Warning: SPOILERS for Trigun Stampede.
After the return of the Trigun franchise with a new anime series, Trigun Stampede, new fans may be wondering about the powers and abilities of the protagonist, Vash. The character’s origins and mysterious past are an integral part of Trigun‘s plot, so be warned that, while Stampede may change some aspects of Vash’s story, there are still major spoilers ahead.
The original Trigun manga and anime are cult items from the late 1990s – early 2000s era that saw Western audiences first exposed to Japanese popular culture, along with other popular works such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop. When a Trigun reboot was announced, it was met with a mix of expectation and worry that it would not do justice to the original. The first episode has dispelled most of the doubts, but there are significant differences. Trigun Stampede is a lot more forthcoming about Vash’s mysterious past than the original, but first-time watchers must still have a lot of questions about the gunslinger called The Humanoid Typhoon.
Vash is, in fact, not human. He is a Plant, a biologically-engineered creature, just like those that appear in the first episode of Trigun Stampede as sources of energy, water, and food for the town of Jeneora Rock. Plants are interdimensional beings created by humans, usually kept in bulb-shaped containers and tapped as sources of energy. Vash and his brother, Knives, are independent, human-shaped, sentient Plants, born 131 years before the events of the series from the Plant powering a spaceship of Project SEEDS, a colonization mission meant to deliver human beings to new, inhabitable planets. Vash and Knives were found by a scientist called Rem, who raised them on the ship for one year. Tragic events led to Knives’ corruption and his destruction of the entire space fleet, forcing the surviving humans to land on the planet Gunsmoke, called Noman’s Land in Trigun Stampede.
Vash Has Superhuman Powers, But He Rarely Uses Them
Plants have a variety of powers that humans usually exploit to produce energy and resources, and that Vash and Knives can use at will. They have extended lifespans, can regenerate even fatal wounds (but not regrow lost limbs), and have superhuman strength, agility, reflexes, and focus, which explain Vash’s incredible skills with guns. Their most impressive power, however, is the ability to generate powerful weapons from their bodies. Vash and Knive’s ultimate weapon, called the Angel Arm, created in this way, can annihilate entire cities. However, the use of this weapon consumes a limited reserve of energy that, once expended, will kill the Plant. In the original series, Vash’s “Angel Power” displayed a variety of other effects, such as teleportation, flight, and the creation of barriers.
As opposed to Knives, Vash tries to avoid using his Plant powers unless he has no other option. Normally, Vash relies on his skills with guns, including his trustworthy .45 Long Colt, which was changed in Trigun Stampede into a .22. Vash also has a cybernetic arm, as shown in the first episode of the reboot, that can turn into a machine gun. Of course, fans of the series know that Vash is a pacifist, so he never uses his weapons or impressive abilities to kill, which is part of what makes Trigun such a unique, memorable shonen series, and it seems that Trigun Stampede managed to capture this spirit.
Trigun Stampede is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
