On the desert world of Gunsmoke, outlaw and absolute pacifist "Vash the Stampede" is being sought after by two young women: the tall, ditzy Milly and the tiny, short-tempered Meryl. They work for an insurance company that's getting bankrupted by all the property damage caused by Vash: collateral from the ridiculous fights he tends to get into which result in his nickname of "The Humanoid Typhoon". The reason? Vash has a bounty of $$60,000,000,000 (sixty billion double-dollars) on his head, and every Bounty Hunter on Gunsmoke aims to collect in true Wile E. Coyote fashion.Wacky hijinks ensue for a few episodes, then the mood darkens. Lots of people die, in many cases slowly and horribly. Survivors discover new things about themselves. Personal growth takes place. There are hints of romance. Mood gets still darker. For the eggheads out there, there is even a fair amount of analysis of certain aspects of Christian theology (though Jesus is never mentioned by name), as viewed from a very Japanese perspective, having to do with the contrast between pacifist ideals and the moral obligation some characters perceive to protect the innocent even if they must kill in order to do so.In 2010, Yasuhiro Nightow started a modest series of new works for the Trigun universe in anticipation for the movie: Trigun Badlands Rumble. First it was a two-chapter story, going by the same name as the movie, drawn by Yasuhiro himself it serves as a preview for the movie. The second was a One-Shot, Trigun: Rising, it is a short tale about Rai The Blade, one of the original Gung-Ho Guns, drawn by Yuusuke Takeyama. The third, and final, was another One-Shot, entlied Trigun: The Lost Plant, a story set 6 years after the original manga ending; it was drawn by Boichi and later published as an extra for the 12th Volume of his own series, Sun Ken Rock.This series has a character sheet. Feel free to expand on it.An exceptionally thorough and entertaining analysis of the anime can be found here. The English dub was one of the flagship shows of [adult swim] (along with Cowboy Bebop) and helped to set the mood that the sub-channel was simply for mature audiences and not necessarily "adult" audiences.The show, formerly licensed in the US by Pioneer/Geneon and now licensed by Funimation, is on YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.
Action Girl: Dominique the Cyclops and a few others.
A Day in the Limelight: In the anime, Meryl and Milly in episode 14 (lampshaded by Vash when he realizes how little screentime he got). The manga experiments with different points of view, including those of and side characters.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Vash in an attempt to save Lina. He's also not too proud to strip naked and bark like a dog.
And Now for Someone Completely Different: Trigun The Lost Plant, introduces Verona Tsubasa, a woman following Vash around on search for the titular lost plant; the setting is placed six years later the original manga ending, Verona is the real focus of the story, Vash is just kind of there, and no other characters make a return, in fact, they are not even mentioned.
And the Adventure Continues: Manga ending falls somewhere between here and Here We Go Again. Since the Knives situation has been resolved, Vash is free to enjoy his wandering life more, but the gag of Meryl and Millie becoming TV reporters hired to chase him around is kinda out there, and worse than insurance by a long way.
Aerith and Bob: With names like Vash the Stampede, Legato Bluesummers, and Millions Knives...names like Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson don't exactly seem to fit.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: Subverted hard by Vash, especially in the manga (though his sexual harassment excruciatingly inept flirting with ladies in the anime can be seen as a sign of sexual frustration). He fakes being passed out in order to avoid the "favours" of prostitutes, spends an inordinate amount of his free time thinking about his dead mother figure, doesn't want any woman to see his scars and avoids any kind of romantic or sexual relationship, be it with Luida, Meryl or Jessica. He may have had sex before, but his scars and the fact that Knives's henchmen endanger everybody close to him probably prevent him from doing so. As for manga Nicholas, the gag covers suggest he has a scandalous love affair with... a blow-up doll!? Make of it what you will.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Knives is an Aryan on steroids who rants about being a "superior breed"; Legato has his own particular brand of Nietzschean philosophy; genocides involving high technologies.
Anime Anatomy: Manga Knives lacks certain "parts"; similarly, the female plants lack nipples.
Author Appeal: All the elaborate cowboy-like outfits and uniforms with all sorts of useless straps and buttons, huge collars etc. Also present in Nightow's other work, Gungrave. See◊ for yourself◊.
Badass Longcoat: Vash's coat is basically an elaborate red duster, which was inspired by the dusters worn by gunslingers in Westerns. Vash has probably one of the most extreme examples of this trope. In the show's opening and at other times, Vash's coat is shown billowing in the wind looking considerably longer than usual. But then, the Rule Of Cool applies here, I guess.
Also keep in mind that, in Japan, red is the traditional color of the hero. And the English dub mentions that Red Geraniums (Rem's favorite) mean "determination".
Beard of Sorrow: In the anime, Vash grows one after he Heroic BSOD's after the incident with Legato during which time Meryl and Milly are taking care of him.
Berserk Button: Vash snaps if he witnesses mass murders or if he gets mind raped; Knives snaps even harder than usual if Vash contradicts him; and Vash must be Meryl and Brad's Berserk Button...
Beware The Superman: What everyone tends to think of first when they start to understand just how special Vash is.
