Forum - View topicDoes the Original Trigun Hold Up?
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Ishida_Akira(fake)
Posts: 113 |
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You're kidding, right? It WAS made apparent from the first episode, if you were paying attention. While acting goofy, Vash was going super-human feats from the very beginning. From the moment he shot off their ropes while tumbling down a hill, you should have already know that Vash is NOT normal and he's hiding a lot of power. The dude was casually dodging bullets. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4596 |
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Yeah, even in those goofy early moments it's crystal clear that Vash is far more powerful than his persona lets on. When you see him pull off those superhuman moves, you know there's a lot more to him, and it piques your interest.
I guess I just fundamentally disagree with this take on the series. It got darker, yes, but it happened over the course of the entire series, not at the drop of a hat. That's hardly an uncommon storytelling technique. That earlier slapstick was definitely needed in order to establish the contrast that was at the heart of Vash's character...plus, it was just plain fun to watch. I don't see why episode 3 feeling very different than episode 22 is such a deal-breaker for you. |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1055 Location: Texas |
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As I understand it, director Nishimura wanted a more lighthearted tone from the beginning so he added the first 3 filler eps and adapted the 4th from Nightow's more comedic "pilot chapter". I think this was in an old transcribed interview, perhaps from Sumire's old Make A Little Lightbulb in Your Soul fansite but I don't fully remember. Anyway, whereas the manga starts with what would be episode 5 and Vash doing amazing things and being a badass, adding these episodes as our introduction to Vash increase his mystery and the focus on his comedic "cover personality" and gives us a character viewpoint(Meryl and Milly). This is both an improvement and a detraction because, as we all know, those first few episodes of an anime set its overall tone and let you know whether or not you want to see the rest. Having them be so different than what the series is really about(the dark, walking tragedy that is Vash) really pulls the rug out from under you and leads to such issues as are being discussed in this forum.
The precarious balancing act of humor and drama in the first half leads the viewer to constantly wonder what tone it's going for. And even though the second half is overall much darker than the first they still pepper in more humorous bits like the events in episode 15(which come much earlier in the manga) to offset the darker, more tragic manga tone. The manga, of course, has comedic elements as well and it is just my opinion that they are better integrated and cause much less tonal whiplash. Still, I do belive the anime has informed my love of the manga and in my mind they kind of share the same space. I don't know if I would love the manga as much as I do without the anime. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1866 |
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Honestly, as someone who watched Trigun in my late teens for the first time, I never understood the absolute worship some people have for a dub that was, for the time, just standard fare. Vash sounds great after he settles into the role, but everyone else just kinda sounds like a typical dub character.
I gave the show an 8, but that might be lowered to a 7.5 today. The first half meanders a lot and the villains of the second half are given one personality trait each. spoiler[Wolfwood's death] felt avoidable and sudden in all sorts of ways considering what that guy's capable of, and honestly the only parts that I think are as good as everyone says they are are Vash and Knives' backstory and the final 3 episodes. That being said, I enjoy the show, but I put it more on the level of Outlaw Star than freaking Bebop. Hell, I even prefer watching it dubbed, but that's mostly out of convenience than anything else. I'm sure the sub is better. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Maybe you guys can see the show from an angle that clicks with you but it doesn't click with me. Okay, you know what? I'm going to have to explain my viewpoint here a little more clearly and I honestly think this is a long-standing means of acknowledging the elephant in the room regarding the presentation of Trigun to begin with. TRIGUN, to me, gave off the initial impression of being nothing but an action comedy. The presentation of that comedy in the series was a BIG selling point when I first watched it from episode 1. The serious side to Vash during the action moments and the intro would've served as an excellent red herring to the show itself. In fact, when people, including Vash, try to act serious in the show only to have themselves be at the focal point of the punchline is what really helps create the buildup and the execution of the comedic timing. That is the takeaway that I got when I first watched the show. Any serious behavior would be offset by a comedic finale that would elicit big laughs from the audience. That is what I believed the show was supposed to be about. When the show got legitimately serious in episode 5, that impression was destroyed. It then showed to the audience that an established red herring wasn't really a red herring at all, the show WOULD get serious, and I honestly think that sucks. I DON'T want Trigun to have a legitimate serious side. I wanted the seriousness that DID exist in the show to be part of the comedic gimmick that played off into an ultimate punchline. Slayers was one other such show that pulled this gimmick off well until the TRY season. I know future readers of this thread will vehemently disagree with me on this stance but it is a stance that I stand on my hill on and will die on it. Trigun shouldn't have had a serious turn in its presentation. It worked well as an action comedy and had it stuck to its scruples from beginning to end, I would've considered it a true classic. My 2 cents. Last edited by KabaKabaFruit on Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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sadoldguy
Posts: 68 |
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spoiler[The romantic in me wanted Milly to have had Wolfwood's child.]
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