Episode 23: Trigun Review
Disclaimer: the following review consists of copywritten material owned by Yasahiro Nightow, Madhouse studios, Funimation, and Dark Horse Comics the current rights owners of Trigun. All characters, locations, names and ideas are theirs, this review however is my property and is covered by the fair rights usage law.
Airnaruto once again sat at his desk having fully recovered from his last episode. "Hello I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required to." He said as usual before moving on to the topic of the review. "Well after three weeks of crying my eyes out I decided to get back on the reviewing track with an anime classic." He said as the scene changed to an old saloon in the middle of the desert.
"This barren wasteland of a planet known as Gun smoke is the last frontier for humanity, outlaws and bounty hunters run amok in the new old west and the biggest bounty of them all belongs to Vash the Stampede, an uncatchable demon with killer marksmanship and a bounty of 60 billion double dollars on his head dead or alive." Airnaruto explained as we see the saloon get sliced in half, and riddled with bullets by a band of bounty hunters.
(BANG! BANG! BANG!)
Some of the bullets ricocheted near Airnaruto's head forcing him to duck for cover. "Whoa!" He exclaimed as he hid under the desk "Okay I've heard of breaking the fourth wall but that was just ludicrous." He said as all that remains of the bar is just one man with spiky blonde hair, wearing a long red trench coat, orange tinted sunglasses, black gloves, and a custom designed Mateba semiautomatic .45 caliber revolver pistol at his side sitting at his stool, and then the guy stands up and aims his gun at the would be assassins as the scene cut back to Airnaruto.
"Oh boy I foresee an ass whooping." He said excitedly until he heard the gun click about 5 times and the bounty hunters laugh at the individual mentioned earlier. "Then again maybe not."
Unknown character: AH!
(Guns firing)
"Whoa!" Airnaruto exclaimed as he ducked under the desk again. "What is this shoot the Classic Critic full of holes day?" He asked in a fit of rage.
The camera then changed to the red coat wearing idiot along with two young ladies who are riding on the back of two creatures known as Thomas's which look like Ostriches crossbred with anteaters with lizard eyes.
"Anyway his path of destruction is so widespread that even attracts the attention of insurance societies who send representatives and disaster investigators to find him and enforce risk prevention on him because he's driving them into massive debt." Airnaruto explained while our hero was guzzling down a box of donuts and the insurance girls explaining the situation to him.
Vash: Okay then what were you two doing there? Are ugly guys like that your type or what?
Meryl: Shut up! It's nothing like that we're here on official business.
Milly: That's right official representatives of the Bernadelli insurance society, we're disaster investigators.
Meryl: There have been over 300 reported sightings of Vash the Stampede and it's a huge liability to any insurance company.
Vash with his mouth full: Yeah that must be rough.
Meryl: Like you care that's why we're trying to find him and keep him under 24 hour surveillance.
Vash: 24 Hours?
Milly: Is something wrong?
Vash: No nothing.
"Real smooth idiot." Airnaruto said in regards to Vash. "Anyway Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson initially give our resident fro-hawked blockhead a pass but after he saves them from getting raped and killed or the other way around." Airnaruto said as we see the scene play out.
Vash: Run!
(Gun gets fired again)
"Yikes!" Airnaruto said ducking back under the desk, "Well they still can't believe it…or at least Meryl can't by the end of the first episode, Milly's convinced that this red coated numbskull is Vash the Stampede." Airnaruto said as Meryl started to list off Vash's faults in attempt to disprove any of Milly's claims that he is who she says he is.
Meryl about Vash pre-episode 5: That droopy-eyed, cocky, upside haired, woman chasing lunatic whose nuts for donuts and gorges them like a starved hog in heat you honestly think is him?
"However Vash proves his skills time after time proving that his mass murdering reputation is completely unfounded, in reality he's vowed that he will never take a human life and only draw out his gun let alone rely on it as an absolute last resort." Airnaruto said before cutting back to him.
"So if he's just a pacifist who just has a nasty string of bad luck why does everyone think he's a mass murderer?" He asked as the camera cut back to the show a little later on in the series.
"The answers start to come up when a priest with a very itchy trigger finger named Nicholas D. Wolfwood comes across our trio and the merry band is soon targeted by a nihilist and his master who strike fear in Vash's heart and send assassins who are chomping at the bit to rip open his old wounds." Airnaruto said before asking a question as we see a scene from episode 12.
"So one would ask just who or what is Vash? Is he a guardian angel, just some lucky idiot, or the devil himself underneath the scars and smile?" He asked before moving on to the show's production values.