Wolfwood even has a disturbing yet awesome moment in Maximum where they're hanging out and brooding together, and he seriously considers shooting Vash (by this time firmly established as his best friend) in the back right then and there, just to get at least one of the twins out of the way. He doesn't, but Vash gives him a sad, knowing look later and Wolfwood sort of smirks and thinks, 'who am I kidding? He knew exactly what I was thinking, and he would have survived.'
BFG: The Cross Punishers and Angel Arms are the cream of the crop.
Or at least they would be, until Caine the Longshot's hundred foot long sniper rifle is taken into consideration.
One of the bounty hunters in the first episode has a gun that takes the cake for sheer impracticality: a two-barreled rifle, each barrel having its own long clip. In firing it looks like a propeller.
Don't forget the huge starship gun Chronica tries to blast Knives with.
Bifauxnen: Though the voice and the name are clear giveaways, some people (i.e. viewers/readers) tend to doubt Milly is a woman when they first see her.
Big Brother Complex: Knives is a big brother complex gone horribly wrong. He's pretty much of a Yandere over Vash, with huge emphasis on the "Yan." Also, he basically decided he was the older twin and it's up for debates which of them is the more childish.
Big "NO!": "NOOOO, don't kill them!! BIGGER NOOOOOOO!!!"
Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The plants in the manga seem to have this until Domina and Chronica turn up from earth. In the anime we never get a good look at the girl plants or actually informed that Vash and Knives are plants. The flashback episode made it look like the infants had turned up in an airlock, implying they were extremely hardy aliens.
Boomerang Bigot: Done seriously with Legato. He was at least born human (prior to getting a ton of modifications), but is an Omnicidal Maniac who wants to kill all humans and anxiously awaits the day when his own boss will kill him.
There is no evidence Legato was modified—well, apart from anime Legato having Vash's severed left arm in place of his own. He's presumably a psychic mutant. This is not improbable, in the setting.
After he finally starts to learn how to use this (traumatically), the first time his angel arm instinctively puts up some 'feathers' to catch a bullet he gets stoned. You gotta wonder why he doesn't just let us all die.
Also Knives and Vash in the manga backstory. Poor, sweet little Knives.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the episode, Little Arcadia, Vash breaks the fourth wall and says, "Hey, is that all the time I get?" It is also fairly obvious that he does it again a couple times in the series.
Bring My Red Jacket: Arguably the reason for the color of Vash's trademark coat. Debatable: in the anime at least, Vash inner-monologues about Rem and her love of red flowers while the camera pans over his coat.
Captain Obvious: Knives "captain obviouses" Vash at least once in the manga. Vash tells him that his true fight should be with himself, meaning his priority should be learning to control his destructive urges. Knives misunderstands this and answers "Yes, the pain I feel is horrible. Thanks for enlightening me to the situation."
Career Killers: The Eye of Michael are a ring of the planet's scariest assassins with a front as a respectable church.
Cast From Lifespan: Vash's Angel-arm is ridiculously powerful, but every shot costs him life energy and shortens his lifespan.
Cast Full of Pretty Boys: In the manga, at least; the only seriously recurring women are Meryl and Millie, who are absent for at least half the story and fairly useless most of the time, and eventually Elendira, who is m-t-f transexual. In the anime only slightly, as there are Meryl as viewpoint character and Millie as her stalwart companion, and regular appearances by women like Mary-Anne, Elizabeth, and Jessica. All the actually significant characters are still male, though.
Dominique is the only actual female antagonist, and she had only one trick and didn't last long.
Cats Are Magic: Kuroneko-Sama, the black cat, randomly appears across the desert planet Gunsmoke where our heroes show up. Fan Wank is that Kuroneko-Sama is God.
Character Exaggeration: Manga Vash may do just anything he can to be silly, he doesn't harass ladies 'for the lulz'. Anime Vash becomes a Casanova Wannabe.
Charge Into Combat Cut: In the opening scene after an armed gang demolishes a bar that Vash was drinking in, he slowly stands up after finishing drink, adjusts his glasses and points his gun at the gang... cue a cut to another town, in which the insurance adjusters on Van's trail are introduced.
Chaste Hero: Vash, possibly due to Yasuhiro Nightow's Christian overtones. (He's a Roman Catholic... and Japanese!)
Church Militant: Nicholas; Chapel the Evergreen in the anime. Nicholas, Chapel and Livio as part of the Eye of Michael in the Manga.
Chekhov's Gun: Wolfwood's Cross after Vash takes it. It saves his life in his fight with Knives.
Clothes Make the Superman: Livio is only half competent without his beautiful hat and cape. Also, Vash's coat is bullet-proof and contains airco and bullets.
Cold Sniper: Some of the Gung-Ho Guns, but Caine the Longshot is the absolute embodiment of the trope. He has no lines, a huge sniper rifle, and straight-up suicides when Vash breaks it (though at least in the anime, this may have been Legato's doing rather than purely his own choice).
Confessional: Wolfwood even sells confessions despite probably being a Protestant priest.
'Protestant priest' means Anglican or Episcopalian, pretty much. Both of which practice confession. Most sects that abolished confession also abolished priests, as such, and most sacraments, since they're something of a package deal and distrust of priestly corruption and its impact on the efficacy of sacerdotal endeavor was a major article of reformist heresy and eventually the Reformation. Wolfwood seems to be some kind of Space Episcopalian, which makes sense since they're very cut off from Rome and Nightow is Catholic.
