Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie Review

Are you ready to rumble?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 9, 2011

Is there any more aptly named anime factory than Madhouse? This production entity regularly turns out some of the most innovative, interesting and visually arresting pieces in all of animation. If Federico Fellini or Luis Bunuel were alive and making anime, chances are they would find kindred spirits at Madhouse Studios. Madhouse loves genre mash-ups, and if Trigun Badlands Rumble is actually relatively restrained (at least by Madhouse standards) in that regard, it still manages to work in elements of both science fiction and the western, in a sort of animated Cowboys and Aliens set up that comes down firmly on the side of the oater idiom, with occasional references to outer space. Based on a manga by Yasuhiro Nightow and the Trigun anime series which followed it, Trigun Badlands Rumble also bears a kind of uncanny resemblance to Rango, the recent Johnny Depp animated feature, of all things. Both posit a western town in peril with a less than seemly Mayor holding court over various nefarious activities. And both have a larger than life villain threatening not just the general piece, but individual characters as well. If Rango is decidedly funnier, at least in a more traditional way, Trigun Badlands Rumble is also amply humorous at times, but in a much more off kilter approach that is perfectly in tune with the prevailing Madhouse Studios ethos. The film has a brief prelude of sorts where we see a planned robbery by arch-villain Gasback, which backfires when Gasback’s crew decides to betray him and make off with all the loot themselves. It turns out Gasback is something of an entrepreneurial spirit and prefers to reinvest his illicit gains into new, bigger robberies, while his henchmen would prefer to just take their “winnings” and retire to the good life. Though it momentarily appears that Gasback may in fact have the upper hand in this mutinous rebellion, the sudden appearance of Trigun’s Vash the Stampede (not to be confused with Vlad the Impaler) shows up, allowing the underlings to beat a hasty retreat. We then segue a couple of decades into the future to find Gasback still intent on exacting revenge.

If Madhouse might be home to Fellini and/or Bunuel, Trigun Badlands Rumble more properly evokes the world of Sergio Leone. This is the American west as reimagined through the filter of a foreign consciousness. In this case, the town of Macca is a literal alien territory, a weird amalgamation of the Old West and futuristic technology. Vash has wandered into Macca to discover that Gasback’s old nemesis Cain Kepler is now the town’s Mayor. The bounty on Gasback’s head is matched only by that on Vash’s, though because Vash is such an unassuming looking guy, no one actually believes he’s the real Humanoid Typhoon.

The humor here is odd but quite enjoyable. The opening scene which is otherwise filled with the terror of a violent robbery descends into a kind of lunacy when Vash goes ballistic after some of his donuts get stepped on. Later, in Macca, Vash comes in contact with Amelia, a woman who may or may not be out to bag Gasback for herself, who also turns out to have an allergy to men, leading to several itchy predicaments when Vash can’t manage to keep his hands off of her. Also playing into the craziness are Vash's longtime friends, two insurance saleswomen (only in anime, folks), who are out to keep an eye on the massive rotating statue the Mayor has erected in honor of himself which he’s also insured for an insane amount of money and which Gasback wants to steal to finally achieve some payback for the long ago betrayal.

Vash, for those not familiar with the Trigun universe, is a sentient plant (only in anime, folks), and pandemonium surrounds virtually everything with which he comes into contact, hence his nickname of the Humanoid Typhoon. Vash in fact looks like an anime version of the old Max Headroom character, and like Max, he’s an anarchic spirit who is seemingly able to rage against the machine with his own personal brand of chaos theory. That gives Trigun Badlands Rumble a lot of its manic comic energy, as Vash is able to do things that defy not just the laws of physics, but the laws of logic as well.

If the townspeople in the Depp Rango were desperate for water, in Trigun Badlands Rumble it’s energy they’re after in the form of a power plant which is the object of some subterfuge. The drama plays out on an alien planet that may remind some people of a cross between Star Wars and Dune, as it has two suns and is covered with sand. The anime has a very distinctive design element with regard to its backgrounds, if not its characters, which helps to give this feature film Trigun a lot of visual flair and impact.

