Who and what is Vash the Stampede,
a.k.a. "The Humanoid Typhoon"? To bounty hunters, he's an
outlaw with 60,000,000,000 Double Dollars on his head. To
Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson of the Bernardelli
Insurance Society, he's a walking disaster area who's
cost the company a fortune. To otaku, he's one of
the most popular characters in anime. Based on Yasuhiro
Nightow's manga, this comic adventure takes place
in the distant future on a desert planet that looks like
the American Old West. Vash wanders from town to town,
unsuccessfully pursuing peace, doughnuts, and "the mayfly
known as love." Meryl and Millie follow him, trying to
minimize the destruction, but Vash's only real friend is
the gun-totin' preacher Nicholas Wolfwood. Despite their
grudging affection, Wolfwood articulates the other
characters' thoughts when he tells Vash, "When you're
around, things always seem to get worse!"
Anime heroes tend to be either cold-blooded warriors
who kill for honor (the Gundam Wing pilots) or
unlikely nerds who grow into the role of warrior when
it's thrust upon them (Shinji Ikari in Evangelion).
Sometimes comic and kooky, sometimes gentle and earnest,
Vash reveres life and agonizes over the bloodshed he
inadvertently causes. He'd rather eat than demonstrate
his amazing marksmanship: he doesn't fire a shot until
the fifth episode, although one of his arms is actually a
gun. Voice actor Johnny Yong Bosh articulates both Vash's
suffering and adolescent exuberance whenever he sees a
pretty girl with exceptional panache. The runaway
popularity of Trigun seems to have surprised the
filmmakers. Although no plans have been announced for
additional animation, a new manga series has
appeared, Trigun Maximum. It seems unlikely that
the artists would prematurely end the adventures of a
figure with so much potential--and so many fans.
--Charles Solomon