Though apparently, inasmuch as he was ordained at all it was through the Eye of Michael, who are purportedly an assassin ring fused with an underground plant worshiping cult. So yeah. He can be forgiven his scattered doctrine.
Covered with Scars: Vash. The girls walk in on him after a shower. The prosthetic arm the audience knew about, after Monev, but the girls didn't have the angle. The scars are what he pays for trying to save everybody all the time. Of course, what some of those metal bits are doing on him is a deep mystery. What, does he have some pressing medical need to tack his skin to his spleen?
He's a plant. Plants don't heal, they just grow back. The metal is keeping him in one piece.
Crapsack World: The world is full of gunslingers. Shootouts and property damage seem to be the norm. The planet itself is a desert and the competition for scarce natural resources is definitely bringing out the worst in people. The fear of the Humanoid Typhoon hangs over every town. Death is never far away.
Creepy Cool Crosses: Wolfwood, duh. His main weapon looks like a giant cross with a gun handle in its middle. The elongated bottom spoke conceals a machine gun, the top spoke above it holds a rocket launcher, and the two side spokes slide outwards to reveal racks for about a dozen pistols. The anime also has Chapel the Evergreen of the Gung-Ho Guns, who also carries a giant cross, though his seperates into two heavy machine guns.
Man: "Whoa, this is HEAVY!" Wolfwood: "That's because it's full of mercy."
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Vash is the definitive example, especially when he's played by Johnny Yong Bosch. He seems like a simple gangly fellow with a penchant for donuts and beer... until you piss him off. There's a very good reason why he has a $$60 billion bounty.
Despair Event Horizon: As it is set in a Crapsack World heavy on Rule of Drama and one of its major questions is whether idealism has any real meaning...so many characters, all the time. Especially backstories, but the 'eternal suffering to Vash the Stampede' gives us a couple heroic ones in the main timeline. Meryl and Millie are actually notable for never falling to this point, in either version. (In fact, the odds of things not going completely to shit increase significantly in their presence. Too bad the guys never notice.)
Despair Gambit: Knives' main plan with regard to Vash. In the anime, this ultimately pushes him into a Heroic BSOD.
Destructive Saviour: Vash is called the "Humanoid Typhoon" for a reason, and while he doesn't like people's homes and so one being wrecked, the only Collateral Damage that's really important to him is human life. He's willing to die for you, but not for your car.
The dark side of this, as it were, comes up in the anime: apparently his wish to not kill anyone affected the Angel Arm enough when Knives set it off in July that he managed to wreck an entire city without directly killing anybody. But now they were a city full of refugees in the middle of a desert...
Determined Expression: Vash looks like this whenever he drops his facade of idiocy and decides to get serious. Only to be expected from a man whose byword is determination.
Deus Exit Machina: In the chapters where Meryl and Millie are protecting the oasis owned by the old couple, Vash is almost entirely absent. The plot instead focuses on giving us a better idea of who the insurance girls are. Vash even lampshades it at one point when he pops out to make a single assist. The camera then pans away and he says "Hey that was it? That was my turn?"
Devil in Plain Sight: Legato out to lunch in a bar or having a sandwich on a village plaza; in the manga, Knives hanging around in bars before freakin' killing everybody, in Midvalley's memories.
Did Not Do the Research: It's minor but it's still there. In the Victorian Language of Flowers, geraniums do not mean "courage". That's garlic flowers. Most definitions, depending on the species, are friendship, ingenuity, consolation, or wanting to meet someone. Though people usually let it slide because it's surprising that Nightow even knew about such a truly Western concept as the Victorian Language of Flowers in the first place, let alone, the details of it.
Estrogen Brigade Bait: A few characters fit this trope, but Wolfwood is practically the archetype. Too bad his only mate is an inflatable doll, as the gag covers suggest.
Don't forget Midvalley! For one rather confusing fight, there was Midvalley in his white suit and Wolfwood in his black, both kind of ambivalent but fighting like hell, with the whole 'wolf fangs' theme going. Manga only.
Evolving Credits: Each episode's opening (except for episode 2) shows a couple of scenes from that episode. Starting in episode 18, the wanted poster also changes to one warning people that Vash is coming.
Explosive Overclocking: Wolfwood after taking two vials of serum. He regenerates almost instantly from almost any wound, but burns out his life and dies shortly afterwards.
Expy: Knives has been accused of being a Vegeta Expy.
Eye Scream: In the manga, Zazie's flies crawl in and out of his eyes. Midvalley's horn playing also seems to make eyes bleed/explode.
The Faceless: Knives during most of the first Trigun manga and almost all the anime. Even when he does show up at the end of the first manga, much of his face is hidden by a mass of improbable curly hair — presumably because Nightow still wants to conceal his resemblance to Vash.
Fanservice: Lots of eye candy if you love big muscles.
Or long legs. Or glowering.
Fantastic Measurement System: Distances are measured in "iles" and "yarz," although it's never made clear whether those are actually miles and yards with letters removed and different spellings, or something different.
Fearful Symmetry: Vash and Knives in the anime. Very strange and gratuitous because it's extremely unlikely Knives would have the same gunfighting training and practise as Vash, having just left Sealed Evil in a Can state and being secluded from the real world.
