AWTY 153 - Gift of the Dark Magician (Trigun)

Oh, you've got bad taste. Sick and twisted, but actually, I kind of like it.

Hello, and welcome to our weave variation in exploration and Education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime barrel dragon.

Okay, don't go in that barrel. There's a dragon in there.

It's it's a specific one because it's a yugioh monster. That's just a big old dragon with just big three gun strapped to its face. Was it a clever reference to no. Is it the only one I got? Yeah.

Hold on.

I was hoping it would be a dragon with a hoard of barrels just inside. Doesn't matter. Some are filled with, like, pickles, some are filled with gold. But you never know in it for the astec.

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. There are so many variations. This is a twin barrel dragon.

I traded it for a blue eyes white dragon and I realized in hindsight, I got fucked over. Because Barrel dragon's ability is you flip a coin and he can attack up to three times. And I believe the attack power is 2600, which is pretty damn good. I have a vendetta from fourth grade that I still remember.

What's the name? Do you know the name of the person that traded you?

I won't say his full name. His first name Steven.

Steven.

He knows what he fucking did.

Stephen is out there, still has the card framed.

John Parish. He also traded me like, a fusion monster. And I was like, oh, this is really cool. And then the second I trade, I was like, I don't have a fusion card or the monsters that fuse into this. What the fuck did I just do?

Wait a minute.

I get caught up in the moment.

He's like, here's a cool novelty car horn. I was like, sweet. Wish I had a car that was a dumb kid.

It's like the gift of the magi.

Next step, we're real dumber.

The gift of the Dark magician.

Yeah.

Oh, God. That's orange.

Yep.

Yeah.

What are we doing? What's happening? We're already off the rail.

We are watching trigon because the Feral dragon has three guns. That's why I made that ruling.

Got it.

Anytime trigon is brought up and someone doesn't know, try gun. But as some anime, they immediately think of zoro from one Piece and just a dude holding a gun in his mouth with like, two other guns. Which is not accurate. But I'm sure that's in some anime.

I'm sure if you get deep enough, they're like, we got to scramble to find more characters to put in this show. Just give this guy three guns.

Can they shoot it with their tongue?

I mean, Foxoro probably does that at one point in one piece. He give them modern au setting. He just has guns instead of swords.

Yeah, I was going to say I thought that guy had swords.

Yeah. But yeah. So we're watching Try Gun today because I didn't really want to think too much about the theming of our episode orders. And I was like, Fuck. I like try gun. Let's go into that one.

Six.

Yeah. So we'll see how this goes. Do either of you know anything? It's a bit of an older one, so might have had time to brew.

I mean, I know it because it is older and it's like a little iconic, but I've never watched it.

I've definitely heard the name. I've never heard it established as like, oh, you got to watch this. This is an absolute classic. I just know some people are into it. And I've seen a poster of it at the old anime studio.

So redacted that is.

My frame of reference is a picture where the main character kind of looks like a duo. That's all I have going for me.

I like a good red coat.

Yeah. I would put this up there with you. haka show level of fame, at least within community. It's definitely a classic. But it's not like an eternal cowboy beebop classic where it's like, you can watch this at any point and it'll hold up forever. But it's also not one of the big ones, like one piece or nerida that's just gone on forever. But it was very much like yeah. When it came out, everyone was like, yeah, this is objectively a good show. We can all agree on this. But it didn't get merched to holy hell. So it hasn't had like, the lasting power of some other bigger or more classic anime.

Got you. It has the chops, but not the merchandising. It didn't get a good promo deal, pretty much.

There's not going to be a nuclear fallout and you're going to find a Try Gun lunch box and be like a relic of the past.

This is what art was like.

Was this the mona Lisa? No, it was not. It's good. It's not that bad. But yeah, it's definitely up there for one of my favorites because I got the wistful nostalgic memories of a kid of catching random episodes on tunami late at night. But then as an adult, I think back in college, I went through and sat down and watched the whole series in the movie. And I was just like, fuck, that's just solid. That's just a very well done show. So I'm excited to share with it. Share with it with you. Share you with it.

Yeah.

Dinner. Come over for dinner with Try gun. He's a nice young man.

All right, I'm going to start putting the appetizers in the oven. I guess we'll throw to a break. We're watching the horse derves.

Yeah.

Ground cowboy. I don't know.

We tried. We have no segway here. You can't segway in space. The momentum will kill you. I don't know.

Yeah, you just keep going in one direction forever.

You just drift into the sun. Try gun.

Yeah, try gun.

We start off, as is tradition, with episode one. Not always. Sometimes we start with episode like 142, but this time we're doing episode one. And for once, we get the opening in episode one, which is just rare with newer shows. I'm going to say it bob and a half. This shit slapped. And I like it. Because now that we have context, now that we've watched it, you understand the opening paints the main character fashion as just this edgy, cool, like, moody, drifter, super badass. And you watch the show and he is quite literally the dumbest human being in the galaxy. Like, he is just this goofy, dumbass moron. And I love it. But the opening and all of any art you've seen of it without context of the show is like, he's the bad ass character. He's a fucking idiot.

I mean, it works in context still.

It works in context.

Reputation.

