Next up is Trigun, another I'm surprised I haven't done before.
Set on a Western stylized planet, Trigun is an anime of two halves.
The first half follows Vash the Stampede, a tall blonde man dressed in red who can out shoot anyone but is goofy, cheerful and a pacifist; he's followed by Meryl and Milly who are trying to piece together the destruction Vash leaves in his wake for their Insurance company not really piecing together that said tall blonde man they keep running into is actually Vash expecting someone more destructive to match the image of a 60 Billion Double Dollar bounty for destroying a town.
The second half features Vash crossing paths with the Gung-Ho Guns, a group of assassins led by Vash's brother Knives, revealing the terrible powers hidden inside Vash and the tragic past he had forgotten.
While largely forgotten today, Trigun stands the test of time far better than most anime, it's a Western epic that sees a more human side to the often tumultuous Western genre of constant bandits and gun slinging, the fact that Vash didn't even draw a gun until episode 5 is a testament to how well Vash is written as a character, the series has an insanely good cast that you can easily find yourselves rooting for even one episode characters, it's a rare anime that can envoke every emotion, something that only a few anime can match.
But I did say it was largely forgotten today, that's because of a few factors.
1. Westerns are hardly popular in the medium in Japan but often do better in the West.
2. Other media surrounding it has failed to make it relevant (time will tell if the reboot will succeed)
3. It's rivals were Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star making for an already inflated market at the time.
4. It worked just fine the first time.
One of the strengths of 90s anime was getting it right first time in the 24-26 episode limit they were given, all the endings of Trigun, Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop were perfect and wouldn't continue in a sequel, spin off or remade in a different format, looking at you live action Bebop.
But one thing all three have in common, was none of them had any real problems bar nitpicks, 1998 was arguably the best year in anime history.
Dub is top tier especially with Jonny Yong Bosch as Vash.
Final Verdict: A western epic that deserves high praise in the same category as the best anime of all time.
My aim is to get to the remaining top 50 by the end of the night.
65. Kill La Kill
Delightfully over the top and not ashamed to showcase as much skin as possible. A delight to watch and one of the best action shows in recent years.
64. Trigun
The most pleasant yet most dangerous protagonist to ever come out of an epic anime action show. Vash just makes this show special.
63. Darling in the Franxx
A complicated story of children, demons and aliens mixed with complications of war, romance and politics, everything Evangelion should've been.
62. World God Only Knows
A dating sim champion forced to try his skills on real women, it not only works but the insane details that go into this is baffling.
61. Gundam ZZ
My favourite Gundam series for it's characters, and feels more authentic compared to the original and the unwatchable Zeta Gundam.
It's double list time, and we kick off with a best and worst villains in an anime, let me clarify that this is based on all villains within an anime not just one individual, with that out the way lets begin.
Dishonorable Mentions
Black Butler: Alois Trancey is one of the worst characters ever made but one bad villain isn't enough to put a whole series on this list, especially when he isn't canon.
Negima: Fate Averruncus was overused but really the show didn't have enough villains to justify it being listed.
Shaman King: Hao Asakura is a scary guy but I find him annoying, again one villain isn't enough for this list.
10. Trigun
My issues with Trigun's villains come from the fact that the early ones don't live up to the standard the series set out. Trigun is an excellent series and it should really grab you straight away and the first few episode villains fail to do that.
9. Digimon
Digimon has a problem with originality, the villains are either obviously dark looking devils or goofing comedy villains such as Elvis impersonator Etemon. The sad thing is, Digimon can do terrifying the villains, it's just that the creative team don't seem to use them often and their really good ones like Machinedramon don't last five minutes.
8. Dragonball
The franchise has a history of some goofy looking villains, the picture of Majin Buu says it all, but the real problem with Dragonball's villains from the original to GT is that older villains are made to look redundant very quickly; considering how terrifying many of them were built up to be only for them to be utterly humiliated later on is a very sad way to go, even Broly gets it bad and he's utterly terrifying.
7. Bleach
Bleach has some utterly terrible villains, couple of stand out ones include a professional wrestler and "Mr Self Insert Character" such a horrific standard for a series that started with some great characters only to fall from grace so horribly.
6. Naruto
Saying that Naruto isn't any better, for a while now, especially recently, they've made the villains completely boring, I can't pick out anything from Madara, Obito or Kaguya that I actually enjoyed, what's worst is that these are main villains, I'm not even going to begin on the filler ones.
5. Fairy Tail
I love Fairy Tail but my god are some of their villains really bad, I remember finishing Edolas arc thinking "There's a villain called Sugarboy?" other than the Oracion Seis, female villains and big name villains, the rest are really bad and stops me naming Fairy Tail best anime.
4. Panty & Stocking
In a series this colorful and crazy, you stick with complete opposites to the main cast, you kind of expect a series named Panty & Stocking to have a bit more too it than that but you'd be quite shocked to find that under it's anarchic sense of humor it's very grounded.
3. Attack on Titan
I can't help but laugh at the Titans these days, they look so goofy. A series with such shocking imagery fails to have ever lasting impact when another episode depicts the same creatures looking stupid. I remember one Titan running to the Benny Hill theme music in one AMV.