Foe Yay: Particularly egregious when Legato seems to be hitting on Vash.
Four Philosophy Ensemble: Wolfwood is the Cynic (or the Conflicted), Vash is the Optimist, Meryl is the Realist, Milly is the Apathetic (when being silly) or Conflicted (the rest of the time).
Fridge Horror: When Vash first meets Legato Bluesummers, he gives him a bag that he says "contains a lesson from him." Just then, a woman runs into the town square says that her husband was murdered. In Japanese, her words loosely translate to "He can't talk." However, a more accurate translation would be: "He cannot talk because his head was taken from him." It is never shown in the anime just what Legato's "lesson" was, but the manga was very clear: the bag contained the woman's husband's head. As if that weren't bad enough, Legato is shown eating a hot dog out of the very same bag. Where did he get that I wonder?
Fridge Logic: Nightow occasionally forgets that having grown up on a desert-like planet, the characters wouldn't have the same comparisons and metaphors as us. A notable example is when Vash compares the sky to "the deep blue sea": you'd almost forget he grew up on a spaceship then on Gunsmoke and has never seen the sea...
He's read books, though. Even seen video, quite likely. Lots of people on Earth talk about the sea without any practical experience; it still has cultural currency. He does do this, though. Especially as he declined to make the setting realistically inhabitable even with the plants, or balance the limited native biosphere into something comprehensible.
I.e. it consists of ostrich-horse tomas and giant sand worms. And little birds which must have hitched a ride like feathery rats or something, at least in the anime.
Friend To All Children: Vash. Playing with children is one of his many activities whenever he stays in one place more than a few hours, and if he stays more than a few days the local kids will all consider him their personal minion. Wolfwood doesn't play with them quite so much, but they're an even bigger part of his world.
Gallows Humour: The humour tied to Legato and Knives's insanity and to Vash goofing around in the most desperate circumstances gets particularly disturbing — so much that Nightow edited out some of the "offending" passages of the last three or four volumes, presumably under fandom pressure.
Gecko Ending: The anime — an odd example, though, as Nightow was in on the whole planning process, and many events play as a shorter dry run of things in the manga.
The Gloves Come Off: Happens to Vash when he's forced to kill Legato in order to save Millie and Meryl. Unusually for the trope, the act itself is rather understated.
Good Feels Good: Vash, obviously. The show also underlines that even though it may seem so, evildoesn'tfeel good: Legato is suicidal, Knives seems to have a chronic nervous breakdown, Villainous Breakdowns abound, Wolfwood is terribly conflicted over his questionable actions, etc.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Wolfwood, Livio (in the manga) and Knives. Vash has the power but refuses.
Or something. Knives appears to have spent a long time in a tank of something to grow back whatever bits of his body Vash blasted off in July. Vash doesn't really have the resources, and given he's put his apparently genius intellect toward calculating bullet trajectories and not much else all these years he may not even know he has the potential.
All of the series' writing is in English, and there is one point in the second episode of the anime where we see a flier for a "BODYGARD" who is a "CREAT SHOOTER LIKE VASH THE STANPEAT".
There's also a sign that says "Coffe & Restlant!!" in episode 5, and when Vash uses the computer in episode 26, it says "Searth Target, All People Relate to Lem Sayblam". In the manga, there's one instance where there's a container of salt labeled "solt".
The Quickdraw application in the eponymous episode is pretty legible, though. Maybe Wolfwood is just a better-than-average speller?
The whiskey labels are very faithful reproductions of actual brands.
Vash occasionally utters a few words in French, calling his "maman" and saying "bonjour!" to his food. The first time, he then questions why the hell he's speaking French.
Ivan Buckley voice acts Cliff Schezar in Episode 2 of Trigun, and voice acts Ronald MacDougall in most of all of Outlaw Star.
Mona Marshall, who voices Kite from the .hack quadrilogy (as well as South Park's Sheila Broflovski) voices...Kaite, a 2-part character from Trigun.
Young Knives is voiced by Joshua Seth, voice of Tai from Digimon Adventure. It's very easy to find out, seeing as how he does nothing to differentiate Young Knives from his Tai voice. One could put a voice clip of Young Knives onto Tai and Digimon fans who haven't seen Trigun would be confused.
Rem is voiced by Bridget Hoffman, voice of Namie from ((Durarara)). Now, try to imagine her suddenly as a mother figure to Izaya. On that note, young Vash is voiced by Masaomi.
Hive Mind: Apparently kindasorta the case with the bulb plants, even before Knives starts subsuming them into his giant body. In the manga also to some degree the case of the sand worms, whose psychic network extends over most of Gunsmoke's native life and learns how to invest itself in a human vessel, giving Knives the Gung Ho Gun 'Zazie the Beast.' They have some kind of alliance with him against the human invaders, although this is never properly explored.
Hope Spot: In episode 21 of the anime, Vash looks like he's about to revive a wounded plant and save the ship...just when Hoppered regains consciousness and destroys the plant with a suicidal Last Breath Bullet.
How to Stop the Deus ex Machina: Vash is incredibly skilled with his weapons and probably capable of taking out every single baddie he ever faced, short of his own brother. What holds him back? Technical Pacifism. If he really unleashed himself, he'd hurt a lot of people, and he doesn't even want to hurt the bad guys. Unfortunately, attempting other options often allows harm to come to innocent bystanders.
