Trigun Stargaze

No Vash and no substance. Trigun Stargaze is a disastrous story so horrible that it can't even be spoiled: nothing happens! How, after completely fumbling a promising season 1, did it actually get WORSE? This show does only one thing right, just one thing, but first... "Furthermore, in a conference held the other day, it was decided that Vash The Stampede will be designated as humankind's first, official human disaster." --- Meryl Strife, Trigun 1998. In the original Trigun, that quote was sad. It was a misunderstanding about the protagonist, a hero, being wrongly labeled as a villain; it wasn't supposed to be TRUE! Well, Trigun Stargaze took that literally by making an actual disaster and transforming an iconic main character into a bonafide, weak piece of trash! Now, in 2026, Vash The Stampede is a coward being called "The Stampede" because he always runs away, and that's exactly how the show starts: our hero is depressed about accidentally blowing up his maniacally evil brother and a city last season. He is so depressed, in fact, that he's pressing one note on the piano over and over while everyone suffers, an amnesiac in a stupor hiding from reality! Oh boy, do you smell a heroic redemption? It never happens. There's no hero in this show. Luke stayed on Tattooine. Amelia Earheart went for a walk. Jesus Christ whittled. The end. EVERY episode, "Vash" is whiny, useless, and in need of rescue. Every chance Trigun Stargaze gets to present a theme, a message, or a philosophy, it forgets. Every moment a character should do something memorable, inspiring, or foreshadowed, they idle. Vash is now useless, and so is every other character. Thus, with our heroes reduced to complete impotence, the villains default to bland psychopathy, evil for the sake of evil, and because this show is more horror than anything else, the only thing onscreen is more murder, genocide, and Trigun Stampede's favorite: child sacrifice. Pure, edgy slop! "But Brockemsockem, the villains in Trigun 1998 were also one-note nihilists, hypocrite!" They were one-note nihilists for a REASON, though; that show had a point! In 1998, villains were conscripted to oppose Vash's optimism and used as fodder to sew doubt in his mind about his principles. Second-fiddle villain Legato, for instance, progressed the 1998 Trigun by wanting Vash to compromise his most basic ideal: life was sacred and he would not kill. In 2026, Legato is merely a psychic nutcase with a bowl cut who enjoys torturing Vash just like all the others. That's not a villain, STARGAZE ISN'T A STORY! Rather, it's a sadist's power fantasy, and that's the difference, that's its ultimate problem. "But wait, Milly Thompson is back, isn't she!? Didn't you enjoy her peppy portrayal?" No, nobody could like this portrayal! Shamelessly copying our silly, ditsy, but capable Milly with her huge gun and haughty heart from Trigun 1998 and pasting her next to Trigun Stampede's meandering Meryl is the shallowest fanservice. In the ENTIRE SHOW they might appear for a cumulative 15 MINUTES at the most, together contributing the requisite dose of zilch; instead of being the anchors to Vash's hope and the proof of humanity's heart, the girls hardly even show up! Milly and Meryl are relegated to exposition dumpers---I mean, journalists---who convey the audience from Genocide Scene A to Genocide Scene B. Genocide Scene A, you see, is where Vash does nothing in the face of horrible violence, while Genocide Scene B is where Vash is kidnapped or rescued from horrible violence. A and B repeat every 20 minutes until the show mercifully ends without development. Trigun 1998 was about heroes bearing their crosses and making peace. Trigun Stargaze is about being crushed by their crosses and being sad about it FOREVER: It takes SIX episodes, six being HALF OF SEASON 2, for things to get EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE IN SEASON 1! It takes over half the season for the villain, Knives, to get his dumb, gooey robes back on from being exploded, and for Vash to get his coat and Gen Z haircut back, which begs the question: why not just start this season at episode 6? Literally nothing except Milly and Jessica joining the cast as cameos changes from episode 12 to episode 18. Knives is still exterminating humans, "Vash" is still moping, Wolfwood is still coddling Vash, and the writers still think this is a horror franchise. A second season SHOULD mean a fresh, new direction. It SHOULDN'T mean that we can SKIP HALF YOUR SHOW! "But Brockemsockem," My madness interjects ever more frequently. "Isn't this an action series? Who cares about the characters, pacing, and themes? If Trigun Stargaze wants action, horror, or sci-fi, we must judge it on its own terms and merits, not yours, and not those of the past." Very well, if it's an action show, then why do fight scenes take place in complete darkness? Unless the artists are afraid that their misplaced budget might be discovered, why would anyone choreograph, animate, and design multiple battles with zero lighting? Halpert the Gauntlet, Midvalley the Hornfreak, and Grey the Nine Lives are just a few examples of the fights viewers will never see because they're fought in the dark! Otherwise, the audience might notice that season 2 is vastly uglier than season 1. In fact, it's the ugliest thing to bear the Trigun name! It's supposed to be a western, how you do mess this up!? Wolfwood doesn't look like a priest, he looks like a stoner at Uni. Meryl doesn't look like a journalist, she looks like a marionette. Some people wear suits, some people are cyborgs, some people are cowboys, it's all a mish mash of untextured, 3D assets! Why do Vash and Wolfwood have advanced weaponry while Milly and Meryl have extremely antiquated photography if they know the same people? Why do SOME characters embrace a Wild West aesthetic when they're clearly aware that they're from outer space and will be rescued by Earth shortly? Why is Jessica not only race-swapped, but also dressing like a generic toddler despite being a member of SEEDS, an organization of exclusively doctors in lab coats? This writing is tone-avoidant. It thinks Wolfwood bumping his head and getting hit by vehicles is funny right after a whole population was just crushed and exsanguinated! There is one scene in particular in episode 2, no joke, where Jessica, the toddler, takes off alone in a spacecraft to retrieve Vash FROM THE GIGANTIC DESERT PLANET because they need help fighting Knives' thugs. By CHANCE, her ship CRASH LANDS RIGHT NEXT TO HIS HOUSE and, of course, she is completely unscathed. More coincidental than that, Vash is being nursed to health by one of Knives' very own thugs, anyway! "But Brockemsockem, in season 1 they teased someone else (Lina) taking care of Vash?" Season 1 lied. There is no Lina. The writers thought it wiser to add even more tragedy to an already maudlin tale by having a thug look after Vash. Off-screen at some point, Vash just so happened to accidentally hurt a woman whom his caretaker loved, a lady who conveniently looked exactly like Vash; the thug is nursing him to health to get revenge later! Make sense of that. In an even dumber scene, a hero drinks the super blood of a villain to heal himself. This isn't Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, is it? Does anyone even remember the premise of Trigun anymore, a pacifist ace gunman on a desert planet? So, one credit where it's due, just one: Trigun Stargaze at least shows villains reforming after meeting Vash. That's something that Trigun 1998 rarely did. However, then they all become noncombatants like "Vash," effectively removing them from the cast, regardless! Look, in my review of Trigun Stampede, I stated that the show was part of a greater problem: writers simply aren't fun anymore. They miss the point of franchises and remove all drama from storytelling, like starting Romeo and Juliet in the tomb with the dagger already in their hands. Trigun Stargaze, oh for goodness sake, season 2 does al…

Trigun: Stargaze is by no means a bad show, but when compared with its previous season, Stampede, it just doesn't hit the same high points. The animation is still as impressive as it was in Stampede: being an almost entirely 3D-animated show, it really pushes its models to be as expressive, movements to be as fluid and environments to be as impactful as they all can be. The character designs work very well for the 3D medium and are neither overdesigned, nor too simplified. It's overall very pleasant to watch, although the cinematography is not as well thought-out as it was in Stampede. Scenes sometimes linger too long and sometimes jump from one setting to the next without proper continuity (especially in fight scenes), but these are exceptions, not the rule, for Stargaze. The musical score is fantastic and serves its job more than well. The writing is very hit or miss this time around, and is easily the aspect that disappointed me the most after seeing what Stampede had to offer. Some characters are very complex, even with little screen time, and leave a long-lasting impact, while other seemingly important characters are quickly turned into comic relief. The overall plot isn't horrendous or nonsensical, but pieces don't fit together as neatly as they should, characters don't act according to their established motivations and lots of threads don't tie up in satisfying ways. And then, the ending... In order to keep this review spoiler-free, I'll keep this brief and vague. None of the characters go through a full character arc. All character arcs are either already completed in Stampede or suddenly stop at a point where they feel incomplete. Characters change, but none of them grow in a meaningful way. The only changes are visual: characters have new outfits to show that they are no longer the same people as before, but aside from that, they still act the exact same. Newly introduced characters suffer from this the most. If you liked or even loved Stampede, you should still watch Stargaze, but don't expect another masterpiece out of this season. It won't be a complete disappointment, but it also doesn't have the same "wow"-factor as it did before. Still enjoyable, but unsatisfactory as an ending. ____________________________ My overall ranking: Characters: 4/10 Plot: 3/10 Music: 9/10 Visuals: 9/10 Overall: 6/10

(Spanish review on my list) Okay... I don't want to compare it to the original series, because we knew from the beginning that it doesn't have the same story as the manga or the old anime, so I don't want to compare them (but I do think I liked the original better). And even though most of the anime is quite good, it's nice to see that the protagonist is mostly honest about his convictions and always tries to resolve things through dialogue. Most of the time he can't convince them with words alone, and his companions usually end up helping him. So it's not a bad thing that even though he's a character who could be much more "effective" at resolving things violently using his mystical powers, he ends up choosing his pacifist dialogue route. BUT in the end, the enemy is way too overpowered, and the fight in space threw me off quite a bit... it makes both the protagonist and the villain much less vulnerable. While it does resolve things through dialogue (which isn't bad), the fact that they were in space after losing the protection of the plants didn't quite convince me... On the other hand, everything turned out too well; there weren't any major losses, and everything ended quite happily. The only deaths were the villains and the psychopaths, so I do feel it lacked emotional weight for the character's moral development. Yes, he feels guilty about the indirect deaths, but none of them were particularly close, so that weight was missing... but it's not bad... the values ​​it tries to teach about coexistence with natural resources and protecting your friends and sticking to your principles even when the world is broken and tries to force you to commit crimes are cool. I do recommend it; I think it's a good anime, but don't compare it to the original. The CGI is quite acceptable. The last chapter ends with the phrase "Quo Vadis" and I think that represents very well what this anime wants to convey.

This entire show was unnecessary and useless. Stampede did not need a second season, especially if it was going to be this. Almost every episode felt like it was worth nothing. Stampede changed a lot of things, but at least those changes came with stakes. Stargaze does not even have that bonus. There were no real stakes, no one that mattered ever died. They repeatedly faked out deaths. The designs were even worse. The story was just nothing. Just don't watch this, go with the original versions and if you feel like you should watch Stampede, don't carry on to Stargaze. It's bad. This sucks and I would have preferred that Stampede never got a second season.

A Sequel That Didn't Need To Exist Honestly, these new seasons of Trigun Stampede didn't appeal to me. I understand the intention of reviving a classic work like Trigun for a younger audience, but that alone doesn't justify the choices made here, especially when they seem to compromise what made the original so remarkable. The first point that deeply bothers me is the visual style. This 3D style simply doesn't work for me. Unlike productions like Beastars, which use 3D with careful direction, well-thought-out framing, and a consistent visual identity, here everything seems artificial and weightless. At several points, I felt like I was watching cutscenes from a game, not an anime proper. The worst part is that this directly affects the emotional impact: scenes that should be dramatic end up sounding strange or even unintentionally comical because of the unconvincing animation. Another problem is the world-building. I don't know to what extent this new version faithfully follows the manga, but the impression is of a forced attempt to expand something that originally worked well precisely because of its simplicity. Instead of enriching the universe, this expansion ends up creating the opposite effect: a world that seems empty and unbelievable. There's a lack of scale, of life beyond the main characters. At many points, it seems the universe is limited to what's on screen, with few cities and practically no setting to support the narrative. Furthermore, the story fails to compensate for these flaws. Even though there are interesting ideas here and there, the execution leaves much to be desired. The narrative lacks genuine emotion, and the conflicts don't have the same weight or involvement that the original managed to convey much more effectively. In the end, my experience with this new version was quite disappointing. When a work fails precisely in two fundamental pillars (animation and story), it becomes difficult to defend the rest. For me, it ends up being just another soulless reboot that doesn't fully understand what made the original so special. I don't recommend this new version, especially for longtime fans. As interesting as revisiting this universe might be, it's only worthwhile when the new material actually adds something, and in this case, unfortunately, it doesn't. =================================================================================================================Versão em Português===================================== Uma sequência que não precisava existir Sinceramente, essas novas temporadas de Trigun Stampede não me agradaram. Entendo a intenção de resgatar uma obra clássica como Trigun para um público mais jovem, mas isso, por si só, não justifica as escolhas feitas aqui, especialmente quando elas parecem comprometer o que tornava o original tão marcante. O primeiro ponto que me incomoda profundamente é o visual. Esse estilo em 3D simplesmente não funciona para mim. Diferente de produções como Beastars, que utilizam o 3D com direção cuidadosa, enquadramentos bem pensados e uma identidade visual consistente, aqui tudo parece artificial e sem peso. Em vários momentos, tive a sensação de estar assistindo a cutscenes de um jogo, e não a um anime propriamente dito. O pior é que isso afeta diretamente o impacto emocional: cenas que deveriam ser dramáticas acabam soando estranhas ou até involuntariamente cômicas por conta da animação pouco convincente. Outro problema é a construção de mundo. Não sei até que ponto essa nova versão segue fielmente o mangá, mas a impressão que fica é de uma tentativa forçada de expandir algo que, originalmente, funcionava bem justamente por sua simplicidade. Em vez de enriquecer o universo, essa expansão acaba criando o efeito oposto: um mundo que parece vazio e pouco crível. Falta sensação de escala, de vida além dos personagens principais. Em muitos momentos, parece que o universo se resume apenas ao que está em tela, com poucas cidades e praticamente nenhuma ambientação que sustente a narrativa. Além disso, a história não consegue compensar essas falhas. Mesmo que existam ideias interessantes aqui e ali, a execução deixa a desejar. A narrativa carece de emoção genuína, e os conflitos não têm o mesmo peso ou envolvimento que o original conseguia transmitir com muito mais eficiência. No fim das contas, minha experiência com essa nova versão foi bastante decepcionante. Quando uma obra falha justamente em dois pilares fundamentais (animação e história) fica difícil defender o restante. Para mim, acaba sendo apenas mais um reboot sem alma, que não entende completamente o que fez o original ser tão especial. Não recomendo essa nova versão, especialmente para fãs antigos. Por mais interessante que seja revisitar esse universo, isso só vale a pena quando o material novo realmente acrescenta algo , e neste caso, infelizmente, não acrescenta.