Yeah, it's just funny. Like the juxtaposition immediately. So the episode starts off. We see this kind of beat up saloon bar in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing. It's just a desert all around. And we see two guys inside playing cards. And the bartenders there just washing some glasses. And the two guys playing cards are talking about Vash the Stampede. He's notorious for destroying all the towns he goes to and killing everyone in it. His nickname is The humanoid typhoon. He's a wanted man with a 6 billion double dollar bounty on his head. So he's just this elusive monster.

I love this currency.

We ain't got any fancy money. To the second power money. Electric Dollar is the sequel. And so we see the bartender, like, washing some glasses and he starts to walk outside. And as he walks outside, he gets skirt and runs off. And we see that the guys back inside are playing cards, like, hear him run off. And there's like, ah, troubles of brewing. something's about to go down and the building they're in gets cut in half. Just the entire thing is cut down by something. And then a gang of guys outside just start opening fire on the entire saloon and gunning it down. Just unloading every bullet they have. And the entire thing is shot to rubble. Except for the big metal saloon sign that's still standing, like, in the ground. And as we see it fall over, there's a man behind it. But neither of the two men that were playing cards, he was a man that was just off on the side eating dinner in the saloon. And then we see a big old giant man. He kind of gets into the one piece territory of like, yeah, this guy is just like 9ft tall and no one questions it. Okay, sure, but it's also in space and in the future. So we see he's got like a robotic arm. So like, I don't know, fucking cybernetics. Let's just go with that. But it's a giant manny. He's got a robotic arm and a mohawk and all these screws in his body and giant screws, and he's got just a giant bladed boomerang. The most practical of weapons in any setting.

It's cool. It's flashy. I like it.

It's animal iconography is everything on this planet.

And he says, we finally found a man. We found the guy we're all looking for. And it looks like they're ready for a tussle. As the man that steps up from behind the sign puts his hand on his pistol cut to a nearby town that was destroyed by The humanoid typhoon. Absolutely demolished. And we hear two guys walking around the town talking about yeah, the whole town's fucked. Like, the whole thing just dust. But no one was killed. Got a lot of people hurt, but no one was killed. So, like, I guess we kind of locked out. Kind of a win and not, like the worst, but not great. But with everything destroyed, they say no one was killed, but it was all done by a tall man in red which seems kind of familiar to two of the gentleman we saw earlier. We cut two another saloon. We see two ladies walking in and.

They ordered I love these lesbians. I love them so much because when they walked on screen, I was like, I can't tell if those are two very pretty men, two women. And I just loved that about them.

I sent a screenshot to front of the show, abby, notorious lesbian, and said, Notorious, infamous.

There's a bounty on her.

Said, I love these two wives. And she's like, oh, that's good. If they're girlfriends. I was like, if anyone says they're not girlfriends, I'll fight them in the street like a god gave a linguist. Because they are wrong.

They run a business together. I love it.

They're great, and I love their outfits. God, I just love everything about them. But, yes, these two women are meryl and millie.

So good.

Meryl'S a little shorter. Got a cute bob cut white coat. millie's got this green and yellow, like, kind of washed out big cloak around her. And she's just like, six, seven. She's a tall lady. I fucking love millie. I crossed out the hembo square on the bingo card and I put her bow for millie. She's dumb as hell, but she's so good.

She wrote her name.

She's great. millie's one of my favorite characters in anything because if they come into the saloon, they order very fancy drinks and very specific. And all the guys in the saloon are just like, what are you sneering? Like, you're ordering some fancy you better order some milk because that's the only thing we're serving here. I don't know why these guys were talking about milk. It was kind of weird. But they're trying to intimidate millie and meryl. And while they're talking, we hear something snap with millie and just this gigantic gaddling gun falls out from underneath their cloak, slams in the table, flies up and knocks out the guy that was intimidating them and just knocks his ass out. And she picks up the galling gun, like, whoops. The strap that was holding this on broke. I got to carry it. And you could tell it just weighs, like, two tons. Like, it's a very heavy gun, and she's a very strong woman. God. millie's. Great.

Love it.

Love it. And when they eventually turn to the cook and ask him, say we're looking for Vash the Stampede with his 60 billion double dollar bounty. And he ends up telling him what he knows, he's like, yeah, apparently he's this guy with, like, a Mohawk and earrings, wears red, and he's tall and carries around a big silver weapon and stuff like that. And then we cut back to the gang whose leader is a very big man with a Mohawk, carries around a silver weapon, wearing red, very similar to the cook's description just now of Vash. And we see him and his gang are looking for Vash to stampede themselves. And that's why they shot up the saloon, because they thought he was in there. But after they shot it all up, they ran out of ammo. Or wait, no, they didn't run out of ammo. The guy they were sorry, my nose are garbage.

I dare you. First of all.

The guy that was behind the sign, who they're ready to do a standoff with, he ran out of ammo. So he drew his gun and went to shoot, and he was empty. So he runs off, and he quite literally scurries away like a lizard, like in the desert. He's very feral at times, so he runs off to avoid a shootout, and he sneaks up on one of the guys and knocks him out and steals some of his ammo. That's when another gang member sneaks up on him and he tries to talk him out of hunting. And he's like, hey, maybe we can work this out. I'm sure you got some, you know, lovely kids you want to go back to. He's like, I ain't got no children. It's like, what about a beautiful wife? He's like, Women find me repulsive. I was like, the guy's honest. He's self aware, but he tries to talk about and it's not working. So while he's talking with our main character here, just the giant boomer and cuts through the rock they're standing next to, and the main boy dodges it. But it's going to get confusing a bit on the main character is Vast the Stampede. But a running gag in the show is people keep getting him confused with other people based off his description, just so it's easier for listeners to follow.