Surprisingly rarely, though. In fact, the impression is given that before Knives sicced the Guns on him he pulled off a miracle practically every time, so his world goes through a bit of a paradigm shift while we watch.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Being at least two times taller than Meryl, Vash really has to bow down when he wants to hug her. That or he hoists her up.
I Am Not Shazam: His name is Vash the Stampede, not "Trigun".
I Have Many Names: Vash only ever gives 'Vash' if actually pressed into introducing himself *
except that one time when he met Wolfwood and said he was Valentinez Alkalanela Zeehok Sushira Boheres Gombigonela Blue Stradavari Tralentent Pierre Andre Charlatenhemost I'vanovitchi Baldos George Doitzel Kaiser the Third
Nicholas D. Wolfwood is also Nicholas the Punisher. And Chapel.
"I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fight: Vash does this pretty much every time he meets Knives in the manga; from Knives's perspective, he must be the one doing it to Vash, which brings once again the question of whether the twins are by "nature" peace-loving or mindlessly violent.
Given their silent sisters appear to all be sweethearts, although easily influenced, Vash appears to have a leg up in this argument. Chronica, meanwhile, has a bit of a temper and apparently a rather military mindset, vaguely like a sane Knives, while Domina is sweet and spunky.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Also note than in the Trigun verse, nothing is cooler than a coat with the bottom part torn apart by dozens and dozens of bullets. With Scary Shiny Glasses, fuck yeaaaah!
Improbable Aiming Skills: A must for any Technical Pacifist operating as a gunslinger. Vash almost invariably hits what he aims at, no matter how absurd the shot, though a combination of rigorous training and superhuman potential count for a lot. On one occasion a terrible hangover made him reflexively hit all the targets in a quickdraw tournament he'd been forced into, when he'd meant to miss some.
In the same episode, he throws pebbles from the sidelines to knock bullets askew and make sure all wounds are nonfatal during other people's duels.
In another, he concusses an opponent by flinging the bullets out the back of his gun, and blocks the hammer of another guy's gun with the bubblegum he had been chewing, apparently at range.
On the other hand, on one occasion his response to an ambush netted one accidental potentially-fatal blow somewhere on the abdomen, so he interrupts his role as John McClane in a Die Hard on an X episode to staunch the enemy's bleeding in alarm, to the surprise of his ally. So he's not infallible or anything.
It Got Worse: Everything does. Also, the apocalypse kinda comes and goes during the manga. Story proceeds.
It's Personal: Vash's conflict with Knives becomes personal very early; his feud with Legato soon becomes this too, with Vash announcing loudly "From now on, YOU are the hunted!"
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nicholas D. Wolfwood. The manga never quite explains why his True Companions inflict it upon themselves to put up with him in the first place, knowing that he never uses Honorifics and expresses his affection by distributing humiliating nicknames ("Tongari / Spikey," "big girl," "small girl," "crybaby Livio"), "playful" insults and various blows. Plus, his manga version is particularly macho and even tries to protect Milly from Midvalley... by pretending he'll shoot her if she doesn't leave immediately. Borders on Values Dissonance when his mistreatment of Vash is played for fun. It's even a wonder Nightow still manages to make him such a likable and well-written character for all his Knight Templar and Jerkass traits.
From the anime. Dying Wolfwood goes for a cigarette. Flashbacks
Millie (flashback): "It's bad for the baby, dear!" (it makes sense in context)
Klingon Promotion: How Wolfwood got into the Gung-Ho Guns in the manga back story. Shot his teacher, Chapel, in the back, and used the contractual auto-replace feature to step in as the new Chapel.
Knife Nut: Especially in the manga. Vash's special boot-knife is neat, too.
Large Ham: Lazlo; Legato; Wolfwood; Knives very often; Vash, in quite a different style.
Laxative Prank: It's arguable that Kaite does this to Vash in episode 7 "B.D.N."
Little Useless Gun: Meryl's derringers are neither taken seriously as a threat or used to deliver meaningful damage over the entire course of both series. This is because of the Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality; Millie's stun-gun can be used with impunity, but since Meryl's little guns can't invoke Rule Of Cool and the beaten-up-by-bullets effect and she's not a killer, they aren't allowed to actually do much of anything. Still good that she doesn't go around unarmed, and she does take some useful actions; the derringers themselves are just useless. Even though a real derringer can kill you very dead.
Part of this is that the only enemies there is ever any chance Meryl might really need to shoot are effectively immune to the level of damage her guns can inflict; it's a shonen and then a seinen series, where being badass automatically renders you immune to things like ruptured arteries.
The Magnificent: Most major characters have one of these. Whether the name was earned by exploits or assigned as part of Theme Naming by employers etc. seems to vary. At least one was inherited via Klingon Promotion. Meryl and Millie shake up the trend by having nommes de guerre that come before their proper names and do not involve prepositions.*
Stun Gun Millie and Derringer Meryl, in case you're interested. They share with Nicholas the Punisher the convention of being named after your weapon.
Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon. Destroyer of July. God's Right Hand of Destruction.
