Trigun Stampede – Episode 1

[Alderis]

Trigun Stampede – Episode 1

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on a brand new adventure, although technically it’s a refurbished rendition of a beloved ‘90s classic. Yep, we’re checking out Trigun Stampede, and seeing what those talented folks over at Studio Orange have cooked up for our boy Vash.

I’ll admit, I don’t have the most extensive experience with Trigun. I caught snippets of it back on Adult Swim when I was first falling in love with FLCL and Cowboy Bebop, but Trigun’s comedy didn’t quite seem like my thing, and I never saw enough to get a grip on its universe. Obviously “cowboys in space” has proven itself a robust genre niche, and my experience with Blood Blockade Battlefront has more than demonstrated mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow’s creative abilities, so I’m looking forward to examining the story with fresh eyes.

Beyond the source material, I’m also intrigued to see how Studio Orange realizes Nightow’s world. I always associated Trigun with an aesthetic of dust and grime that seems inherently hostile to CG recreation, but Orange’s team have impressed me at every turn, and director Kenji Muto seems like an excellent match for a rip-roaring adventure. A resume comprising Rage of Bahamut, Garo, Punchline, and Land of the Lustrous is basically an ideal education for Trigun; I can see why he was picked for this project, and look forward to admiring the result. Let’s get to it!

Episode 1

“No Man’s Land.” A scifi adventure set among a variety of Tombstone-esque frontier towns is certainly a compelling pitch. I’ve been trying to munch through as many classics as possible these last few years, and so I’ll likely check out the original Trigun adaptation soon. Should make for a nice mixup after several months of Gundam!

We open on a composition evoking isolation and stillness, as we find ourselves in the darkness of space with only a single planet and its tiny moon visible far in the distance. A tone of hushed expectation

We then pan up to a reddish planet that consumes the top of the screen as a metal edifice floats into view from below. An imposing sense of scale and majesty, which will presumably contrast with the grounded cowboy drama to come

I always enjoy when a story uses genre as characterization this way – Vash has presumably fled from the scifi world of cold, clinical machines to the dirty-flecked yet warm world of the western

Apparently the ship is called the SEEDSOS, if I’m reading this font correctly. So if the “seed” part is anything to go by, this seems likely to be an arc ship, a cradle of seeds for a new civilization

The compositions continue to prioritize scale and symmetry as we cut inside the ship; each shot is framed from as great a distance as possible, emphasizing how this small figure walking is entirely dwarfed by his surroundings. An easy way to convey a destiny that seems too large for its bearer

“Good morning Arthur. Good morning Kate. Good morning everyone.” We are swiftly given context for this lonely cinematography, as we learn that this boy’s community is all in suspended animation

We learn the boy is indeed Vash as the ship comes under attack

Active camerawork panning into depth alongside Vash immediately emphasizes the advantages of CG animation

It also seems like Orange’s shading work has improved; I’m impressed with how the shadows fall unevenly across Vash’s hair, drawn in strokes seemingly designed to mimic a traditional brush

Vash runs into two others, another boy named Nai and a woman named Rem. Presumably Nai is his brother

Though Vash is clearly the more emotional one, Nai also reaches out for Rem to join them in escaping, but she declines

Ambitious scale and active cinematography align in this impressive cut of their escape craft fleeing through the collapsing fleet. The “clutter” of the ships in the background helps maintain a sense of relative scale, which can be tricky in the vacuum of space. Hard to appreciate how big something is when it’s just stranded in a void

A delightful bug-buzzard hybrid sets the tone as we drop down on our desert planet, before we’re introduced to an older man and younger woman in a beat-up jeep

And thus we meet our heroine Meryl Stryfe

We’re already running into a touch of the aesthetic clash I was worried about – these characters feel too spotless for their environment, especially when contrasted against the texture-rich painted backgrounds

Meryl dreams of becoming a reporter, which her companion is quick to counter is not much of a dream

Orange’s faces have definitely become more expressive since Land of the Lustrous, though even Lustrous had pretty great character acting. But Lustrous’ gems were relatively accommodating in terms of their facial forms, as they weren’t inherently pliable like humans. Here, we get more little details that are crucial for precise expressions – Meryl is presented with dark creases under her eyes emphasizing her fatigue, and can pinch her lips to offer an exaggerated pout

This “scorching planet” is apparently called Noman’s Land. I’m always a little amused when science fiction presents planets as uniformly possessing one single biome. Obviously it makes for more immediately identifiable locations when your story’s working on the scale of jumping between planets, but it reminds me of a scifi book I read as a kid, when an alien’s story of living up in a swamp prompted a human to ask “do you come from a swamp planet,” to which the alien replied “do you come from a swamp planet?” Earth is more than one thing, but our earth-centric perspective frequently doesn’t grant the same diversity to other planets

