Trigun Stampede, the Trigun retelling making its debut today, is the first piece of Trigun media I have ever seen in my life. We all have those series we just never got around to. Until this week, one of mine was Trigun. The 1998 original series, which in turn was based on a manga by Yasuhiro Nightow which ran from 1995 to 1997, has achieved legend status on both sides of the Pacific. In North America, it was largely aided by being part of Adult Swim’s Toonami block in the early 2000s. But I didn’t watch Toonami in the 2000s. I didn’t even know the red coat guy was named Vash The Stampede before I watched episode one of Trigun Stampede. I tell you this to impart upon you exactly how unbiased I am about the original. I’m not precious about it at all. I have no historic attachment to it in the slightest.

Episode one of Trigun Stampede did, however, make me curious about watching the first episode of the original Trigun series. So I did.