You thought you had it tough, bandits taking over your town, land barons stealing your land, wear and tear destroying your tools, and bounty hunters blowing things up in their search for the man with the 60,000,000,000 price tag on his head. Now a man, in a long red coat with yellow eyeglasses hiding his blue eyes, has walked out of the desert landscape surrounding your town, with two insurance ladies right behind him. Things just got worse.

Trigun is based on a manga series of the same name that was created by Yasuhiro Nightow. I don’t know how close the anime series follow the original manga (since the manga hasn’t been released in the US) but what you have here is a classic western with a sci-fi twist to it. The anime series was written by Yosuke Kuroda (co-writer of the second season of Tenchi Muyo OAV, the True Tenchi Novels and Duel), directed by Satashi Nishimura, characters designed by Takahiro Yoshimatsu, music by Tsuneo Imahori, opening theme composed by “HT” (it really rocks), and ending theme (“Kaze Wa Mirai Ni Fuku”) written/composed/arranged by Akima and Neos.

The animation is top class, the colors and texture makes you feel the hash sun burning your back, the hot wind stinging your face with sand and the cool taste of water taste like nectar of the gods. The special effects are great and the sound effects are truly awesome, you jerk at the echo of a fired shot and you are in awe of the fantastic shooting.

Without giving away too much, the series is about a man, Vash the Stampede (Masaya Onosaka), who is attempting to come to grips with his past and to figure out his future. Along with him are two insurance agents, Meryl Stryle (Hiromi Tsuru) and Milly Thompson (Satsuki Yukino), whose job is to keep property damages down. Joining them is a preacher named Wolfwood (Susumi Hayami), whose burdens are equal to the huge cross he is carrying. Besides bounty hunters after him, Vash has to deal with bandits and pretty ladies, land barons and pretty ladies, and hired killers and pretty ladies. If you like old westerns like the Magnificent Seven, the Wild Bunch and Lonely Are The Brave, you will love this series.