I mean, based on the opening, it lets the audience know that this is Vash.

Yeah, that's very clear.

Yeah, it's just the characters in the show that don't really know.

Yeah.

So description is just generic enough that.

It can apply to most people blonde and wears red. That's about it.

Everything else, I could fit that description.

But so while they're talking, the boss of the gang with the boomerang swings at them. And Vash ends up dodging the boomerang but his own. The gang member gets caught up in the crossfire. He's like, oh, you hurt. You're a man. He's like, yeah, this man would die for me. He loves working for the gang, don't you? And then he kicks him in. Vash saying, like, I tie him up. And the dude's bloody as hell and eaten up and his limb body gets just thrown at Vash. And then we see meryl and milly from earlier show up. And merrill introduced herself as meryl strife, as millie Thompson. And they're representatives of an insurance company here sent out to investigate. But right as they were saying that, they get interrupted by we see the bounty hunter guy that was talking to the mayor earlier in the destroyed town. He's here, too. He's after that six double dollar billion bounty as well. And his name is constance Rifle because it's a Western and it's a wild name for any person. But he says he's blond fellow, big old hat, big old mustache. He's got this crazy gun with just like a cross sticking out of it. It looks like just very long appendages sticking out of the barrel of the gun. And he gets everyone's attention. He's aiming for the big gang leader, saying, hey, you match vash's description. You're probably vash a stampede. I'm going to bring you in. And they all started laughing, saying like, no, he's not Vash. We're hunting Vash. Like we're all hunting vash. And then one of the gang members points out the constance rifles appearance. He's like, yeah, he's got big boots on. He's got weird looking guns and blonde hair. It's like, oh, I get it. You're saying I'm Vash because you're actually Vash the Stampede and you're trying to throw misdirect at me. I get it. So they end up going into an old shootout thinking each other's confused me.

Because at this point, it seemed like the gang knew that Vash was Vash the Stampede. But then when this guy showed up, they were like, no. And I was like, but what?

Yeah, they were pretty sure Vash was vashed. We got this guy cornered. And then someone else showed up. And they're like, yeah, wait a minute. And they're like, this guy? So they're just dopes kind of yeah, I think they thought Vash was too dumb. And then this guy seemed like he seems more confident and badass. So he's probably actually Vash the Stampede. And I think that's what sold him on. But, yeah, everyone's pretty much just dumb here and confusing each other for fashion.

I think the guy slinging guns. He might be a gun slinger.

So I think he's the guy we're after, basically. So since they think they're both Vash, they end up having to shoot out. We see marilyn, millie run off, and as they're running Vashes alongside of them, running with them, it's like, hey, thanks for that distraction. Help me get away. Cool. Are these donuts you were going to offer Vash as, like, a peace deal? Cool, I'll steal these. Thank you for the donuts. So as they're running, Vash is just putting away the peace offering donuts they had that were for him, but not for him. So then what? No. What? No. Okay. I'm like, jumping ahead in my notes, but I'm not reading my notes as I'm doing it. So merrill says, yeah, those were a peace offering for Fashion because they are representatives from an insurance agency, and they were sent out to keep an eye on Fashion to Stampede so he doesn't destroy everything because their insurance company can't afford to keep paying for everything being destroyed. So they're trying to basically put a natural disaster on a leash because of their job.

That's so good. It's so lame that these two just like, business women are like, we just want our company to stay above water.

I'm just doing my job here, man. Like, it's this legendary guy who has a 6 billion double dollar bounty, and it's like, hey, nine to five office clerk, go and stop him. Yeah, okay. All right. Here we go, boss. And they just do it. So merrill asked, he's like, hey, here's $10. You can keep the donuts. Run into town down the hill and warn them that there's a gang shoot out with Vash the Stampede, and they're at risk of being destroyed and killed to get them out of town. And he's like, okay, sure, I'll do that. And Vash runs off, and middley he's like, what's the plan, meryl? What are you going to do? And meryl breaks down. He's like, here's the deluxe 30 donut box I bought earlier. We're really going to charm them with this one. It's like the backup doughnuts. God, I love these women.

My secret weapon more donuts.

Like millie's. Straight up, just the herbo. But meryl is also pretty dumb at times to it, and I just love it. They're so good.

Can I just say how interesting language is? Because we went from bimbo to himbo, but now the definition of himbo and bimbo don't exactly match up. So, like, yeah, sure, millie is a herbo, but also that's just a bimbo. You know? How funny is that?

Double back, doubled back weird, because I think Bimbo was like, the insult. And they're like, well, let's repurpose himbo. And then himbo got endearing. And they're like, well, but bimbo is an insult, so let's do an endearing term of himbo, but for women. So it's herb. Yeah, it's wild. It's weird.

People have reclaimed Bimbo, but millie definitely isn't a bimbo.