"In terms of production, when the studio behind it is Madhouse, the oldest of the big three anime production studios you're certain it's animation is going to be slick, fluid, and perfect. However for Trigun that's not the case. It's rough and tumble design was based on an attempt to imitate American superhero comics while staying in anime standards." Airnaruto said as we see Vash jump out a window only to wind up outside the bathroom.
"My guess is that this was just to appease the manga author Yasuhiro Nightow who is a renowned US action figures and comic book addict with his all time favorite being everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood wall crawling web slinger Spider man." Airnaruto said giving his thoughts on why the show was designed that way before a certain black cat appeared in front of him. "Well what do you know folks it's Kuroneko-sama." Airnaruto said picking up the cat.
"Meow!" the cat said as text appeared above its head.
Kuroneko-sama origin Japanese translation: Lord or Lady Black Cat It read.
"Meow!" The cat said again.
"If you're wondering folks as the text mentions about the name, Kuroneko-sama was more or less Nightow's mascot/companion character and this is a female kitty and as an inside joke she shows up at least once in every episode of the anime, every so often in the manga, and in the editorial common of the maximum comic in the case of the latter of these three she usually criticizes Nightow's over simplistic style." Airnaruto explained.
"Meow!" Kuroneko-sama said.
"Anyway back to the animation while the approach they used sounded good on paper it wasn't that great in execution. The show did have brief moments of visceral brilliance in its unusual style but also looked like dust covered Thomas shit when the budget dropped out and the characters models couldn't stand up any better than a Soul Eater DVD case so visually it was a hit and miss." Airnaruto explained as he pulled out a Soul Eater DVD case and placed on the table to prove his point as the case fell over before the camera cut to Vash and Wolfwood getting flushed down a sandpit.
Vash & Wolfwood: OH NO! IT'S QUICKSAND!
Little girl watching: What an embarrassing way to go.
"The soundtrack is rather underrated consisting of random junk music and loads of electric guitar that truly bring the bleak world of Trigun to life." Airnaruto said before moving on to the voice cast.
"The voicing is pretty good with veteran seiyu Satsuki Yukino playing a very well done Milly and the rest of the acting is fine in Japanese but trust me when I say this show is much more rewarding to watch in the English dub. Especially when English is Gunsmoke's official language canonically." Airnaruto said under his breath as we see Vash confront the samurai-esque member of the gung-ho guns holding a contract to take Vash down written in Japanese.
Vash: I can't read that.
"See what I mean folks?" Airnaruto asked before moving on to Vash himself. "Now Vash's seiyu Masaya Onasaka did a pretty good job at voicing Vash but I have two complaints with him in the role." Airnaruto said before revealing his complaints; "The first complaint is why have an Osakan born actor hide his natural accent when more than half of the cast speak partially in Konsai-bin which is the Southwestern Japanese dialect? " He asked.
"My other complaint with Onasaka is that while he is funny, he just goes a little over the top when he has to act serious and that's his downfall for me." Airnaruto said before moving on to the dub actor.
"By contrast, Johnny Yong Bosch understands the part better and he can play both sides of Vash's persona without it sounding so jarring besides hands down Vash is one the most memorable anime heroes of all time from his bizarre appearance to his mysterious personality making him equal parts badass and softy." Airnaruto said in regards to Vash's persona.
All the other actors hold the series together as well especially the voice of Wolfwood who again has an odd casting choice in Japanese." Airnaruto said before explaining. "In Japanese Wolfwood is voiced by the articulate and very eloquent speaking Sho Hayami who was cast for the role because they needed someone who grew up in Osaka and could speak Konsai-bin even if he had to fake the accent which Hayami did; despite having spent his childhood in Osaka he speaks more like your average Kanto region dweller but still that's the only other gripe I have with the sub." Airnaruto revealed.
"Wolfwood's dub voice actor Jeff Nimoy has just enough color to his voice to make come close to what the Japanese casting staff was aiming for when they casted Hayami on the other hand." Airnaruto explained as we hear Wolfwood explain why he was in the desert.
Wolfwood: My motorcycle broke down a couple of hundred miles down the road from here so I thought I'd just hoof it.
"Yeah the show does have unneeded extras like Barney Fife in here." Airnaruto said before Barney Fife cut him off.
Barney: Why is he just standing there taking that kind of abuse?
"Barney go back to the Andy Griffith show and stay there." Airnaruto said bluntly before wrapping it up for the cast. "Bottom line the Dub comes through a lot better than the Japanese." Airnaruto said.
