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chibivesicle · 1 year

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Trigun Stampede - Episode 6 - Wolfwood’s tragic backstory, now? Eeeehh?

Episode 6 dropped yesterday and I had only enough time to watch but not anything else. After watching it, I just felt meh wringing my hands about how when I first heard about the reboot at Anime Expo last summer I was so stoked for a more through Trigun anime. And we get this version from Studio Orange which I really wanted to be an enjoyable watch - buuuuuut - meh. You’re killing me Studio Orange.

Since I didn’t have time to get to it yesterday, I pestered my good meta friend Merdopseudo to see what she thought as well, so I’ll be highlighting some of her points here as well since she’s great at catching things I miss or summarizing well. As indicated by my summary title, I’m quite confused why they decided to lead with Wolfwood’s even more tragic backstory in this version of Trigun than in the manga.

We start off the episode with a fleeing masked member of the Eye of Michael (though they haven’t been named yet) who tries to kill Wolfwood and fails as he destroys the man.

We get even red eyes as he lines up his aim before the man dies. And he’s wearing his sunglasses even at night! Wow, maximum badass. Why? Wolfwood needs to be a maximum badass, that’s why. Furthermore, so many scenes in this anime seem to feature full moons all the time. Just an observation.

After the opening we return to the quartet in the November News Bureau SUV. In the backseat, Vash and Wolfwood are pouting over something and Meryl jokingly asks if they are having a spat over candy.

This line feels like it was delivered in poor taste. I get she’s trying to defuse the situation but are we to think this is due to Wolfwood shooting Rollo - last night? Or a few days prior? What is our pacing? What day of the week is it? How much time has passed? Any clue would help us out here Studio Orange. I’m going to take the easiest option and say that they are pouting about the fact that Wolfwood killed Rollo - last night.

Roberto then suggested that they need to finish their job. This would mean abandoning the SUV and taking the Sandsteamer to July and I guess check in with a Bureau office there?

He’s clear that he wants Meryl to take the steamer but it was vague if he was going to go with her or if he wanted her to take it for safety. Uncle info dump isn’t info dumping this episode much.

They end up separating from Vash and Wolfwood who both board the Sandsteamer. Wolfwood gives Vash shit for seeming to have no emotional connection to Meryl and Roberto - which really it a valid reply. It hasn’t been that many days that Vash has known them.

It has been even less time for Wolfwood to know Vash and he’s sticking to him like crazy glue, again being an ass. Honestly, there is NO chemistry between Vash and Wolfwood in this version, Vash runs and tries to not kill people and Wolfwood gives him shit and kills people.

Meanwhile, Meryl is working hard to convince Roberto that they need to continue to track the Humanoid Typhoon. Interestingly, that she doesn’t call him Vash, but by his destructive nickname here. She pulls out the photo with young Rollo asking Roberto if he’s scared.

We don’t get a clear answer from Roberto if he’s actually afraid - I felt he isn’t afraid of Vash per se, but instead realizes that his youthful appearance is some sort of indication that dangerous stuff surrounds him. More that he wants to avoid Vash out of a sense of - I dunno - not dying. This episode will frequently use the word monster to describe Wolfwood a lot and Vash as well. This is the writers trying to get us to connect the two of them and make us feel that they should be friends and a dynamic duo - which they aren’t currently.

We see people at the Ferry Terminal waving to those on the steamer which in this version is called the Humpback. Interesting shift, as in the original the Sandsteamer was known as the Flourish and was a Humpback class.

In other versions, children were excited when it came, being Sandsteamer nerds. I’ve been following too many historical sewing/clothing youtubers for the past few years and I keep getting vibes that the clothing for normal people in this sci fi series is more 1910s-1920s and not late 19th century western dress. The boater hats, suspenders, knickers, newsboy caps, lack of women with bustle action etc. I know it is a future sci fi series, but it does seem that they tried to modernize the clothing to at least be early 20th century to fit the sci fi vibe more.

On the steamer there is a route map telling use they are leaving the Terminal - which literally is just a single terminal in the desert? What? Ports develop around such locations but this is just a terminal.

It is also hilarious that the Terminal starts somewhere in ‘Central America’ crosses part of the Great Sand Ocean, there is the Hopeland Orphanage in ‘Africa’ stops West of ‘India’ and then loops around ‘Australia’ only to reach July in ‘Southern China’. Really guys, you just took a world map and smooshed and distorted the proportions. We also get to see a tall man with the modified Zia-Cross symbol of the Eye of Michael in Stampede.

Back when I first saw the early previews, I caught a glimpse of what was his back in an action shot and my first thought was - what? Are they using a Zia in the anime when it has some important symbolic meanings?

Stampede has been clear it has shifted very far away from the Christian aspects of the original work. Since this is based on a Western style anime/manga we get this mixed vague symbol which I’m certain is a visual hybrid with the Zia. If one were to travel through the Southwest as a tourist, you would inevitably see a Zia in some form with the most obvious being that of the New Mexico state flag. The flag is yellow with the red Zia in the center representing the Zia sun symbol. This symbol originated from the Zia Pueblo but has come to include more Pueblo groups, Hispanic native New Mexicans to just New Mexicans. You live in New Mexico? Lots of government documents, logos and all sorts of stuff will have a Zia symbol.

A simple way to summarize it is that it captures New Mexico culture - for example a cycling racing team is known as Zia Velo and they represent southern New Mexico. However, if the Zia is applied out of a New Mexico/Pueblo context things get stickier. I also think with a Japanese audience, a symbol which is built on groups of four wouldn’t work for the viewers so they took elements of the Zia from a Southwest inspired image board and called it good. Four is the number of death for East Asians versus for the Zia, four is a scared number that captures key elements of life.

Anyhoo, I got distracted by the interesting looking symbol for the religious group on our desert planet.

Vash finally gets around to directly asking Wolfwood what his job is and he replies that he’s babysitting him. From Wolfwood we can understand that it is his ‘job’ to make sure Vash gets somewhere. Or at least those are the orders that Wolfwood has.

Their conversation doesn’t get very far since Livio appears on the scene almost immediately and shoots at both of them. We have a much more clean cut and slick looking Livio with a slim build and his two smaller guns along with a modification on his face and a mechanical sounding eye.

Vash fights back and it able to get close enough to fire at point blank range, but of course doesn’t. We know he doesn’t want to pull that trigger, but it seems none of his modified opponents could care if they are in a tight spot.

It takes a little bit of time for Wolfwood to recognize who this man is and it ends with him asking if he is Livio before the title screen flashes.

The anime then takes a shift to a 2D style of animation with silent film style titles showing how Livio came to the orphanage and Wolfwood was the longer taking care of the ostriches.

As Livio settles in, Wolfwood becomes his friend trying to get the crybaby to stop feeling sad at missing his parents. He gets him to help out in the bird pen, and there is a cute sequence of them becoming childhood friends.

