Crunchyroll announces reboot of space western Trigun

I’m confused. I’m playing Final Fantasy VII, and my partner is playing Resident Evil 4. My ears perk up as I hear the familiar and unmistakable heavy metal guitar chords of this song as Trigun appears on the TV.

I have no idea what year it is.

Late last night, Crunchyroll announced that a new Trigun anime series is in the works, and it seems like 2023 will be the year of maximum millennial nostalgia bait.

The new show, Trigun Stampede, will be produced and animated by Orange, the same studio that worked on the “what if Zootopia but hornier” anime, Beastars. During its time on American television, Trigun was hugely popular, fitting in nicely with the space western aesthetics of Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star while also serving as an early example of a good English dub.

Written by Yasuhiro Nightow, Trigun was released as a manga in 1995 and followed the exploits of Vash the Stampede, a mysterious but sweet lone-gunman roaming an alien planet reminiscent of the Wild West. In 1998, the manga was made into an anime and, as a lot of shōnen anime of the late ‘90s did, made its way to the Adult Swim programming block in 2000. For the English voice of Vash, the relatively unknown Johnny Yong Bosch was cast in his first voice acting gig that would eventually catapult him to English voice acting royalty, performing as Bleach’s Ichigo Kurosaki, Code Geass’ Lelouch Lamperouge, and more. (Though my elder millennials will remember him from his time as a Power Ranger.)

Details on the show itself were sparse, but there is a chance we might get to learn more during a Trigun Stampede panel at Anime Expo on July 2nd.

Definitely looking forward to getting some “love and peace” in 2023. The galaxy sorely needs it.