"Okay now to get to the obvious points about the show Trigun has awesome gunfights, it's also gut buster and highly original but the characters take the center stage of the series. By far Vash is one of if not the most recognizable heroes in anime history but even he can't carry the weight by himself, shockingly enough Wolfwood is more popular than even Vash and is just as interesting in his way of life and strong opposition of Vash's philosophy." Airnaruto said before cutting back to him to ask himself one question.
"If Wolfwood and Vash are the most popular characters in the series then why is that Kuroneko-sama has gotten more product placement than either one of them?" He asked before he showed some slides of the Trigun memorabilia that had Kuroneko-sama on it including; plushies, slippers, backpacks, shot glasses, fleeces, bobby pins, pillows, and key chains.
Kuroneko-sama: Meow.
"Anyway, the entire cast carries the brunt of the insanity of this show with incredible ease, what do I mean by insanity?" Airnaruto asked for his audience.
"Simple it starts off with a wild clatter and clang of over the top slap stick violence and over the top comedy that while still taking itself seriously does throw in quite a few gags." Airnaruto said before he slammed his hands on the desk and the camera zoomed in on him.
"OR IS IT?" He asked.
"Around the halfway point we find out that the peaceful outlaw's past hasn't made peace with and the calculating vengeance that Legato, Knives, and the Gung ho guns take on Vash start a dramatic spiral into some nerve racking pathos until it climaxes in a scene so tension breaking you'll be screaming at your screen for a little bit." Airnaruto said before moving on to the last bits of the review.
"Now the story itself is very subdued in the anime and while it's well known that this is a space western sci-fi, we don't even know we're on another planet until episode 6 or how humanity got there until episode 17. While this does create greater realism it's still manga contingent. In other words the answers are not so hidden in the manga." Airnaruto said.
"Some of the questions would be like; Why does Legato hate slave traders most of all? What do the plants on Gunsmoke's look like from within, or in my opinion the most illogical question why is Wolfwood hinted to be how old?" Airnaruto asked until we here Wolfwood reveal the answer.
Wolfwood: I picked my first gun at the age of 7
"No surprise there." Airnaruto said before he got cut off by Wolfwood's mentor.
Chapel: I can't believe you wasted the 10 years of training I gave you…
(Record scratch)
"Wolfwood is only 17? How the hell is he only 17? I mean he looks he's somewhere around 25 to 32 years old. NO! NO! DOES NOT COMPUTE! DOES NOT COMPUTE!" Airnaruto asked and then screamed waving his arms around wildly.
(3 hours later)
"I apologize for that folks it was stupid of me. Let's forget that ever happened." Airnaruto said. "Well anyway you'll find answers but only in the manga and on top of that the anime is a PG-13 adaptation of an R rated manga so while the manga makes it clear how Knives can make an entire town's populace vanish over not, or how Legato can kill people by simply cutting their brain functions, the anime leaves that to your imagination." Airnaruto said as we see each of the mentioned scenes and then the camera cutback to him and Kuroneko-sama.
"Either way this show is a load of fun, thought provoking and the only gun sling fest where the man on the wanted poster shouts…" Airnaruto said before getting cut off by Vash.
Vash: Repeat carefully after me.
Sheriff Stan: Okay
Vash: This world is made…
Stan: This world is…..
Vash: This world is made of!
Stan: This world is made of…
Vash: Made of love & peace.
(Strikes his pose).
"All-in-all, Trigun does have it's fair share of scrapes with scrappy animation, overly secretive storytelling, and numerous dark twists and turns but, no other shows have a such a heart of gold. A powerful story, complex characters, and a rip-snorting time when the darkness lifts are what this show brings to the table and with that said I give Trigun 4 and a half pacifistic proclamations…" Airnaruto said before the camera cut to Vash.
Vash: This Land is made of…Love & Peace! (1)
Love & Peace! (2)
A couple of kids join in
All three: Love & Peace (3)
Love and Peace (4)
Love &…. (4 ½)
Meryl with a scared look on her face: NO MAKE IT GO AWAY I CAN'T STAND ANYOMORE!
Vash to the crowd: Now everybody join along Love and peace!
"….out of 5. I'm the Classic Critic I remember it so you're not required to and remember that this world is made LOVE & PEACE! (Does the Vash pose)" Airnaruto exclaimed as he did the pose before leaving.
Trigun final analysis:
Pros: Powerful story that questions if it's just to take a human life based on the person's crime. Complex characters, pulls off the comedy to drama twist very well. Great dub cast
Cons: extremely secretive with certain questions in the plot, hit & miss visuals, confusing sub cast choices for the two most popular characters.
Final rating: ****1/2 out of 5
A/N: Well folks there you have it for this week Happy Holidays to you all.