Serious question: do I dislike Trigun Stampede on its own merits, or do I just dislike it for not being Trigun?

It’s a question I’ve been struggling with all throughout the past few months, watching studio Orange’s modern revamp of this 90s classic. I only watched Trigun a few years ago, so I’m far from a nostalgia-blinded fanboy griping about a show not living up to his childhood memories. On the other hand, I am a huge fan of Trigun. Its unique blend of Sat AM cartoon goofiness and hard-hitting sci-fi morality play resulted in a wonderful space western extravaganza that still holds a special place in my heart. I’d argue it’s even better then Cowboy Bebop, but that’s a discussion for another day. So its possible my lukewarm feelings on Trigun Stampede are because it’s so deliberately different from the version of the show I fell in love with. And that wouldn’t be fair to it; stories get re-imagined all the time, and Stampede doesn’t deserve to be unfairly criticized just because it’s not my preferred take on the material. But still... man, this show just did not click with me. Maybe I wouldn’t be as grumpy about Stampede if I wasn’t comparing it to OG Trigun every second, but even if I went into it blind, part of me feels I’d still come away thinking it was mediocre. So let’s untangle that big ball of conflicting feelings and see if we can figure out what's going on, and whether or not this show is actually as Not Good as I think it is.

The broad strokes, at least, remain the same. It’s space, it’s a western. and Vash the Humanoid Typoon is the most wanted man in the galaxy. But when the intrepid Meryl Strife finally tracks the legendary criminal down, it turns out he’s just a lovable goofball, and the crimes attached to his name are the result of bad dudes leaving carnage in the wake of their attempts to catch him. And said bad dudes are being led by Vash’s sinister, mysterious brother Knives, who is determined to prove Vash’s pacifistic, cohabitational philosophy wrong whatever it takes. But inside those broad strokes, Trigun Stampede is steadfastly carving its own course through the series’ mythos. Characters are changed around, plot points are retooled, most of the designs are tweaked in some way, even certain character movitations and foundational lore details are altered. And, of course, instead of the nostalgic crunchiness of pre-digital cel animation, this show is brought to life with the most bombastic, slickly produced CG animation money can buy. The Stampede team wanted to create something entirely new out of this franchise, and whatever else might be said about this show, they clearly succeeded in that goal.

But of course, it’s a bad idea to change things around just to change things around. There’s gotta be a point. And unfortunately, my ultimate feeling on Stampede is that basically every change it makes is a change for the worse.

To start with the most obvious: yes, Milly Thompson’s absence is sorely felt. The goofy banter between her and Meryl was one of the most endearing parts of Trigun, and losing that chemistry is a serious detriment to the show’s charm. It doesn’t help that the guy they replaced her with, the amusingly named Roberto de Niro, is about as generic a grizzled older authority figure archetype as I’ve ever seen, and while his banter with Meryl isn’t awful, it’s definitely a huge step down. On the bright side, this season does end with confirmation that Milly’s gonna show up in season 2, so better late than never, I suppose. In a strange way, you could almost consider Stampede a re-imagined prequel that shifts around the timeline to have Meryl and Vash meet and have their first adventure before settling into their eventual status quo from the original story. And I may end up feeling kinder toward the show if season 2 is better able to capture that Trigun charm. But for now, we’ll have to wait and see on that front.

Circling back to old Roberto, though, his inclusion is actually part of a much more serious issue than simply replacing a beloved character. Part of what made Milly and Meryl’s dynamic so entertaining is how fresh it felt. They were two put-upon insurance agents grinding through low-level grunt work, facing the mundane stupidity of the world as equals. Even as they get embroiled in Vash’s increasingly cosmic affairs, they never lose that sense of down-to-earth naturalism. You don’t see that kind of energy too often, especially with a pair of female characters. Meryl and Milly were women in charge of their own destiny with their own parts to play. But with the addition of Roberto and Meryl’s job changed from insurance agent to Roberto’s junior reporter colleague, that refreshingly forward-thinking dynamic becomes just another example of the tired “experienced, world-weary dude and his naive female subordinate who still has her moral compass intact.” I have seen this dynamic everywhere; it’s in at least two other shows this season! Why mess with one of Trigun’s most entertaining dynamics if you’re just gonna replace it with what everyone else is doing?

And sadly, that’s a bit of a theme all throughout Stampede. Almost every change or addition it makes to the story and mythos results in something far less interesting and original than what it took away. Vash’s backstory, the motivation for his pacifism, Knives’ plan... so many of the specific details that make Trigun, Trigun have been watered down and made more generic than they were ever supposed to be. And because of how cramped the pacing is, the delicate tonal balance is lost as well. The original Trigun was so good at balancing the goofy, Bebopian space western antics of Vash and his pals with the heavy, dramatic space opera stuff that eventually took over the story. It gave you enough time to soak in the grit and tactility of the slummy desert planets so it felt significant when Knives and his machinations dragged Vash into darker territory. But in Stampede, Knives shows up in episode three. We only get two episodes to appreciate Trigun at its cartoony best before it’s washed away in a tidal wave of bombastic melodrama. As such, Vash, Meryl, Wolfwood and Roberto never get a chance to develop the camaraderie the old versions of them did. They’re pushed into Serious Dramatic mode before you even get a chance to appreciate them at their most human. There’s a moment in the first episode where Vash is cackling like an idiot while hanging upside-down from a scavenger’s trap, and it has more of the original’s heart and soul than anything past episode 2. That’s the Trigun I wanted to see. Not this overly dramatic slog through overblown action setpieces and overthought lore that rushes through plot points too fast for them to sink in.

On the bright side, I can at least appreciate how fantastic those setpieces look. Studio Orange has always been pushing the boundaries on what CG anime is capable of, but their work on Stampede really is incredible. The scale and complexity of this action would not be possible without the tools CG makes available, and they take full advantage of that fact. Dizzying camera tricks, dynamic use of environment, countless spectacular spins and flourishes as things grow increasingly superhuman... on a pure spectacle level, I doubt few shows will even come close throughout the year. And even outside the action, the character animation and cinematic visual language ensure that Stampede is never anything less than impressive to look at. It’s also, pretty significantly, the first time that Orange has proven they can animate human characters well. Sentient rocks and furries are one thing, but the way Vash and Meryl and all the rest move and emote never once feels like a cheap approximation of hand-drawn animation. They feel human, even when the writing helping them out. And i love how it isn’t afraid to still experiment with stuff like Wolfwood’s backstory being done entirely in painterly 2D. It’s almost a cliche to say now, but Orange really is proving once again that CG anime can be as artistically brilliant as its 2D counterpart.

Honestly, it’s kind of funny. Going into this show, the thing I was most worried about was how well Trigun would work outside the specific visual language of tactile 90s hand-drawn animation. But the translation to slick, high-budget CG is far and away the most successful change Stampede makes. It’s nothing like the original, but it’s doing its own thing superbly and charting its own path inside the franchise. That’s what I wanted from Stampede; not the same thing, but something just as good on its own merits, remixing the familiar into something new and spectacular. And had the rest of the show been as good as the animation at justifying its new take on the material, I would have very little to complain about. Sadly, it feels like every other change was a change for the worst, not for the better. Instead of creating something unique from the tools the original left behind, it stripped away what made the original unique in the first place and left something far less special in its place. I hope the second season manages to course correct and deliver on that promise. But for now, I can only lament that Stampede is a much less interesting take on a story that deserved so much better