2. G Gundam
In a series so used to playing stereotypes, it can't make a decent villain other than Master Asia who you could argue isn't a full villain. The Devil Gundam doesn't look any better and side villains such as Gentle Chapman, Michelo Chariot & Prime Minister Wong can be best described as an aging drug addict, a rejected Street Fighter II character and an arrogant movie star respectively. Seriously this is billed as a fighting anime, you can do better than this Gundam.
1. Needless
Take your pick from these villains, either clones of Adam Blade or moe girls. Any other choices are quickly killed off. Again this series is crazy yet this is the best you can do with villains? Clones and little moe girls? My God do you lower the standards in anime Needless.
No I haven't been neglecting this world, although it is difficult to write reviews when you're watching five anime at once and had plenty of ideas for stories while trying to work on a computer that's been on borrowed time for the last year or so. Well it's time to stop neglecting and restart with a review on Grenadier.
Grenadier is about a wandering frontier gunman who tries to create peace in every situation they are in despite being faced with opponents that keep getting stronger with each episode, no I'm not describing Trigun but you can forgiven for thinking it is. Grenadier can be best described as a reverse gender Trigun; it helps that main character Rushuna is also blonde, stands pretty tall for a female character compared to the rest of the cast, is goofy in nature yet can shoot better than any character in the series except their own sibling who can match them.
Okay I'm not doing a very good job at separating this show from Trigun so lets see the story. Rushuna has been wandering around for a while being herself until her master puts a bounty on her head and sends a group called the Juttensen after her.
Joined by a samurai named Yajiro & a talented Balloonist named Mikan, the trio set off to the capital in order to find out what the hell is going on.
Now this is where the obvious comparisons end.
For a start it's clear that Rushuna is not so restrictive in using her gun than Vash was at the start of Trigun despite following similar philosophizes, in fact Rushuna wins more points in style than Vash and even Bayonetta in places as she reloads bullets with her breasts and pulls off seemingly impossible gun shots including shooting with just the cylinder frame, this is where Grenadier really shines, the spectacle, in a way this is what some people didn't like Trigun for; it was felt that Vash spent so long not firing his gun that people including myself couldn't sit through the series long enough before we got some proper combat and while it does eventually payoff, it still felt a long time compared to other 90s action anime at the time, in a way Grenadier was created to showcase what Trigun was missing but in the long term especially in the anime, Grenadier loses focus on the story and doesn't deliver itself quite as well as Trigun did.
But what really goes against Grenadier is the fact that Rushuna has gigantic breasts, seriously those things are DDDD, which according to sources is the same size as Soul Calibur's Ivy. The breasts kind of de-credit the story and make it seem like a huge fanservice show, not helped further by Rushuna's interest in taking baths every episode. Any kind of seriousness left in the show is lost in the anime because of Rushuna's cleavage.
Final Verdict: Trigun is a more superior anime by far but Grenadier still creates an impressive spectacle, I will say that the manga does make up for the anime's shortcomings and improves the story.
As a sequel to the Disney version and to remember that this is an Anime site I present to you the top 10 anime that would benefit from Cartoon Network.
Special Mention: Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt who already uses Cartoon Network's Animation style.
10. Medabots
While the concept is very Japanese the appeal is very international and would fill a gap which seems to elude Cartoon Network which is of course the robot cartoon.
9. Martian Successor Nadesico
A ship full of anime fans and various normal people with extraordinary skills, sounds like a good recipe for a cartoon.
8. Lost Universe
Also known as the Sci-Fi Slayers, an adaptable cast and a wide sandbox full of gags makes Lost Universe work.
7. Trigun
Strange choice but justified, thinking about how often a show starts off with hardcore slapstick before switching to a more darker tone, (Looking at you Adventure Time) Trigun suits the mold very well.
6. Ninja Nonsense
Onsokumaru is made for this, he's the type of character who'd work well in any scene seeing as he reminds me of the Red Guy from Cow & Chicken crossed with Jake the Dog from Adventure Time.
5. Black Butler
When this show is funny it's really funny, I mean how could you keep a serious face in a show about a Demon Butler that fights with silverware. Plus a 19th century setting would be a change of pace for Cartoon Network.
4. Outlaw Star
Considering the cast consists of a spaceship pilot scared of space, a pint-sized mechanic, a bad tempered Catgirl, a ship battery in the guise of a human female and a samurai girl, you'd be pushed to think of a better setting. Plus Outlaw Star is a former Toonami show.
3. Black Cat
And yet Black Cat is capable of doing exactly that, the manga more so than the anime. Two broke bounty hunters along with a shape-shifting girl fighting for their next meal is a well used concept but has it's merits if done well and Black Cat can do that.
2. Riding Bean
Considering there wasn't really much to work with it definitely has potential, plus I've been looking for a jack of all trades driver in cartoons, the industry could use with one and would open up hundreds of potential plotlines.
1. Squid Girl
But Cartoon Network's history of failed villains would certainly liven up Squid Girl from it's one joke status to a series of hilarious fails as a cartoon about a worthless villain joining such favorites as Mandark, Mojo Jojo, Red Guy, Evil Con Carne & the Many Many Kids Next Door Villains.
