Episode 1 Trigun Stampede looks great. Really pretty to look at.
On the other hand they’ve completely butchered every aspect of the plot and the personalities of the main characters.
Everything that made the original unique and interesting is non existent in Stampede.
Strong miss.
Everything you need to know is contained within the openings.
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I must admit, it’s cool attention to detail that they filled the glass in the intro with what looks like .22 rimfire, which is what New Vash’s revolver uses…but why in god’s name would he use a .22 revolver?
Yeah was Milly just erased and replaced with that middle-aged japanese leading man looking dude walking around with Meryl? I assumed as much from the 2nd trailer and instantly checked the fuck out.
Yeh, they changed all of the character dynamics. And they’re not better choices IMO.
Nothing was gained by replacing Meryl and none of the new character motives make much sense either.
It just feels like they’re trying to erase the original story (fine), but whatever the new story is, they haven’t created much of any setup for a new plot.
It more seems that are actually just trying to retell the original plot but very poorly.
Very unfortunate. A lot of wasted potential. I mean, I’ll watch the following episodes out of curiosity, but I’m not expecting anything to improve.
Mercury Witch is really carrying the rest of this anime season for me.
Nier anime episode one is out. Game scenes to anime comparison.
I am trying to watch Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury but I just can’t get into it. I mean, the action scenes and animation is nice, but the plot is just nonsense. Even the prologue is nonsense because the show is trying to set up a political background but the big action taken is just to send a military police squad to a research station and they’re starting to murder everybody for no apparent reason or anything that is justifiable.
The bulk of the show is set at a military school with a new girl from the backwoods of the galaxy arriving. However, the hierarchy of the school and with it the structure of the plot is predicated on duels between the pilots in their mobile suits, as if they would just be allowed to use high grade military equipment (not to mention enormous amounts of energy and ammunition) for the petty squabbles between students.
I understand the show is set in a future where a consortium of companies have basically taken over government functions and the people in the show are the children of the leaders of those companies, but even the detached upper crust of society wouldn’t be just allowed to do this bullshit. We have seen similar plot structures with for example Shokugeki no Soma, but the sense of scale is just completely off.
The murder squad kills everyone to keep them from building inconvinient Gundams. And of course it’s not justifiable, that’s how murder is, if they wanted to be nice they would have sent “Talk Nicely” -squad instead of the murder squad.
Of course they use high grade military equipment on the duels, as they are not just about the students. They are dick measuring contests between the corporations. Rather show off company’s power through some fun and games than actual conflict. Gotta save that energy for oppressing Earth.
I understand why they want to kill those people. I don’t understand that they can just do that. They are holding a press confernce announcing the shut down of the project and the “dissolution” of the group. But people who hold press conference don’t usually send hit squads that murder everbody on a research station, including the dock workers and janitorial department. Not to mention that apprehending the scientists and having them work on other projects instead would probably be a better investment.
I also understand the “dick measuring contest” part of the duels, but that makes even less sense because it necessitates pilot skill rather than the sheer oppression through monetary power by those upper-crust people. Company power is already demonstrated through sales reports etc.
I think the biggest problem I’ve had so far is episode 4 where a couple of students just can trivially sabotage other mobile suits, and the school itself doesn’t care about it at all and also has absolutely zero regard for the health and safety of it students even though they could be the children of those company leaders, though I guess the duels themselves also establish that the school doesn’t give two shits about that.
The press conference shows the two faced nature of the whole thing. Publicly talk about how something needs to be done, while secretly hitsquad is already at work. And they are killing the scientists because that’s the more interesting dramatic thing to do. Because it’s Drama, it’s TV-show, not some fucking logical thinking exercise.
And yes, the kids are seen and valued as pawns and play pieces for their parents, and there is no surprise that the school reinforces that. And yea, the school, as a institution, as a thing, doesn’t really have any agency, doesn’t do much. But there isn’t really time for that, for another extra player in the plot.
Watching Episode 2 of Trigun Stampede confirms my original opinion.
I think the most distinct difference to the original, is that the weight of violence and brutality has been toned down to zero.
As a result it feels incredibly dry.
After the incredibly success that was Bocchi The Rock, I went back and watched another Cloverworks show from 2022 that I kind of let me pass by: My Dress-Up Darling. Hot damn, it turned out so good that I watched the entire thing in about 24 hours.
The show is about Wakana Gojo, a high school boy who is practicing in his grandfather’s workshop to one day become an artist for hina dolls. However, since it isn’t a masculine pursuit and he has somewhat self-isolated. At school he comes into contact with Marin Kitagawa, a typical gyaru but who is also a complete otaku that wants to get into cosplay despite her not being well versed in sewing or even picking out fabrics. Gojo on the other hand is very adept at such and the two over time grow closer together.
I heard good things about the show, but was reluctant to watch it since I don’t really have interest in cosplay and am usually not a fan of gyaru-style fashion and the sort. However, Marin turns out to be an incredibly fun character in her somewhat airheadedness and openness. She is also surprisingly wise, advising Gojo not to be taken advantage of just so he can get along, and is ready to admit her own mistakes. However, she also feels at times a bit too much otaku-dream-bait, though I enjoy the dynamic with Gojo and the role reversal of the girl going on full nerd-rants while the guy is the normie.
Most importantly though is the underlying credo of the show, which basically amounts to everybody being allowed to like what they like and be themselves, which also has quite an overlap in Bocchi. Gojo is early in the series quite a bit of a loner, and the show has tones of manic-pixie-dream-girl-itis, but it is very enjoyable and the romance between the two leads feels natural and is a lot of fun.