Older Wolfwood, tries smoking like an adult all cool and shares it with Livio who coughs. We get a close up of Wolfwood running off with Livio hand in hand where in this flashback Wolfwood has a much darker skin tone in contrast to Livio being exceptionally pale.

We get it, there was a time when Wolfwood was cute and he was friends with Livio. The flashback goes back to the present and Meryl and Roberto chasing after the sandsteamer when the Bad Lads gang shows up on sand sail boats.

They are taking this idea of the Great Sand Ocean quite literally and I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m still wondering why it even exists but this is a sci fi desert series paying homage to lots of other sci fi desert tropes.

Interestingly, we have no idea if the Bad Lads Gang have taken Meryl and Roberto hostage, just that they’ve been surrounded. I also guess there will be no scene with Kaite, the son of the chief engineer of the original Flourish.

Wolfwood’s flashback continues that he’s been selected as a ‘Child of Blessing’ just like Rollo by mysterious church.

There is a weird psychedelic flashback were Wolfwood is a test subject and shows S+ levels of possibilities. This is clearly a term added for the Japanese audience as the States does not have this type of ranking which is a trope specific to Japanese media.

The original Trigun did not make references to S+ and I honestly don’t remember the term coming up in Trimax either. We get that Wolfwood is subjected to all sorts of crazy stuff and due to his response to the treatments he’s a good candidate for furthering efforts. Just like the breakneck pace of the anime, his own physical development is rapidly accelerated - much more so than with the manga.

We still don’t have a clear timeline, but if he’s ten or eleven at the start, but he’s I dunno twelve now? As the original anime put it, he was taken in as a child and trained by Chapel the Evergreen for ten years before striking out on his own for an unclear amount of time making his age over twenty. The manga has the unclear timeline where you’d think he was around twenty at the end, but maybe seventeen. Either way, manga and ‘98 anime Wolfwoods were more emotionally mature and had seen things. This version of Wolfwood might be a super-powered twelve year old for all we know. Which I am not a huge fan of this angle.

For fun he’s stuck on an inverted cross examine room table and called a monster for emphasis. Yeah, let’s slap some basic Christian imagery down but it has no meaning since that’s been cut out in this version.

Of course, being likely only twelve, he tries to escape his now adult form declaring he’s returning to the orphanage before getting caught.

As I stated previously, I wasn’t a huge fan of younger Wolfwood in the manga since it has a character disconnect where he had this world weariness that did not match his age nor life experience. But I could forgive that a little since we saw him as an older teen training under Chapel. Now, he’s a man with a child’s mind. Yeah.

With his attempted escape, he is only stopped by Legato. This is another huge deviation from the anime and manga since Legato doesn’t even know what ‘Chapel’ looks like in the manga.

Their first encounter was at the Church at Jeneora Rock and the assembly of most of the Gung-ho Guns. In contrast, he’s immediately on guard since Vash told him about the strange and dangerous man he’d encountered on the bus to May city/Augusta.

For the sake of oversimplifying the plot, something that Merdopseudo and I had been predicting, Legato is the one who reveals that all things lead to Knives. The Eye of Michael is not an independent organization! It is all a part of Knives noble plan for the the future. This is lazy writing. The whole regenerative capsules and religious assassin organization were independent of Knives and only worked with him due to a shared goal of sorts. Legato tells Wolfwood he’s been signed up for the Eye of Michael.

And apparently, since Wolfwood still has willpower to fight Legato, it makes him unique and declares that he doesn’t believe in any god.

Wolfwood has gone from being a flawed, trapped principled man with some sort of religious core to an atheist. Okaaaaaaay Studio Orange - not sure where you are going with this at all.

Legato brings in Livio who wanted to join Wolfwood and it is clear at the moment that Livio’s backstory has been completely retconned and he’s the younger brother character for Wolfwood to worry about.

Legato comes off as bizarrely cold and unemotional in this version. In the anime he was a man clearly bent on a dark and destructive agenda, but I would not call him unemotional. If anything Legato had a huge amount of pretentious pride in his nihilism. It was a defining feature of his character and in the manga his intense emotions and nihilistic tendencies were even more over the top.

This Legato - just a cold blooded robot. Conrad shows up with his own Project Seeds jacket in white, symbolic of his role as a staff scientist. It also has me wondering how old he is in this version. Our Doctor has to stop Legato from killing the promising young Nicholas for the greater goals.

The flashback ends and Vash and Wolfwood are arguing again as Vash is interfering wanting to help.

Vash managed to pin down Livio in a rather smooth action sequence with lots of empty shells bouncing around as he tries to figure out what is up when he calls out Wolfwood’s name.

This catches Livio’s attention who says that he needs to catch up [to Wolfwood] and easily launches Vash off into the air while Wolfwood randomly declares that he can’t let the two of them kill each other.

So, when did you become friends with Vash, Wolfwood? You only showed up in episode four and here in six you are his friend? You’ve had no bonding! There was no foray into the desert to rescue a child or bus ride. No tournament or situation with a runaway kid where your philosophies aligned and clashed. You haven’t gotten drunk together.

But hey, we now have Wolfwood’s flashback and we know he cares about Livio his adoptive younger brother who can’t kill his other friend Vash. This. Does. Not. Work. I see two random men in sunglasses who just argue with each other.

Zazie the Beast and Livio approach the Sandsteamer as Legato reads the ‘bible’ of the local religion and the two characters mock Wolfwood and his pinch. Legato has decided emotions are for losers and Wolfwood has those pesky emotions!

We get it, Wolfwood is different and you are having fun watching him suffer.

They drive close enough to the Sandsteamer that Legato is able to stop an internal mechanism inside the the locomotive that causes it to veer off course. It seems that Legato has leveled up in his own abilities instead of manipulating people to do things against their will.

I guess Legato is officially an ESPer instead to make him easier to understand. I will miss that manga scene with the transport truck and the Calvary and the blood dripping onto the sand below.

By diverting the steamer, it now is on a collision course with the Orphanage - which is apparently the entire town? This is as confusing as the Terminal being a Terminal alone.

At the same time the Bad Lads Gang have appeared. And with our simplified plot we know - they were brought here by Knives.

Why do Legato and Zazie the Beast care what Wolfwood does next? If they see themselves above human emotions why do they care at all?

And with that the episode ends on a cliffhanger.

We will learn in episode seven what happened to Meryl and Roberto and perhaps the man himself will appear. B.D.N. that is!

My immediate reaction to this episode -

Wolfwood’s backstory was way too soooooon! Far too soon! Was this even earned Studio Orange?

For a few points, I’m going to tap some of my conversation from my good meta friend Merdopseudo.

1.) A good stand alone episode. Technically, and by itself this was a good episode. Merdo points out it is fine as an episode but its structure is also its weakness, indicative of the issues that have plagued the series. Where does this fit in the overall structure of the story? What purpose does it serve in advancing the plot? The episode is fine. You can watch it and be entertained.

