Trigun Stargaze

Episode 10

I'm concerned about the storytelling decisions made by Trigun Stargaze's writing staff. Trigun Stampede worked, I think, because it was clearly a fresh and new, remixed version of both the previous anime and the entirety of the manga that ran for years after the anime concluded. Familiar characters and events showed up in a different order, with details and contexts changed. It was exciting and fun.

Trigun Stargaze, however, is a much straighter adaptation of the latter volumes of Trigun Maximum, where the only aspects of note that have been changed are character deaths. Sparing Leonof the Pupper Master and Midvalley the Hornfreak this time around? Ok, whatever, I'm not that bothered. Teasing Wolfwood's death but then hilariously denying fan expectations? You know what? I'm fine with that. Wolfwood's a fantastic character, and I'm glad he's there for Vash right up to the end this time. But the ridiculous fake-out that concludes Vash and K-pop Legato Bluesummers' climactic fight? It feels like the show is repeating itself, and consistently cheapening the stakes and consequences for these characters. What's the point of a Trigun where nobody dies?

Perhaps this is yet another layer of narrative fakery, and episode eleven or twelve will culminate in a heartbreakingly nihilistic orgy of bloody ultra-violence where no-one survives, the orphanage kids are mercilessly gunned down by random plant-worshipping mooks, Livio and Wolfwood are simultaneously impaled and disemboweled by Knives' twisty tentacles, Milly and Meryl are crucified upside down and abandoned to desicate in the baking sun, and Vash's de-limbed head and torso is nailed to the Ark as an immortal, screaming figurehead of pain and suffering, heralding Knives' Brave New World to all and sundry.

Probably not, though.

While the technical display of 3D CG animated wizardry is a sight to behold this episode, especially the amusing part where Wolfwood and Livio essentially snowboard their way down a crashed ship's tilted bow while fighting Ninelives' various bodies, what, in the end does it all amount to? In this version of the story, Vash and K-pop Legato have barely interacted. They've not built up their antagonistic relationship of ideological enmity that gave their final battles in other media meaning. Previous versions of Legato show him to be a deeply broken man, both mentally and physically, and while this version replaces some of that brokenness with misguided religious fervor, it's not as effective.

I do like that this time, Legato uses Vash's friendship with Wolfwood as the catalyst to force him to transgress his self-ordained moral boundaries. In both previous versions of the story, Wolfwood is already dead, leaving Vash to face Knives' most fanatical devotee alone. This, however, changes the dynamic of their ideological clash in ways that I think weakens it. In previous versions, Legato forces Vash to martyr him to protect random people he doesn't know and love as much as Wolfwood. This time Vash's choice is between the life of his best friend, and the man trying to kill him. It should feel more dramatic, I suppose, but it doesn't.

At least we're given a few extended moments of Vash clearly struggling with the moral enormity of his choice to loose a bullet towards Legato's head. That he still does so seems to confirm Stargaze's fidelity to the manga's ultimate ethos: that both Vash and Knives are wrong; their ideals are unrealistic and harmful, albeit in different ways. Yet Stargaze episode 10 chooses to inexplicably alter this most fundamental of plot beats, of Canon Events, if you will, by having Knives, who has achieved his apotheosis, miraculously save his follower at the absolute last moment.

Now this makes almost no sense to me. Knives cares not a jot about Legato and his life, just as he cares nothing for the plants whom he has absorbed. His ultimate aim is to force all remaining plants to become independents – not because that's what they desire, but because it's what he wants to do. He cares about Vash in his own twisted way, but only in that he desires to make Vash more like him. By allowing Vash to kill Legato, he forces Vash to face the consequences of his choice, to become morally gray. Yet that can't happen here. Yes, Vash still shoots the gun, but where are the consequences?

I can only hope that there's some kind of super-clever plot twist coming up that justifies all of these bizarre choices. For the moment, this doesn't feel like a story that exists for its own purposes or message, merely one that aimlessly iterates on past versions with the sole intention of saying “gotcha!” to the audience. That's no way to write a story.

Rating:

Trigun Stargaze is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.