Despite its understandable focus on characters from the Trigun television series, the real story arc belongs largely to Amelia, whose backstory is revealed in a number of flashbacks and whose motives become clear as the story progresses. The Leone angle is especially evident in this character, who has a trans-generational score to settle and who walks around looking and acting like the Woman with No Name. Trigun Badlands Rumble in fact rather smartly reenergizes the Trigun franchise all around and may augur well either for more feature films or a reinvented television series adaptation.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Trigun Badlands Rumble arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is yet another stellar looking Madhouse production, full of excellently precise line detail, appealing and distinctive (if not especially innovative) character designs, and great looking backgrounds and environments. One of the best things about this film, and one which pops magnificently on this Blu-ray, is the ubiquitous use of a quasi-three dimensional approach, something akin to the old Disney multi-plane technology. Objects float in front of backgrounds and even characters seem to be spatially located, almost as if they had been rotoscoped and placed differently within the frame. Colors are really nicely saturated, with Vash's bright red jacket a standout and several of the environments having some gorgeously lustrous light effects.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Trigun Badlands Rumble is presented with two nicely bombastic lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, one in the original Japanese and another, quite good, English dub. Both of these tracks are fairly interchangeable in terms of sound effects and overall balance, but the voicework is of course quite different in both of them. Both of the tracks have incredible LFE sprinkled rather liberally throughout the film, and directional effects are also numerous. Dialogue is very well placed and extremely well balanced with the effects. Surround channels are used quite effectively, especially in the last half of the film when a long desert chase ensues, followed by an action sequence that includes explosions and shots.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Interviews with Cast and Crew. These strange looking featurettes offer some nice background details on both the television series as well as the feature film. Why strange looking? Because the screen is split Brady Bunch style, with different perspectives on any given interview subject. Odd—but would you expect anything less from Madhouse? The interviews include:

• Yasuhiro Nightow (Comic Author/Story Concept) (SD; 11:08) has the original manga author talking about the project.
• Masaya Onosaka (Vash the Stampede) (SD; 8:59) has the original Japanese voice artist talking about his character.
• Satsuki Yukino (Milly Thompson) (SD; 8:31) does similar duty for one of the film's heroines.
• Satoshi Nishimura (Director/Story Concept) (SD; 11:06) is laid out multi-screen style like the Nightow featurette, and offers some background on how the whole Trigun adaptation took place.
• Show Hayami (Nicholas D. Wolfwood) (SD; 10:00) finds Hayami talking about Wolfwood's personal "cross" and his long history with Vash.
• Maaya Sakamoto (Amelia Ann McFly) (SD; 6:43) is surprising when you hear how high Sakamoto's real voice is compared to her character work.
• Takahiro Yoshimatsu (Character Designs/Chief Animation Director (SD; 7:26) is a relatively brief but very interesting interview discussing the nuts and bolts of the animation style.
• Hiromi Tsuru (Meryl Strife) (SD; 3:12) has a funny moment where Tsuru sheepishly admits to having a hard time pronouncing "Bernardelli Insurance Society."
• Tsutomu Isobe (Gasback Gallon Getaway) (SD; 7:06) reveals a rather mild mannered actor playing the arch villain.

Other supplements include:

• Movie Premiere at Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro (SD; 8:47)
• Post Recording (SD; 3:51)
• A Mildly Amusing Story by Something Yoshimatsu (SD; 00:28) is a silly little moment about autographing a fan's boobs.
• Video Footage from Anime Expo 2009 (SD; 1:38)
• Talk Event at Kawasaki Cinecitta (SD; 3:32) is part of a Q&A with a screening audience.
• Special Talk Show (SD; 38:16) is the complete event at Kawasaki Cinecitta.
• Web Promotion Clip (SD; 1:37)
• Promotional Video (SD; 2:23)
• Theatrical Commercial (SD; 00:37)
• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 1:39)
• Original Commercials (SD; 00:49)
• FUNimation Trailers

Trigun: Badlands Rumble Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though a passing knowledge of the Trigun universe might help the viewer to more quickly acclimate to Trigun Badlands Rumble, it's not absolutely necessary due to the fact that these characters are so well defined and the interrelationships are very well spelled out within the confines of the film. This is brisk, sometimes quite funny, entertainment that is, as is typical of Madhouse, a weird blend of several genres. With a great looking image and very robust sound, and with bounteous supplements, this new Blu-ray comes Highly recommended.