Den of the Cyphered Wolf

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Anime Movie Review: Trigun Badlands Rumble

God I love Trigun.

The Humanoid Typhon got one hell of a ballad with that one. Humor, action, honor and regret. The only reason why it's not more widely heralded is because it aired right along side Cowboy Bebop often considered to be the greatest anime of all time.

Nope. Not now Miles. Focus. You can drool over Yoko Kanno's music some other time. We're here to talk about Trigun. Or rather the movie which is hard.

For better or for worse the movie is Trigun. I mean that in two ways. First of it doesn't feel like a decade late adoption in any way. This is Trigun. . Everybody acts the way they should, Millie, Meryl and Wolfwood are back. The only real controversy I can think of is that rather than the tone of the later episodes which are all plot and drama heavy the film feels more like the lighter and more comedic earlier ones.

On the other hand it feels like an extended episode in particularly a tonal rehash of episode 4 "Love and Peace" as well as the seven and eight  two-parter "B.D.N".  That's not to say that it's bad or unoriginal. On the contrary it expands on themes in those episodes, but it doesn't feel like a brand new epic adventure.

But hey it's been 10 years and it's been a long time since I've watched the $$60 Billion man save the day. It's entertaining as ever. For those not in the know Vash aka all the other names I called him has a tendency of making it all look like an accident and keeping up the facade of a babbling idiot because he is a strict pacifist who would rather avoid a fight and just be friends with everybody.  Even midway into the series his friends don't believe he is the guy they were sent to find, the man responsible for the desolation of the city of July who has been declared a walking disaster area.

On the flip side the point of the series has always been trying to push Vash to the breaking point where he finally decides be the sharpshooting ubermensch (the movie doesn't touch it but he's not exactly human) he pretends not to be. And here it is. Because of his pacifism Vash has a tendency to make nice with villains he really shouldn't. As long as you haven't and aren't planning on killing anybody he'll look out for you and even then. You know where this is headed. He let some folks off the hook who are causin' trouble now.

Let's go back for a second. The film has a few antagonists but the instigator of the plot is Gasback an ambitious thief. He takes pride in his thievery, determined to do it right. His defining characteristic is that he gets off on big, complicated,  flashy jobs. And this backfired because his gang were just trying to make a dishonest living. Well those mangy varmints backstabed him during a bank heist and that's the first five minutes of the movie, a flashback.

Gasback was going to kill the lead mutineer but Vash who was subtly trying to stop the robbery saves his life.

It may seem like a pointless scene but it establishes a lot of characters and several of the conflicts in the rest of the movie.  Twenty years later Gasback is back, ready to pull the job of a lifetime, looting a $$5 billion bronze statue from a town square. He's not exactly subtle about his plans so the mayor of the town opens the doors to any bounty hunter who might bring him in including, welcome addition to the cast, Amelia. I don't want to spoil her deal but I will say she is a good character.

One odd thing is that throughout the series is that it was always Wolfwood who acted as Vash's foil, the shooter of rabid dogs. Here though that role is given mostly to Amelia, Wolfwood taking on his other role as badass supreme. In combat the man is a beast.

Part of me feels that it detracts a bit from his character. Wolfwood while being Vash's reliable number 2 in a gun fight was a man filled with regret because unlike Vash he could never take third options. In his world it was always kill or be killed.  The man has a cross to bear but, a good chunk of his mid-combat banter was chewing Vash out for holding back knowing how much it could cost them when the bullets are flying.

Like the show the movie is fun. It has it's moments of drama and their good but mostly choose to keep the tone light and focused on the action and adventure.

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