2.) Wolfwood’s backstory is unearned. We get Wolfwood’s tragic backstory far to early into the plot. He appeared two episodes ago, seems to be a dude who is rude and will kill if necessary. We don’t know what it at stake for him. What does he do normally? Where is his moral compass? What is he doing in this whole mess. Why do we even care? Right now, Wolfwood is a kid with a big fucking gun and apparently had a friend named Livio. The found brothers trope also falls flat despite the technically excellent 2D silent film flashback. The backstory in this episode is just ‘put there’ in an attempt to humanize this version of Wolfwood.

3.) Vash and Wolfwood are not friends. Yep, I will continue to say this. They are not friends. Wolfwood is an annoying guy following Vash around because those are his orders. They have not bonded in their adventures, nor have they argued about how to act. They both jumped into save a girl, rode the bus to May city/Augusta. They in the anime had more bonding at the competition and fought over the rights of the individual versus the rights of the collective. In the manga the bonding is a bit later but still happens over several volumes and Wolfwood gets tied into Vash’s heroic antics from time to time.

4.) The pacing is paradoxical. This is Merdopseudo’s best point. With the predicted 12-13 episodes, this story needed tight-super tight plot beats. Instead, individual episodes are slow while the combined episodes are rapid leading to this disconnect. This is the best highlight of the writing problems that have plagued this series from the start.

This ties into what I have also been most critical of - the pacing. There is no room to breathe between episodes yet, certain episodes linger and waste time on things which are unnecessary. This is a lot of the CGI scenes of how E.G. drove his wheel or how Rollo was watching Vash dodge and stuff like that. Or the man with the lights guiding the Sandsteamer out of port. Just lots of strange shots that visually look cool but don’t help the story.

Which gets back to Merdo’s theory that this is all just a demo for Studio Orange for future projects and investors.

And as this continues, I become more pessimistic that this indeed is the purpose of Trigun Stampede. Studio Orange took on Stampede because it was a low risk project. They updated the look for a more modern audience and don’t have to worry about upsetting the original fans of the anime or manga since it was domestically a flop and obscure. Clean it up with characters that are for the domestic audience, simplify the plot beyond recognition and make it dazzling to the eyes. It is only 12-13 episodes, it will pull in better projects in the future.

Studio Orange isn’t going to care about the non-Japanese, specifically very likely vocal American fanbase. We aren’t there buying the new merch at Animate. Hell, it is currently and annoyingly out of print with Darkhorse here in North America. Why keep all the elements that made it a smash hit elsewhere? It doesn’t help their bottom line.

Thus, Trigun Stampede is a product that does not take the elements of the original anime from Studio Madhouse and the lore of Trigun Maximum to deliver a cohesive product that gives us the magic sauce that made the original so good. It was never their intention to present us with faithful adaptions of the original series and characters. They clearly don’t care for the original themes, character morals, questions, struggles, successes, failures and sacrifices that made the original such an emotional high hitter.

Quick character notes:

1.) Our dud duo - Meryl and Roberto. For once, Meryl sticks to her guns and is able to guilt Roberto into continuing. Good for her, but doesn’t amount to much in terms of plot. She stood up for herself and made a valid argument and her senior colleague agreed. Wow.

2.) Vash. Is more assertive with Meryl and Roberto away from him, and finally asks Wolfwood what his deal is. He has some decent fight scenes with Livio but honestly, doesn’t do much else in the episode due to the Wolfwood heavy plot.

3.) Wolfwood’s premature backstory. Fails his character greatly. Wolfwood is a character of great nuance, moral struggles and lots of questioning in a good way. We see none of that and get his backstory upfront almost as quickly as Vash’s. This attempt to humanize him without knowing him does not serve his character. This also doesn’t work with his previous religious associations which are why he was a more powerful character in the original versions. We know he believes in God, though he’s not naive enough to believe that faith in God will solve his problems. If anything he sees that humanity’s flaws and dark sides force humans to become devils at times (a line both used in the anime and manga). The anime leans in much harder with the priest aspect of his character with his first and last confession in the church before he dies. The manga instead has him die at peace sharing a drink with Vash as he’s ‘thanked’ by the younger children of the orphanage. Either way, both of these endings for him show that he’s a man who has a moral code derived from a very Catholic theology and he struggles with balancing that with his own actions trapped between powers greater than him. He has a clear line between acts of divine beings such as God and Angels and how it is impossible for a single individual to meet those and instead must learn to live with their actions and how painful it is to directly contradict your own moral code.

4.) Legato Bluesummers is a ‘robot’ with a bad haircut. This version of Legato is not the nihilistic, self-destructive one of the anime and manga. He mocks others and sees himself as superior to orphans like Wolfwood. He wants to watch a moral quandary but does Wolfwood really have a moral dilemma? Is he religious or is he reading a religious text to mock it due its emphasis of faith and emotions? Like Wolfwood, his power is also much greater, if this were the original he would have made that random train engineer dude destroy the moving part while dying in the process. Now, he just goes ‘whoosh’ and it breaks. Boo - I miss his sadistic tendencies. 5.) Livio is another ‘robot’. But with a hangup to be like Nicholas! I bet. Unless, he also gets a long flashback, his character has been likely completely retconned to the extreme. Lazy writing would indicate that Razlo the Tri-punisher was a result of his mind splitting due to the experiments. That’s my prediction if we do get his backstory. Not due to other things . . .

6.) Zazie the Beast. Is weird. Look, I’m playing cat’s cradle and I made a spider web. Humans are so dumb, mwahahahahahaha! I’m also filling in for Leonof the Puppermaster with my insect spycams/drones.

My snark is coming out in my character responses here, but really are these characters with depth or characters checking boxes like a game of Bingo. I’m curious to see how many of my predictions pan out in future episodes of if they will leave us in the dark.

As far as themes, this episode doesn’t really have one that stands out. Other than adults treat children very poorly in this place and even if you are a masked religious woman, you have to have big tits.

#Trigun #trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun stampede meta #trigun stampede episode review #Vash the Stampede #vash #nicholas d. wolfwood #wolfwood #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #legato #legato bluesummers #zazie the beast #livio #livio the double fang #razlo

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tripodmaximum · 6 months

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Show Notes

Howdy Trigunners,

Here you'll find a few things we discussed in Trigun Stampede - Episode One review!

We spoke about Meryl's reaction to the Humanoid Typhoon from host @aubielikey's post:

We also discussed Vash's prosthetic during the duel based on a fanpost from @moodysnowflake

#tripod maximum #trigun podcast #trigun #trigun maximum #trigun stampede #Episode One Review #show notes

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trigunfanart · 1 year

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AT SAKURACON TODAY STUDIO ORANGE SAID SEASON 3'S EXISTANCE DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH ATTENTION TRIGUN STAMPEDE GETS

SO PLEASE

SHARE YOUR CRUNCHYROLL OR HULU ACCOUNT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, GET MORE PEOPLE INTERESTED

ORGANIZE ONLINE WATCH PARTIES

RECOMMEND IT ON EVERY PLATFORM AND IN EVERY CHATROOM

TALK ABOUT IT NON STOP ON SOCIAL MEDIA

GIVE IT HIGH RATINGS AND REVIEWS ON IMDB, ROTTEN TOMATOS, COMMON SENSE MEDIA, AND ON CRUNCHYROLL.

