Trigun Stampede ahead.]

Trigun’s history

Image: Orange/Crunchyroll

Let’s start with some background. In February 1995, Yasuhiro Nightow published the first “one-shot” (i.e., stand-alone issue) of Trigun, titled “Trigun Pilot,” in the Japanese manga publication Monthly Shōnen Captain. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi Western, the comic centered on Vash the Stampede, a mysterious gunslinger traversing a barren planet whose ebullient personality and pacifist philosophy were contrasted with his otherwise infamous reputation as a “localized disaster.” The reception was positive, and Trigun began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Captain that following April, with a total of 20 issues published before the magazine was shuttered in January 1997. Shortly after, Nightow was approached by Japanese publisher Shōnen Gahōsha, who was interested in working with him on a new manga series. However, Nightow couldn’t — or wouldn’t — let go of Trigun.

“When [Shōnen Gahōsha’s Young King Ours]The company invited me to help them with some art. They were looking for something new, but it was too much for me. Trigun unfinished,” Nightow said in a reader-submitted Q&A interview in September 2000. “I told them I wouldn’t feel like I had done my work unless I finished it, plus I was attached to it, and I asked them if they’d let me finish it.” Around this same time, an anime adaptation of TrigunThe film, directed by Satoshi Nakajimura and produced by Madhouse, was just entering production. Nightow had been attached as creative counsel. Thanks in part to the production of Madhouse’s adaptation, the Trigun manga (retitled as Trigun Maximum) resumed publication on Oct. 30, 1997 — less than half a year before the 1998 Trigun anime premiered on Japanese television.

The 1998 anime version of the movie was not only a success, but it also won international acclaim. TrigunNightow produced the anime at a point in the original manga’s history when it was still unfinished. However, the existence of this anime allowed Nightow to complete the manga story as he intended. This first fact is known by most Trigun fans and is acknowledged. However, this second one is much less well known.

Trigun’s American influence and the relationship between anime and adaptation

The English dub was released five years after the Japanese anime ended. Trigun premiered on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block in 2003 and aired in reruns on the block up until 2009. As was the case with similar American-media-influenced anime like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw StarPlease see the following: The Big O, TrigunThe anime left a lasting impression on an entire generation of American anime enthusiasts who were born around the turning of the century. Audiences responded not only to Vash’s buffoonish demeanor, striking character design, and supernaturally proficient marksmanship, but also to his arc as a man haunted by the pain of his complicated past and the burden of his responsibility in safeguarding the survival of the human race.

Image: Yasuhiro Nightow/Dark Horse Comics

The 1998 Trigun anime wasn’t just popular, it was a bona fide phenomenon among American anime fans, particularly cosplayers who fastidiously recreated Vash’s distinctive double-breasted coat, announcing themselves as (Deep Breathing) “Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III” and shouting “Love and peace!” in their best impression of Johnny Yong Bosch at anime conventions. Nightow made the statement in 2009 during a promotional interview for the film. Trigun: Badlands Rumble, “I’m very blessed to have American fans. The Trigun movie that’s coming out is [possible]Because of American fans’ requests. Without these fans, I wouldn’t have this opportunity.”

Nightow’s original manga and studio Madhouse’s adaptation exist in a symbiotic, interdependent relationship. The former gave birth to the latter, and the latter played a major role in the former’s revival and continued existence. Because Madhouse’s adaptation was produced while Nightow’s manga was still incomplete, director Satoshi Nishimura, screenwriter Yōsuke Kuroda, and the rest of the anime’s production staff had to work off what existed of the manga at the time and go in their own direction, resulting in a 26-episode series that is approximately 60% “filler,” containing characters, events, and revelations that diverge from the now accepted “canon” of the source material.

This is as common in anime of that time (for example, 2003’s Fullmetal Alchemist and 2001’s HellsingAs it stands today. Producers and animators often need to cut and amend stories to fit into a television broadcast season. This is especially true when there are no guarantees of another season. This is the problem. Trigun Stampede is the 1998 anime has all but eclipsed Nightow’sOderiginal manga in the minds of a majority of American Trigun fans, many of whom have seldom read either Trigun or Trigun Maximum. More American Trigun fans know the series from the anime than they do from Nightow’s original manga. The fact that both English-language physical editions are available in English is further evidence of this. Trigun Trigun Maximum manga volumes, published by Dark Horse Comics, have been out of print for years (though are still available for digital purchase via Dark Horse Comics’ website and mobile app).

Several iconic elements of the 1998 anime, particularly Tsuneo Imahori’s rock-’n’-roll-inspired score, are in no way attributable or inherent to Nightow’s original manga. This is largely due to Nishimura, co. who were allowed to choose what they enjoyed. TrigunThey can expand on it as they see fit. This allowed them to tell their own story while hewing to the core thematic and narrative touch points that made Nightow’s original vision, a story that while not considered “canon” nonetheless resonates with fans to this day.