I should however note that the show is also very raunchy, but in a weirdly wholesome way which is a bit hard to describe. It is quite refreshing to see a rom-com that very much as a sexual dimension to it without being constantly pervy about it, as Marin is the one initiating her shamelessly licentious behavior and not some constant accidental boob-grabbing or wandering into an onsen.
That’s because this is not a Gundam show, it’s Utena. It’s not “Gundam Utena,” it’s “Utena and there happen to be mechs.” It only gets more like this as the season continues.
You should watch episode 3. True to Trigun’s legacy, they set up some goofy-ass dude and a kind of dumb show, and then show you what’s actually going on.
I was unsure after episode 1 because they went pretty hard into “Vash is a fucking clown,” but episode 3 has alleviated enough of my concerns that I will continue to watch it.
I do think it’s worth remembering that the original Trigun was a slow buildup and, quite honestly, the first roughly half of the show was very hit-or-miss. I remember it taking a while for it to show me what it was really about. Stampede seems to have gotten around to showing me what it’s about by episode 3, which IMO is a pretty good pace.
Not for me.
Every character is very lacking in expression, that would fit the situation. The characters in Stampede are more comparable to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney characters, where they flip flop between extreme reactions for every little thing.
It also has the problem of Season 1 Dragon Prince, where the animation itself just doesn’t help at all. Not as bad as S1 Dragon Prince, where the frame rate was cut in half or whatever.
I stand by my initial opinion
Yes. It actually builds up to something. There’s foreshadowing, has world building and a terrible secret of space. There was a lot more going on and you were fed tasty little nuggets every episode.
The problem I had with the original Trigun, is it kind of finished too quickly, in that it didn’t wrap up every loose end. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It also has that crappy formula of protagonist faces a team of demons (Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Outlaw Star).
The main plot of Trigun from the start is figuring the true identity of Vash the Stampede. The whole dynamic of Meryl and Milly trying to figure that out. Meryl growing to understand Vash’s pacifism in a world ruled by violence.
Vash wanting to save both the spider and the butterfly…
3 episodes in of Stampede, you get none of that. You get most of it in episode 1 of the original.
It’s fine if they’re telling a different story with the same characters, but it honestly doesn’t feel like they are. It feels like the same story being retold poorly. Or maybe it’s just not to may tastes. 
I should actually re-listen to what we said about Trigun in 2006 and 2007. Refresh what I thought, back then, were the most salient aspects of the show, to make it easier to compare and contrast the new one.
https://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20061108/trigun/
https://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20071024/trigun-final-thoughts/
Winter season is concluding. I didn’t actually watch too much of it. The second season of Vinland Saga is of course fantastic but will continue into spring. I also watched a couple of rom-coms like Tomo-chan is a girl, Kubo-san won’t leave me be, and the second season of don’t toy with me Nagatoro-san, but they’re all pretty much hit or miss.
However, a show I definitely want to talk about is Blue Lock which actually went for two cours after starting in the fall, and now had a second season and a movie announced. Blue Lock has a peak-anime premise: What if you had a football training camp that operates on a death-game mechanic. Nobody is actually murdered of course, but a bunch of 17-year-old would be strikers are put together with the chance of making it big, but at the risk of their entire careers. The goal is to create a world-class striker under the premise that only egotism will get you there and the japanese football system is breeding it out of their talent, only creating good mid-fielders and defenders.
The lead character is Yoichi Isagi, a somewhat unremarkable youth forward who never made it out of his district. In his final game he had a chance to score but opted to pass to an open team mate who promptly missed a golden opportunity. He joins Blue Lock as a last ditch effort and slowly is rebuilding his entire worldview in it. The rest of the cast is made up of a very interesting and colorful mix of characters as well.
Unfortunately, while the show has a lot of cool effects in it, the animation is rather limited. The story however is excellent which lead me to picking up the german release of the manga which also has incredible art, which is on occasion rather wasted with the anime not being able to translate it onto the screen.
Blue Lock is still a worthy watch, but you should absolutely read the manga.
Finally finished the first episode of Oshi No Ko. I made the mistake of spoiling myself on the setup by checking the wikipedia for the series. However, you should go in as blind as possible. It is great and it has already shot up to #1 on MyAnimeList for a reason. Going in you need only to know three things.
If you haven’t watched Skip and Loafer this season, you absolutely should. Just an excellently written slow burn romance and coming of age story with a female protagonist. If not for Oshi no Ko and Vinland Saga, this would be my AOTS. P.A. Works just does it again.
I have mixed feelings now that Mercury Witch has ended.
It’s a must watch I feel. There’s a lot of borrowed theme’s from several anime (Evangelion, Utena even Big O a lil bit), but it still did it’s own thing. Really enjoyed all of it.
S1 of Witch from Mercury: “You came here for robots? Have Utena and also robots.”
S2: “lol j/k this is definitely a Gundam show. Also remember Eva? Yeah that was good times.”
Definitely a must-watch show.
We also finished Trigun Stampede and I have no idea what to think. Episodes 11 and 12 got weird in a way I wasn’t expecting, and I honestly have zero clue where they’re going to take the plot in the next season. They’re obviously setting it up to jump into the plot of the Trigun we already knew, but…man, shit’s weird. I dunno, I feel like more people need to watch it so I can figure out how I feel about it. It has merits, but it’s a lot farther from the story I know than I initially thought it would be.