Trigun (Anime)

Trigun (トライガン) is a Japanese anime series that was created, written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow. The manga was serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Shonen Captain in 1995 with a total of 3 collected volumes when the magazine was discontinued in 1997. The series continued in Shonen Gahosha's Young King Ours magazine, under the title Trigun Maximum (トライガンマキシマム), where it remained until finishing in 2008. Both manga were adapted into an anime television series in 1998. Madhouse animated the TV series which aired on TV Tokyo from April 1, 1998 to September 30, 1998. In the U.S the anime aired in English during the year of 2000. An animated feature film called Trigun: Badlands Rumble was released on April 24, 2010.

Plot
Everyone's looking for Vash the Stampede. He's got a $$60 Billion bounty on his head for destroying a city. The only problem? No one knows for sure what he looks like. Enter Descartes and gang who are after this geeky guy in a red coat. They capture him but start to have doubts if this guy really is the legendary gunman, especially when Loose Ruth shows up also fitting the description. Then come the Bernadelli Insurance girls, Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe who have Descartes' description - is he Vash? They certainly think so when he takes the girls hostage. But then the geeky guy shows up and saves them and takes out both Descartes and Loose Ruth without using a single bullet! But that couldn't be Vash the Stampede... Could it?

Meryl and Milly stop at a mansion in a deserted town for water when Vash (or simply, in Meryl's mind, the bumbling idiot from last time) answers the door. Shocked by his presence, the girls then follow the mansion's owner Cliff Schezar into the mansion whereupon he explains that someone in a red coat with blonde hair has been trying to kill him.

Cliff explains that's why he hired a bodyguard, jokingly asking for Vash the Stampede but that he didn't really expect him to show up. Cliff also says he needs the bodyguard because Marianne, the granddaughter of the one of the members of the Standtall Federal Bureau is staying at the mansion as his guest and he wants her to be protected. Meryl pulls Cliff aside and tells him that he is being duped by Vash and that he could not possibly be the real thing. Cliff assures Meryl that he knows, that he is only calling the man Vash to scare off potential attackers.

Meryl and Milly get ready stay the night and cook dinner while Marianne goes to take a bath. Vash, ever lecherous, goes to spy on Marianne in the bath only to find that she is missing. Around the same time elsewhere in the house, Meryl sees Marianne leave Cliff's study. During dinner Marianne gets angry at the conversation Cliff and Vash have about how prosperous Cliff is and leaves the dining room. Vash follows her to have a brief one-sided conversation about their romantic future together when it is cut off because Marianne sees someone sneaking around outside. It is revealed that she is wounded when Vash unknowingly clutches her shoulder. Vash then jumps out the window to attack the suspicious person and finds it to be "only" Meryl.

Shortly after, both Marianne and Cliff go missing and Milly finds Marianne's discarded dress and some bloody bandages. Meryl believes the evidence points to Marianne being the one trying to kill Cliff though Vash is in denial about it. When Meryl confronts Vash about sneaking around Marianne's room he panics and falls against a bookcase, pulling a cord and revealing a secret underground passage.

We then learn that Marianne is in fact a Marshal looking for proof of Cliff's corruption- and she finds it in the form of a dam, several water tanks and ice blocks Cliff has been hoarding. Cliff then confronts her and takes advantage of the fact that she is wounded and hits her with his gun, knocking her to the ground. Cliff is about to kill Marianne when Vash comes screaming down a water chute. Vash then stands up to oppose Cliff and easily dodges all of Cliff's shots while gradually moving toward him by reading the trajectory of the bullets and watching the gun's movements and timing. Vash runs up to him and flicks him in the nose and takes the gun away.

Cliff then reveals that he has several guns ready to fire under his coat, and tries to shoot Vash. Vash then dodges the shots, causing Cliff to shoot one of his blocks of ice. This enables Vash to catch an ice shard and hit Cliff's guns, which seemingly accidentally changes the trajectory to instead hit the water tanks and run out of ammo.