Mexican Standoff: Happens a few times throughout the anime and manga, but by far the most over the top one occurs in Volume 5 in the manga. Those involved include Wolfwood, Zazie, Hoppered, Legato, and Vash, in a sense. Wolfwood has guns trained on Legato and Zazie. Zazie has guns on Legato and Wolfwood. Hoppered is crippled and is trying to fire on Legato. Legato is holding back Hoppered with his powers and is trying to contain Vash. Vash's involvement is debatable, as he's simply losing control of his Angel powers and trying not to freak out. The standoff is broken by Meryl leaping up from beneath Vash and taking a shot at Legato. Guns go off all over the place, but the only one who dies is Hoppered.
Mook Horror Show: Vash sometimes plays up the horror factor that his reputation gives him, since it gets him out of fights and he actually has a strict moral code against killing. He's done the sneak-around-and-pick-your-dudes-off thing and the Implacable Man advance-while-singing-a-terrifying-ditty-about-genocide thing.
A note: singing "Total Slaughter, Total Slaughter, I won't leave a single man alive. Ladi-Ladi-Die, Genocide. Ladi-Ladi-dud, an Ocean of Blood. Let's begin the killing time." didn't work.
Further note: Kicking a rocket fired from an RPG by the terrified mook, AFTER singing that, into the ceiling DID work.
Monev the Gale found out the hard way how scary a genuinely angry Vash can be when Monev gunned down a bunch of innocent civilians. He compared Vash's Glowing Eyes of Doom to the eyes of the devil himself.
Must Make Amends: In the Trigun manga, Young Vash and Knives discover that there was another sentient plant called Tesla like them before and worse, they made several experiments with her and in the end lead to her death. The problem is that their surrogate mother was one of the researchers from the experiment. Knives after facing the truth, fell in a coma and Vash simply refused to eat. In an attempt to make him eat,Rem started peeling a fruit, Vash leapt on her, tried stabbing her with the knife she was using and succeeds.at first he seemed relieved but right after that he started panicking and carried her to the medical wing of their ship.
No Romantic Resolution: In the anime, the relationship between Meryl and Vash is left hanging.
Nun Too Holy: Wolfwood is the male version, obviously.
Vash: What the hell kind of churchman are you, anyway?!
The most extreme interpretation of his position in the manga is, as described on the main Nun Too Holy page, Knives priest. The least extreme is assassin with a church front.
Oedipus Rex: Both in the manga and in the anime, Nicholas D. Wolfwood has a bad complex towards his tyrannical mentor/father figure.
Omake: The gag covers, and they're a doozy; also, the end-of-volume pages involving Super-Deformed Nightow prancing around in near-insanity.
Omnicidal Maniac: Legato wants to witness and be part of The End of the World as We Know It because he feels his existence is meaningless. Actually creepier than Knives, who (at least in the manga) has actual motivations and intends to save his species. The world would be way scarier if Legato was the Big Bad instead of a young creep psychologically dependent on someone stronger than him.
Only Six Faces: All the non-Gonk characters must have only four faces or something. So much in Nightow's work that most "Kekkai Sensen" characters look like Trigun expies. Vash's face must be the most overused one, too, Livio even looks like Vash/Knives with a fancy tattoo.
Anime Vash and Knives have moderately different coloring. Some of the manga scenes are almost incomprehensible at first or second look, especially if both of them are in it and there are a lot of sound effects.
Orcus on His Throne: Knives. Less than totally ridiculous example since Knives' only deadline is his sisters' lives expiring and his only threat is his brother trying to pose one. Which he likes Vash doing. And Vash is pretty bad at.
The Other Darrin: The dub of Badlands Rumble replaced everyone in the main cast but Vash.
Papa Wolf: Wolfwood, for any child he happens to encounter at all. Made his anime killing of Zazie all the more shocking (and even more of a gesture of attachment to Vash, but Vash wasn't really in a state to appreciate that.)
Parental Abandonment: Most of the cast are either abandoned or orphaned; some even killed a father figure or mother figure as a result of abuse or insanity...
Pirate Ninja Zombie Robot: Nightow's official genre classification. Also, some of the character designs. Rai-Dei is a Cowboy Samurai Assassin on Steampunk Rocket Skates!
And then there are the Eye of Michael, who have slots in the Guns as an organization instead of individuals. Of course, even they as high-end assassins are less than qualified as simple professionals, since there was a plant-worshipping cult involved in their evolution as an organization.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Vash vs. Wolfwood; Vash vs. Legato; Vash vs. Knives is a more complex case, as Knives is the more cerebral one but also the more impulsive and violent. In all these cases, it's often reflected in their clothing and/or background colours, though Knives often appears in red too — but often in darker shades such as crimson.
In the third episode of the anime, Vash somehow manages to deflect machine-gun fire using only a garbage-can lid. Which he'd previously been wearing as a hat.
The sandworms, among others, are an obvious allusion to Dune.
The name "Wolfwood" (Urufuudo) is an allusion to a Japanese band called "The Ulfuls" (Urufuuruzu) and the character in question is designed after their singer.
Many to American popular culture. Includes such gems as "double dollars", country-style music, and countless loans from western movies and American comics, noticeable both in plot elements and graphic references.