Trigun Stampede’s place in the picture, and what the skeptical skeptics don’t see

Image: Orange/Crunchyroll

It is crucial to understand the significance of all of these points. Trigun StampedeTrigun’s first anime series in thirteen years. It was also the subject of a passionate response from some 1998 anime fans. Since June, when the first footage was revealed for the series’ new series. Trigun StampedeThe 1998 anime’s fans have been very critical of it. You don’t have to look far to find them, as one need only take a glance below my colleague Ana Diaz’s piece on the redesign of Vash the Stampede to find comments describing Orange’s adaptation as “wretched,” “wildly downgraded,” “objectively cheap and bad looking,” “like you put Trigun in an AI art generator or something,” “strange,” “mediocre,” “plastic and superficial,” and lacking the “grit and personality of the original show.” These criticisms are telling, not of the quality or merit of Trigun StampedeRather than the anime itself, it is the precedent set by 1998. AnyTrigun anime to be adapted into an animated film. It’s likely the burden of these entrenched expectations are partially to blame for why it’s taken so long for there to be another Trigun anime: Any subsequent adaptation is destined to fall short of the idea of Trigun that fans of the 1998 anime have built up in their own minds over the past two decades. This is the most disturbing thing about Trigun. Trigun StampedeMany long-time Trigun anime fan’s opinion is that the difference in what the Trigun does different from other anime has less to do than the fact it is unique.

Critics Trigun Stampede have scoffed at comments made by Katsuhiro Takei, one of the anime’s producers, during a staff panel at Anime NYC 2022. Takei, who was a panel member at Anime NYC 2022, mentioned Marvel Cinematic Universe as an example while being inspired by the project. Trigun Stampedebecause it honors its origins while reworking its original source material. Some fans read this as a betrayal, an example of how Trigun has been homogenized by this proximity to the cultural juggernaut that is Disney and Marvel’s ever-expanding superhero franchise. This criticism ignores the fact, however, that such a comparison was actually encouraged by Trigun’s creator, Nightow, who reportedly even went so far as to encourage Trigun Stampede’s staff to watch every MCU film, but also the fact that Nightow himself has always been an avid admirer of American comics and popular culture. He’s enthusiastically cited American comic artists like Geof Darrow, Mike Mignola, and Todd McFarlane in the past as influences on his own art and the aesthetic of Trigun’s universe. It is evident in Trigun StampedeThey are, but in different ways. While Vash’s redesigned coat no longer resembles the torn, flowing cape of Todd McFarlane’s original character Spawn, the redesign of Vash’s omnicidal brother Nai (referred to in the series by his nom de guerre “Millions Knives”) in Trigun Stampede bears a striking resemblance to McFarlane’s aforementioned antihero, telepathically wielding barbed knife-like tentacles akin to Spawn’s own iconic chains.

Image by Mike Mignola/Dark Horse Comics

Image: Yasuhiro Nightow/Dark Horse Comics

Image: Orange/Crunchyroll

As you can see, almost every character creation and world-building selection is guided by a sense of intentionality. Trigun StampedeSo far. This much is clear from the anime’s first episode, “Noman’s Land,” which opens on a sweeping shot of a fleet of bizarre starships descending on a barren desert planet. This is in stark contrast to 1998’s Trigun, which elided nearly any hint that Vash’s story took place on a planet other than Earth until well past halfway through its run. Trigun StampedeNot only does it acknowledge this truth upfront but it also opens the door to a larger story than that of the 1998 anime. This would be based on plot revelations which have not been seen in other Trigun versions. Trigun Maximum. The shoulder patch and name tag on Vash’s coat with the words “Project Seeds” offers a veiled explanation as to how — and Where exactly — Vash found said coat and Why? he wears it, while the fact that Vash’s bounty at the beginning of this series, as seen in the first episode, is only 6 million double-dollars and not 60 billion double-dollars foreshadows that certain major (see: spoiler-heavy) events previously seen in both Nightow’s manga and the 1998 anime have not yet come to pass.

It is clear that Meryl Strayfe, a non-member of Bernardelli Insurance Society, but a junior reporter with the Bernardelli Press, met Vash in an earlier stage of her life than at any other Trigun. Trigun Stampede’s creators are trying to further centralize a major element that was already present in the 1998 anime — the implication of a future romantic relationship between the two. Each iteration Trigun is unique. up to now has featured a time skip forward, it’s plausible that the reason why Milly Thompson, a fan-favorite character known for her indefatigably sunny disposition and penchant for wielding an oversized stun gun, hasn’t yet appeared in Trigun Stampede is simply because Meryl hasn’t met her yet.

Image: Orange/Crunchyroll

Image: Orange/Crunchyroll

However, some of the most loud and inconsolable people ignore all of it or intentionally misunderstand. Trigun Stampede’s detractors, who are in effect lambasting this new series for doing what essentially the 1998 anime did itself, albeit out of necessity: transforming Trigun and reinterpreting it on its own terms. Many of the series’ critics were disappointed. Trigun StampedeThis is not an attempt to mimic the Trigun. Fullmetal alchemist: BrotherhoodThis is a beat for-beat adaptation, created after a previous adaptation had to be adapted. Nor is Orange’s new series trying to be the 1998 anime; nothing can and nothing will, and Trigun Stampede’s creators know that.

“Trigun will always be Trigun, no matter how much you rework on it,” Yasuhiro Nightow said during the Trigun Stampede staff panel at Anime Expo 2022. “Perhaps it’s because the staff understands and protects what’s at the core of this work. I’m proud of this tenacious work, if I do say so myself.” For some viewers, even given these details and explanations, you were never going to like Trigun StampedeIt can’t be the original anime you enjoyed as a child. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be that anime for someone else.