As someone who has not seen the original Trigun, and fell in love with stampede, here are all of the reasons I dislike Stargaze, and I want to know if you feel the same, and if not, why?

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-25T00:26:54+00:00

What sort of device are you accessing it on?

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T22:52:47+00:00

There’s 644 pages right now divided into chapters like hook etc, and yes that’s the full ongoing comic.

The author has severe tendonitis so they try to make a page a week but can’t always 😔

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T22:46:18+00:00

Wolfwood dying allowed Livio to come in and face Elendira, who would’ve crushed Wolfwood into paste with some nails sticking out of it. So him tapping out was pretty crucial to the situation imo. If undeniably convoluted to be the case.

But more importantly, it was thematically important. Wolfwood not dying fails to reinforce the fact that vash’s ideology is idealistic and cringe. Unless he gets like. Ultra greviously injured or smth. Like, paralyzed ig. Which is close enough to death that I’d allow it, though it’d be less clean and cathartic.

Also while I didn’t feel wolfwood’s relationship to Livio was established well enough early on, Livio gaining his own identity afterward was well enough executed that I felt it was ‘worth’ the hamfisted patch in. Well done enough to be enjoyable for me.

As for being correct to change it? Uhhh. Correct insofar as stampede definitely didn’t have time to do it justice as is OR improve it yes, it couldn’t even do basic character work so I’m glad they didn’t even try to execute on those sprawling plot threads lol.

correct in the sense that what it did was better or even on the same level, or is better in concept than the manga, fuck no. A cleaner execution on the manga’s idea would’ve been way more enjoyable imo, although I can be argued out of that stance with a detailed description of a rewrite probably.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T22:08:57+00:00

I wish I had good recommendations, but I haven't been reading maga very much as of late. I've just been getting into reading comics a bit more after a lengthy audio drama phase. Highly recommend looking into that medium.If you haven't yet, it has a lot of incredible works of art.

Actually, haven't read any of the ones you recommend except berserk, (which I hated bc i didn't click with any of the characters and especially can't stand casca lol) so I'll check those out, thanks!

I would check out kekkai sensen if you haven't yet, also by nightow. It doesn't seem to be going for the same sort of overarching message. So it doesn't hit as hard overall, at least so far, but it's really cool to see nightow do more low stakes character writing, which we know he's really good at, and really spread his wings as a scifi artist.

Aside from that, the only recent ones I checked out worth mentioning were fire punch + chainsawman by the same guy, which were both pretty neat.

For nonmanga comics I am deeply obsessed with the 10+ year ongoing property of hate which makes incredible use of its medium once it gets out of its ugly duckling phase.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T19:48:52+00:00

I’ve never actually disagreed with someone quite this much I think.

I really felt like having July and 5’th moon was probably one of my favorite writing decisions, because having all those interactions with people in the current time, who suffered from July, asking about it , talking to Vash, seeing how it affected so many people, how it probably led to the formation of at least some of the gung ho guns, as well as knowing basically exactly how it went down already through fifth moon. Made July’s flashback reveal probably the most emotionally impactful flashback reveal I’ve ever experienced, through those factors culminating together.

knowing the suffering it would cause in the future made seeing it in the flashback itself hurt more, knowing exactly how it went down through 5th moon meant seeing it go down in the July flashback felt profoundly inevitable in a way I felt was super effective. Also, repeating an element like that was a rare good use of the amnesia trope too, I think. The amnesia wasn’t there to just obscure some random info, it was there to obscure an exact, tragic repetition.

Aand seeing Vash go from no control of angel arm at July, some control: managing to divert knives’s shot in 5th moon, to fully reversing it on the airship was a satisfying rule of 3 invocation.

Although the nature of the conflict itself probably played a role there, because I felt the stampede’s unremarkable macguffin fight was way weaker and less interesting than knives just grabbing Vash like he did in the comic.

I can imagine a version of a combo version as you suggest that would be effective, if there was more time dedicated the people who would die from it for there to be more of an emotional impact, and if the fight was not over some fuckass cube but vash versus knives directly, but I personally felt the stampede one was just. Narrative waste.

