Review - Trigun Stampede

 

A complete bastardization of a cult classic. While the original Trigun had its issues, mostly with Vash's sense of morality having double standards in the second half of the show, Trigun Stampede abandons everything that was good about the series in order to make an edgy adaptation for a younger audience... but it just fucking sucks ass and feels like a cash grab.

The choice to remake this show in 3D was one of the worst mistakes possible and should have been a very huge red flag to anyone keeping track of releases over the past decade or so. But even then I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Not every 3D show is bad. Shows like beastars or land of the lustrous are able to utilize a 3D style consistently while maintaining stylistic integrity. However in this case the 3D art present is on a similar quality to anime adaptation of God Eater or... indie animations such as RWBY. This is also a level of artistic bastardization similar to the awfulness of the modern GITS 3D remakes. It completely misses the point of the original anime and manga's style. It portrays more of a techno-dystopian sci-fi society instead of a run-down western with archaic tech no longer understood. I think one of the most awful things they decided to do artistically is change Vash's signature hairstyle into an absolutely generic modern cut. It makes his character design just have no soul at all. The animation is not the worst that I've seen come out of the 3D space in Japan, however it just does not stand up to any studio that is more competent at 3D animation in the country such as Sony.

The writing is absolutely horrific. It abandons most of the meat and potatoes of the manga and series, and just about the only thing it keeps is the protagonist/antagonist relationship between Vash and his brother. Comic relief characters such as millie are just... almost entirely absent. In fact there really is no humor present throughout the show even though the original series was heavily comedy focused. Did the director of this even watch the original? Did they even read the manga? It feels to me that they may have had someone read them a paragraph summary and just did their own thing.

And this is complimented by one of the most generic and lazy copy/pasted soundtracks I've seen in an anime for a long time. But what do I expect when they hired the composer of fucking food wars and kampfer for this. One of the key aspects of the music in the original was how the music harmonically was very much inspired from Jazz, funk, a tiny amount of ragtime, and a bit of rock thrown in. That is why it was so often compared to Cowboy Bebop... the music *accentuated* the western feel of the series alongside the visuals of the desert. The soundtrack for stampede only attempts to recreate the style of things you would be more familiar with seeing in anime such as Angel Beats, Evangelion, Darling in the Franxx, etc. where the music matches a lighter color pallet. This style however, just does not fit with a western.

If you want to get into Trigun. Do not watch this, The Original 90s show more than holds up by today's standards, and even the movie is decent. But this is just awful.

Review: 2/10