New ‘Trigun’ Movie to Be Released in September

“Cowboys & Aliens” may not have been your cup of tea, but in American anime legend lives a title that was the original to mesh the sci-fi and Western genres, capturing the Old West, a hard-pressed gunslinger, and the exploration of space all in one – “Trigun.” This month, a new story will unfold.

Twenty years after the intrigue that brought quirky, kind-to-a-fault outlaw Vash the Stampede and a formidable man named Gasback together, the latter has returned to wreak havoc in Macca City, one of the desert planet’s larger towns. Among the scores of bounty hunters hired by the mayor, someone has a vendetta against Gasback himself, and they have to get through the skilled mercenary Wolfwood to do it. This someone being a lovely lady, no doubt Vash, who has a knack for trouble and penchant to right any wrong, will be more than a little involved.

Funimation is set to release “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” to the U.S. market on September 27. It’s a feature-length animation whose story was penned by the author of the Trigun manga, Yatsuhiro Nightow. Lead character Vash will be voiced again by Johnny Yong Bosch, but the voices of the other three main characters – Wolfwood, Milly, and Meryl – are new from the TV series. The movie’s release has multiple extras, including what looks to be one animated short about the infamous mascot of the series, Kuroneko (Black Cat), a cartoonish cat who cameos in nearly every episode of the original series, and is fondly renowned for its characteristic meow.

This is the first new “Trigun” animation in more than ten years, and just at the mention of it, I’m excited.
Unlike more recent anime that have seasons over years and hundreds of episodes, “Trigun” is from a time when manga series were condensed when put into animation, though the anime deviates substantially from the manga, as it was based on only the first three volumes. Often, this shortening of manga series when put into anime was detrimental to understanding the plot and characters, but for “Trigun,” the series was short and sweet, one season of twenty-six episodes that captured the whimsy, harshness, and folly of life in the Old West – all set on a faraway desert planet with multiple suns! As a household name in the American anime community, in part due to the series’ broadcast on Cartoon Network in the early 2000s, I’m sure that it’s not just me, but many a fan out there, who is ready to see another story in the “Trigun” universe.

But there are other reasons I’m interested, as well, despite the voice changes. Funimation has a trailer up on their Youtube channel, and the animation looks juicy. Not only does it look smooth, but, for instance, the screen-filling explosions’ debris clouds and fireballs speak to a highly-financed project. (Did she just say fire and explosions? Hot diggity!)

Another part of the animation I’m looking forward to is how much the style of the movie matches the original series. Studio Madhouse, which animated the original series, seems to have gone above and beyond to bring back cinemagraphic and directional aspects from the series into the movie. Just from the trailer, it’s visible that this consistency includes elements such as set-dressing (the world is consistent down to the rooms’ interior designs), camera angles (the same suite of “camera positions” typical to the original series), and arrangement of the characters in the shots (the tone and mood as created by the use of space). The characters even move and fall similarly. Furthermore, the color of the sand in the desert – a trademark image reoccurring in the series – appears color-keyed to the original animation. On the other hand, some of the night and indoor shots reflect a modern, darker color scheme for anime. However, the darker colors look richer, with a wider range of tones than the series had. So, it looks like this new animation is doing its best to fit in – both with the original series and with the expectations of a modern feature animation.

So, does this attempt to recreate the visual landscape of the series mean that this is “just another episode,” and in no way a “revisioning” that Hollywood is so prone to with its superhero movies as of late? Or even a furthering of the original story? Well, with fan-favorite characters Wolfwood, Milly Thompson, and Meryl Stryfe returning to the screen along with the spikey-haired protagonist, it seems that the story is trying for something that could fit right into the timeline of the series. Whether “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” has any surprises in store in terms of departures from the series or new revelations, you’ll just have to grab a cold sarsaparilla, a comfy couch, and see.

Fun Fact: The Trigun manga was published in Japan by two different magazines, which accounts for the creation of the two-volume Trigun (serialized in Shonen Captain) and fourteen-volume Trigun Maximum (serialized in Young King Ours), which came second. Trigun Maximum ended in 2008, undoubtedly paving the way for the author to work on the movie, planning for which started around 2005. The movie was released in theaters in Japan in April of 2010.