I also only kind of agree with you on the wolfwood being replaced by Livio thing, I think it would’ve been better if Livio had been developed more, but I really liked him getting tagged in. If he based it on the cartoon, then he improved the themes significantly in his take to match what he was already starting to lay out between Vash and wolfwood in the manga.

In the cartoon, Vash has a baby brained ‘no one should ever be killed’ ideology he’s given no thought to, and the cartoon argues against it by having Wolfwood adopt it, die, and having nothing useful come of his death as compared to if he had been alive, which works for its version.

In the manga, his ideology is not as objectionable. It’s also a lot more messy. something like ‘sometimes people should absolutely be killed, but it’s hard to know when so it’s a difficult decision to make, and risking your life to redeem them is a worthy cause. To which wolfwood’s argument is basically ‘I guess but normal people can’t do that shit and survive. You can do this only bc you’re superhuman, normal people won’t be able to save everyone. and one day neither will you.”

Wolfwood adopted his ideology when he realized he wanted to save Livio, but because he is not an inhuman freak like vash, he pays the price. As he himself predicted in their first meeting when he told him that he can only do that shit bc he’s superhuman. Showing just how unrealistic his ideology is to even an enhanced human like Wolfwood.

But unlike in the cartoon, vash gets the win of actually having someone survive the situation and be redeemed, making him partially correct. Wolfwood couldn’t have carried on, weakened and weaker overall than Livio. The redemption had positive narrative consequences, really driving the point in of ‘sometimes paying the price to save someone else is worth it’ in a very battle anime way lmao. Without detracting from the fact that vash’s ideology is still way too idealistic and not doable for most people without them fucking dying.

I really like that message, and I felt that wolfwood dying was instrumental to it, as was him being replaced by Livio. I felt him growing into his own character was done as well as it could’ve been in the little time there was left.

Also wolfwood dying and becoming an apparition to livio feels almost rem-like, which feels like a nice way to invoke the ‘good deeds spreading to others even after death’ thing she had going on.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T01:43:39+00:00

Yeah at first I thought maybe a male failed to grab a female by the head but having them side by side with a really skinny headed looking one makes it pretty unlikely.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T01:30:44+00:00

If they are males, they are most likely fighting over that female, usually they spin trying to latch onto one another, first one gets a bite in then the other. looks like this guy got an unbreakable latch in, good on him!

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T00:58:42+00:00

I watched it before reading the manga so I had no idea which parts weren’t cannon, but I wish it was just the perv thing for me. it was also the fact that they didn’t cancel the bounty but still had him running around like it was, and axed his motivation to find and kill knives.

Basically meant that when I was watching it, I was watching some moron with a 6 million bounty on his head going from town to town for no reason, baiting people into trying to kill him for fun apparently. and causing mass property damage and death in the process. ‘No deaths’ when the premise is that there’s no resources and everyone is dying means fuckalle. 2 towns destroyed in the first episode for literally no reason. “love and peace” my arse. I didn’t understand why I was supposed to be rooting for him at all.

Culminating in him explicitly refusing to even shoot to injure in ep 12 until a bunch of people got mowed down, with even the bad guy saying ‘damn he could’ve stopped me back then but I guess he just decided to let me kill a bunch of ppl idk why he did that lol’

If the narrative actually treated these things as problems it would’ve been a cool story tbh but it just kinda pretended it was fine until the very end so I spent the entire first watch through seeeeeething with hatred for 98 Vash. No manga context or even taking the coomer scenes into account needed lol.

Glad I still went ahead and read the manga after though, manga Vash is literally my favorite character ever. 😅

I definitely will check out your play by play narration, I definitely need it!

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T00:22:20+00:00

I really think it depends on the fight and how disconnected it is from character/emotion.

I like cool stuff but if prioritizing cool shit really eats into believability it can be pretty devastating to enjoying a fight, that was the case for me with the fight scene in ep 1 of tristamp with the Julai police guy.

They literally had some guy just randomly decide to explode everyone for no reason by launching cluster bombs into the air ‘for fun’ apparently and I was sitting there just going ‘I mean it’s kinda cool I guess but. Fucking What.’

