Anime: Trigun: Badlands Rumble

Critic's Log - Earthdate: January 2, 2013. Review #29: Trigun: Badlands Rumble



The year 2012 is gone, and we are now in the year 2013. I have been
reviewing anime for about 10 months now and I plan on reviewing much
more into this brand new year. With that said, my first review of the
year will be the movie... Trigun: Badlands Rumble!





20 years after meddling into the bank heist of a notorious robber
named Gasback, Vash the Stampede is traveling towards Macca City. There
are rumors that the legendary thief might appear there causing an
enormous interest from bounty hunters in the area who want to collect
the $$300,000,000 reward for his head.







That's pretty much the basic gist of the movie. To be technical, this
is a Studio Madhouse production, which doesn't surprise me knowing that
they worked on the TV series back in 1998. Twelve years later, this
movie comes out and I must say that the animation has improved greatly
compared to the TV series, even though anime films have higher budgets
than anime shows do, the animation looks nice in this movie. The
character designs are faithful to the TV series, which is a good thing
to say the least. The action scenes are also a blast and probably just
as good as the show. The animation is most likely the best feature of
this movie because I do have some problems with the movie. I'll get to
that soon.







Tsuneo Imahori comes back to compose the music for Trigun and to be
honest, it does compliment what happens in the movie pretty well. It was
nice to hear a slightly arranged riff of the Trigun opening around the
last 30 minutes of the film. However, It may not be on the same level as
the show but it's a decent effort. What I'm trying to say is that I
feel the soundtrack isn't as memorable compared to the show, but the
soundtrack in the movie is excused here.







When it comes to voice acting, The subbed version is pretty good and
some casting members from the TV show reprise their roles in this movie.
Masaya Onasaka is still great to listen to as Vash the Stampede, Sho
Hayami still sounds cool the way he portrays Wolfwood. Hiromu Tsuru is
still pretty good as Meryl, and Satsuki Yukino still has that adorable
voice as Milly. As far as exclusive characters, Tsutomu Isobe plays
Gasback and this guy doesn't really do a whole lot of anime roles. I
know he voices Vincent Volaju in the Cowboy Bebop movie and he was great
in that one. Amelia is another movie-exclusive character and she's
voiced by one well-known seiyu Maaya Sakamoto and she plays Amelia quite
well. So the subbed version is good for the most part. When it comes to
the dub, Only one voice actor reprised his role in this movie and that
would be Johnny Yong Bosh as Vash, he was great in the show and he's
just as good in the movie. Brad Hawkins plays Wolfwood while Jeff Nimoy
played him originally and Brad Hawkins did not play a bad Wolfwood, he
does not sound like Jeff Nimoy but doesn't have to be and he played the
role just fine. I do think Jeff Nimoy got the role just right though,
but oh well. Luci Christian plays Meryl Strife and she wasn't bad as
Meryl. Trina Nishimura plays Milly and I wouldn't think it was her
playing the role but she turned out alright. John Swasey does the voice
of Gasback and I guess he was pretty good in this movie. Even with the
new voices playing the characters we remember from the show, their
performances aren't too long compared to Vash, so there's not too much
to worry about I guess. Funimation did a pretty good job with the dub.
Zach Bolton did pretty good with the ADR direction in this show.







As far as characters go, that is one of the drawbacks with the movie.
Vash the Stampede remains the same in this movie, which is great.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood being cool, was great. Meryl and Milly are a bit
downplayed in this movie except for parts of the movie. Amelia is an
interesting character in the movie. Gasback on the other hand is not too
interesting of a villian, that is until the movie's almost over when
you find out something that you didn't know. Like the show, I guess this
movie was a bit decieving on that particular scene. Some characters are
a bit dumbed down in this movie.







If there is one thing that contributes to the characters being dumbed
down, that is because of the quality of writing that went towards this
movie. The writing is bad, it has a meagar plot and the story almost
made me feel like it was going nowhere. The story is not really all that
interesting and this movie feels like an feature-length episode as if
it was made in Hollywood. The story is my biggest problem with the
movie. Also, it's hard to tell where this movie takes place within the
show. It's obvious that it would take place sometime before Wolfwood
dies. The Cowboy Bebop movie was made after the show and it was claimed
to take place somewhere. It is unclear where this movie takes place. I
will admit that what does work with this movie is that it has some
comedy, action, western-esque gun fights, chase scenes, and even a
little drama that the TV show was known for. This movie really is meant
for the fans of the TV show. The reason I mention this is because when
this movie first came out, there was a screening that was located in
Seattle at an anime convention called Sakura-con. I actually go to this
convention when I can and my first year going there just so happened to
be on that year when it was being screened, I didn't get the chance to
see it and I'm a little glad I did because I found out after that when
this movie was screened... It was in Japanese with no English dub and it
wasn't subtitled either, yet fans of Trigun saw it anyway. That just
shows you that this movie is really just for the fans. It's not
absolutely necessary to watch the movie with the show, unless you are a
fan of the TV show. I'm glad I gave this a try and I guess it was
alright for the most part.









