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Vash the Stampede

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Vash the Stampede
Trigun character
Vash the Stampede created by Yasuhiro Nightow
Created by	Yasuhiro Nightow
Voiced by	Masaya Onosaka Johnny Yong Bosch (English) Kouki Miyata (Young) Bryce Papenbrook (Young, English)
Profile
Aliases	The Humanoid Typhoon
Age	131+
Gender	Male
Species	Plant
Known relatives	Million Knives (Brother)

Vash the Stampede (ヴァッシュ・ザ・スタンピード Vasshu za Sutanpīdo) is the main character of the anime and manga series Trigun. A fictional character, Vash is also known as The Humanoid Typhoon due to the destruction which surrounds him. He is initially discovered by Meryl and Milly, representatives from an insurance agency investigating claims made due to damages caused by the mysterious "Humanoid Typhoon". The pair find Vash while he is being chased by bandits who want to collect the bounty on "The 60,000,000,000$$ (sixty billion double dollar) Man". ^[1] He escapes while Milly and Meryl eventually learn that Vash is actually the person they are assigned to track.

1 Concept and Creation
2 Personality
3 Background
4 Abilities
5 Weapons
6 Pivotal storyline
- 6.1 July Incident
7 Other appearances
8 Notes and references
9 External links

Concept and Creation

Personality

Vash displays two different personalities. Vash usually exaggerates foolish characteristics to make people feel unthreatened and to hide his identity; for instance, exhibiting an almost obsessive love of doughnuts.^[2] Vash's reputation as "The Humanoid Typhoon" is legendary, as is the damage and destruction associated with his presence.^[3] However, when those around him are threatened, Vash shows complete focus and control. Vash is a multidimensional character who, despite his age, has still not found peace with himself. A point of conflict in the series are the inner differences between Vash and Millions Knives, his twin brother, and their regard for humanity. Though Vash and Knives have gone through the same experience and torment, Vash chooses to remain hopeful and loving toward humanity, where as Knives has fallen into a deep-seated hatred of their race. Their personalities also have key differences: Vash cannot stand the despair of being alone, whereas Knives revels in his loneliness and has no desire for any company. Because Vash refuses to kill any of his opponents, he often suffers at the hands of very persistent enemies and their attempts at revenge. As a result, his body is a patchwork of large scars, chunks of missing flesh supported by metal mesh, and stitch marks.

Background

Vash is not human, but a human-like "Plant". Plants are inter-dimensional beings that are tapped as a source of power and energy for the planet Gunsmoke, similar to the "Fast-Friends" from the George R.R. Martin short story of the same name.^[4] As a Plant, his body does not physically age past his mid-twenties. Vash is actually 131 years old in the anime, 150 in the manga by the end of the first series and 152 by the beginning of the second series. Vash requires a special Angel Gun to activate his powers. Shortly after he receives his Angel Gun from his brother, Vash shoots Knives in the leg, then takes both guns and flees into the desert. He spends two years alone wandering Gunsmoke until he finally collapses.^[4] He is rescued by humans from the only remaining functioning SEEDS ship on the planet, which didn't quite crash during "The Great Fall."^[5] While there he makes human friends and is gifted with his signature red (duster styled) trench coat. After a few months he leaves and ventures out into the world. Vash returns to the ship 80 years later in search of any relatives of Rem in its databanks and finds the last one alive: PASSENGER NO.300-89-9023AS, or "Revenant Buskus". Buskus had studied Plants and established a new plant-theory in July City. Vash goes to July City in the hopes of meeting him, but instead finds Knives standing over Revenant's dead body. In the ensuing firefight, Knives shoots Vash's left arm off. He then activates Vash's Angel Arm in an attempt to destroy the city and everyone in it, but Vash turns the Angel Arm on Knives instead, resulting in the July Incident. Vash's full name is never revealed; in episode 23 of the anime, Nicholas D. Wolfwood asks for Vash's real name, but Vash answers that his name is irrelevant. Later in the story Vash "puts down his gun", hoping to leave his bounty hunted life and start over. He then goes by the name Kanan or when some call him Erics. Nicholas D. Wolfwood, starts to look for Vash and finds him in a town full of criminal gangs in which their leader calls himself Vash The Stampede. In the manga, Vash is an "independent" plant, with a mostly similar personality to his anime adaptation. His body is ravaged and scarred, and he refuses to use his abilities as a plant to heal them. He denies himself the company of women because he is certain that "They would only run away" after seeing his scars (manga; Chapter 4: "Scars").

