Trigun Stampede S01E01

Trigun Stampede is out, so I signed up to Crunchyroll for the first time. It really sucks that there's no Crunchyroll app for Samsung TV, and we wasted way too long trying to cast the episode instead, unsuccessfully. So I just watched it alone, on my laptop. Might not keep my subscription after season 1 is finished because of that.

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I've seen some hate about the art style, but I loved it. "3D 2D" wasn't jarring in the slightest. It was super fluid, and really nice to look at. Vash also looks great! His updated design also got hate on reddit, especially the hair. I love his hair actually. Looks more modern, and closer to a real hairstyle. He's also really cute, and his personality seems very "Vash", so they at least nailed that.

One thing that I got a bit hung up on are his glasses. They're too tinted do be normal glasses, and not tinted enough to be sunglasses. If they're sunglasses, it's weird that he didn't take them off inside a dark room. Original anime Vash has glasses too, but he doesn't wear his all the time. The glasses made no sense in the original either, but for some reason I never questioned them there. Maybe because they're smaller. The "Scary Shiny Glasses" effect that appeared at least once is also a bit distracting.

In the original anime, Vash's background was kept mysterious for a long time, and when it was finally revealed, it felt very impactful. I really liked that. But I also have terrible attention span, and I understand that the creators of this new version are probably trying to avoid people losing interest. At least they didn't give everything away. However – something feels veeery off with the pacing. Nothing felt impactful in this episode. Rem's death, Knives' involvement in that, and so on. They need to build up to things more. Vash also barely know Meryl and Roberto, and just goes ahead and tells them his backstory anyway. Big moments need to feel more earned than this.

Also, what was up with that slow rocket launch thing, lol. Vash had ages before the rockets landed. 

It's a very odd choice to not include Milly, from the original manga and anime. Especially when the guy they replaced her is a very uninteresting character so far.

Oh well, I'm not properly disappointed at least. I'll wait and see if it gets better.

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Edit, 22.01.2023: Just watched the dub of episode 1, that released yesterday. So I have a few more things to comment on.

Vash's original voice actor is back! Aaah, it's just so, so lovely to hear him again. Looks like Vash, sounds like Vash! <3 

I like that there's less of the "speaking super fast without pauses" style of dubbing that I remember from the old anime (wrote a bit about that here). But maybe they took some liberties with the dialogue to fix that? The dialogue sounded quite natural most of the time, so I'm sure they must have omitted some stuff. One thing I particularly noticed was one scene where Nai/Knives says "Vaaaa-shuuu" very drawn out in the original. In English, Vash's name doesn't have that same two-syllable pronounciation, and in the dub, they just ignored that mouth movement completely! They just made him say "Vaaash", and then his mouth movements for the "uuu" is silent. Huh.

Apparently I do better with dubbed anime. I'm ok with reading subtitles, but I still missed some dialogue on the first watch. I like Roberto a lot more this time around. Maybe I'll see if I stick with the dub, even though I have to wait longer for that. 

But the dub still didn't fix the... I'll still call it pacing issues, but I'm not entirely sure if that's the best way of describing it. The "I have a brother" line and the following info just feels so... un-earned. Like it's way too soon to get it, for both the audience and for Milly and Roberto.