Often in chapter titles, such as the one to QuentinTarantino in the chapter "Reservoir Dogs."
Monev's name and costume are a Shout Out to Venom from Marvel.
Vash seems to be riding a wheeled Vanship during the trailer for Badlands Rumble.
Blink-and-you'll-miss-it one in the very last episode. The photo shown for the man related to Rem that Vash was tracking down in July is a still of single-episode character Shiro Tokita from Neon Genesis Evangelion, right down to his outfit in said shot.
Slap Yourself Awake: In a variant, Vash concentrates on the pain from his previously injured finger to counteract a villain who uses hypnosis to paralyze people.
Slasher Smile: Knives; Legato; manga Wolfwood; Livio; Lazlo; Elendira.
Little Vash between when he tries to kill himself and when he decides to save Rem.
Sliding Scale Of Antiheroes: Wolfwood is a mix of Type II (the Disney anti-hero) and Type IV (the "What the Hell, anti-hero!?").
As necessary, though. Whatever it takes, and generally no more. At least with Vash acting as Morality Chain.
Slipped the Ropes: Vash once slides out of ropes to protect a young woman from bandits. Said bandits catch him before he can get back into them... the second time.
Slouch of Villainy: Manga Knives, generally with a hand over his eyes of forehead to show he's Full of Upset.
He grinned while doing this at the flashback to Midvalley's concert. (At which, naturally, everybody died.)
Small Girl, Big Gun: The girl in this case (Milly) isn't exactly small; it's just that her gun is just that big. Meryl is an interesting variation, as her guns are tiny but so numerous she must be carrying her weight in derringers.
Space Western: And the soundtrack reflects this extremely well.
Spell My Name with an S: Lazlo/Razlo is a noteworthy and oddly controversial example. Also note Livio de Pupe (?), Chronica/Cronica/Kronika, Revnunt/Revnant Buskus/Buskuz/Vasquez, Tesla/Tessla, Kaito/Kite, and the names of several cities.
Rem is a particularly confusing example. Rem or Lem? Seibrem, Saverem, or Seiburem? It doesn't help that the manga lists her name as "Rem Seibrem" while the anime lists it as "Rem Saverem."
Squick: In the manga, when Zazie the Beast pulls a worm out of her crotch.
Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Wolfwood seems to do this, to provide a visual example on how someone's chosen action will lead to the death of hundreds. It is quickly revealed however, that he never intended to put himself in any danger, and was using an empty clip.
There's a chilling scene in the manga, on the other hand, where to prove how serious he is, Wolfwood holds Vash's (loaded) gun to his own forehead while it's still in Vash's hand and demands, shoot. Saying if he could trigger a willingness to do what's necessary and keep moving in Vash, that would be completely worth his life.
Stuff Blowing Up: The reason why everyone runs Vash out of town.
Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Vash and Knives are technically not alien lifeforms, but there are strong suggestions of this trope, especially in the anime since there are no "There Is Another" plants from Earth. And, let's face it, manga Vash and (even more) Knives are very god-like, which ties in with the religious subtext.
Suicide By Cop: None literally, since there is almost nothing by way of law enforcement on Gunsmoke. However, this is part of the modus operandi of several of the Gung-Ho Guns, especially Legato.
In the anime, this is also an interpretation for Vash's complete failure to say a word or make a move in his own defense while being lynched by the town that recognizes him as the Stampede, in the episode after he shoots Legato in the head. He wasn't actually catatonic, as he demonstrates at a couple of points, but he kept acting almost as though he was while they tied him to the back of a truck and dragged him around on his face.
Which is the reason why episode 24 of the anime is a Wham Episode; there is no easy way out this time, which forces Vash to kill Legato, and later have a mentalbreakdown over it.
Teach Him Anger: Likely the intent of the Break the Cutie campaign that forms the backbone of the plot, the part that isn't just Knives' inner child throwing a tantrum about his brother not doing what he wants. Vash is already perfectly Badass, with a sizable temper if pushed far enough, but as a Technical Pacifist and Friend to All Living Things he lacks the genocidal anger his twin wants to see.
Also one of the many contradictory goals of poor Wolfwood, especially in the manga. He is perfectly willing to die for the sake of convincing Vash to actually kill the bad guys (specifically Knives) and really solve problems, because he's pretty sure Vash would fill his chosen role of righteous executioner much better and longer than he can.
Technical Pacifist: Vash, in spades. It even says 'pacifist' on his Quickdraw tournament application, if you look!*
Evidence that Wolfwood, who did the paperwork, had already been briefed on his target before their first encounter, since they'd interacted by fighting robots and sharing a bus, and the no-kill rule had not had a chance to come up.
Partakes of the irony of someone whose life is defined by combat but who still thinks in 'pacifist' terms.
The Fettered: Vash. Source of his philosophical dispute with Wolfwood; arguably the same with Knives; Knives is just much further on the other end of the scale.
The Magnificent: There are a lot of epithets on Gunsmoke. Some seem to be self-chosen, and/or assigned by their bosses; every official Gun-Ho Gun name comes with one. Vash, on the other hand, got saddled with his by earning them. The Humanoid Typhoon.The Walking Disaster Area.The Human Act of God.
