Heyo!
Last month, I was minding my own business, endlessly scrolling Twitter and stopping ever so often to retweet beautiful fanart made by my favorite artist and information tweeted by official anime accounts. Until I stumbled upon, Yasuhiro Nightow’s tweet. Who is Yasuhiro Nightow you ask? He is just the mangaka of the legendary series called “Trigun”.
Trigun was serialized from 1995 to 1996, continuing under the title “Trigun Maximum” from 1997 to 2007, adopted in an anime that aired in 1998. At the beginning of 2023, it was remade under the title “Trigun Stampede”. This story is about a pacifist gunman named Vash the Stampede who has a massive bounty on his head and is chased around by bounty hunters from all over the fictional desert planet called “No Man’s Land”.
On an eventful Saturday afternoon, I was able to grab a ticket for the rerun of the 2010 movie “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” and was able to reserve for the Trigun X HUB (a pub) collab for this day in advance. I had a tight schedule on this day since I had reserved them back-to-back with little travel time since the movie was in Akihabara and the pub was in Ikebukuro (a 30-minute train ride distance).
Trigun: Badlands Rumble Movie Rerun (Trigun BLR)
As I was going deeper into the rabbit hole of Trigun, I watched this movie when I saw this on Amazon Prime Video. Let me tell you, when I get obsessed with an anime title, I will scratch every surface to watch everything that has been released related to that title whether it's an anime show, OVA, audio drama, and movie.
To be honest, I didn’t have an expectation since I have already seen this movie. I decided to get buy the ticket because I want to see it on the big screen. It turns out that this was essentially a fan event. The ticket sale was through a site that organizes reruns of past movies. Users get to vote 3 times per day on the movie title they want to see. I really have no idea since I just wanted to see this movie on the big screen. So due to the immense vote for Trigun, they surely made the rerun happen multiple times at multiple locations at this point. It shows just how popular Trigun is even though a decade or so has passed since the release of the movie.
The rerun was hosted at a theater in Akihabara. There were 160-170 seats available during the sale so you can imagine that this was definitely intimate fan viewing. All seats were sold out within 5 minutes but at the time, it wasn't cramped and the theater was just enough size to accommodate the moviegoers.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend that you do. If you have little knowledge of the Trigun story, you can watch this movie on its own but if you want to watch the 98 anime, this movie and Trigun Stampede. I recommend this watch order.
Trigun 98 anime episode 1-9 > Trigun BLR > Trigun 98 anime episode 10-26 > Trigun Stampede
While Trigun BLR is an original story, it's been stated that for the story’s purposes, the movie takes place between episodes 9 to 12 of the 98 anime right after when Vash met Wolfwood. By the way, my watch order was Trigun Stampede 1-5 > Trigun 98 1-26 > Trigun Stampede 6-12 > Trigun BLR. In the end, I can guarantee you will enjoy Trigun whatever watch order you choose.
Trigun Stampede X HUB Collab
The highlight of the day, if you ask me.
As I said in the beginning, this day was packed so when the ending credits of the movie ended, I stood up, run to the station and head my way to Ikebukuro. The movie ended at 3:20 PM I reserved for 4 pm at the pub and I hate being late so I was sweating buckets when the time was nearing. Turns out I was just in time.
I am not a frequent drinker or bar goer so I didn’t know that HUB was a British pub! Well, I should have known because I already looked at the menu days before this day. I knew that they were serving alcohol but my brain did not register that what I’m going was a pub. I thought, “Oh cool! This cafe event serves alcohol!”. I was so wrong. It was not a cafe at all.
But nonetheless, I went into the pub and they had me seated RIGHT NEXT TO THE PANELS!!
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I guess it was just not me, but I was personally trying to contain my excitement. But inside I feel like I’m about to pass out. It is one of the anime collabs that I have ever gone to ever since coming to Japan. I kept brushing the idea of attending “otaku events” 1, because I don’t like crowds and 2, well, there’s no 2.
But this year, especially right after the pandemic restrictions have been lifted, I swore to attend all the anime events that I can physically and financially can. It’s a very freeing moment as an otaku. Whatever anime collab events you attend, you will feel welcomed and validated. I personally think that is the most important.
Since this collab is with a pub, minors and those that are not of drinking age (20 years old) are obviously not allowed. It’s refreshing to see adults otakus with the same interest in the same area. There are no hyper-excitement noises that would break seasoned otaku's ears. People are there to celebrate the anime collab and enjoy the vibe.
They also showed some behind-the-scenes and the-making footage of Trigun Stampede from the concept art, storyboard, 2d animation, and final animation. The full footage of these behind-the-scenes is included with the Trigun Stampede Volume 3 Blu-Ray/DVD.
The Menu
| Menu item | Description |
|---|---|
| Noman's Land sandwich, 800 yen | Chicken and lettuce topped with a desert-inspired curry-flavored sauce. (Worms meat is not used.) |
| Vash the Stampede, 850 yen | Orange liqueur, Vodka, Cranberry juice |
| Nicholas D. Wolfwood, 850 yen | Coffee liqueur, Whiskey, Cola |
| Millions Knives, 850 yen | Yogurt liqueur, Apple juice |
| Legato Bluesummers, 850 yen | Peach liqueur, Apple juice, Tonic water |
| Roberto De Niro, 850 yen | Whiskey, Ginger ale, Pink grapefruit |
| Meryl Strife, 750 yen | Apple milk tea mocktail (Non alcoholic) |
When you reserve a seat, it comes with a food and drink ticket worth 2000 which you pay when you enter the pub. For every order of the collab drinks, you get 1 random coaster. Also, from July 21st, every order of the Noman’s Land Sandwich comes with a postcard to celebrate the twins, Vash and Knives’ birthday.
I have only tried Vash and Wolfwood’s drinks since those are the only ones that I am familiar with, taste-wise. I loved Vash’s drink so much that I had another round. Vash’s drink was very much juice but bitter because of the vodka. Wolfwood’s was not bad and it mostly tastes like cola.
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The Noman's Land sandwich is curry flavor so it has a little kick to it and they claim that there is no worms meat used. (You'll get this when you watch the Trigun Stampede)
It’s been a while since I’ve had alcoholic drinks so I forgot to pace myself and drink on like its juice. I left the pub a little more than tipsy but extremely happy.
Final thoughts
It was worth the time and money. It was also my first time post-pandemic to be in Tokyo (excluding the JJK collab I went to earlier in July. Wait for that blog!), which I consider to be my playground. It's the best time I've had in a while.
Also this time, I didn’t have a fever which could have ruined this special day!
Fever 1 - Me 1.
If you wanna know what’s up with me and being sick the day before an event, read here.
As a farewell, let me share with you a couple of fanart I made on Vash.
893パロヴァッシュ for @ShinTinn
— CREAMSON クリームゾン 🔞🖌リハビリ中 (@creamsonlog) May 23, 2023
🔫はムズイ#TRIGUN #TRIGUNSTAMPEDE pic.twitter.com/uRiyUGiiML
ヴァッシュrkgk#TRIGUN #TRIGUNSTAMPEDE #TRIGUN_STAMPEDE pic.twitter.com/qols4Tcil1
— CREAMSON クリームゾン 🔞🖌リハビリ中 (@creamsonlog) July 1, 2023
That's it for now.
Remember, creativity is contagious. Pass it on.
Let's be nice to each other.
See you at the next one.
All images are mine unless stated otherwise.
I'm crimsonowl, an otaku, a freelance artist under the name CREAMSON, co-creator of ArtPark Community, a blogger talking about anime, art, and everything in between.
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