SHARE THE FREE 1ST EPISODE OF STAMPEDE OFF CRUNCHYROLL'S YOUTUBE PAGE, THEY HAVE SUBBED AND DUBBED!

POST CROSSOVER FAN ART AND WRITE CROSS OVER FICS, AND COMMISSION POPULAR ARTISTS, TO GET ATTENTION FROM OUTSIDE THE FANDOM

COSPLAY AS THE STAMPEDE CHARACTERS, GET OTHER ANIME FANS TO NOTICE HOW MANY OF US ARE CHOOSING TO COSPLAY THAT ANIME SPECIFICALLY, "MUST BE POPULAR IF THEY'RE ALWAYS DRESSING UP AS IT HUH?"

IT IS POPULAR ACTUALLY! BUT WE WANT IT TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING MAYBE EVEN GROWING

REBLOG THIS POST. REPOST THIS POST. DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.

I BEG

EDIT) PS put the characters in your memes

#trigun stampede #season 3 #trigun #trigun maximum #vash #vash the stampede #trimax #anime #wolfwood #NOT ART

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fandom · 1 year

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Another year, another banger of a Eurovision.

In a stunning upset, Sweden's Loreen beat out Finland's Käärijä to take the top spot at the Eurovision Song Contest. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finally here and the wait was worth it—don't forget to tag or filter spoilers if you don't want to see the absolutely bonkers builds everyone is making. With only three episodes left, season three of Ted Lasso continues to deliver on its multiple emotional arcs. It was a surprising election night on Succession this week. Trigun Stampede trended after Twitter user Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood inadvertently turned the 2019 novel This Is How You Lose the Time War into a bestseller. Finally, we got the Tony Hawk x Amaury Guichon collab we didn't know we needed. This is Tumblr's Week in Review.

The Eurovision Song Contest

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Ted Lasso

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Succession

Trigun Stampede

Käärijä

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Yellowjackets

Artists on Tumblr

The Owl House

Critical Role

Finland

Stranger Things

9-1-1

UK Politics

Dracula Daily

Taylor Swift

Tony Hawk

Batman | the DC universe

#week in review #05/15/2023 #eurovision #käärijä

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nicholas-wolfwood · 1 year

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OK BUT LISTEN

The whole Dickolas twitter thing is amazing and hilarious, but it proves WORD OF MOUTH (er, text) WORKS!!

Season 3 depends on how well it does, so WE SHOULD KEEP GUSHING ABOUT TRIGUN STAMPEDE! Rate it, review it, recommend it to friends, family, YouTube reactors, twitch streamers, your middle school bus driver, anyone that'll listen!

Honestly, even if there weren't more seasons riding on this, Studio Orange deserves ALL the recognition just for how much WORK was clearly put into this series ALONE, and spreading the Love and Peace is the least we can do to thank them for that!

Plus, it's just good. Like, REALLY good. Seriously, if you haven't watched it, it's only 12 episodes so far, with smooth action, lovable characters, and a lot of emotion, so WATCH IT! You'll love it!

#trigun #ooc #ALL LIKE... IDK 15 OF US!#honestly i enjoyed Stampede even more than the 98 version- and THAT is saying something!#SPREAD THE LOVE LIKE HERPES!#(can you tell I'm running on like; 3 hours of sleep?)#trigun stampede #I'll stop before i go on a tangent of how good it is #all iterations are good

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mixedup-sideblog · 1 year

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To (a very vocal minority of) ‘Original Trigun Fans.’

I’m going to preface this with - obviously you are allowed to not like the show. Obviously there are valid criticisms of it especially if you’re viewing it through the lens of it being a reimagining of something you’ve already loved. I acknowledge and respect that.

BUT what I can’t respect is the clear blind hate pushed onto Stampede by some. Some who haven’t even watched half an episode of it, who decry it as a terrible show without even watching it. Those are the ones that are pissing me off.

Just because you ‘got there first’ doesn’t mean you’re better than anyone. Just because either by chance you came across it first or the person you’re talking to wasn’t old enough to read or watch it the first time you did doesn’t give you some special superiority over the plot or the characters.

If you don’t like Stampede fair, but why spam hate reviews? Why sit and talk constantly about how much you hate it when you have all the original stuff right there in-front of you! Stampede is helping others discover it! Be happy so many people have started Stampede then immediately consumed all other forms of Trigun because of it!

There are some criticisms I’ve seen like people refusing to watch because there is no Milly but I would argue we don’t know if she’s in it yet she could appear we literally know nothing. I have also seen criticism re pacing - unfortunately they don’t know if they’re getting a season two I assume that is why it’s got to be quick.

I’m desperate for season 2 which is why I get so mad seeing people putting others off or trying to get people not to watch simply because it’s not the original…it’s so so simple if you don’t like it maybe comment once and move on and don’t watch it. Don’t go on some long-ass tirade acting like it’s the worst thing to ever exist, like it’s your mission to prevent others from watching and enjoying it!

Studio Orange have put a hell of a lot of effort into this it’s so so clear that they care about the show they’re creating, hell it’s even approved by the original creator and if you want to talk having the right to gatekeep then if it’s anyone’s right (which it isn’t) then it’s him that has it!

I’ve seen so many original fans vocalising their happiness, their joy that Stampede is bringing new fans to the franchise, that new content is being made, that they can scream and shout about the characters again! I try to focus on them, but the ones spam hating are really grinding at me at the moment, please OGs if you like/are happy about Stampede tell us!

Sorry for this long rant I needed to get it out. For those who hate it simply for existing please re-evaluate yourselves. For those who love the original AND stampede please be vocal about it please be the vocal majority and drown out the other hate!

