Anime Review: Trigun Stargaze

Trigun Stampede served as a bit of a reboot. It worked to take some elements of the main story and the flashbacks telling the backstory of Vash and Knives (and what happened to Julai) and combine them into a new timeline. Trigun Stargaze picks up where the first season left off, and takes us to our final confrontation with Millions Knives leading up to the arrival of the rescue fleet.

Much of this season is related to how Vash’s personal “fail state” is to have to kill someone or otherwise be responsible for a death. This sets up his personal quandary that he has to face over the course of the series – what do you do when you can’t stop the trolley. Is there still a third option when it still comes down to hitting the switch or not?

This comes with a time skip, with an initially traumatized and near catatonic Vash (until his supporting cast helps him get back in the game), Meryl now being partners with Millie, and the Gung Ho Guns now being somewhat expanded to include Midvalley the Hornfreak and Leonof the Puppet-Master. And, on top of that, the people of Noman’s Land know the rescue fleet is on the way, which is pushing Legato Bluesummers to speed up his plan to revive Knives before the fleet arrives.

Some of where this goes is familiar if you watched the original anime. Some of this is completely different. All of it is executed through writing and animation incredibly well. Orange’s 3DCG is very well done and shows that you can do an excellent anime in 3DCG, in spite of what Polygon Pictures has shown. Facial expressions are tremendously expressive and fluidly animated, as are character animations in general movement and in fight scenes. This is especially the case with explosions and the various beam weapons (like Wolfwood’s Punisher).

If I had to have a gripe, it’s that we don’t get much from the Fleet in the denouement. They’re someplace where there are Independent Plants living with humans in harmony – it’s a refutation of Knives complete worldview, so getting that perspective would be wonderful. Having a little more time, and having the SEEDS ship be in closer contact with the Fleet on some kind of Ansible would have been great.

Still, it’s a great conclusion to the series, and I think this makes a better adaptation of the manga than the earlier series (aside from the original series having H.T. as it’s OP). There is some value in going back to the original, but honestly, for a newcomer, I’d recommend this version first.

Trigun Stargaze is available for streaming on: