Throwing Down in the Badlands - Trigun: Badlands Rumble Review

It's all about reviving old classics these days right? Remakes and bringing old school shows into the new millennium with flashy new animation and new plotlines. Apparently, the anime classic Trigun is no exception. It's usually inevitable that any famous anime will get a movie adaption or a one-shot special at one point so it's actually impressive that it's taken so long for a show like Trigun to be adapted into a movie. So with all that being said, that leads us to the 2010 movie adaption of the series Trigun: Badlands Rumble. (You can check out my review of the original 1998 series here)

It's awfully unclear where exactly Badlands Rumble fits into the continuity of the series. Anyone looking for answers as to what happened at the end of the TV series will find themselves awfully disappointed. This is a one-shot plot with all the characters you know and love plus a few new ones. Basically, a bank robber named Gasback, who's had dealings with our main character Vash the Stampede before returns after 20 years. A series of events leads all of the show's main cast to the same town where Gasback is planning a big heist to get revenge on some members of his crew who have betrayed him. Along the way we meet a new character named Amelia, who, like Vash, has a connection of her own to Gasback and plans on taking revenge. The plot is pretty much an extended episode of the series, never attempting to do anything more than that. Most movies that are adapted from the TV show will bring the plot up to an epic level fitting of the big screen. Badlands Rumble on the other hand just feels like a special episode rather than a movie. That being said, Trigun the TV series was incredibly entertaining so I certainly wasn't complaining. However, it is a shame because the plot really isn't memorable. The main characters are only there mostly because it's a Trigun movie and they have to be there. The plot just feels like it's going through the motions, pitching the same ideas that the TV series did. It does a good job hammering home the contrast between Vash's idealism and how cynical the world around him is. However, this still isn't something that wasn't present in the TV series. It's all well and good that they kept the themes that made the series so good but theres nothing here to really distinguish the two. Lastly, the plot never seems to hit a climax at any point, it's stagnant throughout. Sure, there's some entertaining scenes thrown in from time to time but never anything that stood out in my memory.

Sure you'll get a few laughs out of this but it's nothing you haven't seen before

As I mentioned earlier, the characters felt as if they were simply going through the motions of the movie and were there simply because they had too. The insurance girls, Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe do absolutely nothing but provide comic relief throughout the film. This bothers me because in the series, they were always shown as being competent even if they were playing a comic relief role at times. It just feels like a disservice to their characters considering their role in the TV series. The same could be said for Nicholas Wolfwood, a main character that ends up embroiled in the main plot for extremely loose reasons that add up to "Wolfwood needs to be in this movie to please all the fans". He's awesome in pretty much every scene he's in but it never feels like his presence makes the film better or worse, he' just there. The movie's plot focuses entirely on the relationship between Vash and the new character Amelia and Vash's efforts to keep her from taking Gasback's life as revenge. This would be alright if Amelia wasn't such a bland and boring character. Sure, she has her backstory and her motivations but other than that she's just a typical "out for revenge character who resents the main character until the end". I suppose it is rewarding to see her character develop and change at the end but it doesn't make up for the rest of her appearances. Gasback as a villain is pretty terrible. He's pitched as a somewhat honorable thief who spits a couple pseudo-philosophical lines of dialogue. The villains in the TV series were so varied and interesting. Each one was unique and had dialogue and weapons that fit them and only them. Gasback feels generic and thats a world that should never describe anything having to do with Trigun. It's such a unique anime series that really changed the way that anime was done over the next several years. The TV series was filled with such lively and colorful characters, so why such boring ones in the movie? Vash is the one character who feels the same as he always was; being a goofball but turning into a serious badass when the situation requires it. As always, there's plenty of hilarious interaction between Meryl and Vash which is always appreciated.

Badlands Rumble, having been made in 2010, is a huge visual step up from the TV series. This is only natural since the series was made in 1998 and animation has come a huge way since then. However, something just feels off. Maybe I'm just nostalgic, maybe I just love the original show a lot but the new animation doesn't make the show feel like Trigun. It feels too clean and too nice. I understand when certain shows get an animation bump. Neon Genesis Evangelion got a small bump in End of Evangelion and a huge bump in the Rebuild movies. However, while those animation bumps felt necessary, I felt as if Trigun's took away from the general feel. It doesn't feel like I'm watching Trigun, it doesn't feel unique to me. In a completely unbiased judgement however, the film does look really nice and there are times where the animation does make the action a small grade above the original series. The music is well done, continuing the trend established in the original series. The moment in the film's final scene where Vash appears with the show's trademark theme song in the background was a moment that will make any Trigun fan squee with delight. Funimation has also improved their voice work greatly since 1998 and the results can be seen here. Jonny Yong Bosch plays Vash just as well as before but it feels more refined like he has a better grasp on his role. Same with the other voice actors, most of whom returned to reprise their roles.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble is a really confusing film for me to evaluate. On one side, I really love Trigun. But on the other hand, this film didn't really live up to my expectations for what a Trigun film would be like. I still has a lot of the charm that the series possessed, but it lacks the colorful characters and the excellent plot. I think that any fan of the original series should definitely give this movie a look however if you haven't, there are plenty of other better anime films out there.

My Score: 2/5