No, she's just a big, strong lady, and she's pure and dumb as hell, and I love her. She's so good. So then we go back to the gang, and as meryl and Miller come up with the playing plan, the gang leader throws his boomerang and knocks them down off the cliff, and they kind of fall in front of them, and they're like, Wait. What's happening? I thought this was a gang shoot. And they're like, we came to an understanding between the gang and the bounty hunter because we realized neither of us are vastly stampede, and we're just fucking idiots. So they're like, we agreed to work together, and we're going to split the bounty because it's so much. We can do that. So they tie up merrill and millie, and they hang him from, like, kind of a cliff edge tie around their bodies, and they say one of the rumors of fashion St. Peters, he was a notorious wovenizer along with the Mohawk. So the gang leader comes up to him and looking him over, and he's like, well, ladies, what do you prefer, pleasure preferred death or just death? I'm fine with either. It's, like, gross nasty.

A 90s anime.

Yes. And we see as he's looking him over, vashes were running in on one of these weird just weird animals. I don't even think they really give him much attention. It's just like a weird imagine just a big kiwi bird, and he's riding in on one of them, and he.

Throws one of those anime ostriches.

Basically, it's basically a choke about from Final Fantasy, but they had to just rework it enough to avoid copyright choking.

No.

Ed Vash is riding in on one of them, and he throws like a dagger and cuts millie and merrill loose from really far away. He goes, There you go. You're free. I'm paying you back for the rose by. And he runs off again. And once everyone sees that he's back, they go chasing after him because they all realize he's bashed the stampede now, and they ended up cornering him on a cliff edge. And the bandit leader's like, well, you can either die and we get that bounty, or you can save yourself the trouble. You can commit suicide. He's like, ah, I think suicide is one of the most reprehensible things a human being can ever do. And he's, like, very solemn and very poised at this moment. When he says that, it's like, oh.

What, above all, I'm a Christian.

I believe in Jesus. No, he doesn't. But, yeah, he just gets very serious.

Oh, good. I was worried.

No, he's a good character. Oh, no, that's not a we are we very a position. That's a printed position. I'll take the hit for that one. So the gang leader ends up throwing his boomerang at him, and, like, with this boomerang, he cooks it onto his belt. He's got, like, a bungee court system with it, I guess, to recall it. It's kind of weird. And just, like, weird space sci-fi where it's like, yeah, that makes sense. But then if you think about it for a second, it doesn't at all. So he hooks the boomerang, like, to his belt with the Rose of Dead Vash, destroying part of the cliffhage. Bafash dodges over it, runs past the gang leader, slaps the recoil belts on the boomerang, and it freaks out. And kind of I guess he just has straps around him and the recoil runs over all of the straps. So when he wasn't prepared for it, it just destroys the gang leader's arms. Like it rips them behind him and like, contorts his body. So he like it kind of knocks him out from the pain and like, dislocating both of his arms at the same time. It's weird. It's not super clear, but he fucks him up.

Yeah, the mechanics didn't really make sense, but you got like, yeah, he's down for the count.

Yeah, too much. vas just ran by, slapped him on the ass and knocked him out, basically. But now the boomerang is loose and it goes flying off. And turns out Constant rifle is off on the cliff side. He was waiting back because he was going to snipe at bash if he got away. So he starts shooting at Vash while he's running away. But while he's shooting at him, the gang leader's boomerang goes wild now and ends up taking out Constant strifle. So he ends up taking out both of the leaders in one go. And all the other guys are no problem for Vash. He's able to take all the goods out easily. So Vash subdued two gangs, two dangerous folk real quick. No problem. And after he finishes them, we see millie and meryl pop up and look over. And millie points out, like, wow, he's really good. Maybe he is fashion stampede. And Fashion looks over at them, gives him like, a big old thumbs up. And he's like, hey, ladies, does that repay you for the donuts and the money earlier? Ha gives like, just this really obnoxious hearty laugh. And while he's laughing, they noticed that constance rifle back when he was on the cliff side, he pulled out a grenade and was going to throw it at him to try and take out Vash. That grenade now explodes, destroying the cliffside that they were standing on or just left to wear ashes. So they just see the cliffside explode and turn into a landslide as it falls down the mountainside, barreling towards the town that Vash is supposed to warn. And it destroys the town.

Oops.

So yeah, millie's like, yeah, maybe that is vas St. paul's. Like, no, he's too dumb. Look at him. But sure enough, according to his reputation as the humanoid typhoon destroyed the town and like everything around it, no one was hurt. Once again, no one got people were hurt. No one got killed, though. So just like the previous town. But yeah, sure enough, he's a chaotic, destructive person that just rolls through towns and fuck things up, but he's just a jinx. Yeah. It's not really his fault. And then we cut to merrill filling out her damage report for her job, like the insurance report. And millie floats out like, yeah, that guy was Vash. meryl is like, no, that can't be Vash. He sucks. He's too dumb. And then we hear some townsfolk talking about no one died in the landslide, and, like, she kind of got fucked up. But like, no, you can rebuild shit. People didn't die. So we're good.

That's what the insurance is for, baby.

Yeah. And then we get the ending, which good. Not as catchy as the opening, but still good.

Yeah. Perfectly serviceable as an outro.

Yeah.

But yeah. Then we start off with episode two. We see someone blonde with a red coat in a shootout. Oh, no, it's a dash. And then we see an old man being like, oh, I need help around these parts. And then we get the intro. So we see meryl and millie rolling into town. They are exhausted. They are just desperate for water and rest. They go into this very abandoned town, super dry desert. And they go to the well, but it's all empty. Oh, no. And they see some townies walking through talking about, Vash came through these parts.

