Death, Love, Peace, and the Space Western

To me, Trigun should be in the same breath as Cowboy Bebop when it comes 90s anime nostalgia. That is probably because of my personal bias towards the series as it's one of my favorites. Yasuhiro Nightow's Space Western is the opposite of Cowboy Bebop's Space Western, Trigun is set in the future, on a desert planet, Cowboy Bebop is set in the future, in space. They both involve gun-fights, bounty hunters, lone wanderers, basically the anatomy of the now-old Westerns flicks America (and Europe). The cowboy leaves it's imprint on both Spike Spiegel of Bebop and Vash the Stampede of Trigun.

Vash is a pacifist in a world where the language is violence, he only fights when he has to, and almost never kills. The world of Trigun is complex, both in-universe and to readers, it is on it's third telling (manga first, 1998 anime, then the 2024 reboot), the planet has two names, sometimes Gunsmoke, and more recently, No Man's Land. It's a desolate wasteland where humanity only survives by the power of creatures called "Plants" that produce resources like Water and Electricity. Humanity kills the planets so they might live. Vash delivers a catchphrase, "Love and Peace" to his enemies, almost a beacon of hope on a dead world, but he is also cursed to bring destruction wherever he goes.

Spike is a bounty hunter, drifting through the solar system without a real motive beyond finding his next meal. He's haunted by memories, and throws himself into work to escape it. He is running both away and towards it, his past, his rival, Cowboy Bebop is a focused story, a one way ticket to finality. The world of Cowboy Bebop is straightforward, a future where everything is still the same. On-planet episodes can almost have you forget this is a future, it's the past and the present rolled into a landscape that slowly eats you alive.

The idea of the "West" in cowboy flicks is complicated. But in a simple way, you could say that the West is death. Lawless and violent but free from responsibility to family, to the state. The Lone Ranger has been the star of the Frontier for decades. "Frontier" invokes images of conquest, it's the concept of an empty world, a common thought in space adventures like Star Trek or Stargate. This is derived from the propagandic nature of old Western, to create the idea that there was no-one in the American South West, and the people who were there were violence and needed the White Man to civilize them. Thus the West became a "dead world" a realm for those strong enough to take up the challenge and fight their way to the top.

Across from this you have the "Lone Ranger" who inhabits the Frontier, but isn't there to truly win. They are there to uphold justice, (or in Vash's case, Love and Peace) and protect those who cannot protect themselves. A Savior. Spike's "Lone Ranger" is a deconstruction, he is the bones of a dead ranger, someone who finally surrendered to the call of the West, the call of death. He ghosts through life, something I'd attribute to his Noir roots, he is akin to Neo-Western archetypes of the Once-Cowboy who was left behind by the world. Vash is similar, a "Love and Peace" guy in a time where most cannot remember a day without violence, his morality is like that of a child who grew up of stories of a world that is good. He carries his "no-kill" rule like a double ended blade, one that is used against his time and time again. It's a blessing and a curse to be kind.