Trigun: Badlands Rumble is a blastacular display of visual style and witty action. There’s also a great story of karma beneath the surface that makes this one excellent anime feature. The creative team did an superb job of creating a movie based off of the TV and Manga series. The cross between western gunslinger story and science fiction feels fresh, while Vash’s accidental heroics always impress. In a lot of Anime series, it’s hard to listen to some of the reused voice casts from other series. All too often the repetitive voices take you away from what’s going on. However, the English dubbed cast actually feels like it fits in this film. So after you shake the initial “I know that voice from somewhere” feeling, you can kick back and watch Vash’s seemingly foolish antics that always end in death.
What happens when one rolls the dice and takes a gamble on life? Does it impact just the moment or does it have a rippling effect that leads to something more? Trigun: Badlands Rumble may seem like a playful gunslinger story, but it’s actually a feature length parable. The story is brilliantly executed with stunning visuals. It begins with the roll of a die. Then we are introduced to Gasback, one of the deadliest outlaws around. He’s in the middle of a bank robbery. However, Gasback doesn’t rob banks for the money. He robs banks for the acclaim in doing so. Then, Gasback uses the money to fund even larger crimes. At the end of the day, he hardly pockets any of the money.
Unfortunately, his accomplices are not too happy with Gasback’s lack of financial savvy. They decide to turn on Gasback, who quickly turns the tables back on them. Fortunately for Gasback’s lackies, Vash shows up to save the day – by accident. The events set off a chain of events that has a 20-year impact.
Gasback ends up getting away thanks to Vash. Now, 20 years has passed and the bounty on both Vash “The Stampede” and Gasback has jumped exponentially in size. The story introduces new characters in the form of Amelia, a mysterious woman looking for revenge against Gasback, and two insurance agents. Most people don’t even realize that the quirky Vash is actually the infamous “Stampede”.
The character design and setting crosses spaghetti western with Full Metal Alchemist. It makes the animated film standout from its peers. The character designs feature big lofty guns. Wolfwood, the priest character, uses a giant gun that is wrapped in canvas and looks like a cross.
This is one Blu-ray that is easy to recommend. It actually comes packed with tons of bonus content directly from Japan. There are staff and cast interviews with Comic Author Yusuhiro Nightow, Masaya Onosaka (Vash the Stampede), Satsuki Yukino (Milly Thompson), Director Satoshi Nishimura, Show Hayami (Wolfwood), Maaya Sakamoto (Amelia), Character Designer and Chief Animation Director Takahiro Yoshimatsu, Hiromi Tsuru (Meryl) and Tsutomu Isobe (Gasback). There are also various additional interviews that took place at screenings and panels.
Trigun: Badlands Rumble is 90-minutes of blissful anime that’s worth picking up.
Additional Features:
- Movie premiere screening with cast and crew after 12 years
- Post Recording with original Japanese Cast doing the bar scene
- A Mildly Interesting Story from Yoshimatsu
- Video Footage from Anime Expo 2009
- Talk Event at Kawasaki Cinecitta
- Special talk show
- Fan events with original cast