As the meme goes we’ve got two hands…

(Also as a side note I cannot fathom people hating on the visuals/CGI because it’s STUNNING)

#vash trigun #Vash #vash the stampede #Trigun #vashwood #nicholas d wolfwood #trigun stampede #original #meryl stryfe #discourse #I don’t like posting this kind of thing but there is too much unfounded stampede hate

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miss--river · 1 year

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at first i wasnt going to watch the new trigun because i just didnt feel the need or the want to watch it. personally i dont like how vash looks like a kid (at least to me.) im not a fan of the animation style. im also really disappointed that milly isnt in the show.

after i got done rewatching the OG anime and the movie after... idk how many years its been since i last watch it tbh. i just started googling random things i had questions about in the trigun universe that really doesnt matter. one of the search results was a reddit link to r/trigun and the title of the post is "TRIGUN STAMPEDE is TERRIBLE"

the reddit user goes on to explain why they think the show is terrible but... everything they listed as reasons for the show being terrible were things that actually happened in the OG anime. and i cant talk about this post without mentioning that this person was unironically calling OG vash 'alpha' and the new vash 'beta' and 'imposter'. their reasons were he's a cry baby, there's no way he had no bullets in his gun, he's a try hard, he's too much a spazz, ect. they said all of this AFTER stating they went back and rewatched the first episode of the original anime but its like, did they REALLY watch the first epsiode? because vash is all of those things right from the start. he screams, he freaks out, he cries, he has no bullets in his gun, he's just a complete and total dork.

honestly i could just feel the anger from this person seeping through the post as they stated that no one should watch the show and if you want to get into trigun, the reboot is not the place to start. they talk about the show as if the original was this perfect gem and to be honest, while yeah, the original show kicked ass and we all loved vash for who he is, the show wasnt perfect at all. there are even things said in the original that just wouldnt fly today, things that vash himself has said and done that would get him possibly cancelled.

after reading that post i decided that maybe i will give the reboot a watch, try it for myself. i had only seen gifs of it so far at the time of reading the post and to me the show honestly didnt seem that bad. i may not like the animation style but its perfect for such an animated person like vash. milly may not be in the show but i shouldnt let that spoil the experience. vash may look more like a child compared to how he looked in the original anime but that doesnt mean the design is bad.

so i gave the reboot a watch (8 episodes are out at the time of writing this, only 6 of them dubbed so i havent seen 7 or 8. i dont have hulu or anything so im watching on an anime website.) and im not really good at giving in depth reviews but for what the show is, i really like it. it's a different spin on things and if thats what people are upset about then thats on them. i still prefer the original anime and the things i dont like the reboot are still things i dont like but the show is still great on its own. if you're against the reboot but still want give it a try, watch it with an open mind. it's still the same vash that we know and love, he just looks different.

#Trigun #Trigun Stampede #Vash the Stampede #Trigun Stampede Spoilers #i know none of my followers will care about this so im sorry for this long rant post #if anyone wants me to put this under a read more you can just send me an ask or DM

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comfy-sofa · 1 year

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IM LOSING MY FUCKING M I N D

IM NOT OK AND NEITHER ARE YOU AFTER THIS EPISODE

Vashmeryl fans, y'all are getting FED TODAY GOOD FOR YALL

HIS FUCKING HAIR OUR BOY IS BACK AND SPIKIER THAN EVER

The whole fucking fight sequence mmhhhh DELICIOUS the whole entire time I was screaming BEAT HIS ASS BEAT HIS ASSSS DO IT FOT ROBERTO

Ok, the fact that Vash kinda knows how to use his abilities and condense into the fucking rubic cube is kinda dope

Also during the fight, DID VASH FUCKING BITE KNIVES???? IM FUCKING LOSING IT (peak sibling behavior)(edit: yes he fucking did dhvswrrvbn)

First off, the outfit change??? Like all his shit is black and the fucking BLACK WINGS YESS PLANT BOY SLAY

Also THE SPEED RELOADER???? DID HE HAVE THAT SHIT ENTIRE TIME???? At least he has it lmao

Fucking about time Wolfwood you fucking helped COTDAMN (also the run sequence with him stepping on the police officer mhmm good shit)

THE ANGEL ARM IM FUCKING CUMMING I LOVE ITS DESIGN

Knives KNIVES GET OUT THE FUCKING BEAM YOUR GETTING ROASTED LIKE A MARSHMALLOW (really out here giving me 'get out the fucking tank' vibes like)

Speaking of this scene, we finally get to see Vash fucking cry....I'm not ok

Oh my God, Vash just turned himself into a goddamm METEOR SIR ARE YOU OK???

Well RIP July and Mr. Police dude

Oooh two year time skip and my boy got his bouty back!

MILLY MILLY MILLY MILLY MILLY (also refreshing to the insurance company👍)

ERIKS AND LINA I CANT WAIT TO GET MY HEART RIPPED OUT

EARTH EARTH FUCKING WERE GETTING THE EARTH STORY FROM TRIMAX THANK FUCK (Also heyyy chronica)

Looks like season 2 is also confirmed! Dude, this was a journey and a half. I'm really glad that orange went the prequel route, and we got to see what led up to July's destruction. We actually get to see a glimpse of what the cast could've been like prior to the events of Trigun/TriMax.

Fuck I'm glad stampede was a thing in the first place, or I wouldn't have watched the anime or read the manga. Like fuck this is really a piece of media that sticks with you y'know? Like how the fuck am I gonna move on now? Like it's been a while since I thought of creating fanart or just rant on it because it's so fucking good. Like if I could ever create something like Trigun, something that sticks with people, like that would be a great accomplishment. Sure, there were some ups and downs (maybe I'll do like a legit review post, idk) but fuck I had a good time!

Now this post is getting long so I'm just gonna end it with that I'm glad I let orange cook and I can't wait for season 2

Peace and Love y'all ✌️

#trigun #trigun stampede #vash the stampede #rhythm rants #like wow...#what the fuck am i gonna do on Saturdays now???#i mean i can also try and draw or write...idfk....#there is the dub...#yeah ill watch the dubbed version #alright that's it lmao

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s-ound-wave · 1 year

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watching trigun stampede and the og trigun at the same time (every few episodes of trigun i watch one episode of stampede) since i've never seen the og before and figure this would give me as unbiased a view as possible, because i have a feeling (from the clips i've seen of stampede) that a lot of the bad reviews are just people who are blinded by nostalgia.

#trigun #trigun stampede

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monkey-network · 8 months

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Good Stuff: FLCL Grunge

or How Not to Grasp Why "Bottled Lightning" Exists

I'll preface this by saying that these recent "seasons" of Fooly Cooly have not ruined the original. That's like if you got a bottomless bag of tropical Skittles, every other minute you get a black Twizzler or flavorless candy corn piece thrown in that you aren't forced to eat but constantly get weirded out that they were in there in the first place. What is bad is that we're up to three sequels of FLCL & none of them even range to being on par with the original in terms of engaging memorability. I'm not the type to rag about X or Y being forgotten online days after it was just released, but it stings seeing a beloved anime have sequel series that everyone wants to forget because nobody asked for them. This isn't like Trigun Stampede where it got to have a newfound fanbase in spite of the backlash of diehards, we're on the 4th story and you might as well imagine the tumbleweeds. It doesn't help that the expectations didn't come with presentable execution... because Grunge was bad.

I'm honestly just waiting for Uzumaki at this point

It's ironic that while my reviews are about animated media, I don't really discuss the animation given my minimal expertise; I'm more of an emotional critic than a technical one. FLCL Grunge is the exception because it feels like a mess. It's like an enhanced PS1 game that looks graphically better than Berserk 2016 but has that same quality of stiff, choppy action and inconsistent blending of 2D imagery. You just wonder why this couldn't just be 2D? You would believe the CG studio responsible had this as their first-ever credit, but it's not as Montblanc's actual first feature had somehow better animation than this, and that was back in 2012. So either it was rushed or Production IG had no clue what they were going for. Worst aspect just has to be the rock humans because they can be so awkward to see and oh yeah, close but different topic.