Trigun: Badlands Rumble is available from Funimation.



With all that said, Trigun: Badlands Rumble is a gun-toting fun movie
with really good looking animation, terrific action scenes, music that
compliments the movie with effort, a cast that reprises their roles from
the show (Subtitled Version only), and a dub that did a pretty good job
with what talent they had. However, it does have poor writing which is
why the characters do feel a little dumbed down in this movie. But with
what this movie had, it did not disappoint those that loved the TV show.



I give Trigun: Badlands Rumble a 6.8 out of 10, it is DECENT!



Feel free to comment below, and have a Happy New Year!

So, about 12 years after the original Trigun series, we have a whole movie. I'll be writing this review assuming that the reader has seen the series. If not, then this movie would be a decent place to start watching Trigun if you're unsure about investing time into the series. Otherwise, I'd recommend the series first.

For anyone who has seen the series, here's the vital information that you'll need to know without me spoiling the actual movie: The movie takes place in an alternate reality to the series, where the character of Knives does NOT appear to exist or take part. As such, all events that had an impact on the series involving Knives and the backstory of Vash, do not apply here. All four protagonists from the original series (Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl, and Milly) are featured in the movie, and are familiar with each other from the beginning, as if they had previously gone on a lighthearted adventure together in the past, but have since gone their separate ways.

Visuals:
The visuals aren't massively impressive for a 2010 anime movie. Saying that I've seen better is an understatement. The animation is pretty average at best, there isn't particularly great detailing across the artwork, and the 3D animation (when it's there) is quite shoddy.

What works for the movie is the same factor that worked for the series - the general atmosphere that the visuals convey and the design of the world. We're looking at people making homes in a barren desert landscape, yet they're bustling with life and an old-west feel. The action scenes are chaotic (most noteworthy is a great car-chase scene) and engrosses the viewer well.

Its difficult to comment on the style without repeating what I've already mentioned in my review for the series. So I'm going to take the easy way out and repeat myself a bit: the design of the character-looks, together with the way the action unfolds is, for lack of a better word, cool. There's an unpredictability in the movements of characters and the way they cleverly try to outwit each other in combat (mostly of course, from the protagonist Vash).

Sound:
The sound is a mixed bag. The voice acting is perfectly fine, and the sound effects are also great (lots of different types of gunfire), but there is a very noticable lack of music throughout the movie. This brings about a whole different feel to each scene, where nothing quite seems to emotionally resonate with the viewer. Music is such a big part of the emotional current of the viewer, that I feel it's a tremendous loss to not have enough of it featured here in order to connect properly with the audience. Sometimes it's completely understandable to not have a score for dramatic effect in some scenes, but this movie doesn't utilise that aspect, and instead seems to often be a bit emotionally vacant because of it.

Story:
From beginning to end, the plot follows a particular storyline involving Vash the Stampede (aka Humanoid Typhoon), a man who brings about chaos and destruction wherever he goes, despite only meaning to help those around him. In this movie, we see Vash trying to defend a town against an outlaw called Gasback, with whom Vash randomly had an encounter 20 years previously. Inevitably, the town happens to bring together the other protagonists from the series (Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly) along with a newly featured character Amelia, as they all get mixed up in the chaos.

I think that I was probably most excited to see this movie than any other anime movie in recent years. The thought that I would get to see my favourite fictional character back on the screen again kept me looking forward to this as soon as I heard that it was in production. I was intrigued to see what exactly the movie would entail - and thankfully in my opinion doing an alternate reality plot (rather than trying to continue on accurately from the end of the series) was a good way to keep all the protagonists in whilst giving the audience the general feel of the world of Trigun.

The movie isn't going to explain anything about why the inhabitants of the world are on a desert planet, why "Trigun" is of any reference, or any sort of history of Vash or what he stands for. Any deep aspect of the Trigun world is not explored here. That's for the series. This movie is more of a snapshot of the day-to-day life of our protagonists.