And (manga) Wolfwood got Nicholas the Punisher because that's the name of his weapon, the cross punisher, and he made it kind of a signature thing. And picked up Chapel the Evergreen by shooting his mentor out of the role.
The Unreveal: Among other important plot points, the existence of independent plants is never explained and suffers from a borderline Handwave. In Fanfiction, many fans suppose that they are the result of plant engineers "playing" with plants, which is a likely explanation.
Genetically, it's logically more likely than their being mutant throwback versions of normal plant reproduction. Because all the plants are girls and the twins are boys. Story-wise, the latter is more likely, if only because the only person not in cryo on the ship in the time frame for Vash and Knives to get sired was...Rem. Also because the crew would have worked that out while experimenting on Tessla and intentionally reproduced the event if at all possible.
This Is Sparta: Legato, Knives and Wolfwood, occasionally. Lazlo, ALL. THE. TIME!!
Those Two Guys: Those two girls, Meryl and Milly, fit the description to a large extent.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Vash believes in not killing, ever. The ramifications of this are explored as Vash is shown to have been torn to shreds under his jacket from numerous wounds he acquired while winning fights without hurting people.
Time Skip: Two years passes after Vash blows a hole on the moon, transition from Trigun to Trigun Maximum. Six years passes after Vash defeats Knives and most Plants dies during the conflict, transition from Trigum Maximum to Trigun The Lost Plant.
Time Stands Still: Dominique the Cyclops pretends to be able to do this. In fact, she uses hypnosis to momentarily freeze her target.
Well, her surgical status is ambiguous and Villainous Crossdresser embraces scary trasgendered persons, given they have at least as much alarm capital to cash with the public.
Training from Hell: Vash; Wolfwood; Livio; Monev; Rai Dei hints at this too. Strangely enough, Knives's apparent lack of regular training doesn't reduce his deadliness and muscle mass, because being an Übermensch apparently gives you a near-unlimited supply of cool.
Twincest: Fan Wank notwithstanding, nothing actually happens, but manga Knives has a very... fusional and obsessive relationship with Vash to say the least.
The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: In the anime, the (only identified) daughter of the Nebraska clan is an attractive teenage girl, while her dad is an ancient-looking ugly guy with three teeth and her mom is, basically, an Opposite Sex Clone of Gofsef Nebraska, the deformed, cybernetically augmented giant, only without the cyber-mods.
Also Wolfwood, Livio, and Legato, for a given value of 'sweet;' they were respectively already bitter, already carrying an Enemy Within, and already vengeance-driven at the earliest points in their lives we see them, but by comparison they come across as heart-twistingly innocent.
Vash, by contrast, has forcibly changed as little as possible over the years leaving him ridiculously childish at times. Of course, it's not all genuine.
Villain Episode: The manga has a few chapters with Legato, Knives, Livio etc. as focal characters or even narrators.
Midvalley's narration of his fight with Wolfwood (during much of which Wolfwood is blind) is actually particularly good.
Villainous Breakdown: Happens to quite a few villains, some of whom commit suicide or start W/Angsting if they fail.
Villainous Crossdresser: Elendira, the only trans womanBadass enough to freak people out while being called "the Crimsonnail," fits this trope to a large extent.
She is equally subject to censorship for being a trannie and for being terrifying. In a world of guns, Rai-dei got by with a sword and was appropriately observed to be crazy. In the same world, Elendria fights with a briefcase full of giant red nails, as in hardware supplies, and is very possibly the most deadly thing on the planet. (Only because Knives is lazy and Vash is The Fettered, mind.)
Villains Out Shopping: Played for gruesome fun with Legato's junk food addiction; never has eating ice cream looked creepier. Also creepy in the case of Knives, seen hanging around naked in a tube and drinking A Glass of Chianti in an oasis in the anime, and playing the organ in bondage gear in his base and hanging around with a depressed/psychotic expression in the manga. Knives might be the laziest, most idle Big Bad around, which is bound to make us think he'd be less messed-up if he had a hobby or something. As for Elendira, she likes reading cards while fawning over Knives, apparently.
Wham Episode: "Diablo", the twelfth episode of the anime, though episodes 7 and 8 arguably count as well. (Almost every episode after 16 tends to be jaw-dropping as well, particularly episode 24, wherin Vash kills Legato.)
Let's not forget the manga's subtitle: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!!!
Writer On Board: Yasuhiro Nightow is a Catholic convert retaining some Buddhist influences by his own admission, and boy does it show.
X Days Since: In an interesting variation of this trope, showed a sign in one city counting the number of murders and serious injuries that had occured that day.
You Can't Go Home Again: Vash and Knives; Nicholas; Livio; Kaito. In the manga, all of these characters including Knives express nostalgia towards the 'more innocent times' of their childhood and regrets at not being able to go back in time.
Younger than They Look: Vash and Knives in both versions of the flashback—they were a year old when the Fall happened. Wolfwood, in the manga. He's in his mid to late teens when introduced, and dies before he's twenty. Super Soldier Serum is involved.
. The English dub was one of the flagship shows of [adult swim] (along with Cowboy Bebop) and helped to set the mood that the sub-channel was simply for mature audiences and not necessarily "adult" audiences.The show, formerly licensed in the US by Pioneer/Geneon and now licensed by Funimation, is on YouTube
0 reviews 