Vash then declares that he has done his job of protecting Cliff's guest when Marianne shouts for him to look out and he screams as the entire dam breaks, filling the mansion and entire town. Later, safely above the now flooded city, Vash, Meryl, Milly and the now tied up Cliff stand. Marianne says that it's okay even if the damn broke - because it will eventually go back into the ground and cause the city to become prosperous again and people will be able to return to their homes.

She then thanks Vash which irritates Meryl as she believes it was all luck. Marianne asks if Vash dodged all those bullets on purpose to which Vash says it was more like a fluke. Vash asks what would happen if she knew he was the real Vash the Stampede and Marianne responds that she would have to arrest him. Vash then throws his hands up in defeat and leaves the group as Marianne thanks the girls.

Marianne realizes Vash is leaving and tells Meryl and Milly that she could really fall for a guy like that - that Vash is a real man. Meryl strongly disagrees while Marianne tells her she has no taste in men. Vash leaves on his own to the desert, lamenting that he thought it would really work out this time that he did not want to get arrested.

Vash, our red coated geek, comes into a town looking for Frank Marlon, a legendary gunsmith. Marlon has been spending his days drunk ever since a group of bandits killed his wife and daughter using one of the guns he made! Vash agrees to drink with Marlon (much to the insurance girl's dismay) and eventually Marlon tells him his sad tale. Vash leaves his gun with Marlon the next morning and ends up stumbling upon a man calling himself Vash who is holding up an armored truck with his gang. Milly and Meryl, after trying to warn the mayor that this could happen, have been roped into helping the thieves. Apparently the group found out that the town didn't have a sheriff. The reason? Everyone has a Frank Marlon Special, including the bartender at the place Vash and Marlon partied at. She brings out her gun after Vash makes a heroic stand, bluffing that he has a gun in his pocket - and eventually everyone in town bring out their guns as well. Finally Marlon comes in also using a finger as his gun and they chase the thieves out of town. Marlon fixes Vash's gun and he heads out of town with the girls close behind.

Milly and Meryl are stuck in a little town waiting out a sandstorm, when the bar they're waiting at is held up. They are taken hostage along with a "girl who loves cards". Vash is dropped off outside of town to walk through the huge graveyard which is there. He comes into town listening to headphones, chewing gum, and dancing - right into the bar where the hold up is taking place! He doesn't hear the sheriff or the mayor as they yell at him. Vash is taken hostage and eventually finds out the reason the bar is being held up. Apparently the girl who loves cards is the mayor's daughter - he and the sheriff had killed the parents and families of many of the original townspeople. Meanwhile, the sheriff hires the help of some pretty shady men who have come to save the girl, even if that means killing the other hostages. Vash, Meryl, and Milly manage to stop the men, and Vash sets up a showdown between the mayor and the leader of the first gang. The sheriff is also thrown out of his position after he tries to kill them all to become the mayor himself. The show ends in one of Vash's famous lines: "This World is Made of Love and Peace!"

Vash is having breakfast when a group of bandits come to collect the $$60 Billion bounty on his head. Vash scares off the group, but when the townspeople find out he's Vash the Stampede they try to get the bounty themselves to fix their Plant. Milly and Meryl track him to the town and find the whole town is after him! Including the Nebraska family who were hired by the sheriff to capture him. Even though the women of the town capture Vash, he saves them from the Nebraska pair and manages to stop them with just 6 bullets (the first time he uses his gun) - and in turn capture the Nebraska family for their bounty which he gives to the town. Meanwhile, Meryl finally realizes that this geeky broom-headed guy is the Vash they've been sent to find!