Not as good as the first season; not even good in general. The first season teetered the line between being a bit too childish and being good, but ultimately ended up being good. The story completed its arc and the characters found some closure. This season just continues the characters in a directionless, unsatisfying way. The writing is abysmal, and its too childish 100% of the time. Its constantly embarrassing and often it leans into nonsensical visual spectacle to make things happen. I thought the editing was bad, but i think its the script itself that is just so poorly written that it looks bad from shot to shot. Unfortunately there is nothing to enjoy out of this season; no emotion, no character development, no story worth watching. It even ended with a similar retread of the first season's ending. Its a shame Studio Orange made this instead of finishing Houseki no Kuni. It earns 3 points for being competent in audio and animation, but nothing more.

Well, I'll start by saying that if you expect it to be like the original series then you might be a little disappointed because alot of things are different(some are similar though). I suggest you watch this like you'll watch any other seasonal anime, so that you don't nitpick everything different from the manga or the old anime. Now Story:8 It's honestly great for a 24 episode anime, a clash between brothers with different ideologies. Characters:8 Some are well developed, others could've been better but I'm not too judgemental on the side characters, considering they weren't all that amazing in the original trigun either(I'd say they are better here). Vash isn't nearly as strong as he was in the original and that is a bit disappointing but I guess it suits his character of running away instead of immobilising(I mean he's still the second strongest guy after knives but many people think he should've been stronger) Animation:9 This is the best 3D animation has ever been in an anime. The fight scenes are epic and engaging, the environment is beautiful(not in the lush and lovely way), the character designs and movement are great and fluid. You could not ask for more. Soundtrack:10 The opening isn't as good as the first one, but the background music is AMAZING, paired with the emotional scenes, it's a vibe man. I hated a certain character in this but the background audio playing when he's talking was so good that I changed my mind about him. Enjoyment:10 The only way to not enjoy is that if you think it's better than your favourite anime or if you think it's like the original. If you watch this instead of the average isekai/romance slop, then your gonna have a blast. Overall:9 Don't judge this by the ratings, just watch it and hopefully you'll enjoy it just as much as I did. (My brother watched on my recommendation and its one of his favourite anime). Well this was my review, very biased of me but this season needs much more love than people give it