Why are there Thing people?

Fooly Cooly I don't think anybody was ever in it for the lore. It was a miniseries where the pieces you could put together offered some sense while having open-ended questions. Even though the OG was far more grounded despite itself, I'm not against having aliens in these sequels because I'm all for things getting weird to spice up the purposeful mundanity. My only issue is the rock people are all we really have in this story when there could exist other species. It's a symptom of a larger problem these sequels have where things exist with none of the deserved flesh. Most enjoyed the OG more for the personal journey, not really piecing everything involving Medical Mechanica. With this, it just feels like they're trying to get Matpat's attention with all the stuff Haruko does with very surface-level backstories regarding the main characters. You know as much about what happened to Rockies as you do anything about Shin or Orinoko, which heavily pales in comparison to the previous three MCs. All this wrapped in an undercooked 3 episodes that is, and I'm not kidding...

Just a worse take of The Simpsons "Trilogy of Error"

One of my favorite story tropes is when everything takes place in one day, bonus points for interconnecting multiple stories into one. They do that here like in The Simpsons episode where everyone's involved in one crazy night. The problem again stems from that I barely care about the MCs enough and while there exists setup, you only get to know so much before it's over. It took episode 3 for me to give somewhat a fuck and even then they had to rush the climax all for a shitty reveal that it was a prequel this whole time. Giving Progressive its credit, at least we got time to grasp the characters. Any interconnected throughline is all for the climax which misses the point of the story structure. In the end, it felt like nothing. Whether it's a positive or not that it was only three episodes is debatable, but man...

Haruko was still hot. Take your pennies for a nickel

Making this review wasn't so much about disliking Grunge as it was about saying the original Fooly Cooly wasn't a fluke. To say that is like saying the unique animation structure of Into the Spiderverse was a fluke that couldn't be utilized well anywhere else post-release. I don't hate Grunge or think it's the worst anime ever, but this didn't subside the disenfranchisement that stemmed from an OVA that could work as an anthology. Something is only lightning in a bottle when you otherwise don't paint forgettable story elements with average to subpar imagery and have The Pillows carry every scene with their music. If this wasn't FLCL, it was a pretty underwhelming anime. As it is, it's another sequel that mistakes having ambition and familiarity for being engaging and resonating.

2 Out Of 5; An Erectile Dysfunctional Season

#flcl grunge #flcl #fooly cooly #adult swim #toonami #anime #reviews #Good Stuff

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chibivesicle · 1 year

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Trigun Stampede - Episode 9 Millions Knives - ‘Cause Knives needs awkward backstory as well

This week’s episode decides to compress things even further by making part of the flashback a shared one for both Vash and Knives. Stampede is leaning in hard to the hyper intelligent virtuoso trope for Knives with him playing a large piano that has inverted key colors.

His hairstyle and clothing indicate that this is the continuation of the flashback that Vash started in episode eight but we are getting it from his point of view. As he plays he thinks back to his childhood where Vash joins him at the piano. Vash seems to be really enjoying it, but young Nai is not thrilled.

Honestly, could he have been even more grumpy when he was a kid? I get that they are different individuals and have different temperaments but this version from Studio Orange makes the contrast even greater than in the manga. They do play together, but since we don’t get to see Nai’s expression with the camera angle from behind can we tell if he actually is enjoying it as much as Vash? In all of their interactions, it seems like Nai simply tolerates Vash’s existence - like he’d be fine without a twin brother.

The flashback in a flashback returns to the first one and a much younger version of Conrad enters telling Knives that he got something for him.

This is a completely new version of Conrad as his original design was always older and bald in the manga. An alarm sounds and they end up moving to the large bay with rows and rows and rows of plants. Knives is visibly angry as he asks what is going on. Conrad calmly replies that they’ve hit their production limit.

As was the case in Trigun Maximum, they force the plants through their ‘last run’ where they overdrive them to death. However, unlike the manga, there has been no discussion on the physiological changes that indicate plant aging with their hair turning black yet. Knives is not happy and a weird black ash floats through the air as Conrad apologizes to Knives on the behalf of all humanity.

And it is perfect timing as the plant whisperer, Vash has appeared. Knives takes this as his opportunity to prove to Vash that he’s right in regard to everything (I guess based on his immediate need to boss Vash around).

More humans show up and try to get Knives to leave which is just a weird set up. They said he wasn’t supposed to be there, Vash somehow just strolled into their crashed ship. You aren’t doing a good job of controlling access copy paste humans who see plants as tools. Conrad just awkwardly stands there telling them to not take Knives away.

What is this entire situation? I’m not confused but it seems so forced. So forced because we need to create tension between passive Vash and aggressive Knives.

With the literal interpretation of his name, he creates claws to kill a bunch of the copy paste men while Conrad and Vash watch. Vash asks Nai to stop and he replies no one has called him that in a long time. Is five years really that long of a time though?

Why is Vash standing there? Murder happened and he’s politely asking Nai to stop. This allows for the underwhelming reveal that Nai has rebranded himself as Millions Knives. He is the self appointed leader and only independently associated plant. Wow, that’s some interesting thought there Knives but how do we know if you are honestly the envoy for all the plants or you are simply stating this without support.

We have heard no input from the plants at this point and lacking that information, I’m going to state that this younger version of Knives decided he’s the plants autocratic leader acting on ‘behalf’ of them.

Vash innocently asks why Knives had to kill people and finally gets more emotional when he reminds Knives that Rem sacrificed herself to save them.

Knives then reveals that Rem messed up his original plans - he’d intended to destroy all of the ships with humans and only save the ships that had plants . . . however, I’m sure he told himself the sacrifices of the plants on the human ships was a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of plantdom.

So Knives solution is to create a paradise for Vash and himself and the rest of the plants stuck in their containers?

Vash sort of argues back with a fact that Rem told them that plants can’t live outside of the plants and without a place to move their energy to without self-destructing. Knives counters that Vash bought into ‘that’ so he thinks otherwise as a free ranging independent plant. We don’t know enough about these plants in Stampede to know if that is a lie that Rem told them or the truth. In the manga it is a fact that the regular plants can’t survive without being connected to something as shown through the awkward interaction with the plants that fell out of Knives’ ark and needed human assistance to ‘plug’ back into the grid to prevent them from dying outright.

Either way, Vash continues to passively stand there as Knives explains his agenda to free their brethren and use his power as a free plant. Before proceeding to kill a bunch more copy paste guys with his very Wolverine inspired claws. He wants nothing more for Vash to be his partner in human murder and plant liberation, but Knives really needs to work on his power of persuasion. Seriously dude, you can’t just tell someone what to do when they are your equal.

He takes a small gun from one of the men he killed and prefaces it in a rather religious tone stating that it is the weapon of a Sinner and it is evil. Certainly, loaded Christian-ish language but again simple external dressing as far as wel can tell at the moment in this version of Trigun.