The town throws a party for Vash and friends. The town finally is able to hire engineers to fix their plant, and they arrive on a huge sand steamer. Including the main engineer who is in fact a very gorgeous woman. She hires Vash as her bodyguard/doggy and he follows her around town. The only problem is that someone is after her, and Vash has to fight off a pretty nasty masked guy. The next day our lady takes Vash into the Plant and we find out that she was the one who hired the masked man. Vash defeats him, but then our lady plans to destroy the Plant to kill Vash! He manages to stop the Plant from blowing up somehow, and finds out that the woman had lived in the City of July when it had been destroyed. The people of the city had survived the explosion, but ended up starving to death including her parents and she sought revenge on Vash for it seeing as though he had been the one to destroy the city! But how had he not changed after nearly 30 years?

After saving Inepril City once again, the town holds a party in Vash's honor. The next morning, Vash quickly tries to escape the city (namely to escape Meryl and Milly) on the departing sand steamer. As the sand steamer travels, it is attacked by the Bad Lad Gang with the help of a young stowaway boy, Kaite, on board the steamer. While knocked unconscious, Vash dreams of Rem and the gang of thieves storms the sand steamer.

The Bad Lad Gang controls the sand steamer, hoping to steer it into the canyon in order to crack open the vault and get to the valuables inside. Vash, with the help of the stowaway Kaite (the son of the man who designed the sand steamer), must act quickly before the Gang steers the steamer and its passengers to its demise.

Episodes

 * 26 (total)

Films

 * Trigun Badlands Rumble (take place in between episode 17 & 18)

Theme Songs

 * Opening


 * T.R (Instrumental)
 * Closing


 * ??? (all episodes)

Voice Cast

 * Japanese


 * Masaya Onosaka as Vash the Stampede
 * the late Hiromi Tsuru as Meryl Stryfe
 * Satsuki Yukino as Milly Thompson
 * the late Daisuke Gori as Descartes
 * Masashi Sugawara as Ingway
 * Masaaki Yajima as Cliff Schezar
 * Seizo Kato as Grim Reaper Earl Bostalk
 * Rica Matsumoto as Kaite
 * Sho Hayami as Nicholas D. Wolfwood
 * Toshihiko Seki as Legato Bluesummers
 * Masuo Amada as Monev the Gale
 * Yoko Somi as Dominique the Cyclops
 * Ryo Horikawa as E.G. Mine
 * Akio Otsuka as Rai-Dei the Blade
 * Aya Hisakawa as Rem Saverem
 * Hajimenori Miyata as Young Vash
 * Masamichi Ota as Young Knives
 * Tomoko Ishimura as Lina
 * Kaneta Kimotsuki as Leonof the Puppet Master
 * Keiichi Nanba as Hoppered the Gauntlet
 * Hiroshi Kamiya as Zazie the Beast
 * the late Hirotaka Suzuoki as Chapel the Evergreen
 * Tomohiro Nishimura as Midvalley the Hornfreak
 * Toru Furusawa as Knives Million
 * English


 * Johnny Yong Bosch as Vash
 * Dorothy Fahn as Meryl
 * Lia Sargent as Milly
 * Joe Romersa as Descartes
 * Michael McConnohie as Ingway
 * John Snyder as Cliff Schezar
 * Steve Kramer as Grim Reaper Earl Bostalk
 * Mona Marshall as Kaite
 * Jeff Nimoy as Wolfwood
 * Richard Cansino as Legato Bluesummers
 * Peter Spellos as Monev the Gale
 * Carol Stanzione as Dominique the Cyclops
 * Bob Marx as E.G. Mine
 * Kirk Thornton as Rai-Dei the Blade
 * Bridget Hoffman as Rem
 * Bryce Papenbrook as Young Vash
 * Joshua Seth as Young Knives
 * Michelle Ruff as Lina
 * Milton James as Leonof the Puppet Master
 * Jonathan Fahn as Hoppered the Gauntlet
 * Derek Stephen Prince as Zazie the Beast
 * Daniel Woren as Chapel the Evergreen
 * Steve Bulen as Midvalley the Hornfreak
 * Kirk Baily as Knives

