YMMV / Trigun Stampede

• And You Thought It Would Fail: The previews for Stampede’s first season were met with a mixed reception by fans due to a number of seeming deviations from the source material (Vash and Meryl’s Younger and Hipper designs, altered character backstories, the absence of Milly, etc) as well as the all-CGI art style. As the show’s run progressed however, audiences would slowly warm up to it thanks to the incredible animation courtesy of Orange, as well as expanding and adding to the lore and story of the manga while maintaining its original themes and tone. The reveal that the first season was in fact a prequel leading to the events of the Lost July incident, showing how Vash gained his $$60 billion bounty and his trademark spiky haircut, as well as namedropping Milly as Meryl’s new partner in Episode 12, won over more of the fanbase.
• Ascended Fanon: Originally, Vash did not have an official birthdate, with fans choosing July 21st as it marked the day of July's destruction. It became Vash and Knives's canon birthdate in Stampede, and it still becomes the date of July's destruction in the season 1 finale.
• Awesome Art: The show’s CGI animation has received critical praise for the fluidity of its character expressions and movements, demonstrating how far Orange has improved since its Animated Adaptation of Land of the Lustrous, which is noteworthy since the latter has also received similar acclaim. The entire fight scene between Vash and Knives in the finale, in particular, has been lauded not just for its smooth animation, but also for its masterful and dynamic cinematography.
• Awesome Music: Though lacking the older anime's influences, Stampede has a powerful and varied soundtrack that supports it just as well. Popular highlights include "Millions Knives", plot-relevant leitmotif of the eponymous character (and particularly the version with ethereal vocals), the frantic electronic "Time Left" used in key action scenes of episodes seven and twelve, "Drain Arm", a heartbreakingly beautiful and epic accompaniment to the first season finale's climatic confrontation between the twins, and "Vash the Stampede/Stampede Out", a wild mishmash of genres that evens out to a joyous western-rap hybrid that's impossible not to smile about.
• Crosses the Line Twice: A subtle one for fans of the original is present in artwork and the menu for a promotional cafe. An adorable chibi Wolfwood is holding two shot glasses and the exact same bottle of liquor he drank before he died in Trimax. Not only that, but Wolfwood's drinks are called "Welcome Home" and "Overdose Coke", his dish contains confetti shaped vegetables and is shaped like his grave, and his comment is "Tastes so good", the latter referencing a certain line in the 1998 anime. Even Vash's dish is the same spaghetti he made after Wolfwood's death in the manga. And at the cafe itself they placed pictures of Vash and Wolfwood over a couch. Essentially everything involving Wolfwood in this cafe is joking about his death. And it doesn't stop at just Wolfwood — Knives's drink contains apples, in reference to him using the last of his energy to create an apple tree at the end of Trimax.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • There's been speculation this series is a Prequel of some kind with theorists pointing to elements like characters being younger, the Lost July incident has not occurred, and Vash's bounty being much lower (dropping from $$60,000,000,000 to $$6,000,000). Many also speculate that Roberto will die, Meryl will take his mantle, and Milly will finally show up. The last three episodes eventually confirm this to be the case. In Episode 10, Roberto does indeed die and Meryl takes his derringer. Then in Episode 12, the Lost July incident happens and in the two-year Time Skip after the incident, Vash's bounty has increased to $$60,000,000,000. Lastly, while Milly doesn't exactly show up in the final episode, her full name is still mentioned when Meryl is informed that she's assigned a new partner.
  • The map of the Seven Cities Union looks suspiciously like a version of Earth with the continents shifted.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The subtitles of the series referred to Knives when he was a child as "Nai". In episode 11, a file in a flashback reveals that his name is officially written as "Kni". Many fans have ignored this and continue to write Knives original name as "Nai".
• Genius Bonus: The markings seen on Plants can be recognized as Chladni Figures, which are specific patterns formed by sand via the vibrations of sound traveling through a flat surface. Akira Kondo, a VFX artist for the show, mentions this in an interview. For bonus points, the concept's namesake, Ernst Chladni, is noted for his contributions to both acoustic physics and meteoritics, which is amazingly appropriate for a desert planet Space Western like Trigun.