This review is written by two people; my partner's at the top, and mine (account owner) at the bottom. -- Much like a lot of people circa 2023, I watched Trigun Stampede and really enjoyed it. Looking back on it, it was pretty rushed and some things didn't make sense, but keeping up with it weekly was very fun nonetheless and it made me check out the very good manga that is trigun maximum. I was very hyped for the second season of this show I liked, three years later and it is finally here! It is not very good. Trigun stargaze is technically very pretty. I am pro 3d animation in anime and that’s what studio orange excels at. The characters are expressive and the action scenes get to rule from time to time, with the dynamic camera action and all. I also think the show knows how to use light and color very well, orange sand contrasting with a bright blue sky is a beautiful view. The problem is everywhere else. Trigun Stargaze carries the same problems of its predecessor: it is compressing a lot of plot into very little screentime. While stampede had the benefit of being something new and unfinished, stargaze has the burden of making sense of all the dangling plot threads and character arcs from season one and it drops the ball fabulously. While it only sticks to the original plot vaguely -- doing it beat for beat would be impossible in such limited time -- it still tries to cram as many manga characters as possible and adds new ones, making the story feel very weightless with all these people that simply do not matter. Studio orange also dropped the ball with its divergences from the canon. I am usually not against adaptations doing something different from the original but this was so… boring. It wasn’t even bad choices like making everyone get heterosexually married at the end. It was just a bunch of "fanservice" moments one after another that felt very safe, like preaching to the choir, and doing nothing interesting with it. If you’re going to kill or save a character unlike the original story, you gotta have a reason why besides “the fans would like it this way”. This season felt extremely directionless. Nothing truly hit the way it was intended (and you can tell how they intended us to feel with the melodramatic score at key moments) because they were rushing plotlines without any rhyme or reason. The biggest sin of this show is making me not really care about the most important characters to the story, aka the protagonist/antagonist duo of vash and knives. How do you fuck up this badly to make a story about codependent twin siblings who are at opposing sides morally not compelling at all? By focusing 1/12 of the show on a trumpet guy that has no relevance after his episode I guess. Trigun Stampede is pretty and I am glad it made me check out the original manga, but Stargaze just feels like a let down after I engaged with such a good story in the pages. If you are like me, you are probably already mad for watching it or decided to skip it. Can’t blame you for it! -- I truly feel nothing about the show, and that’s a shame, because it really could’ve been something special. I’ll be brief, because my partner up there is going to have a much more nuanced review than I will, and I truly felt very little for this show. Trigun Stargaze is a very poor followup to a show that I thought was medium to medium good when I was watching it. Orange’s punchy, one of a kind, explosive 3D animation is on full display here, and that’s the only good thing I have to say about Stargaze. The whole story felt like things were happening because the plot demanded it. It felt like we were just moving along to the next episode, the next plotbeat. Entire characters are introduced for the sake of giving Vash something to do, and that’s not great. More than that, the show is a love letter to the original Trigun in the worst way possible; it is the letter from a fan that clearly cares a lot about Trigun’s cast, more than it does the actual story itself. There are no stakes or tension, because nothing too bad is allowed to happen to the cast. It is fanservice heaped upon fanservice. Things happen because things were popular in the original, and because the fanboys and fangirls writing this series just wanted everyone to be happy. There is very little real friction in the way of Vash and Pal’s wacky hijinks through the desert, because things that should carry weight carry little, because no one really suffers too hard. At the very least Meryl and Milly are given *slightly* more to do here compared to the original series, but that’s pushing it. If your beloved characters aren’t stuck in character development purgatory, they’ve been bastardized to hell for the sake of, you guessed it, more fanservice. I’m not even a fan of the original Trigun, so while this fanservice was heaped upon my plate, I just felt bored. There was nothing here driving me to connect with the characters, because I thought their issues were either poorly explained or poorly developed. I didn’t love Stampede, but I wasn’t nearly this bored. I simply felt no connection with Trigun Stargaze, and for any anime, that’s a fate worse than death.

I don’t know who had the brilliant idea of planning only two seasons of 12 episodes each for a 16-volume manga, but hey, clearly that didn’t work out very well. I mean, Stampede it's great, even though I recognize it’s not perfect. It’s what introduced me to the world of Trigun and made me fall in love with it in the first place, so I’ll always have a lot of affection for that season! Stargaze, however, leaves a strange taste in your mouth from the very first episodes. I feel like at that point they tried to bring the most important elements of Trimax into the remake, but didn’t have enough time to develop everything properly (again, several manga volumes condensed into just 12 episodes), so the season ends up feeling like a disjointed compilation of important moments from the original material. These are scenes that might even work on their own, like in TikTok edits, but together they fail to tell a decent story. It’s all so confusing. The new characters don’t really add anything meaningful to the story, and the existing ones have had their development completely stalled (some even feel like they’ve regressed). Vash and Knives come across as caricatures of themselves here, which genuinely made me sad because they’re two of my favorite characters of all time. To be fair, the animation remains wonderful, with visually stunning fight scenes, and there are moments that truly warm fans’ hearts. But overall, the season feels weak and superficial, and it definitely doesn’t deliver the conclusion that *Stampede* deserved.

