Watching: Trigun (1998) Episodes 13-16

 After a rather random recap episode that admittedly did have entertaining things about it and another purely episodic affair featuring more of the Nebraska family and the least amount of Vash screentime in the whole show thus far, I expected Trigun to enter a bit of a lull, and I couldn't have been more wrong. 15 and 16 are clearly the beginning of an arc, one that I'm excited to see unfold as I keep watching.

Legato is a very strange character, be it in his personality or his fashion sense. His ability to manipulate people's bodies is also very intriguing, and I'm impatiently awaiting his confrontation with Vash and the reveal of just how it works.

The Gung-Ho Guns seem to be a very hectic group; the fact that Dominique was able to nearly kill Vash made a very good first impression, even if E.G. Mine and Raidei didn't really live up to that impression. So far, the ones I'm more interested in are Monev, Caine, and Zazie.

I don't know where Trigun is heading in terms of plot, but it's looking very tense and interesting.

Watching: Trigun (1998) Episodes 6-12

 Trigun's first five episodes were fun, character focused little adventures. With the last batch of episodes I watched, however, Trigun is quickly becoming more serious as well as more reliant on continuity, which is something I welcome a lot.

Another big thing was the introduction of Wolfwood, a character voiced by Show Hayami whose face is just as prevalent on the marketing as Vash's, so I'm sure he'll come back later. He's a fun character who, much like Vash, seems to have things he prefers to hide, and great chemistry with everyone else.

Speaking of Vash, there were glimpses of his past shown in those episodes- And the little I know now makes him even more fascinating. It's increasingly clear that his goofy antics are a front for a man who's got some deep issues; a man who is said to be monstrous but helps heal the enemies he shoots down in life-or-death situations. And of course, with episode 12, it became really obvious that, were it not for his iron-clad morals, Vash would be utterly terrifying.

Something else that I feel deserves praise this time around is the show's visuals- They were already good in the first five episodes, but the show has stayed consistently gorgeous for twelve episodes out of 26, which is nothing to scoff at.

I'm excited to see where this show goes once I get back to it.

Watching: Trigun (1998) episodes 1-5

 So, here's the first in what will hopefully become a series of posts- My opinions on the things I watch as I watch them, titled "Watching". Very creative, I know. Anyway; Trigun! Take a drink every time I say the word "fun" in this one.

I'm a big fan of Western aesthetics, and Trigun was always something I wanted to watch both because it has one of those, and because I know a lot of people who love it. Watching the fun, funny and even heart-pouding Blood Blockade Battlefront last year and learning that it had the same creator as Trigun only made me want to get into it even more.

So let's get into this.

Trigun starts off with a very fun first episode, which introduces the main characters Vash, Merryl and Milly very well. They all have fun interactions thanks to their fun personalities. Vash's introduction as a dreaded "Humanoid Typhoon" whose head is worth 60 billion Double Dollars contrasts in a very interesting way with how goofy and stupid he appears to be. This kind of characters, who don't seem all that dangerous but have horrifying reputations, is one I like a lot, especially when the characters never asked for that reputation; which, for now, seems to be the case for Vash.

Merryl and Milly aren't the kind of characters I expected to see in an anime about a guy in a red coat who shoots good and walks around the desert to avoid bounty hunters. Insurance agents packing heat aren't exactly the most common kind of characters you'd see in a western, seemingly post-apocalyptic world, but then again, a burly man with fangs and a cross-shaped brass knuckle who punches vampires into crosses isn't what I expected when BBB was described to me as "New York: The Anime". Merryl and Milly are, however, very fun to watch interact with and unintentionally stalk Vash, though, so I'm waiting to see how that works out.

The standalone characters I've seen in those first 5 episodes were also pretty fun. The competing bounty hunters of episode 1, the water merchant and undercover investigator of episode 2, the retired alcoholic gunsmith of episode 3, the entire town featured in episode 4, as well as the Nebraska father & son of episode 5 were all fun to watch interact with Vash and his ideals of "Peace & Love" that seem to wholly contradict his reputation as a remorseless mass murderer. All of them also contribute to another thing I like about the show; that being its very granular world-building. There's been no explanation yet as to why the planet has two suns, if it's even Earth as we knew it, how some people got their ridiculous guns or their extensive cybernetic augmentations, but there's a lot of things that are implied there that I can't wait to see be explored more- And even if they aren't, they were still fun in that little vacuum.

So far, Trigun seems like a very fun show that has the potential to deliver some really good character-based drama... Much like Blood Blockade Battlefront did. Which is good! That's the kind of show I can't get enough of.