• Ho Yay:
  • So far, between Vash and Wolfwood. Vash seems to have liked Wolfwood from the moment they met, and there are multiple moments where he reacts to Wolfwood being hostile or suspicious with fondness and warmth. Wolfwood, for his part, seems baffled by Vash's attitude, but is obviously protective and concerned for his welfare. He's also very quick to accede to Vash's requests that he not kill.
  • Then there's Wolfwood and Livio, with the two nearly having two episodes dedicated to their relationship. Adopted into the same orphanage as boys, Wolfwood took it on himself to take care of "crybaby" Livio. Wolfwood accepted becoming the Punisher so Livio wouldn't be subjected to the same suffering he was himself, and Livio (possibly) willingly joined the Eye of Michael in order to "catch up" to Wolfwood in strength. Their relationship as adoptive brothers is paralleled to that of the twins, but of course that doesn't stop anyone — if anything the subtext of Knives's obsession with Vash adds fuel to the fire.
• I Knew It!: As the first season of Stampede progressed, many fans began to suspect that the season was a Stealth Prequel that reinterpreted the events leading up to the Lost July incident, the disaster that occurred before the story of the original manga & anime and defined Vash's identity as a legendary outlaw. This was due to details including but not limited to: the city of July apparently still standing at the start of Stampede, many of the character reinterpretations looking and behaving younger than their original manga and anime counterparts, and Vash's bounty being $$6,000,000 rather than the $$60,000,000,000 at the start of the original manga & anime. Come Episode 12, all of this proved correct.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Knives's obsession with Vash and obtaining his power is so twisted it shades into disturbingly romantic, which has not gone unnoticed by fans; Knives comes across as incredibly possessive over his brother. While he believes Rem made Vash "sick" with lies about humanity, in present day he almost sounds jealous of how much Vash loved her, and when he tries to choke Luida, he calls her a "witch" for "stealing" Vash from him, and finally loses his mind when he realises Meryl called Vash back from his mental collapse and rushes at her bellowing in rage. The song he constantly plays is one he and Vash created as children, and the lyrical version has startlingly romantic lines like "Can we breathe the same way together?" He speaks far more gently to Vash than anyone else, and the cult of the Eye of Michael he founded? Its scripture regards "twin angels" reuniting to be together in eternity, and Knives says to Vash's face that paradise would be incomplete without him. It goes on and on.
  • Knives breaking Vash's mind in order to impregnate the other Plants has strong overtones of sexual assault, given that he more or less forces himself on Vash, literally stabbing/penetrating him to connect with his mind as Vash thrashes and struggles, the portal to the "other plane" being rather yonic, the Core Knives draws power from possibly even more so, Vash "blooming" actual flowers as a result, and Knives screaming to be "let back in" (or even more blatantly in English, "Take me back!") after Vash regains control over his powers and closes his Gate.
• Just Here for Godzilla: With the confirmation of Johnny Yong Bosch's return, several fans are coming back just to hear him as Vash again.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Vash. If there's someone he's been close with, you can bet he's been shipped with them. Wolfwood is also a pretty close contender.
• LGBT Fanbase: Stampede has gained many fans from the LGBTQ+ community with some fans relating to Vash as someone who tries to fit in with others even when they reject him, and his climatic moment of triumph being an assertion and claiming of his identity.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The ugly bowl cuts Vash and Knives had as kids in this show have inspired jokes that Knives turned evil because Rem gave him a bad haircut. There are also jokes about Knives wearing a snuggie (his cloak has a round hood and wide sleeves, giving the impression he's walking around in an evil wearable blankie). Fans also reference Where's the Beef? in regards to Livio's slim design (though it's Older Than They Think; see below).
  • One plushy of Vash in the style of a Teru-Teru Bōzu absolutely enamored the fandom before it even released, including many who hated the redesign. It eventually became the #1 most preordered item on Ami Ami and inspired fanart and memes editing it to be an adorable Memetic Psychopath.
  • Due to the rapid-fire pacing of the show, some have taken to calling the series "Trigun Any%".
  • "Stampede Saturday", thanks to Crunchyroll releasing episodes on Saturdays in the US. It even gets acknowledged by the staff during a con where they talked about the production of Stampede.