I like Stampede/Stargaze, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you it's a good reboot. Why? Well, in order to enjoy the reboot you kinda have to watch the 90s anime or read the manga. If you watch this new entry blindly you basically have no reason to care for any of these people except for Vash, Knives and Wolfwood. I'm not saying this as some sort of oldbag elitist who grew up with Trigun mind you, I watched the og SPECIFICALLY because I heard a reboot was getting made. I've always heard plenty of praise for Trigun and watched a few episodes when I was young, but never got around to fully watching it to the end until Stampede's announcement. Had I not watched the 90s anime, I would've dropped the reboot midway into Stampede. So many of these characters, both returning and new, are just fucking BOOOORIIIIIING. Meryl especially has gotten it the worst, a lot of the time I was wondering wtf she was even still doing here other than stand around to look cute. In the original it was to show the good within humanity and remind Vash that even though he may lose people precious to him, he will also meet new precious people. In Stampede/Stargaze she just kinda...she's just sitting there. There was a weirdly large amount of padding within Stargaze that made no fucking sense to me, like there was no reason we had to spend so much time talking about how good that omelette was. Stargaze in general had this weird habit of some episodes being annoying as hell with how slow paced it was, but when you compare it to Stampede which was annoyingly rush-y it's more tolerable I guess. I like Vash and he's still a tragic cutie in the reboot, which is why I rated this a 7 for me personally, but if I was more objective I'd give this a 4 or 5.

I have rather mixed feelings about "STARGAZE". Some storylines are terribly rushed, which makes the series lose a lot. Even though STAMPEDE was also fast-paced and had about 12 episodes, there was still some depth, etc., and in the sequel, it feels like everything was done in a hurry. The important thing is to fit it all in 12 episodes. It's a shame because I was excited about STARGAZE at the beginning and some of the fights, but the further I went, the worse the series got... I give it a 6/10. I didn't have a bad time, but for me, TRIGUN STARGAZE is a big disappointment compared to the winter 2026 season. Maybe it's time to move on to the manga.

the original Trigun is one of my favorite animes of all time, so i definitely come in with high expectations. that said, i thought Trigun Stampede, while not living up to the original series, was still an interesting perspective that i think is almost underrated at this point. it had interesting characters, a new fresh take that added to the original story instead of detracting from it in any way, and the art style, while not my favorite, was unique and interesting. don't say i simply don't like new versions of trigun. anyway, i came into this season with relatively high expectations, which makes the fall even more disappointing. there's no whimsy or charm of the original, and the plot isnt novel or interesting like Stampede was (imo). It felt very soulless and cliche for most of the show, like a hollow version of Trigun that combined the worst of all iterations. There were one or two nice moments in this, but they're emotional oases in a desert of bad dialogue, overanimated reactions, and cliche storylines. i hated the new ending and really lost a lot of its punch. overall nothing good about what theyve done to my baby....

I'll be brutally honest and say I'm fan of the original show, but more so I'm a big fan of the manga, Trigun Maximum. Yes, comparing Stampede and Stargaze to the previous material comes with some bias, but that's something all adaptations and reboots suffer from. This is the weakest, lamest entry in the franchise. Stampede and Stargaze are both tremendously underwhelming, and suffer from what I can only really describe as "appealing to popular writing and presentation tropes in Japanese media." It plays things safe and presentable which ultimately softens the tone and weakens the themes of the story. From the motion-captured body language for the CGI to the voice acting performance, everything is incredibly over exaggerated to show what the characters are feeling and saying. It gets to a point where it's just distracting. Everyone is pretty and beautiful and there are hardly any weirdo designs to be seen. Visually, the whole project is unappealing. Studio Orange IS one of the best at 3D CGI anime, but this show still IS ugly to look at in motion. The show very immediately sets itself to be a science fiction story set in space as opposed to a weird western. It's a cold open with Vash and Knives escaping the space ships as the fleet is being destroyed. When Wolfwood is introduced he whips out his cross gun which just shoots out a sustained laser blast. Knives is immediately seen in episode one as some magic knife tentacle dude playing the comically evil church organ. The world feels less like a lawless cowboy setting and more sci-fi drama. The story is much more focused on being dramatic and cuts most of the whackier elements out. Vash spends more time whinging over his moral code of pacifism and stopping Knives than he does helping people. This version of him wants you to take him seriously while minimizing his goofiness, where his other versions used his goofy antics to mask his inner conflicts. Stampgaze wants you to take him seriously at face value, when Vash was always more interesting when presented as a fool that's actually hyper competent and more serious than you'd suspect him to be. All the mystery around him has been removed in favor of just telling you what he is and why he's doing everything. The cast is barely interacting with the world beyond going to one location, getting in a fight with one of Knives's minions, and then moving on to the next location. Nothing is fleshed out to make the setting worth being invested in. Every character, except Milly who doesn't appear until Gaze, is a downgrade. Meryl is a greenhorn reporter because then they can write her motivation as some tropey truth hunter. Wolfwood, sorry not sorry, doesn't die like he has in every other iteration so now he's happy ending sunshine and flowers. Legato is just a comically yandere archetype who is obsessed with Knives and half as important to Vash's conflict against killing someone. Elendira got gutted entirely as a super-speed trans misanthropic murder general into a little girl whose cuh-ray-zee because she needs a mommy and Meryl saves her because "she's so lonely." Everyone is watered down to be as un-complex as possible. A whole bunch of themes and tone setting elements feel completely cut out of the story as well for the sake of finishing the story in the 24 episodes it has. Things like Vash's suicidal thoughts after discovering humanity dissected his predecessor [GONE]. Multiple episodes, adventures and character interactions to make Vash seem silly or the show more comedic [GONE]. Fights with villains that explain and challenge Vash's moral system [CONDENSED to save time]. Things feel like they've been cut or merged together to fit as much material in while at the same time having less substance. It's jumping around from one scene to the next to checklist what Vash does in previous entries, without laying the groundwork or details behind any of it beyond [character is sad and that makes Vash sad.] This show very reflexively enforces thoughts of "old good new bad" in me, which I try to avoid. Maybe someone new to anime with no knowledge of the previous show can enjoy it. But it's just completely unappealing in all aspects. It's toothless.