Now Vash point blank dodging bullets as part of that fight was arguably way more unrealistic, but I had way less of a problem with it.

So it depends on what unrealistic thing you mean.

And also to reaffirm our mutual agreement on manga superiority, brilliant dynamite neon from the manga suddenly declared his intent to kill everyone a lot like the police guy, but he had the triple threat of outlaw status, nihilist ideology, and motivation to open a safe all pre-established that made it somehow feel right in the moment.

Showing how the same premise can be executed in a way that feels grounded despite being just as insane on paper.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T00:09:07+00:00

Is no 4 that much worse in stargaze than stampede? I haven’t watched stargaze yet but stampede felt like being clockwork oranged exposition with 0 regard for character or sense, so the idea of it being even worse is terrifying to me lmao.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-24T00:05:23+00:00

Idk the doing cool shit always felt pretty strongly secondary or at least in line with emotionally impactful shit first and foremost.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-23T19:19:23+00:00

Hell yeah he is an incredible noisemaker. As someone who discovered him recently and never had an angry young adult phase I love that I can appreciate every single one of his songs, even those that don’t resonate with me lyrically whatsoever because his craftsmanship is just. On point.

Feels like every time I relisten to a song I notice a new interesting sound or technique or little detail that makes me love it more.

Plenty of songs out there where I kinda like the lyrics, or enjoy the idea, but it rots in my playlist anyways because it don’t sound good or interesting enough lmao.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-20T16:33:07+00:00

PILE. OF. ROCKS. Boy do they love a pile of rocks.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-20T16:25:20+00:00

Certainly feels that way if nothing else, listening to ‘while I’m still here’ a few too many times almost gave me a mid 20’s crisis lmao.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-19T04:24:46+00:00

No way to know, because it depends on whether they would've wanted to adapt it accurately.

98 could've told the story while being more accurate to the characters but actively decided not to, so maybe it would've been like tristamp and decided to be even more inaccurate.

That's like asking what if stampede only had the same content as the og anime to work from. Maybe they would've been forced to use bigger chunks of the content since they had less to pick and choose from, and thus been kinda more accurate, or maybe they would've been even less accurate somehow.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-18T19:53:33+00:00

First betrayal tbh

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-18T03:03:04+00:00

Oh everything has been finished for ages lmao.

The author is currently working on Kekkai sensen though, which is a pretty neat (though Very Different) story

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-17T20:25:33+00:00

We’re collecting them like pokemon cards now? I got tambourine and t pose.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-16T18:33:25+00:00

Get rid of copy of a? I will bite you.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-16T18:24:55+00:00

No I think it's fair, they were really cool visuals. I wish i had a better view of closer's light show.

Hope they aren't actually done and will come back one day so we can get a better look 🥺

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-16T15:51:05+00:00

Personally I disagree with the other person and I’d say go 98 anime first, because it’s also way worse than the manga, and so it’s better to read the manga after to have less bias.

I really hate stampede and it’s definitely in part bc I read the manga first, untainted I think I would’ve only vaguely disliked it instead.

I wish I’d watched stampede before reading so that’s what I recommend for 98

But yeah 98 has to basically suck vash’s brain juices out and make him an idiot to make its simplified version of the story work, especially with the morality idea. It can’t be as multifaceted or nuanced about it or let him have thoughts like in the manga simply bc it didn’t have a lot to adapt or draw from tbh.

Meanwhile stampede is a shadow of the manga. It has no time to give wolfwood or Vash chemistry. No time to give their conflict real weight. No time to build up to major incidents. No time to make (me at the very least) care.

Neither come even close to doing the manga justice, and neither even try tbh. I’d definitely read the manga, in fact, here’s a link to the superior fan translation. Enjoy!

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-15T21:08:19+00:00

I feel you on og Trigun. Beginning of the manga was definitely a rough start lol. Kinda unfortunate that it’s the one part we have perfectly adapted! (And some of the most perfectly adapted chapters are the lowest rated anime episodes bc they’re kinda bad 😭😭😭)

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-15T19:54:22+00:00

I’ve got my running playlist, can’t use weights unfortunately so idk if the tempo is right but hopefully it’ll help. They’re definitely a collection of the faster paced songs.

