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Trigun Complete Collection (Vols. 1-8) - Amazon.com ExclusiveRating:
Release Date: 03 February, 2004 Retail Price: $199.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Trigun Complete Collection (Vols. 1-8) - Amazon.com Exclusive Reviews
Something's WRONG with those funny faces!
I made a mistake with this series. I borrowed Volume 4 from a friend of mine to check out the series. It contained the episode where you first meet Legato, a very dark, cruel man who can control what people's bodies, literally. I thought the series was going to be fantastic- a perfect balance between action, a dark plot, and a little comedy.
Then I bought the DVD set.
I have to admit, I was disappointed by the series. In the first nine episodes, the show appears to be a comedy. Even when the plot becomes more dark with people dying and cities being demolished, the show still tries to be funny. It felt out of place sometimes. The odd looking funny faces also were overdone a little bit.
The second half of the show goes more in depth with the plot. But as it turns out, my favorite enemy, Legato, is not the Vash's arch nemesis. That also greatly disappointed me.
Other than the show being unbalanced in comedy and in plot development, I found it to be pretty good. There is some pretty good gun action; some episodes have a lot of it while others are a little sparse. I also had quite a few laughs in the beginning with Vash's childlike behavior. I couldn't help falling in love with all the characters since they are full of personality. I'm just sad the show didn't live up to my expectations. It's worth buying the import version of the show even if episode navigation is just as complex as a jigsaw puzzle.
To quell the complaints.
I see a lot of viewers complaing about how the villains are shallow, the jazz element doesn't fit, I hate Vash's character, other stuff is better, blah blah blah.
The fact of the matter is, none (read: almost none) of that really matters. Hear me out here.
The villains are "shallow" mainly because the story is entirely told from Vash's, Nicholas', Meryl's and Milly's point of view. We get glimpses of what is going on in the Gung-ho Guns/Knives part of the world, but that is simply to progress the story along. Since none of the aforementioned characters have had any encounters or experience with the Gung-ho Guns (Save Wolfwood and Chapel the Evergreen along with half of the other GhG's, which is explained in Ep. 23), it makes sense that nothing would be presented about them. The idea is that there is some mystery surrounding the villains and why they do what they do, which allows you to relate with the main characters who learn about the villains and their intentions and weak points through the action scenes and limited dialogue. If you're in a war, you can't always see where and what the other side is doing. That is the whole idea behind this style.
As for the Jazz element... I'm not sure. A reviewer mentioned something about watching a worthy anime like Cowboy Bebop. Now, I'm not ripping on the series; I happen to like CB very much, but in all honesty, does the Jazz and music tie-ins really fit with that series either (other than the name, obviously)? The only Jazz part I can think of in Trigun deals with Midvalley the Hornfreak. It's been a while since I saw that episode, but I'm pretty sure that was Blues instead of Jazz, but I'm going to say that I don't really remember rather than state it as fact.
As for Vash's character, well, that simply is a matter of opinion. I see him as a very deep and complex character, and the scene where you see the scars and metal patches on his body is a clear testament that the man practices what he preaches. Vash keeps his word to Rem until the end, when he finally realizes that sometimes you must take lives to save lives. I really don't understand how people claim to almost hate Vash's character. I laugh, I cry, I get a craving for donuts... Anyways, for the review saying this is like Die Hard with a wuss Bruce Willis, and goes on to praise works like Samurai X... I'm sorry, that made me laugh. Complain about one wuss character and praise another? Ok...
The fact of the matter is, Vash was never confronted again by any of the villains he did not kill. I suppose he could have killed them all, but wouldn't that make him a hypocrite? "'Thou shall not kill,' remember? What kind of priest are you anyways?" A character who swears not to kill does not save a series (and by no means is this series in need of saving) by murdering everyone that gets in his way. There's no reason to assume that the villains Vash and Co. did not kill went on to kill more people, since you do learn of many of the GhG's fates after their unsuccessful attempt at bringing down Vash. If you're so thirsty for blood, go watch Ninja Scroll or, even worse, Genocyber. *shudder* Vash's carefree and positive attitude through 4/5's of the series is a nice break from all the other characters, major and especially minor, and really sets him apart from the rest. Each major character has specific traits and habits that really make them unique.
*Wild Tangent Alert*
And as for Akira... 8th time watching it, still doesn't make any freaking sense. And the last episode of NGE... yeah... I went psychotic too, because it was the lamest ending I had ever seen. Nothing like totally pointless cut scenes and montages and confusing random scenes regurgitated from the series and skewed into garbage to sum up an otherwise flawless series (with a wuss main character, no less). But I digress...
Trigun truly is a great anime, and ranks in my Top 10, although I could never actually assign numbers to my Top 10; it all depends what kind of mood I'm in. The story is fantastically original and just about covers the whole spectrum of emotions, and the action scenes are quite common and fast-paced. The main characters are well developed and deep but not too complex, even though I would have liked to see more about "the Insurance Girls." The landscapes are great, the animation is very good, and the music fits well with the scenes and still manages to stay in the context of the story (it's a Wild West/Rock Concert mix). The villains are incredibly complex in the fact that, since you can only speculate what their drive is, you don't know what they'll do next, and how they'll react. And the fact that you know nothing about them until the main characters do adds to the whole experience in my opinion, since it helps you relate with the main characters just a bit more. The fact that you don't learn how the villains operate outside of the main two (Knives and Legato) just adds to the suspense. Yes, there are other great animes out there, but this is certainly one of them.
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