We can all see where this is going . . . since Vash won’t kill humans up close and personal like Knives, he’s going to give the gun to him because even someone as weak and docile as Vash can fire a gun. And to add to it, he has to insult Vash calling him a human-lover. And with our perfect timing, Luida shows up to tell Vash that she’s here to take him home.

Confirmed, in this version she is not a middle-aged leader of the humans who haven’t fallen and could put all of the men on the surface in their place. She’s Rem 2.0! There is no need for strong female characters here. Knives immediately decides that what Vash needs to do is to kill her. He looks down at the firearm in horror.

We know that Vash can’t shoot her. Knives you need to work harder at winning the hearts of others. He takes the gun for Vash, gaslights him to the core stating he has to do everything for his brother and approaches Luida to kill her. Vash finally snaps and tackles him. We finally get some honest Vash emotions and guilt. He confesses that he always stood behind Rem and she was the one who always protected him, but he lost her in the end. He decides that Nai isn’t going to take anyone else away from him, but gets tossed off to the side either way.

Knives then calls Luida as witch before declaring his question of how many times you will steal him from me? Wow - got a weird mother complex much Knives?

Any woman who cares for Vash is the same person and you have to fight her influence? Does this imply there were more ladies besides Rem and Luida? What is going on with this characterization of Knives?

Anyhoo, as Knives tries to choke Luida, Vash becomes upset yelling for him to start before he activates his angel arm power - which is a black hole?

And soon as this happened, everyone knew what would happen next. Knives is gonna have to cut off that left arm. . . .

Knives calls him a fool, Conrad hesitantly asks if it is a gate and it starts to suck in everything around it. As totally expected, Knives quickly cuts off the arm which gets sucked into the black hole before it eats itself eliminating the danger.

Luida tries to help him as Knives approaches not wanting to have him touched by her. But shockingly, it is Vash who pulls the gun on Knives. And we get our first serious look from Vash!

Knives has no choice but to back off and he leaves with Conrad declaring that in a century or so, he’ll create his world for the plants. Luida screams over his passed out body as the flashback fades to the present where Vash is looking at his prosthetic arm. Brad comes in and gives him grief about always having to repair the arm.

Of course Vash can’t help but note that Brad has never changed all these years, well other than his obvious aging. Luida welcomes him back home as he asks about his friends who are all ‘thrilled’ to see him. Though Wolfwood tries to pretend like they aren’t friends. While chewing on a cigarette.

Vash is relieved and excited as it reveals that of course the ship was hiding in the sandstorm as Zazie’s insects zero in on their location! Confirmed - no puppet master arc with rampant civilian deaths to be replaced by puppets that fall apart in Vash’s arms.

I’m also disappointed that this avoids the division between those on the uncrashed ship and those on the surface. The anime and manga tackled it differently but both highlighted the fact that those on the surface were seen as brutish, unrefined, less civilized than those on the ship - by those on the ship. This entire power dynamic/bias is gone for the moment.

Meryl asks if plants are powering the ship and Luida takes her and Roberto to the large internal garden. The visual looks very nice and they are excited to see such greenery. But the part that then kills me is the fact that Meryl - doesn’t know what plants are - as in the photosynthetic kind!!!

Why does a straight A student who graduated university not know about plants? Many other aspects of technology and human knowledge are known by people on the planet but humanity has collectively forgotten about - plants?

Whaaaatttt??? Okay, this is the point where my day job really makes me wonder what on earth Studio Orange’s writers were (or weren’t) thinking. In the original manga, there are plants on the planet that have been cultivated by very hard working humans. It is difficult, but the entire Little Arcadia arc was about how a part of a geoplant = part of a plant that helped to terraform, had ‘leaked’ out into the environment and was being carefully cultivated for farming and a green space. Therefore, this entire aspect of things is no longer a part of the science. This causes a huge problem in the sci fi aspect of Stampede. We know that plants help to capture potable water. They produce electricity. They create nutrients for agriculture.

A common item found in all versions of Trigun is alcohol. You need grains to brew beer, distill spirits and the like. Stampede is telling us that all of that booze we saw in the beginning is produced by something other than grains? On a large enough scale that you can bottle it, and consume it? I could see that the production of it would have been difficult in the original series, but we have pancakes, pizza, donuts, coffee, tea and all of these common food items implying that there is some version of the agricultural industrial complex in the Trigun world but in Stampede - we don’t have agriculture? This is about as bad as the ship that crashed, didn’t have a plant, had windmills and NO solar panels to use on less windy days! The science in this sci fi series is killing me. As soon as you think about it for more than five seconds your brain goes -ack- at this poor writing. I know the mechanics of many things in Trigun Maximum are hand wavy at best but at least it kept it consistent.

Luida is there to tell Roberto that they are using plants to power the garden but by having regular plants there, they are able to lessen the burden on the plants - not sure how that works since if anyone has ever worked with plants in a growth chamber or greenhouse the amount of energy that goes into it is massive.

You need your swamp coolers, shade cloth, LED or high powered lights, temperature controller, pest control and what about the pollinators for those plants? Are they all self-compatible? I’m falling down my own rabbit hole of my own making over this aspect of the episode. Where is the greenhouse staff? Who is taking care of them?

Okay, I’m taking a step back from my legitimate day job concerns with this and moving onto the scene I predicted from either my episode one or two review. The famous ‘sempai noticed me!’

Roberto tries to smoke and Luida tells him not to which results in his request of Meryl.

That’s right, he’s no longer calling her newbie, she’s now Meryl, but she still needs to do something for him as the junior colleague. She first replies before realizing it, excitedly runs up to him and asks if he indeed called her by her name. Entire plot trope status - achieved.

The entire interaction plays out where he denies it, she presses him and Luida just smiles like “Oh what a genuine interaction.”

While they are in the garden dome, we see Wolfwood sulking in a corner asking Vash what he’s going to do about Knives. Noting that he likely, can’t just make up with him. Vash insists he’ll save anyone and Wolfwood parries back that he can’t do that and he will have to make a choice.

Vash is more intent to not kill - adding he’ll never do it again. This implies that there was an incident where he did end up killing. Our non-July-July incident of the past 150 years? What else happened - since so far we don’t have anything to go on for Vash’s own past mistakes. Interestingly, since Brad is now older and wiser, he’s able to shut Wolfwood down immediately, but not after trying to connect with him stating that he was similar in his own youth. Wolfwood tries to argue that the old man is wrong, but Brad simply states that Vash is tough if Wolfwood would simply watch him over time.

Luida meekly stumbles into the room to inform them that Worms busted in and kidnapped Meryl and Roberto. Her emotions are so off in this entire scene, I get that she’s older but she didn’t run to them or use a phone to call them. Instead, she leads them back to the dome and Wolfwood is able to state that Zazie the Beast is the one who took them.