Trigun Stargaze is a mostly direct continuation of the previous story, placed some time after its cataclysmic finale, albeit with some noticeable character insertions and minor retcons. Unfortunately, the production quality has lowered to some extent. It all just seems slightly off. Furthermore, the opening credits seriously did not match the vibe. Nevertheless, the 3D animation is still far beyond excellent with dynamic fights, creative perspectives, and unique choreography. As for storytelling, the action-heavy adventure was still enjoyable. Hopeful coexistence, optimistic heroism, and brotherly bonds still make for some compelling themes. While this addition has flaws, there is definitely still a lot of good here.

I want my time back. This is a soulless, shallow, "friendship is magic" anime with mediocre cg (and 2D??) animation, and a bad soundtrack. Stampede wasn't great but at least it was interesting. Vash is barely even in these twelve episodes, and when he is he doesn't make any decisions. He's a cardboard cutout of the 1998 Vash. There's no character development except for Knives, but it's not interesting either. Bunch of nonsense connected with action scenes. It stops being a western entirely. Stargaze is a bunch of episodes of Vash and Wolfwood fighting Knives' lackeys and trying to convert them. It's all very boring.

TL;DR Good, but not great. If you enjoyed Stampede, of course you have to watch this to see how the story ends. The animation continues to be stellar, but the storytelling suffers from too much filler and cluttered Dragon Ball Z-esque fight episodes, with not enough backstory and world building. If you hated Stampede and believe it's an abomination, skip this second season. Stargaze picks up after about two and a half years have passed since Stampede concluded. Again, we are given 12 short episodes, but unlike the first season, the runtime feels wasted more often than not. The opening credits are too long and the music doesn't match the tone of the actual show, it's jarring. The end credit music is much better and fits the show better. As with the OG anime, there is no real origin story provided for the Gung-Ho-Guns, just a couple of flashbacks here and there showing us that Millions Knives somehow found them and wanted them to follow him because they have unexplained powers which no other human in the show seems to possess. And generally, Vash has to fight them one by one until he finally confronts Millions Knives. I really feel like the episodes featuring these villains would have landed better if we had more connection to them via a couple of episodes showing us how Millions Knives found and recruited them, some screen time with them actually interacting naturally, just being people. Even some further explanation of their various powers would have been a nice touch, since not all of them are Wolfwood with the youth juice vials. Once Millions Knives eventually is healed, he spends far too much time playing the piano (sort of explained in the last episodes), preaching about creating a utopia for Plants, and how he'll recreate an Old Testament disaster to usher this utopia in on Gunsmoke. He is almost one dimensionally dogmatic aside from his oddly unconditional love for Vash and desire to protect him from understanding just how terribly humans can treat Plants. Sending his unstable henchmen after Vash though? No problem! It's a very odd character flaw, but there it is. Once the season is off to the races, nearly every episode of Stargaze has Vash fighting one of the mysterious Gung-Ho-Guns, which carries over some beat-for-beat flaws lifted from the old anime. The old anime neglected to provide us with much connection to these mysterious villains, they just sort of showed up to kill or capture Vash and were defeated after a lengthy conflict. Stargaze made this feel very Dragon Ball Z, with fights spilling across episodes and long winded speeches from all involved padding out the stellar animation. And when one fight ends, another is already on the horizon. As with Disney Star Wars, villains are consistently defeated and then have a change of heart which causes them to ally with their fellow humans instead of Millions Knives. This felt like unnecessary plot armor, and their switching sides ultimately has little bearing on the outcome of the show aside from sharing a little intel about The Ark and the remaining Gung-Ho-Guns Vash is soon to fight. Wolfwood was the lone exception to this, being the one former villain who actually plays a large role in the show. Vash is still tormented and hellbent on never killing, but once he is no longer Eriks, he manages to shrug