Trivia

 * The 1st debut anime series of Johnny Yong Bosch, that launched his voice acting career after he was finish with the Power Ranger series. He was the only cast member to reprise his role as the main character for the movie, while his other three original co star friends (Meryl, Milly and Wolfwood) were recanted.
 * The only Anime, that has a lot of fan service in the U.S and not in Japan. Because not too many fans were watching the Anime when it air in Japan back in 1998.
 * Vash's age currently confuses many fans since they don't even know how old he was as a young child.
 * The opening song sequence is call HT.
 * The small black cat that appears in every episode of Trigun is called "Kuroneko Sama" (which means "Lord Black Cat". The cat is a female and was a creation for one of Yasuhiro Nightow's first mangas (Japanese comic books), and he has stated that the cat is female. Her alternate name is "Kuroneko Kukan" or "Black Cat Space". She also makes a cameo in the video game "Wild ARMs: 2nd Ignition".
 * Yasuhiro Nightow has gone on record to say that English is the language actually spoken on the Planet Gunsmoke.
 * For unknown reasons, the anime contains various fictional units of measurement. The three most prominent are "iles" instead of "miles", "yarz" instead of "yards", and "double dollars ($$)" instead of "dollars ($)".
 * The series is named Trigun because Vash has three guns. His revolver, his prosthetic arm which houses a gun, and his angel arm.
 * The "D" in Nicholas D Wolfwood stands for Dokonokuminomonjawaresumakinishiteshizumetarokakora.
 * Wolfwood's cross is known as the Punisher.
 * Spiderman was a big influence on Nightow. The character Monev the Gale was inspired by Venom. If you notice, Monev is Venom spelled backwords.
 * When the anime started, Nightow was still doing the manga, only up to volume 2. So from episode 16 onwards, the anime breaks off from the manga and follows a different storyline.
 * The song that Rem used to sing to Vash is also sung by the boy from the train, who is known as Kaite. "Oh! On the first celestial evening, all the children now are sleeping. Night upon a dreaming world!".
 * Rem Saverem is the only minor character that made the most appearances in the anime. Her voice is heard in episode 7 when Vash wakes up on the train. But she is seen in a vision when Kaite sings her favorite song in episode 8. Rem is seen again in episode 12 when Vash stopped himself from killing Monev the Gale and that is when she talks to him for the first time. She is seen in a flashback in episode 17 and episode 20. She is seen in a vision once again in episode 25 and lastly in episode 26. The final time her voice is heard is in episode 25.
 * The three episodes where Vash appears as a child is episode 17, 20 and 26.
 * Milly has a large family. She addresses her siblings as Big Big Brother, Little Big Brother, Big Little Brother, Little Little Brother, Big Big Sister, Little Big Sister, Big Little Sister, and Little Little Sister.
 * In Episode 2, in Cliff Schezar's wanted poster, it says "Vash the Stanpeat".
 * In Episode 9, Murder Machine, you can see Wolfwoods Cross Punisher on the roof of the bus BEFORE they find him.
 * In Episode 9, the name of the city goes from Mei to May back to Mei.
 * In Episode 10, Vash's name on the board is spelled Stanpede instead of Stampede.
 * In Episode 12, you see that Vash's gun is a Colt.
 * In Episode 26 during Vash's flashback, when he first shoots Knives, his hand turns from gloved to bare skin, back to gloved.
 * Fans love how Vash sounds like a child in Japanese compared to English.
 * As of now in 2018, this Anime will be forbidden to watch on YouTube because Funimation the company that owns the Anime in English has blocked anyone on YouTube from uploading the full 26 episodes and movie on their own YouTube account without the company's permission. Therefore this Anime will be blocked if you try to watch an episode in Japanese or in English. Other animes that share this issue on YouTube are Sailor Moon, the Dragon Ball franchise, Code Geass, Eureka Seven, Wolf's Rain, Mars Daybreak, Digimon Adventure 02, Claymore, Deadman Wonderland, Fruits Basaket, Yu Yu Hakusho, Soul Eater and Sengoku Basara. Therefore you would have to either buy all these anime on DVD, or watch all these anime on the Funimation website instead of YouTube.