My plan with this site is to explain the basic lore and provide info on characters from all version of Trigun, both manga and anime. This also serves as an attempt to code a page entirely from scratch, without the use of a template, as you previously saw on my main page.
If you clicked trough my brain minigame on my main "Stories I like" page, you might know the basics already:
Trigun is a space western anime+manga with christian elements, centered around a pacifist outlaw, Vash the Stampede, who has been walking the desert planet of Gunsmoke, where humanity crashlanded for 150 years. It was originally a manga in 1995, which was followed by another manga, Trigun Maximum, which lasted until 2008. IN the meantime it got adapted into an Anime in 1998, and again, with material borrowed from Maximum this time, in 2023.
...but this time, we are going to go deeper!
The first anime adaptation of Trigun aired in 1998, written by Yasuhiro Nightow, (author of the manga as well) and produced by the studio Madhouse Inc., also responsible for Death Note, Paprika, and many other iconic animes over the years. it was 26 episodes long, drawing inspiration from the beginning volumes of the manga. It used not only filler episodes to pad out its runtime, but also made up several plot details that would later be refined and included in the later volumes of the manga. I see it as a test run sort of, despite it ending up gathering a larger following than its source material. It's by far the silliest verison, which pays off incredibly well when it turns around to rip out your heart towards the end.
We follow not only Vash, but two insurance agents called Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, tasked with keeping a close eye on him, as he rampages through the land of Gunsmoke. Meryl has difficulty beliving that the feared "humanoid typhoon," wanted for blowing up the city of July, can be such a silly man, but eventually forms a close bond with him. In the 9th episode, titled "Murder Machine," we meet Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a "simple wandering priest collecting money for his orphanage." He carries a gigantic cross-shaped Machine gun. Wolfwood and Vash quickly become inseparable, like their two remaining braincells stuck together like velcro the moment they met. Their opposing ideologies regarding the value of human life puts a wedge between them, though.
Finally, we meet Millions Knives, Vash's twin brother, who wishes to destroy humnanity. His "disciple" Legato Bluesummers takes it upon himself to make Vash's life hell at all costs, in service of his master.
We also find out that the twins are not humans, but rather Plants, angel-like creatures used by humanity to produce all of the resources needed to surivive on a planet that doesn't have anything on it but alien Worms and Sand.
The Adoptive mother of Vash and Knives was a woman called Rem Saverem, who worked on a spaceship bringing humanity to their new home among the stars. It was Knives who crashed the ship, killing her in the process. Rem's ideals of pacifism influence Vash's way of living, driving him to commiting reckless acts in order to save just a single life whenever possible.
(In order: Wolfwood, Vash, Meryl, Milly)
Also known as the manga version!
I could tell you all about how much more devestating it is, and I wouldn't be lying to you, but you have to keep in mind that it does stay silly. Vash's primarily way of coping with the horrors will always be acting like a clown, no matter how thin the facade is. One (welcome) difference in his personality is that he's not a womanisier in this one, thank fuck.
Much of the early lore stays the same, Diverging around the second volume of Trigun Maximum. The Gung-Ho guns, a team of assasins working under Knives, are more fleshed out, and often appear in different contexts than in the anime. The Plants, living in lightbulbs, also get more active roles, but that happens closer to the end.
One major change to the lore is the inclusion of a little Plant girl named Tesla, whose fate inspires Knives to try to kill all humans in fear of him and Vash ending up the same way at the hands of an adult that they previously trusted.
Wolfwood's backstory also gets more fleshed out, instead of being taken in by the assassin cult working for Knives after killing his parents, he lived in Hopeland Orphanage until they took him away to experiment on him and train him to become an assassin. Over the course of the experiments, his body matures faster, a metaphore for the loss of his childhood under such circumstances. Livio, another child from the orphanage is trained alongside him, but his indoctrination into the cult is much deeper: he needs a large shift in worldview to snap out of it. Him and Wolfwood are a lot like Vash and Knives this way: Two boys who grew apart, but still love and would like to protect each other if the way they see the world didn't result in them clashing. Wolfwood no longer knows Livio well, just like Knives hasn't been a direct part of Vash's life in many, many years.
The girls, Meryl and Milly, unfortunately get less role in the manga than the anime, but Meryl's unshakable determination and deep friendsip with Vash, and Milly's dedication and bottomless well of kindness (as well as both of their guns) are still incredibly important to the way things turn out in the end.
The series came to an end in 2008, with the 14th volume of Trigun Maximum, the 16th overall. The best way to read it online is through the Trigun Overhaul Project, which provides a much more accurate transltation than the offical Dark Horse publisher version, or the previously avalible, bad faith edgified "Scanlation" fan translation
(Two covers of Maximum: Featuring Livio on the volume 13 cover)
Or: The 2023 anime, the most approachable version, produced by Studio Orange!
We first meet Meryl Stryfe and Roberto De Niro (yes, really, please stick with me) who are a pair of reporters. Meryl is a naive but determined beginner at the job, while Roberto is kind of over it and just wants to have his cigarettes and alcohol in peace at a regular non-risky job, please. Anyway they've been assigned to interviewing Vash.
In this universe a lot of things are have yet to happen, for example, the city of July has not been blown up, and Vash's prostetic arm doesn't have a gun in it yet. We meet Wolfwood in episode four, but he's a lot more insecure, quick to anger, and has a eyes that make him look like he's going to start crying. He also claims to be an undertaker instead of a priest, however, later we can see him sign a "Pastor's contract" with the cult. Livio appaears briefly, as a younger verison of himself that only appears for one page in the manga, but he's also different, completely dissociated and unaware of his surroundings in a way we never saw him there. Vash is also somehow even softer, doesn't have the piercing anger that sometimes breaks out of him in both previous verisons.
The series only has 12 episodes in its 1st (and currently only) season, which leads to an insanely fast pacing that has 0 chill at all. It is however the best way to get introduced to the story: short, wonderfully animated, has a high quality dub featuring the same voice actor as the one who played Vash in 1998, but a lot more experienced. I have heard it get referred to as a prequel, which would make sense.
(In order: Roberto, Meryl, and Vash)
(Wolfwood getting hit by Meryl's company car 0.2 seconds after first appearing on screen)