Trigun is the story of the huge gunslinging Vash the Stampede. While Vash is a happy-go-lucky protagonist, he’s driven by a dark goal: enacting his revenge on his twin brother Knives Millions.
Meeting some memorable characters like Milly, Meryl, and Wolfwood during Vash’s adventures on the desolate planet of No Man’s Land, the anime eventually pits Vash and Knives against one another. With the anime ending in a fairly decisive way, many fans thought that this is where the story truly ended, however there were still plenty of adventures left to be told.
Why the Anime Doesn’t Tell The Whole Story
While some anime adaptations during the late 90s to 2000s didn’t always faithfully adapt the manga, Trigun was actually pretty close. Most of the story and characters were correctly shown with their designs and motivations intact, but the anime left out a few huge pieces of the story. To be fair, the original magazine that featured the manga was canceled leaving mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow without a place to finish telling the Trigun story.
During the time between Trigun being inadvertently canceled and then getting picked up by a different magazine, the story had been selected to be an anime adaptation. It wasn’t until 1998 that both the anime released and Nightow was able to publish the first chapter of Trigun Maximum, finally continuing his legendary story. By that time, there was no way the anime that was already created was going to suddenly rework it’s ending to be congruent with Nightow's continuing story.
Nightow went on to create 14 additional volumes of the incredible Trigun story. With a slight shift in tone because the magazine that picked up manga was seinen based instead of shonen, Trigun’s spirit lived on, and the story wasn’t completed until 2007. With so much story left to be told, mysteries to be explained, and bounties to be claimed, Trigun begins to feel like an appetizer to a full-course meal of giant gun-wielding deliciousness.
Where Should a New Series Start?
Mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow has publicly stated that he feels as if there can’t be a continuation series to the original Trigun because of its decisive ending, but perhaps retelling the original anime and completing the entire story could be better. The original anime run was 26 episodes, only covering the first two volumes of the original manga. If a studio were to pick up Trigun, it would be easy to redo and update those original 26 episodes, making them identical to the manga this time so that further seasons could continue adapting Trigun Maximum.
There is precedent for an anime getting a second shot at telling its story correctly and completely, so it wouldn’t be unheard of for a studio to try and do this. Like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood being the complete and correct version of the manga compared to its predecessor Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun could be redone and come back under the seinen title Trigun Maximum.
Many fans regard Fullmetal Alchemist as a classic, but most agree that FMA: Brotherhood stood out as the superior series because of its fleshed-out stories, settings, and characters. Vash, Wolfwood, Milly, Meryl, and Knives all deserve that same treatment because their stories do not end with the completion of the original series. The amount of depth, redemption and world-building that occurs in Trigun Maximum will not only appease fans of the original series, but elevate an already beloved classic.
Could It Be Done?
Many fans of sub and dub couldn’t imagine different actors as their favorite characters because of how the actors fully embody these animated figures. So could Trigun still have its same cast? All the major actors are still alive, available, and most are still working in anime. Whether the actors would like to return or not, it could make the potential new series feel just like the original, only better and complete.
If the cast didn’t return, however, it would put a damper on things, but as long as the story was still true to the manga, it’d surely put a smile on fans’ faces. Regardless of the casts’ return, the studio that created the original anime could even produce it. Studio Madhouse is regarded as one of the best studios of all-time producing other anime classics such as Hellsing, Hunter X Hunter (2011), Parasyte: The Maxim, Death Note, and Hajime No Ippo.
Madhouse is still a heavy hitter in the realm of anime studios despite other studios like Mappa, Ufotable, and Studio Pierrot dominating the competition right now. For many, the animation style of the 90s is considered some of the best despite its aged look, and who better to remain true to the art with modernized animation than the studio responsible for turning Trigun into the classic it is today? If any other major studio, say Mappa, were to pick up the series, fans are sure to still be happy and excited about the animation and visual direction of the new series.
With so much of a story left untold, characters left unredeemed, and mysteries yet to be solved, a new Trigun series just makes sense, not only for fans who have been waiting decades for a retelling, but for new fans yet to discover the gunslinging space adventure that is Trigun. A Trigun Maximum series could fill a void in our current anime lineup, giving us a space cowboy to root for among the other shonen and seinen heroes.