As the townsfolk are walking through. I'm pretty sure this is an ad lit by the actor, but there's, like, a little kid, and he just goes, bad times are here. La la. As he's walking, what a joyful. Pep in his death for just a barren wasteland. Yeah.

Actively dehydrating to death.

But he's so chipper. Really got me.

But yeah. So they're like, okay, we're going to meet with the richest person in this town who's kind of running the show. We're going to go talk to Cliff kaiser. He's got a mansion. So they go over there, knock on the door, and who answers the door but Vash? They're like, what are you doing here? He's like, oh, I'm Mr. cliff's bodyguard as of like yesterday. I don't know. But he greets them immediately, gives them some water, and they're so thankful. And he's like, oh, I smell some more donuts. I guess I'll just help myself while you drink. So hearing the commotion, Cliff, the owner, the person who hired Vash to be a bodyguard, greets them and invites them inside. So Cliff is the water salesman in this town. His family owns the rights to the only source of water. So he just has the monopoly, and that's why he's running this show. But weird, someone is trying to kill him. So he hired Vash to be his bodyguard.

Who would ever want to kill a monopoly owner?

Yeah. Protect them at all costs. Anyway, so he's like, oh, yes, someone's after me. So I put an ad out for a bodyguard. I was just hoping this Vash fellow. Would come. And then he actually did. So that lucked out. But he also needs some extra protection because he has an old family friend visiting the lovely Marianne Allegycer. She's from a federal bureau family, so she has those rich government connections. And Vash is just desperately hopelessly anime protagonist in love with her. So who's this lady?

I don't know, but she's my wife.

She's hot and that's all I care about. But as they're talking through all this preparation stuff, meryl is like, hey, Cliff, can I talk to you privately? And they just go behind a curtain and she's like, yeah, this guy's full shape. He's not bash. And Cliff is like, oh, yeah, I know that, obviously. So his plan, he didn't have the money to hire the real Vash, so he put out a call for Vash. And the first bodyguard that showed up, he was like, yeah, you sure are. Vash here's. That person trying to kill me. The deadliest outlaw ever is here, so don't try anything funny. So he's just using the reputation of Vash, the gunslinger, to keep anyone who wants to kill him away. So it doesn't matter who showed up. It's fine. But I love this. We talked about the ad libs before. This is definitely a 90s dub, but this is a pretty good dub. I found this very enjoyable.

Yeah.

Like, as they're having this side talk, they're just standing behind a curtain and everyone is like, you're talking so loud. I know you're talking shit about that.

It's a very thin piece of cloth.

It's not sound proof, but yeah, this is a genuinely funny show for something this dated and translated. I wasn't expecting it to be this good. That surprised me.

Yeah. Like, there are actual tricks because I love the old sailor Moon dub with molly with the very thick Brooklyn accent. I love her. I think that's an amazing choice. It's bad, but I think it's an amazing choice. This, though, is definitely like they do kind of poke fun at it, but they're still jokes. They're not poking fun at their own quality of dub.

But yeah. So while they're there, Meryl and Miller are like, yeah, well, we're here. You have the only water in town. If you put us up, we will also be bodyguards. So they join the team as well. But they get put on kitchen duty and they're like, oh, shit. So we see classic 90s anime moment. Vash hears the shower on in marianne's room. So he gets a brilliant idea to go up on the roof and just, like, repel down to be outside her window. But weird, she's running the shower, but she's not in there. Just as millie walks in and he's like, hi, Vash. What are you doing out there? Doing a patrol outside. Great. No questions, no thoughts, head empty.

God, I love her. What a woman.

But we see Meryl, who's also on patrol, sees Marianne going into cliff's study.

Interesting. The plot thickens.

The thick plot.

Dummy.

Thick plot.

So later on at dinner, they're discussing Cliff's water monopoly. They're like, hey, this sucks. Yeah, I get it, I get it. But this is a natural resource if you just take from it whenever, it's going to dry up. So I do have to protect it. So they're like, okay, whatever.

True. But you also are capitalizing on it at a gross degree. Yeah.

Everyone else lives in poverty while you're in a mansion.

So with water, all the water you.

Need, literally everyone else is dying but you're just like mine.

Yes, the only house with indoor plumbing as well, since there is just a well in the middle of town for everyone else. Good point, but talking about saving that. And Marianne excuses herself, seemingly disturbed by his justification. So we see Meryl and millie, they're on night patrol. They're just sitting out in the courtyard, just making sure no one comes through. And Vash goes and checks in on Marianne, where we see while he's knocking at the door, she's injured and has a gun, and she hides both quickly and invites him in. So he comes in, just trying to put the moves on her. Oh, yeah. What's your story, little lady? daddy wants to keep me protected, but I want to travel and see the world, so I can only stay with daddy's. Friends.

Daddy.

But as Vash starts actually putting the moves and puts a hand on her shoulder where her injury was, and she winces and she's like, oh no, I hear a noise outside. Please go investigate.

Big strong man, dead wave.

And he just jumps out the window.

I like, that fashion has his own dreamy beachy filter. Like, whenever he wasn't Pose, he gets like sparkling like the big eyes. Yeah.

Whenever he's around Marianne, he's just OOH the suavest. And everywhere else, he's just the biggest fucking goofball in the world.

This feral goblin that's just scurrying around the desert like an actual lizard.

