sorry if this is a repeating question! your posts got me interested in trigun, which one do u recommend watching first, the 1998 or the 2023 one :0? (i already finished the manga)

It's not a repeat question, and I love talking about Trigun!

Watch 98 first for sure. A lot of it is pretty close to the manga, with a lot extra. Stampede is more of a reimagining or reinterpretation of Trigun, and it's very different from both 98 and the manga. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not sure) I think that the Trigun 98 anime was created after the first two volumes of the manga, and the popularity of the anime got Trigun picked back up again for Trigun Max. The manga, the 98 anime, and Stampede are all really different works, and they all have their own individual merit. I've only read about a volume of the manga, though, I have to finish reading it.

98 is much more of a comedy than the manga, and the actual Plot (TM) of Trigun only really kicks in halfway through it and results in the most severe tonal whiplash I've ever seen in a show. The humor's a bit more 90s anime, the episodes get weird, and Vash is more heterosexual (anime polycule game on point). I've been chewing over the really interesting impact of how Vash's idiot persona is absolutely impenetrable for the first four-to-six episodes, to the point where the audience is given very little signaling or insight into how he's actually feeling or what he's actually thinking, and how putting that unfiltered whacky comedy next to the regular fucked up Trigun really changes the experience.

Stampede is great, but it spends almost all of its time on plot and worldbuilding and really misses a lot of the joy of just watching Vash be insane. 98 gives us a lot of time with the characters just watching them be insane and fuck around and spend time forming their relationships, and you feel that absence in Stampede.

The anime is much less of a fever dream if you've read the manga, but there IS a scene where Vash eats a salmon sandwich and talks about buying salmon sandwiches. WITH WHAT OCEAN, VASH? WITH WHAT OCEAN???