As mentioned before, the movie gives the audience the general feel of the world of Trigun. This is due to encapsulating the unique approach that Vash has on life, heroism, and idealism. Throughout the movie we're subjected to the ideals of Vash without even knowing it. Treating every human life as sacred, is a concept that is carried on from the series. In fact, watching the series again, I realised that the movie actually continues the evolution of that concept, (which was featured at the end of the series), where Vash emphasises the importance of second-chances. This is the very core of Trigun, and is (at the very least) an underlying feature throughout the entire movie, and indeed what the base plot involing the characters of Amelia and Gasback, is founded on.

There are of course moments in the movie where I felt that the creators were procrastinating rather than doing anything interesting to show the viewer. At these points the movie felt like it slowed down for no decent reasons, and made me a little frustrated. I would say 99% of these moments (if not all), did not involve Vash in the scene. Such is the importance of the lead protagonist (see "Characters" below).

Characters:
Where the series had a plethora of characters that had a few memorable scenes, the movie is all about Vash. When he's onscreen, I felt myself much more engaged with the movie, and excited by every movement and action he made, and even the dialogue he spoke. I think this was partially due to me expecting it to have some sort of clever hidden meaning or late-reveal. And like a complete sucker, it genuinely worked on me - just when I thought that the scene was straight-forward, it would finish with Vash doing something impeccably brilliant that I would have never thought of, or revealing that he had been doing something amazing all along but no one one around him (including the viewer) noticed.

This is one aspect where the movie totally delivered what was required of such a staple character. His ability to hide all seriousness with humour, and yet still showing heart whilst being incredibly intelligent and skillfull, is such a likeable quality when it's displayed with the finesse it does in Trigun.

The character with the second-most focus in the movie is Amelia. She's a woman who has a unique motive in the plot, and interacts with Vash regularly from the time we're first introduced to her. Out of all the characters in the entire movie, only Amelia has any real development. Everyone else is just a tool for her in order to accomplish this. But this is to be expected, as the plot of the movie is based around her and the antagonist Gasback (who is developed to a lesser extent). Amelia is likeable but has some annoying moments where her emotions make her irrational. However, I think this in turn shows the viewers how stable Vash is by comparison.

Wolfwood, Milly and Meryl are very secondary in this movie. Wolfwood less so, I guess, as a fair amount of the movie is spent with him teaming up with Vash and taking on the bad guys together. But Milly and Meryl are very background characters, with no discernable contribution to the story or movie. They have no emotional range or impact to any of the other characters, and provide a sense of nostalgia more than anything else.

Value:
I would watch this everytime I watched the series, but probably not on it's own. With that being said, I watch the series at regular periods, so this would inevitable be watched a lot.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed the Trigun movie a lot, though it was never going to be on par with the series due to it's nature. A movie based on characters from a series is never going to hit all the bases that the series would - it's just not enough time to develop all the characters and give the viewer a deep connection with the protagonists. This movie is more about the feel of the light-hearted moments that it can capture and replicate from the original material, and it does that well enough to give a taster of what the series is like.

News of this movie came to me as a surprise when I ran into it. I was excited, Trigun is back after over 10 years! I admit that I didn't watch the series in full nor in any kind of order, just when it aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami Midnight Run when I was able to stay up. I haven't yet tried to rewatch it "properly", but had some interest in doing so for a long while when I had sufficient free time (and motivation), so this movie came at an opportune time and I didn't hesitate to get it, since I surely could spare a couple hours glued to my seat to revel in what nostalgia and goodness was in store.

TL;DR version: fun to watch due to Vash's antics, a giant cast of new characters for Vash to run into, and has a slight update to visuals (HD with colors that aren't washed out and liberal use of glow), but nothing special besides that... generic and predictable story with no emotional impact, more "preaching of ideals", and no notable music. A decent watch for Trigun fans but new viewers will have mixed feelings, likely not being impressed and/or being curious about how much better the series would be.

Visuals: 7/10
It's almost like how I remembered on TV, but with lots more cinematic effects from zooming, panning, slow-motion, fore/background focusing, light/glowing, smoke and dust, a brighter and bluer sky, better colors that aren't washed out looking, objects like knives are drawn much nicer, and animation that makes Vash very fluid, but retains some of the jerky instant cartoony animation that suits the drawing style. Not really on par with other movies which have aired this year with some series even being more impressive, but it's a solid 2010 update to classic Trigun art which got the characters done fairly well with some new things (that fans may or may not like) and extremely well done settings that really feel in line with the settings from the series but oh so much better. It's sometimes so smooth that it seems like CG that is recolored by hand (large moving objects notably).