They way up in another generic looking room as Zazie welcomes them to July, which is the crashed plant carrying ship. Meryl asks if they’d met before and Zazie replies not in the current form.

Roberto asks if Zazie is there on behalf of Knives but instead states they are trying to determine which side to work with.

Roberto then shoots Zazie, who disperses into individual worms before reforming their body on the other side explaining it is a conduit. Therefore, unlike the original where Zazie used a worm to control an individual human body, which could be shot and killed and then move their consciousness to another human body, it seems that Zazie is just a worm-llusion of sorts. This entire interaction is Zazie the Beast as our new info dump character. It this version it is Zazie who tells Roberto and Meryl how humans destroyed the Earth and therefore left it in search of new places to live. The worms are not happy since they see this as their own planet. Meryl doubts Zazie but I’m now concerned about her basic education . . . previous versions of Trigun had much more well educated people despite all of the challenges that they had to overcome.

While Zazie info dumps, Vash and Wolfwood are making their way to July via blue ostrich. Hopefully, the assistance from ship three made it easy for them to reach that point?

Meryl asks what the collected red plants are for, Conrad says they don’t need to know while Zazie asks who the planet is for? And ends.

The map showed them in the ship located over the sand ocean so they are getting closer to July. We can assume that they are back on more normal land, and heading to July.

This does sort of guarantee that all road lead to July, which Vash may blow up with - his still remaining right arm?

Basic thoughts on this episode.

1.) Everything continues to be completely generic and predictable. I know, I can’t be satisfied with this series. We can follow the plot beats, predict what will happen and then watch it limply be delivered. This series is failing to pull at my heartstrings. There is no weight to actions, there is no payoff. Everything is expose. 2.) Characters and their situations

Vash - was completely passive in the flashback until he unlocked his gate potential in his angel arm which was a black hole that sucked stuff in and had to be cut off by Knives. No angelic body horror aspects, black hole only. He pulled the gun on Knives, who simply gave up. I missed the whole Vash shooting Knives and then running off screaming like a madman in the ‘98 anime or how Knives cut off his arm and then left him to die in the desert tied to a rock bit. We do learn that he apparently has killed in the past though - which is in line with the manga - but that was the July incident.

Knives - is the self-proclaimed autocratic leader of the plants with a 150 year plan for plant domination of the planet. All women are evil and can seduce - or - mother Vash which is dangerous and they are all the same and must be stopped to save Vash. That is so many tropes rolled into one that I don’t even want to parse them all out. Knives - chill dude. Unless we get more background for his anger in Stampede, he rings hollow in his motivations.

Luida and Brad - look pretty good for adults 150 years ago. I’m going to read between the lines that the crew of ship three have been rotating on and off over the years with a skeleton crew and they are one of those shifts. It is just my opinion on the internet; I preferred their manga characters 1000x more than these old & wise individuals. This also feeds into the previous observations from others that what Stampede lacks are the general population. Guess the animation budget wasn’t meant for frontier towns of people going about their day to day lives.

Meryl and Roberto - had their predicted noticed by sempai moment.

Wolfwood - has entered the friend zone by him denying it. Yep, he’s now friends with Vash despite them still having zero chemistry as characters. Zazie - continues to be crazy and isn’t the same as before which disappointed me more. The idea that a human body was a disposable host for the worm collective mind was clever and darker than being a collective of worms that appears human to interact with humans and plants.

Conrad - was stripped of his sexy balding man past and instead given hipster hair. He was already going bald when Rem talked to him about the twins.

3.) It was forced and awkward the entire episode. This entire series of events felt so stiff and unnatural. People stood around while very traumatic events happened like it was a normal day. The copy paste men ran in to be killed by Knives Wolverine X-men style. Conrad stood around. Vash stood around. Luida stood around. Where was the sense of motion and of overpowering emotions. Everything fell flat. 4.) Vash’s gate was activated by strong emotions. And then cut off by Knives. No putative angel arm in sight. This also has me wondering if we will even get the Tessla backstory or not. Episode eight had Luida trying to look up classified information about past independent plants but she couldn’t get it - yet knew that they existed . . . will there even be a flashback where Knives and Vash learn about Tessla or is that also gone? We really need a Tessla backstory for the Vash-Knives conflict and personal motivation. Vash is willing to forgive all humans in their wrongs while Knives uses their wrongs as his driving motivating factor in trying to destroy them and create his utopia for plants under his dictatorship.

5.) There are no Gung-ho Guns. Period. The concept is gone. This is not a western remember? This is sci fi. The lack of a general population of civilians also makes for the stakes to seem rather low - how many humans are actually living in the seven cities? How many are there to protect anyways? Why is their education system to bad? What do they eat without agriculture? There has been no explanation for any of this. Do the plants produce alcohol for bottling? Instant meal blocks? Cotton for clothing that the normal people are wearing? They can manufacture weapons for sure.

I will be controversial and state what this episode has me thinking about. Studio Orange has failed at world building. Too many basic concepts don’t make sense to superficially serve what are poorly written plot points in an episode. Yet when strung together don’t make any logical sense. You could argue the other versions of Trigun didn’t lean hard into the science aspect of things but everything made sense. People had animals for transport, the Thomases. They were able to farm if they worked hard. Not all towns required a plant to operate, they’d become more off the grid with other means. It was the fact that any larger place required plants. There was a functioning economic system of trade and currency to facilitate the production of goods and items. These things weren’t impossible in the anime and manga, but in Stampede they are impossible. Life was hard on the planet but the quality of living was indeed higher and those who kept themselves isolated on the uncrashed ship also had attitude to match.

I know it is an anime based on a manga, so we could say I’m being overly critical of these elements. But compared to the original anime and Trigun Maximum there was enough stuff in between that life wasn’t as bleak as in Stampede. The day to day logic held up and the world building was consistent with rules that applied to many of the basics. I can be totally fine with a bonkers set up - as long as you do a good job building that world and keeping your rules consistent throughout.

Lastly, Stampede has failed all of its female characters to date. At this point, we still have no idea what Rem taught Vash that he is hellbent on upholding her impossible ideals. Rem saved them. That’s it. Meryl is too young and inexperienced like her past version. Milly is absent. Luida has been destroyed from her previous leader position to Rem 2.0. Elendira hasn’t even done anything yet. Rosa was the only mother who didn’t get killed by Knives. What’s worse is that we still have a predicted three more episodes to go with this version of Trigun with its paradoxical pacing! July go boom and then time skip? Three episodes left for that to happen . . .

I can already feel the siren song to go back to the source material for a better meta or even more so - slide on over to more Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront which is much more my vibe. I’m itching to write up my spin on how Trigun influenced B3, a series with a sitcom style format. I need to write a meta about Meryl and Milly as Leonardo Watch and Klaus V Reinheirz.

#Trigun #trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun maximum #trigun stampede meta #trigun stampede episode review #Vash the Stampede #millions knives #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #luida leitner #brad #luida #zazie the beast #nicholas d. wolfwood #william conrad

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