Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!: Trigun: Badlands Rumble



Howdy, y’all!  My Autism Awareness Month kicked off this past Friday, and continues on with a bang on a movie review that I’ve wanted to do for a long time now.  Many of you may remember a show called Trigun.  Back in November of 2014, I reviewed this show.  Not long after that, I heard that nearly ten years later after the series’ release, a movie was made.  So I bought the movie and watched it.  What did I think of it?  Well you’ll have to find out in this review, now won’t you?  So let’s saddle up and get on with this long awaited review of Trigun: Badlands Rumble.
The film opens up in the middle of a bank robbery led by the infamous and ruthless robber Gasback. In the process of this robbery, he is suddenly betrayed by his henchmen, who claim to take the money stolen and leave him for dead.  This is interrupted by a distraught Vash the Stampede, who in his comical antics allows the henchmen and later Gasback to escape.  Twenty years later, the story takes us to Macca City, where the mayor, and one of Gasback’s former henchmen, Cain Kepler fears for his safety when he is threatened by Gasback.  Fearing that he will be killed and lose everything he gained in the past twenty years, from his town to his glorified golden statue, he calls thousands the bounty hunters available to the city.  That and Bernardelli insurance agents Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson to protect his assets.  Meanwhile, Vash rides on a sand steamer to the city.  He breaks up a fight between two rowdy bounty hunters and a female bounty hunter named Amelia.  Amelia, like every other bounty hunter in Macca City, is after the $$300,000,000 reward on Gasback’s head.  Once the steamer lands, in typical Vash fashion, he becomes infatuated with her and follows her everywhere.  Amelia, however, brushes off his antics.  Later on, Gasback attacks and robs a factory owned by one of the other henchmen involved in the betrayal.  When word of this gets out the following morning, the bounty hunters begin to leave believing the attack on Macca City was a hoax.  However, Gasback makes an explosive entrance and catches the drunken bounty hunters off guard.  After a series of failed captures by the numerous bounty hunters, Gasback makes it to where Cain is hiding.  He is stopped by Vash.  Soon, a duel ensues between Vash and Nicholas D. Wolfwood-Gasback’s hired body guard after saving his life-, allowing Gasback to slip through to find Cain.  Vash and later Amelia follow him in attempts to stop him.  When they find Gasback, conflict ensues between the two, allowing him and Cain to escape.  As Cain tries to make his escape, Gasback tells him that he has no intention of killing him, but plans to take everything of value to him.  Cain believes he plans to steal the statue.  But after a series of explosions causing the city’s plant to roll downhill, Cain realizes that Gasback is after the Plant used to power the town.  After securing the Plant in one of the trucks stolen from the destroyed factory, Gasback makes his escape.  Angry at Vash for letting him escape, Amelia pursues Gasback, with Vash and Wolfwood not too far behind.  However, as Amelia tries to take Gasback down, Vash is shot and falls in a quicksand bed during the fight.  She and Wolfwood return to a darkened Macca City to tell Meryle and Milly the news.  The next morning, Amelia and Wolfwood team up to go after Gasback.

The two track down and attack Gasback’s caravan, but are soon outmaneuvered.  Then, out of nowhere, Vash appears and explains how he survived.  According to him, a piece of tough meat caught the bullet and Milly and Meryl managed to find him when they were leaving Macca City.  Gasback then challenges Vash to a duel.  Gasback loses after he is shot in the arm and leg.  However, refusing to go down without a fight, he activate his mechanic arm which releases a burst of electricity.  Amelia counters this attack using a mysterious mechanical glove given to her by her mother.  Gasback immediately recognizes the glove, claiming he gave it to his wife, Amelia’s mother.  Amelia reveals that she was born not long after Gasback had left her mother to continue being a robber.  And although he left his wife and unborn daughter with enough money to sustain themselves, robbers attacked them and took everything, with no support from the neighbors who feared the two.  This fear even caused local doctors to neglect Amelia’s dying mother, which later led to her death.  Although Amelia had planned to kill Gasback in the beginning, she decides to spare him, feeling that Vash had influenced her to show him mercy.  As the credits roll, Gasback, his henchmen, and the three henchmen involved in the robbery twenty years ago-including a disheveled Cain-are arrested.  Amelia follows the police caravan as both Vash and Wolfwood discuss how not saving Gasback twenty years ago would have not led Amelia to be born.  In the movie’s final moments, a newspaper flies into Vash’s face with the news that a pair of robbers have escaped from prison.  Wolfwood then begins to question Vash on whether or not he was involved.


Watching this movie again made me remember just how fun a show Trigun was.  However, for a show like that, I would have expected a neater job in the movie.  Still, I give Trigun: Badlands Rumble a four out of five star rating.  As quoted from a review from a critic, this movie definitely has everything a Trigun fan would love.  I kid you not, this film reminded me why Vash is one of my favorite anime characters of all time.  The movie is energetic and action packed with fights and explosions happening almost everywhere.  The plot for the movie was also fun and refreshing for the series and pays great homage to the show that came before it.  In some ways, the movie reminds me of another series-based movie that was equally tribute-paying worthy.  Cowboy Bebop: the Movie was another successful film that added another great story to the Cowboy Bebop franchise.  While this aspect of Badlands Rumble is not necessarily a perk to the film, it is something well noted.  And let’s not forget the fantastic job done by Johnny Yong Bosch who reprised his role as Vash for the film, something that I especially enjoyed seeing.

Despite what a thrill ride this movie is, there was one concern of mine.  While the film has a lot of action scenes going on, its dialogue is almost too much at times.  I felt that some of the dialogue in the film was too long and made the film’s plot drag just a little.  Oh, and back to the thing about Cowboy Bebop: the Movie.  While that film received some pretty great feedback, it can’t hold a candle to the original Cowboy Bebop series.  And guess what?  The same thing can be said of Trigun: Badlands Rumble; it can’t hold a candle to the original.  Still, it’s one fun adventure that you can’t miss, especially if you’re a fan of Trigun!

This film was one rip-roaring good time that reminded me what fun the orginal series was!  Plus, I remembered how much I love Vash!  If you’re interested in watching the movie, you can buy it on DVD and Blu-ray wherever anime is sold.  You can also watch it online at Hulu or on YouTube.  And with that, that wraps up this week’s review.  Be sure to stay tuned this Friday for my first Hanime on Autism post as well as another overdue review next Sunday!

-Hanime on Anime

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