Quick Recommendation

If any anime fan stumbles upon this, I'd suggest to watch Gakkougurashi(School-Live) if you haven't yet.  But don't look up ANYTHING about it.  Don't read the synopsis on MyAnimeList or anything. Just watch the first episode completely blind, trust me.  And don't make the decision whether you dislike it or not until you finish the first episode.

Or don't.  It's just a suggestion, after all.

Trigun: My thoughts

This review contains copious spoilers; please don't read it if you haven't seen the show

I finished Trigun a little bit ago, and I thought I'd post my thoughts on the show here.  Now, about me, I'm a pretty new otaku (started watching anime in the summer of 2016), and I haven't seen the biggest sample of 90s anime.  I've really only seen, say, 3 or 4 essential 90s-era anime at this point in time.  I haven't honestly watched many anime at all; I think there's 150 or so titles on the list.  There's your idea of my anime experience.  I'm not the least experienced, I've seen enough to be able to make connections and the like, but I'm nowhere near being well-versed in anime.

Anyway, before I start, I really liked Trigun.  I've liked all of the 90s anime (series) I've finished, actually.  I'm quite excited to get into the era more, and watch more examples of shows from this time, because the ones I've seen deserve to be called classics.

Now, appearances are important.  Does Trigun fall flat with its appearance, its art and animation? Well, no, it doesn't.  The art is dated, but it isn't anything near bad.  It's well detailed, and fulfilling.  However, I have noticed that the colors are often less vibrant in older titles, but it gives them a certain charm.  Trigun's color palette is somewhat interesting because of the often very boring and monochrome background (the setting being on a drought-ridden planet) contrasting with the vibrant outfit of our main character (and I'll talk about character design if I return to talking about the series later).  The majority of the villains, at least, contrast with the dull, dusty world as well.  The artstyle, aside from the color palette, is nice, but has a sometimes infuriating inconsistency. I'm not a big fan of switching artstyles for humor in most cases - some shows do it well - but Trigun's use of the trope fits well with its dual tone.

Yes, let's talk about that dual tone.  This is probably the reason that most haters of the series hate the series.  Trigun really gives vastly different promises in the first half than in the second.  The series has all the appearance of a goofy action show, and you expect the qualities the show sets up in the first half to last longer.  The rather misleading 'character of the day' setup is abandoned fairly quickly, and it kind of comes as a delayed shock.  However, the assumptions that can be made about the first half of the show are important to the second half.  The laid-back, humorous - if violent - tone of the first five or six episodes, and the fact that the tone does not stick with the series, is a perfect parallel to Vash's own character.  Vash is a pretty goofy guy.  He's got that big silver gun, and he spends his time trying not to hit people with his bullets.  Even when he goes badass and puts on those glasses, he hasn't changed.

But when Vash's fake arm comes into play, you as the watcher realize that his attitude isn't going to work out in this world.  If you watched diligently during the previous episodes, they hint at that too.  But when the first Gung-Ho Gun shows up, and Vash's second gun does the same, that's the real turning point.  When Monev the Gale kills all those people, you realize: 'this really isn't going to work out'.  And then, that's the whole idea.  Really, everything that happens from then till the ending follows that idea.  Vash tries desperately to save both the spider and the butterfly, and it's only at the end half where he's forced to realize that his ideal is a lot easier said than done.  The first half of the series is a good buildup to this.  Those watchers who did not expect the series to change are just like Vash; you think his strategy will always work out.

So, like I mentioned, that's why the ending happens as it does.  It's not accompanied by a whole lot of fanfare, but that's how you know Vash has changed.  Now, some of you are probably thinking (if anyone is reading this at all) "But wait, Aiko, Vash didn't kill Knives!"   And you'd be right.  I don't think he does.  But here's the thing.  I don't think Vash was sure he could save both the butterfly and the spider as he goes to confront Knives.  Vash killed Legato of his own will, he was not forced to pull the trigger.  He was forced to kill the spider to save the butterfly, and that shook his beliefs.  Vash may very well have been prepared to murder his brother, and he may very well have been prepared to die.  But he sticks with his beliefs.  He doesn't kill Knives.  He sees a way to save both the butterfly and the spider, and takes it.

But the anime doesn't let us know whether Vash's ideal works out in the end.  It closes the curtains without telling us.  The reason for that?  Trigun's purpose was never to say that killing is wrong, or that everyone can be saved, or even that everyone can't.  Its purpose is to make you think.  It wants to make you ask: "Would that really work out in the end?"  Then again, I could be wrong, this is just an opinion.

So, there's the meaning of the ending sorted out.  Overall, Trigun was a great series from beginning to end.  The characters, while some had rocky starts, were all fleshed out well, and displayed their due amount of development.  I don't like that the initial character-of-the-day layout left out a lot of explanation for some characters, though, but this is a minor problem.

There's one more thing to tackle - the meaning of the series' title.  Everyone says that it's about Vash's three guns: his Colt, his fake arm, and his real arm, which combines with the Colt to make the Angel Arm.  That makes a lot of sense, and is probably the reasoning behind the series' title.  However, when applied to only the final battle of the series, there's another meaning.  Three guns: Vash's Angel Arm, Knives' Angel Arm, and Wolfwood's Punisher, which helps Vash get the edge over Knives when he cannot with only the Angel Arm.

First post.

So, I decided to finally get around to making a blog after wanting to do it for a while.  I don't expect anyone to ever stumble upon it, but if you do, expect anime/manga stuff, gaming stuff, and writing/conlanging stuff.  I'll share my thoughts on things here, so stay tuned, or something.