The 1990s were a great time for anime, loaded with classics like Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Cowboy Bebop. Each is important in its own way, but one series from that era stands out due to how different it is even from today's action series: Trigun.
Trigun is a space western series that got its start in the doomed manga magazine Monthly Shonen Captain, which went bust while the story was still ongoing in 1997. Fortunately, when creator Yasuhiro Nightow was approached to create a new series for the seinen (young men) magazine Young King OURS, Nightow was allowed to continue Trigun under the name Trigun Maximum, where it then ran for 10 more years. A 26-episode anime adaptation was released in 1998, which then came across to US shores and aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in 2003, where it was cemented as a classic of the era.
Trigun follows two insurance claims adjusters, Meryl and Millie, as they try to track down a man known as Vash the Stampede, the real hero of the piece, who's known for causing catastrophic damage everywhere he goes. When Meryl and Millie meet Vash, however, they learn that he's actually an absolute pacifist, unwilling to fight anyone for essentially any reason. His reputation for causing damage isn't because of his own behavior, but rather the behavior of bounty hunters who chase after him recklessly. Set on a colony planet named Gunsmoke in deep space, Meryl and Millie follow Vash as he travels from town to town, afraid to stay in any one place too long, and slowly unravel the mystery of who Vash is and how he came to have this reputation.
Vash is Unlike Any Other Shonen Hero
In a time when heroes like Goku or Yu Yu Hakusho's Yusuke were raring to fight with anyone who posed a challenge, Vash was a breath of fresh air. His pursuers made sure that the show still had plenty of action, but Vash understood what it meant to harm someone and was absolutely against it. The series often puts him into difficult situations where there is no easy answer--particularly ones where Meryl and/or Millie were endangered as a result of being near him. And, oddly enough, his pacifism doesn't stop Vash from using firearms, resulting in a lot of trick shots and other clever applications. Vash does bear some similarities to Goku in that he has a childlike personality, but this persona is really just a disarming cover, getting people to think he's just some idiot and can't possibly be the legendary "Humanoid Typhoon."
The Trigun manga and subsequent anime set a new archetype for action heroes in these kinds of series, something which helped the series stand apart and develop the following it has to this day. The series is definitely worth a watch for any anime fan who hasn't had the pleasure of experiencing it yet.