So he jumps out the window to investigate, but he grabs Meryl, like, strangely. What are you doing out here?

No, it's just you.

She's like, I'm on guard duty. What are you doing? And they find each other. But when they go back inside, marianne and Cliff disappeared. They find her bloody bandages. And Meryl is like, what's up with that, Marianne? What's going on there? Then they find a secret tunnel.

Secret tunnel. Secret tunnel.

So they follow it and it goes underground. They find the underground river where his water source is, and it looks like he has some kind of ice factory. I could see exactly what was happening here.

This is kind of weird.

But we see a lot of mechanism of how he controls this water source. So as they get down there, we see Mary Ann is actually on the case. She's a marshal, and she's here to confront Cliff for just stealing all this goddamn water. So she was the person in the intro with the red jacket and the blonde hair. It wasn't Vash. Like they wanted you to think.

She's got a red pantsuit.

So she's down there, and Cliff comes out of the shadows and is like, oh, I see you stumbled into my little operation. I can't have witnesses. I guess I'll have to kill you and just bumbling down the river. Vash just like, falls into the middle of their confrontation. And then we see Meryl and millie being like, didn't he say he was going to, like, sneak behind him? Oh, yeah.

He really fucking sucks.

He cannot be an outlaw. So Vash is there and he joins the fray. But Cliff, he's ready for someone to die. So he shoots at Vash, but he's too quick. He keeps dodging out of the way. What is he doing? Oh, no. He's wasting all his ammunition. But Vash draws closer and is able to disarm him. But cliff god, I love it.

Yeah.

He opens his jacket and has four guns just pinned to his lapels. So as he pulls his jacket apart, he triggers them and they all fire at once. It's great. I love it. Genius. But as he shoots, he shoots all his machinery and it releases all the water and starts flooding the town. Oh, man.

Oh, boy.

But yeah, so they all fight it out. They take down Cliff.

Anime fight, bad man gets punished.

Yeah.

So the next day they see the town is just completely flooded. They're there. It's Meryl, millie, Vash, and Marianne. So many em names.

Yeah. I just realized all the ladies.

They'Re there. And they're like, yeah, the water will recede in time, but it looks like it sucks and the town is destroyed. But actually, you gave all these people access to water again, so good work. And Vash, you do seem like the actual outlaw, but being a woman of the law, I'm just going to look the other way because you're too goddamn sexy. In reality. I am actually really into you.

Damn it.

So she lets Vash get away this time, and the insurance girls are like, yeah, he's still a dipshit. I still really don't think he's Vash. We hung out with him. He bumbled his way through all of that. He's no mastermind.

Mr. mcgowan. His way through all of this. I can't.

Another emmy. But yeah, that's where we end up with so, too.

Yeah.

Real quick, I like when he walks away. Got her. Forget her. Marianne Mary Bell. What's her name? Mary the marshall. Marianne. She's like, there goes the bout. There goes the bodyguard with no name. Like, what do you you were there for like four days with it. Like, you could have asked his name.

Also, you're pretty sure that's Vash the stamp.

I'm pretty sure that's what his name was.

So we're jumping to episode five. We opened on Inapprel City, which is spelled very much like in peril. And I was like, ha ha ha.

Clever.

I'm sure they will be. So we're in a cafe. There's a kid with a fake gun, like a toy gun, and he's asking his mom to buy him a real gun. And his mom is just like, no.

Honey, you're literally six.

No, I can't do that.

I'm an impressionable youth that listens to a lot of hip hop.

So some guys burst in, and everything is happening in slow motion. And we see that Vash is there. And these guys point their guns at him, and they take him. They shoot him down. It looks like he's, like, face down on the ground. It looks like he's bleeding. And the guys are celebrating. They're going to be rich. They're going to get the bounty. And then one of them approaches Vash, and of course he's still alive. The stuff that looked like blood was tomato juice.

The old ketchup blood prank.

So the leader guy holds a gun up to vash's head, but somehow he gets out of the grip, and he grabs the kid's fake gun and shoots all the darts at them. And the leader guy threatens him. The Vash is like, you guys are out of bullets now. I counted. And then we see them walking out in the desert in just their undies. They left their clothes and guns there. So Vash must have made them take it off to, like, humiliate them. Who knows?

Maybe he's into that.

Probably.

He seems like the type. He's got a shame tank.

So he thanks the kid for his gun. He eats a bunch of pancakes. And an old man is like, why don't you just use your gun and kill people like that? And he's like, ah, bullets are expensive. I don't want to waste them. And then surprise, the old man and a waitress pull guns on him.

Got you.

They apologize, but they want that 60 billion double dollar bounty. And then we see marilyn milly on the outskirts of the town. And we see that it's half buried in sand, and an alarm goes off. And they're like, Vash must be here. We're going to find the real Vash this time. And people are chasing him all around town. Like, everybody in town is trying to get Vash the stampede. It is quite the commotion. He ends up in a bell tower, and someone shoots at him. And merrill and millie take notice, so they hop into action. It's very funny. They're sitting on, like, a crane almost. And Meryl hops down, and I was like, Wait a minute. We see she had a parachute.

She just, like, rolls off. And it's like I don't know. It's like, why do you have that?

They're always ready. Insurance women are always ready.

That's true.

