Top 25 Anime Characters: #3 – Vash the Stampede

#3. Vash the Stampede

Created by: Yasuhiro Nightow

First Appearance: Trigun Episode 1 – The $$60 Billion Man

Voiced by: Japanese - Masaya Onosaka ; English - Johnny Yong Bosch

When you talk about cool anime looks it is hard to get better than Vash the Stampede. With the blond broom head type hair, the long red trench coat, some nice shades, a killer gun, and even better robotic arm that transforms into an even bigger gun that can destroy whole cities what else is there not to like about Vash. And when you add to it that Vash has a $$60 billion dollar bounty on his head it doesn't get much better.

Trigun is similar to Cowboy Bebop in that it combined the western, comedy, action/adventure, and sci-fi genre, with more of a heavy reliance on the western genre, into this one show and made it work. So like Cowboy Bebop the anime and manga work on a lot of levels. This is probably my favorite series that had a western/post-apocalyptic look to it as Yashiro Nightow made everything look great as well as creating a great story.

To make things more interesting was as the anime progressed we started to learn more about Vash's past and why he had a bounty of $$60 billion on his head. I think what really sets it home of how much of a tortured life Vash has lived is seeing all the scars on his body. Though on the surface Vash is a goofy acting character underneath there laid a complex character who had everything taken away from him by his "brother." You add in the western look of his world Vash is great character who you do not want to mess with especially when he uses his gun.

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