off most of the deaths which he and Millions Knives caused at the end of Stampede. This was... fine. No one wants to see Vash moping around for 12 episodes, so I get it, but once he has enough heart-to-heart moments early in the season, he's able to largely put that aside and focus on preventing a repeat of that disaster rather than dwelling on it. It would have been a great character growth moment if it had been something intermingled in another plot, perhaps while stopping a criminal he could have had an epiphany and told himself and the criminal that they cannot blame themselves for the actions of other people. But, yet again, Stargaze walks right past that low hanging fruit. Meryl and Milly felt underutilized, and I feel they did Milly dirty. Her introduction was cute and strong, but after that, we don't really get to know her. She's just kinda there as the "I might not be the most clever woman on Gunsmoke, but damn it all, I'm brave and have a heart of gold!" character. The way others note how simple her views are land solidly, but if you didn't see the old anime, you might just think people are being mean to her while she is either oblivious to it or in on the joke. She needed more screen time and maybe even an episode where she takes Meryl, Vash, and Wolfwood along to locate her family once Millions Knives takes out all communications on Gunsmoke. But, since we didn't get that episode, I have to say she is wasted potential in Stargaze. Her character had much more pizazz in the old anime, and she was at the center of several memorable moments. Here? The poor dear might as well have not existed most of the time. Wolfwood had more story dedicated to him than the girls did, but after his own fight with a particular Gung-Ho-Gun is concluded, he too becomes a largely secondary character. The SEEDS ships on their way to Gunsmoke honestly don't serve much of a role beyond being a plot device for Millions Knives. I was disappointed by this choice, I wanted to see these new arrivals play a much larger role than what they ended up with. When Stampede ended with the news of these approaching ships, I was so excited that we might be going *beyond* the OG anime. Clearly I set myself up to be disappointed. Unlike Stampede and the original anime, Vash, Wolfwood, and the girls spend far less time out in the world interacting with civilians, which I feel contributed to an overall flattening of the show. Sure, there's scattered coverage and rumors about how the Plants are being stolen from around Gunsmoke, and even a scene with it being shown in action, but this felt insufficient for further world building. Gone are the moments when Vash topples a water baron, seems to become a horny idiot over some villainous woman, or recues a town from bandits. This makes the impending deaths of the humans gathered at the final settlement feel less personal, because I didn't feel a real connection to any of them. These are people who believe Vash is a monster and would gladly kill him, but we got little to no fence mending because the episodes were mostly set on the remaining SEEDS ship, The Ark, and at Wolfwood's orphanage. The last episode was well padded with emotional moments between Millions Knives and Vash, but they just didn't hit me like the ending of the OG anime did. I didn't feel like I got to know Knives beyond a) he hates humans and wants them all dead, b) wants to create a paradise for his fellow plants, and c) loves Vash. Stampede gave a child Knives more nuance and depth, despite it being glaringly obvious that Knives has always been a damaged and jaded individual who delights in cruelty. Overall, I felt this season had some great moments and excellent animation, but it was hampered by the runtime, tropes, filler, pacing, and a cast that was too large to be split up and followed separately so often without adequate runtime. If the writers had more episodes to work with, I believe most of the problems I personally have with this season could have been avoided. I didn't hate this season, it was a decent retelling of Trigun, but the older anime was better for not straddling too awkwardly between original storytelling and the source manga. If you loved Stampede as much as I personally did, you will like this despite the strong shortcomings. Personally, I feel it's a shame that the show is ending here instead of doing another season to explore even more of the story told in the manga, but it was nice to have this retelling made and bring Trigun to a new generation of anime fans. Seeing more of the manga's material make it to screen was heartening, but some of the creative choices for this anime were hea…