Trigun Stampede

Episode 12

This finale had a lot of really impactful moments for both old and new fans. The animation and choreography were stellar, with the soundtrack actually being the strongest I think it's been in this entire season. The voice acting was dramatic, and I was intrigued by a lot of the teases left over at the end! With that said…what on earth was that? No, I'm serious, what is my takeaway supposed to be from this finale? I'm really glad that Studio Orange has put out a teaser that there is more to come because if this was the actual finale of this anime project then I genuinely don't know what I would think.

The first half of this episode is so good. It focuses hard on the relationship between Knives and Vash. We see some genuine emotional pathos from Knives as he begins to get desperate and I like the fact that the show progressively dances the line between whether or not Knives is genuinely a sociopath or if he's just that desperate to not be separated from his brother. I like the fact that Knives has very strong points for the past couple of episodes about how humankind sucks and technically did enslave his people for their personal gain. Knives doesn't really have a reason to care about humans outside of Rem who was barely established as a prominent presence in this show. When Knives was being obliterated at the end and he says “Nai is dead” because Vash killed him, I genuinely felt that. It's like he accepts the new role that he plays as the villain of humanity.

As for Vash's answer at the end…I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, his answer about how he would respond to humanity's cruelty feels 100% like the Vash that I have always known and will always remember. Vash is somebody who will smile at you if you punch him in the face and spit on him. It's not that he can't fight back, it's that he doesn't really see the point in fighting out of hatred or anger. He knows that humans are flawed and that we will always give in to fear but he also doesn't want to blame people for feeling that way. When he said that he would run if people chased after him and then join them by their side when things calmed down, I thought “that's Vash.” If there were more people like that in this world then I think I would have a lot more confidence in our survival as a species. That being said, I'm not really sure where this philosophy is coming from.

Is this still Vash's guilt about the colonies crashing on earth? Is this a philosophy instilled from what Rem taught him as a child? Is the show just going all in on the religious imagery of Vash being an angel sent from the heavens for our salvation? All of those are perfectly viable reasons that the show hints at but doesn't really explore from Vash's perspective. Honestly, if this was the finale of the original anime, then I think you would have a much stronger work of fiction with a few rewrites to make everything hit together. If there's one thing this finale made me realize, it's that STAMPEDE desperately needed to have more episodes in order for me to feel the full impact.

Yes, I know I've been saying that a lot these past couple of reviews, and yes, you can argue that it's all a moot point because a lot of these loose threads will probably be picked up on in a later series. We have no idea what's going on with the earth, we have no idea what happened to Wolfwood and it looks like we're finally getting Milly back in the original anime! I just hope they won't try to ship her with Wolfwood this time since he's literally an adult child. But that's just it, these aren't complaints that I've only had for this finale, they've been complaints that I've had for the past couple of episodes. Since the show is hinting that the scale could potentially get even bigger in a follow-up season or movie, then I think it's fair for me to say that I don't have a lot of faith in STAMPEDE's ability to properly wrap up all of these dangling plot threads. So overall, I didn't dislike my time with this franchise and it was nice to see an actual well-animated reimagining of the story. I just can't help but feel like we missed out on the chance to see something even greater than what we got.

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Trigun Stampede is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.