Audio: 6/10
The audio is fairly plain, but is effectively used to give fullness to the western theme and to help to set the mood whenever Vash shows up or changes demeanor. The voice acting and sound effects are very good, constituting most of the score I gave this. Not too realistic, but seems to have at least met the standard of anime nowadays. I might be biased, but I since I like Sakamoto Maaya, I liked the voicing of Amelia. I have no complaints, except that it could be better with the BGM and other music, but then again, it kind of matches what I vaguely recall from the series.

Story: 6/10
The story is generic. Nothing really original or grand--it involves a bunch of nobodies as bad guys and seems like it's mostly filler of Vash's antics up until the point the main villain makes his move, while introducing characters and then having the characters run into each other. No real climax or twist. I'm a fan of shows that start off with an action or funny scene, which was done here, but the story didn't really have any depth or emotion to it besides revealing the background to one of the new characters that is followed for over half the movie (which didn't move my emotions at all). A big disappointment here. The best thing the story does is take you on a tour of the Trigun world, visiting sites that were "iconic" in the series, such as a train, power plant, banks, bars, towns, and parts of the desert and introduces things like the various vehicles and weaponry.

Characters: 8/10
I love how all the characters look, very cool and unique wild western American-like designs. For the most part, the bad guys all looked rough and ugly, the good guys all looked pretty, commoners looked plain, and shady guys were just plain ugly, which helped serve as a way to sort out the notable characters from the huge sea of secondary characters. The main characters didn't get much background, so new viewers won't know what the relationship between Vash and all the other characters are he meets are until after they meet and you see their reactions--I'm sure new viewers would be confused with how he gains allies despite his demeanor and impression the show gives how he's a wanted man. Most main characters got at least 1 minute of background to cover their position in the movie's story. I have to admit that I was impressed once I took notice of all those bounty hunters/mercenaries all in one spot and how unique each of them are and how much effort it must've took to add them all in.

Value and Enjoyment:
It's fun watching how unpredictable and silly Vash is and how he interacts with some of the other notable characters, but it seems like they tried too hard to recreate the classic Trigun feeling and it felt "old and tired". When the mood changes about 1 hour in, it just becomes very cheesy and sometimes confusing with how some characters react and what their thoughts are. That part of the movie really soured my overall impression of the movie. Though, when the action starts up again, it becomes entertaining again. The ending wasn't anything special. No suspense or relief or whatever, maybe because it was a bit too predictable. Vash got a couple giggles out of me with his wackiness, but I don't think any scene was truly LOL funny.

Overall, I'd have a hard time recommending this, even to a Trigun fan. Someone who hasn't watched Trigun before might get a kick out of Vash's antics, but wouldn't understand the previous ties between Vash and Wolfwood and the insurance girls and why Vash has a bounty on him really, though if it interests them at all, at least it *may* get them interested in the series. I think this movie is barely worth watching. For Trigun fans, it's basically just a treat of nostalgia that may light up some passion/good memories they had for the series.

While the characters were great with a bit of elaborate screenplay construction/sequences and being filled with unique secondary characters on a grand scale, I think the story and value dragged this movie down. A number of subjects are brought up, such as choosing a way of living, idea of justice, and related things dealing with morals, regret, getting over the past to move on, etc., but the "answer" or message this movie tried to put out regarding them isn't transmitted very clearly. "Casting the dice" is too vague of a phrase. I didn't really understand its context from this movie's content. I guess it means that you should do what you think is right and if the result had some things that went bad that was out of your control, at least some good may come out of it and you should be happy for that good part rather than regret it altogether--sometimes deciding stuff based on your ideals can be a gamble that you just have to accept. I guess I don't want to understand it, since I don't totally agree with that way of thinking, though I admit it has at least a narrow positive light to it.

I may have been expecting too much out of this, but overall, I am satisfied with the movie. I view it as a positive and entertaining viewing experience, though not very enlightening. It leaves me with a few questions, since I don't recall much of the series, like what's with all this high tech engineering of guns, plants, and vehicles, yet terribly "Jurassic" houses, light sources, and security/law and order etc. I assume that such technology is long lost due to some sort of apocalypse and it's like a new world again and having big, serious, and powerful insurance companies is a major part of doing well in this "new world". I guess that's the movie getting me interested in the series. I do want to see more of Vash and his wacky antics, but all the rest just seems like fluff that doesn't really entertain.