So they keep a distance, watching the town's people lose their minds. Meryl tries to get their attention, but everyone ignores her. And then, like, over the town PA. They tell everybody to stop the violence, stop going after Vash. And then they're talking to the Chairman, and he says that he can't believe that they haven't caught him. After 4 hours of fighting, merrill demands to speak to the person in charge. Yeah, and she's like, you guys should have known that none of you would be able to get him. But the town needs the money because I don't know what the plant does, but they keep talking about the plant, and it's the reason that half of their town is buried in sand. So they need to repair it, and that's why they need the money.

The sand factor is all dried up. Yeah. Doesn't make sand anymore. Instead, it makes sand now.

Oh, no. It just went into overdrive. We can't turn it off. This used to be a lush forest paradise.

Shit.

We've made too much sand.

Typical problem. I love the optimism in these shows of just people who are like, yes, this guy has an insane amount of money on his head for a bounty, but I think I can get him this time.

I think I got it.

I think I got it. I've never shot a gun before, but I'm pretty confident in my abilities.

I'm really into underdog narratives.

Yeah, that's me. So the Chairman freaks out, saying he called in the last resort. And here it comes. It's this giant, scary guy. Don't like him.

You don't like a good old fashioned steampunk frankenstein? kai chew?

I can't say I do.

Is this attack on titan?

We're getting there. We're getting closer.

So this giant man, giant machine cyborg guy, he stubs his toe in a car and cries. And they're like that's. The Nebraska family. It's this big guy and a mad scientist who made the big guy. And it turns out they broke out of jail because they want the money too. So merrill talks about them real quick. She says that they're convicted felons, and the chairman's plan was to get them to attack bash. So a little girl comes up, and she says that they got him, her and others. I assume he's captured Vash the stampede. So we see this happen. Vash is running. He stops in a saloon, but there's like, a group of women there, including that little girl, and they all pull guns on him. And this really bothered me. He said, bounty hunters and aprons wouldn't want the kids to see this. And I was just like, Shut the fuck up. A kid literally thought he watched you die earlier and you didn't care. But women with guns? Stop the presses.

Yeah, this is a weird that made me really mad.

I was like, Shut the fuck up, bash.

What?

And one of the woman says that they desperately, desperately need the money. Her son is sick, and the doctor left town, and everything went wrong after the plant malfunctioned. But not everyone is rich enough to leave. So they say, like, just give yourself up, man. And he says that while he understands he's got to keep moving. And he pulls his gun out and asks them not to shoot. And then there's a rumbling, and the Nebraska family blows up the saloon. And everyone in town runs to see the explosion. What happened? But Vash isn't dead. You can't kill him.

No.

And he's like, still kind of, like in the dust of the explosion. He's like, in shadow. And Meryl is like, I can't believe I'm about to see Vash the stampede.

Finally after all this time.

But the dust clears, and she's like, hey, I know him. What the heck?

That is dip shit.

And of course she's like, that's not him. Everyone else is wrong. I can't be wrong.

Rupling down.

Yeah, but then she's kind of like, I mean, I guess it's him. It must be. So the mad scientist is taunting him. He's just like, monologuing. This mad scientist goes on forever and doesn't really say much. So the big guy launches his fist at Vash, and everyone gets upset. They're like, way, hey, don't kill that guy.

I know we brought you in to kill them, but don't kill them.

Don't kill him.

Just like there are children here, G rated. Kill him.

Kill him off screen and then say he's dead, but he lived, and he's protecting a lady. And the scientist is like, surprised that he's doing that. But millie, she's like, no, he wouldn't abandon people like that. And Meryl realizes that he's a good person or whatever. So I think that's why people in town were like, wait, don't kill him. He saved all those ladies in the saloon. But at the time, it's just kind of funny. Like, didn't you this is what you wanted?

Oh, no, he's going to get hurt. Wasn't the entire test that's what you were rooting for?

He thought he was the villain until a very clear villain arrived.

So mad scientist is still yelling at him, saying, like, oh, you say you don't kill, but you've had to kill before based on your trail of destruction. And he puts the lady he was protecting down, and he puts on his glasses.

So it's time to fight serious mode.

And the mad scientist is ready to kill him with the big fist. Instead of aiming for Vash, though, he aims the fist at the women. He saves them the saloon. So Vash runs toward them, pulling his gun. Everything, again is happening in slow motion. And he shoots, making the fist go off course. And I was like, Is that all it takes is some bullets? This guy isn't that strong. Like, sure, he's giant, but based on stubbing his toe and crying and a couple of bullets making his arm go.

Off course, he's got the plot gun. The plot bullets.

Yeah. So he's got one bullet left, and he shoots the big guy down. And millie is very impressed. He did the salt with just six bullets. And merrill, at this point, finally accepts that this guy is Vash. Some kids go up to him and they're like, you're amazing, Mr. stampede. Mr. The stampede. The mad scientist is still trying to fight. He says that they should call it quits because it's all about love and peace, which is, like, a thing that he says, I forgot about it until right now when he said it. Kids start chanting it with him and then Meryl plops down on the ground with her typewriter to write the insurance report and says that they finally made contact with vasha stampede. And that's episode five.

I picked episode five until the boxes. But they finally accept that that's fashion. You get to see him being badass instead of just lucky his way through. Yeah.

Actually earning the title rather than being like the first two episodes, they're like, really? This dipshit this dipshit has this reputation. And then they finally go like, okay, I get it now, I guess.