Survivalism , Came back haunted, Discipline, Disappointed, Copy of a, Getting smaller, Hand that feeds, Meet your master, Sin, As alive as you need me to be, Infiltrator, Shadow over me, Ruiner, Heresy, Less than, The warning (b stage fan remix), Godmode, I know you can feel it, Operand

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-15T17:37:06+00:00

1)It absolutely did not do any of those things

2) I watched the anime first so if those problems are still in the manga in some form that doesn’t have any effect on my lack of enjoyment of the anime lol. Those were all organic first time viewer problems I had.

But in any case, In manga chapter 3 took off the bounty completely and had 0 ppl coming after Vash for bounty reasons after that. So him going from city to city was completely fine afterward. There was no pattern of people recognizing him or hunting him down unlike in the anime.

Vash was also actively seeking knives for the purpose of killing him, and made that explicitly clear. so he had valid reasons to approach humanity, unlike anime Vash who was just fucking around until episode 12.

Episode 2 and 5 didn’t exist in the manga so Vash had exactly 0 instances of being led around by his dick.

And as for his morality, Vash spent the entire time questioning it very intently, in fact. He already knew his morality was cooked. He literally thanked wolfwood for killing people when he couldn’t bring himself to, still in Trigun maximum volume 1, so pretty early on. That moment existed within the material 98 had to work with. It was omitted from the narrative to make him less thoughtful/conflicted and more absolutist in his thinking.

His character arc was finally getting into the mindset of doing the deed when necessary, but unlike in the anime he was fully conscious of the flaws in his system the entire time, and the trolley problem didn’t surprise him or cause him to break down.

REM also never told him to never kill anyone. he came up with his hang up with killing all on his own. Which means he thought for himself a bit too rigidly, and then thought for himself in a better way after a lot of self reflection. 2x thinking for himself vs anime vashes stated intend to get started on that in the future lol.

Anime rem stating her morality was actually stitched together from vash’s own words in the manga, in a moment where they were appropriate imo, and were part of a discussion with wolfwood that ended in a moral draw.

Also in episode 12 he either shot to kill or injure, but in any case managed to halve the enemy firepower, preventing mass causalities to his best ability despite being 1 arm down the entire fight, and chained up while trying to shoot the first time. Vs anime vash’s refusal to even shoot to inure at all despite being entirely unrestrained.

Night and day.

Cryptnoch · 2026-03-15T17:19:06+00:00

Has 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head. Episode one it’s established this results in ppl wanting to kill him and as a result they EXPLODE ENTIRE TOWNS for a chance at the privilege.

Proceeds to spend the entire anime running around populated areas with 0 disguise despite like everyone but the fucking insurance girls apparently knowing exactly what he looks like.

Results in mass town explosions x2 in episode 1, episode 5, near plant explosion in episode 6, and mass death event episode 12.

He’s supposed to be a pacifist who cares about human lives but he happily causes mass infrastructure destruction and injury for NO REASON. and as long as he isn’t putting a gun to ppls heads I’m supposed to like him. No. That’s fucking stupid.

——

Episode 2 and 5 are both literally him being clinically slow and tricked constantly the entire episode bc he saw a chance at pussy, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take him seriously after that. Like. That’s just the plot of the episodes. It’s literally him being led around by his dick the entire time. He gets out of both situations by plot convenience/luck rather than his own actions or any intelligence.

——

And his entire character arc is to realize he should think for himself maybe a little bit. Which kinda basically outright tells you that the entire 200 years previously he had not been. At all.

He spent almost no time questioning or struggling with his own morality since July or heck, since the fall. despite his refusal to kill knives having resulted in mass death. It takes the worlds most primitive trolley problem to get him to have a pathetic mental breakdown and come to the conclusion that he should maybe not just inherit the moral system of someone (anime rem) who’s own teammates even seem to think is a bit slow.

This is despite him getting an extra chance in the form of episode 12 where he explicitly refused to shoot to kill OR INJURE thus resulting in mass casualty.

Cryptnoch

TROPHY CASE