Trigun

Adult Swim Premiere	March 31, 2003
Original Network	TV Tokyo
Seasons	1
Episodes	26

Trigun is a Japanese anime series produced by Madhouse Studios that originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 1, 1998 to September 30, 1998. The show later aired on Adult Swim in the United States with an English dub from March 31, 2003 to May 13, 2003. Reruns of Trigun continued to air on Adult Swim until August 2006, when the network lost the rights to air the show.

Plot

Known for its Space Western theme, Trigun is about a man named "Vash the Stampede" and the two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees who follow him around in order to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the "60,000,000,000$$" (sixty billion "double dollars") bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July. However, he cannot remember the incident due to retrograde amnesia, being able to recall only fragments of the destroyed city and memories of his childhood past. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past.

As the series progresses, we learn more about Vash's mysterious history and the history of human civilization on the planet Gunsmoke. The series often employs comic relief and is mostly light-hearted although its tone shifts toward darker and more dramatic situations as the series draws to a conclusion. The story line also involves moral conflict pertaining to the morality of killing other living things.

Characters

Vash the Stampede — Vash is a very lighthearted, expert marksman that tries to promote love and peace as he personally said in several episodes. He appears to be a very merry person that dislikes seriousness, but is actually very deep and serious as can be seen in the situations he finds himself in. He usually presents a smiling façade, which Wolfwood is prone to call a "false smile." Beneath this smile lies a lot of pain and the burdens that Vash has chosen to carry. Also known as The Humanoid Typhoon, he is a wandering gunman who had a 60 billion "double dollar" ($$) bounty on his head until the government reclassified him from a Human being to a "localized disaster".

Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson — Two agents of the Bernardelli Insurance Company, sent to evaluate claims regarding the Humanoid Typhoon. Initially, they dismiss the idea that the real Vash is the legendary Humanoid Typhoon (partially due to the lack of an introduction), but the two eventually learn (much to Meryl's dismay) that this is indeed the person they are assigned to track.

Nicholas D. Wolfwood — A superb gunman, almost equal to Vash himself. Wolfwood is a priest, and carries with him an enormous cross as a symbol of his faith and a reminder of his sins; however, the cross contains a machine gun and a rack of automatic pistols. Wolfwood and Vash get into many conflicts over the morality of murder. According to Wolfwood's mentor "...we are sometimes driven to become the devil himself."

Knives Millions — The main antagonist, and Vash's brother. Like Vash, he is a sentient power plant created by humans, but unlike Vash, he is a cruel mass murderer that intends to wipe out the entire human race, considering them unfit for this world. Most of the situations Vash ends up in are, in one way or another, connected to Knives.

Broadcast History

Trigun premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block from March 31, 2003 to May 13, 2003, and then aired in reruns until 2006. On April 1, 2012 the show also aired on Adult Swim as part of Toonami's April Fools Event.