Yeah. I think when he diverts the fist, like, the shooting of the fist is spinning, I don't know if they explain it or if it's just, like, a point, but he's rotating his gun the other way. So it's supposed to be like he calculated it and knew how to do it precisely because he's that good. But, yeah, he's earned the title. But also, he's a feral goblin. He really reminds me of Breath of the Wild Link, where he's the savor of hyrule. He's also eating a rock right now behind me. Isn't he.

Falling off this cliff face five times already? He just can't accept that he has to go around it.

He refuses to.

He woke up and immediately ran to defeat ganondorf.

He's naked with a stick.

He has a ladle, and he's fighting. God.

But I love them. I love those characters. They're dumb idiots.

They're pretty fun.

Yeah. So are we there yet? How do we like it?

Yeah, so on paper, if you said, like, 90s action show brendan's Pick, it was going in, like, oh, man, we'll we'll see. But this hit a lot harder than I thought it would. It hit on current thematic things that us three are going through right now of, like, futuristic cowboy stuff. But but, yeah, it really surprised me with how much I liked it because for being a 90s show, the dub holds up pretty well. There are moments like, this mad scientist in the last episode was sort of like the lowest point of the dub for me. Sort of just like, oh, yeah, just toothless old coot. nah. So you do have those elements in there. But for the most part, the adaptation to English is very good. The jokes are strong, and the performances, for the most part, hold up. It definitely hits that cowboy even just by American standards of cowboy stuff, which has a little bit more history with cowboy stuff. It does really well to have this cowboy setting work. It's sort of just generic desert towns for the most part. But each town has their own personality and still going place to place. That sort of travel aspect works. Yeah. This really surprised me, how much I liked it.

This just isn't my kind of show. It was fun, but it wasn't really for me. I was kind of bored just because felt like nothing was really happening. There were funny parts and I was just like, oh, he loved those girls.

Love them, ladies.

But yeah, I can't imagine watching episodes three and four because I would imagine that it's just the same thing as episodes one and two.

Yeah, it's kind of like episode five.

They realize it's actually him.

Yeah. It's kind of like how would be all where it can be really episodic and there is an overarching plot through line. And of course, that obviously pick up towards the end of the series. But yeah, that's kind of why I felt fine, like just skipping three or four. Because I'm like, we saw this. It's more of the same. Yeah, you got it.

The narrow is still going to be skeptical.

It does feel very much like cowboy bebop, but silly. I didn't talk about this before when I was talking about how much I love Meryl and millie, but I love the way they're drawn. Like, I really like the way the women are drawn in this. Just this particular 90 style. I'm into it.

Yeah.

Surprisingly devoid of just, like, fun anime titty physics that you usually get with.

The whole time. I think you see millie sometimes without her big cloak on and she's just wearing, like, a white collared shirt with suspenders and, like, slacks. Like, fuck you.

Yeah.

Office worker. Cool.

Yeah. On the whole, this isn't for me. But it was fun.

It was a good time.

Could have been way worse.

I don't give you good stuff. I give you this. Could have been worse.

Call us all vash because we really dodged some bullets on this one.

But yeah, that's that's kind of what I meant by like it for the most part. People that watch it, they're like, yes, this is a good time and it's fun, but it doesn't hold the pinnacle of like, 40 years later, we're still talking about God. Try. God is one of the masterpieces. It's a good time, though. It's fun. I really liked it. Yeah.

You don't enjoy it.

Yeah. And it is still in space without being, like, too sci-fi. It's not going to be like spaceship dog fights, like in Bay, but in Beebob. But it's like dayblade blade. It's like tatooine and Star Wars where it's like, yeah, this whole planet is just one big desert. And it all kinds I hate sand. I hate it's. cord.

I hate sand factories.

One part I did enjoy was just like, the rumor element of it of like, yeah, people don't know shit. You kind of just have to take someone else's word for it and be like, I guess they're why would they lie to me? Like, I guess I have to believe them. And how that's annoying in some shows when it's like love triangles and just miscommunication. But it was kind of interesting in the show where it's like, yeah, as far as we know, the dude wears a red coat, has a silver gun, and is blonde. Anyone that matches that description could possibly be him because it still works with.

The Western Tall tales of like, I heard of a gun slinger that took down an entire saloon by blah, blah, blah. And it has that folklore element without it just being unreliable. narrator of oh, yeah, vash. He's like 13ft tall, actually, because that is the thing that can happen in.

The.

But yeah, it's good.

Yeah. Surprisingly, I should be offended, but I know what I've done.

Yeah, you have no leg to stand.

On your past offenses.

But yeah, next week I think we're going to have a chiller time. I certainly hope so. This is one it was a recommendation from Ribbonquest just really catering to me. Specifically, we're going to oh, shit.

Yeah.

We're going to be watching the moped anime.

Supercom awesome. I forgot about this.

But yeah, if you want to pander to any of the hosts specifically, yeah, take your pick. You can send your recommendations to arwevaria@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at rweebarriet on both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at Honeyperiod D, on Twitter at Honey D eight and Honey dart, or on twitch at honeycore D. And Honey is spelled.

H-U-N-N-I-E. You can find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan it's pretty uneventful, but abts stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I also do.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

You YEED your last hawk.

Why is it called Try gun? He only has one.