Vash the Stampede is a wanted man with the habit of turning entire towns into rubble. The price on his head is a fortune, and his path of destruction reaches across the arid wastelands of a desert planet. Unfortunately, most encounters with the spiky-haired gunslinger don't end well for the bounty hunters who catch up with him; someone always gets hurt - and it's never Vash. Oddly enough, for such an infamous fugitive, there's no proof that he's ever taken a life. In fact, he's a pacifist with a doughnut obsession who's more doofus than desperado. There's a whole lot more to him than his reputation lets on - Vash the Stampede definitely ain't your typical outlaw.
One of the best-loved series of the '90s,
Trigun has lost none of its appeal in the years since its debut. Exactly who and what is Vash the Stampede, a.k.a. "The Humanoid Typhoon"? To bounty hunters, he's the galaxy's most notorious gunslinger with 60 billion Double Dollars on his head. To people in trouble, he's a friend in need. To pretty women, he's a well-intentioned but inept flirt. And to Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson of the Bernardelli Insurance Society, he's a walking disaster who's cost the company a fortune. Vash wanders from town to town on a desert planet that looks like the American Old West, unsuccessfully pursuing peace, doughnuts, and "the elusive mayfly known as love." Meryl and Millie follow him, trying to minimize the devastation (and the bills), but Vash's only real friend is gun-totin' preacher Nicholas Wolfwood. Despite their grudging affection, Wolfwood sums up the other characters' thoughts when he tells Vash, "When you're around, things always seem to get a whole lot worse!" Sometimes comic and kooky, sometimes gentle and earnest, Vash reveres life and agonizes over the bloodshed he inadvertently causes. He'd rather eat than demonstrate his amazing marksmanship, yet he's powerful enough to blast a new crater into the Moon. Younger
otaku who missed the initial release will enjoy discovering this anime classic. (Rated 13 and older: violence, alcohol and tobacco use)
--Charles Solomon (1. The $$60,000,000,000 Man, 2. Truth or Mistake, 3. Peacemaker, 4. Love & Peace, 5. Hard Puncher, 6. Lost July, 7. B.D.N., 8. And Between the Wasteland and Sky, 9. Murder Machine, 10. Quick Draw, 11. Escape from Pain, 12. Diablo, 13. Vash the Stampede, 14. Little Arcadia 15. Demon's Eye, 16. Fifth Moon, 17. Rem Saverem, 18. Goodbye for Now, 19. Hang Fire, 20. Flying Ship, 21. Out of Time, 22. Alternative, 23. Paradise, 24. Sin, 25. Live Through, 26. Under the Sky So Blue)