Anyway, quite digging this planet’s insectoid megafauna theme

“Just you wait until I get my big scoop!” Reporter is certainly an adventure drama-friendly profession, as a “big scoop” can easily sub in for any sort of treasure hunting motivation. A reporter can thus easily work as a group or protagonist’s moral compass, seeking the treasure for the good of all, rather than personal glory

Compositions continue to emphasize the scale of this place, this time using the planet’s two moons to further dwarf Meryl’s car

More excellent expression work as Meryl assesses this “Humanoid Typhoon”

Her companion’s name is Roberto

We find a group of victims strung up by the “Bad Lads Gang,” which is perhaps the least threatening gang name I’ve heard

Our middle victim is Vash himself, who appears to have gone a little desert crazy

He bears a crystal arm, and says he’s “a gunman, but not much of a fighter”

Then the JuLai military police approach aboard some chocobos

Lots of shots taking advantage of CG animation’s natural ability to pan around subjects, something that’s close to impossible in traditional animation. Here, it does a fine job of further emphasizing the physicality and scale of this environment, as we pan between characters to illustrate the distance separating them

Meryl is so damn expressive! Love this range of expressions as she debates telling these police about Vash

They arrive at the city of Jeneora Rock

Meryl goes through so many expressions so quickly that I imagine she was a unique strain on the production; convenience and clarity generally mean traditionally animated characters only shift their expression as a result of changing dramatic circumstances, but Meryl’s constantly going through it

Vash apparently knows the pregnant bartender, Rosa. She claims he saved the whole town

Meryl gets a harsh introduction to what life is like out here as she learns the city’s water production plant has broken down

Vash “saved the town” by fixing their water plant – a telling reinterpretation of the western “wandering do-gooder,” helping people through his ingenuity and knowledge of science rather than through his capacity to inflict violence

Meryl informs us that the technology for these plants was lost after the Spacefaring Age. A tidy explanation for this current way of life, getting by in the ruins of a great age of science. Presumably Vash himself was another triumph of the old scientific era, or perhaps intended as a bridge for returning to it, as he’s currently demonstrating

Apparently the plant is centered on a literal organic plant, which is currently dying

But then the JuLai police arrive!

Vash’s bounty is right around the price of a new water plant, gesturing towards a natural theme: in a world this harsh, do we sell each other out to survive, or cling to community all the more fiercely?

The “comical violence” of these cops beating on Vash doesn’t quite work without the total exaggeration of traditional animation

Roberto uses his drunken charisma to successful swindle the head cop into a duel

More excellent compositions as we move towards the duel. Muto has clearly done his homework regarding the cinematic language of westerns; the flat long shot emphasizing the vastness of these spaces against the smallness of our heroes, the low-angle shot aimed from one combatant to the other, securing us in the duelists’ headspaces as the sun descends into the horizon. In fact, he used similar cinematography in the first episode of Rage of Bahamut, a truly spectacular slice of action-adventure excess

The captain drops his revolver to instead fire a cluster bomb launcher, which pretty well encapsulates Nightow’s bombastic twist on western convention

“You’d do well to remember only the privileged get to throw around the word ‘coward.’” A keen insight from Roberto, who’s lived long enough to understand that courage in a harsh world will only get you killed

“He’s like you: not long for this world.” Of course, Vash is powerful enough to actually back up his bravery, and thereby perhaps serve as a symbol to others

“Does anyone have .22 caliber bullets!?” A tidy encapsulation of that process: the people cannot fully depend on their savior, they must also exhibit the courage he represents

And of course, it’s Rosa, our representative of the common people, who offers a hand

A delightfully preposterous conclusion, as his single bullet shatters a rock into shrapnel that hits every fragment of the cluster bomb

And in a last reveal, we learn it was actually Nai, or “Millions Knives,” who engineered the destruction of Vash’s fleet

And Done

Ooh, that was delightful! I was a little worried about how CG implementation would mesh with Trigun’s dust-and-grime aesthetic, and there was certainly some friction in the relationship between character and background art, but any downsides were more than made up for by the show’s preposterously expressive character art and consistently dynamic direction. Just watching Meryl react to this ridiculous world is a pleasure all by itself, while the opening and concluding scenes prove that Muto’s talents are perfectly suited to an adventure like this. We’re already laying the groundwork for some classic western themes, and either way, I’m eager to see more of this delightfully realized world. Bring on the next episode!

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Source: Trigun Stampede – Episode 1