  • Though somewhat a pre-existing joke, Roberto mockingly referring to Knives as "Hundreds Spoons" in the English dub was received with delight by the fandom. References to Knives have about a fifty-fifty chance of substituting other utensils and numbers.
• Moe:
  • While Vash has always been perceived as a cute character that evokes feelings of moe by a significant portion of the fandom, this was largely unintentional on the creator's part. Meanwhile, Stampede's incarnation of Vash seems to be deliberately designed with moe appeal in mind, with a much softer, less edgy design and a more passive role in the story. While he can still be goofy, the series emphasizes the tragedies in his life and his crumbling Sad Clown facade, giving him a very vulnerable attractiveness.
  • One scene from Episode 8, where a teenaged Vash receives his signature red coat and finds it to be too big for him, became popular in fanart as exemplar of his cuteness due to the combination of Adorably Precocious Child and Cute Oversized Sleeves aspects.
• Older Than They Think: While some who have only seen the 1998 anime complained that Meryl being a reporter instead of an insurance agent came out of nowhere, this is actually a Mythology Gag referring to the end of the manga, where Milly and Meryl end up becoming reporters. Knives playing the piano is also a reference to a scene from the manga. Legato, Livio and Elendira all have parts of their designs drawn directly from manga flashbacks (specifically Legato's crop jacket, which he wore during and post July's destruction, Livio's suit and slender build, which he had when training for the Eye of Michael, and Elendira's hairstyle and more childish appearance, as she appeared when Knives recruited Legato).
• Replacement Scrappy: Roberto De Niro has earned the ire of Milly fans due to seemingly replacing her. It doesn't help that his in-show role plays into Meryl's Adaptational Wimp status. Quite a few fans were happy when he bit the dust in Episode 10. Even more were relieved when it turned out Roberto wasn't Milly's replacement at all but rather her predecessor, with Milly being announced as Meryl's new partner in Episode 12.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The drastic Younger and Hipper redesigns, CGI animation (even despite Orange's involvement), brighter color pallet, Meryl's Adaptational Wimp treatment, and Milly seemingly being replaced with a new male character have led to Trigun Stampede NOT initially being well received by the western fanbase. Even after people warmed on the show, the reveal of Elendira being over twenty years old and still looking like a child in episode 5 has soured a lot of her fans. The pacing has also been criticized for being way too fast with zero room to breathe and get to know the characters and world like the manga and 1998 anime do. This is especially noticeable with Tesla, who is brought up but the series doesn't actually go into how the twins reacted to them and how it plays into their development, though the subject is left open-ended for later seasons.
  • When the dub was announced, everyone, save Johnny Yong Bosch was recast. Needless to say, fans of the original were furious.^note  A couple of characters needed to be recast anyways such as Knives, whose original actor Kirk Baily passed from cancer. While some fans are understanding, many point out it shouldn’t stop them from bringing back the more active members of the cast especially since they had both the original actors and the Badlands Rumble replacements for Meryl (Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Luci Christian) and Wolfwood (Jeff Nimoy and Brad Hawkins) to draw on. It’s also worth noting that while Bryce Papenbrook couldn’t reprise his role as young Vash, he could be given another character.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • The announcement that Johnny Yong Bosch would return to his iconic role for the English dub brought over some of the series' doubters.
  • Razlo having the exact same design as his manga counterpart and the director posting art of an older manga-faithful Elendira have assuaged some fans who criticized the drastic changes done to these previously manga-only characters.
  • Vash returns to his original spiky hairstyle in the final episode for detractors who were put off by his Younger and Hipper design, albeit with the undercut retained.
  • Interest in the announced second season immediately picked up after Milly Thompson was mentioned as Meryl's new partner in the first season's finale, dispelling the fears that she had been Adapted Out of the reboot.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The changes to Vash's wardrobe for the series have been criticized for losing his iconic longcoat with its replacement sliding into generic anime protagonist territory. Some detractors complained he looks more like Edward Elric than Vash the Stampede. Its color-inverted form in Episode 12, coupled with Vash getting his original spiky hairstyle back, was much better received.
• Woolseyism: The English dub makes a few changes to the script that have been well received by fans, such as Vash saying he can get two dozen donuts for the price of a bullet instead of two slices of pizza, and him asking "Need a hand?" when his arm falls off.

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