Abilities

Aside from his Angel Gun Vash has shown a superhuman level of agility and eyesight. In episodes of the anime Vash has often showed the ability to dodge bullets at close range and dodge skilled melee attacks while pretending to dance with a woman. During a dueling competition Wolfwood noted Vash was quite good at changing trajectories as he threw rocks to knock bullets off their lethal courses.

Weapons

Signature weapon (Angel Gun)

Vash habitually carries a .45 caliber silver- or nickel-plated revolver which bears resemblance to many different revolvers. It is a classic six-shot double-action revolver with a top break reloading mechanism and fires .45 Long Colt ammunition. The model description says it is a ".45 Long Colt EAGLE." Vash's revolver has the barrel aligned with the 6 o'clock chamber and not the 12 o'clock chamber as is the typical configuration of standard revolvers. Only one actual weapon follows this form factor, the Mateba Autorevolver. In the series this pistol was created by Knives. In the manga, Vash uses his unique gun more out of mere novelty and habit. Visually the pistol in the manga is also different from that in the anime. In Trigun Maximum, the revolver used in the anime appears for Vash for use as a two-panel replacement for his standard gun while it is being repaired.

Angel Arm

Within Vash's trademark revolver lies the catalyst needed to activate his "Angel Arm". The Angel Arm is Vash's ultimate weapon. On activation his right arm transforms into a weapon powerful enough to destroy entire cities with a single blast in a way similar to the effects of a hydrogen or nuclear bomb. Vash fears the Angel Arm's potential for destruction and knows little about how to use it. In the manga the Angel Arm is a natural feature of a plant's body, and can be manipulated into various shapes to create various effects beyond destruction. His power using the Angel Arm is limited- -like a battery it contains only a certain amount of energy, and when that energy is gone he will die. Vash's Angel Arm takes the shape of a large cannon weapon, which uses a tremendous amount of power. As a meter of spent energy a plant's hair color gradually darkens as their internal power is spent until reaching a final color of black when fully depleted. To illustrate the power of the Angel Arm Vash's hair began to darken after the second time he fires it, using enough energy to blast a hole in the moon. Throughout the manga, Vash learns to gain better control of his power to form smaller cannons and defensive feathers, though his hair continues to grow darker until almost completely black.

Cybernetic arm

Vash lost his left arm when Knives blew it off using a different revolver, seeming Vash stole Knive's gun years earlier. He now has a cybernetic replacement, which also conceals an integrated firearm. It is a powerful semiautomatic machine gun that is later upgraded to an automatic submachine gun.

Other weapons

Vash uses Nicholas D. Wolfwood's weapon, the Punisher, when fighting Knives in the last episode. In the fight at one point, Knives is able to steal Vash's revolver and use it against him. Knives activates both of the gun's power (the Angel Arms)while Vash lies on the ground helpless. Then spiritually Wolfwood tells Vash that the Punisher is laying underneath the sand right next to him. So Vash listens, puts his hand in the sand, retrieves it and shoots Knives in the arms, negating both the Angel Arms. In others episodes, he has used a retractable knife that comes from the tip of his boot, and an Uzi in the episode with Brillant Dynamites Neon.

Pivotal storyline

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July Incident

The infamous July Incident occurred before the start of the manga, when Vash traveled to the city of July in search of a man distantly related to Rem. Upon arriving, he was greeted by Knives, who had slain the man whom Vash had come to speak with. Knives announced that he'd destroyed the last connection Vash had to Rem, and in the exchange that followed, shot off Vash's left arm. Against Vash's will, Knives activated Vash's previously dormant Angel Arm, hoping to annihilate the surrounding town. However, Vash aimed the blast at Knives; the resulting blast reduced July to rubble, though there were no casualties as a direct result of the skirmish (there were, however, indirect fatalities after the homeless citizens of July began to fight among themselves, turning the remnants of the town to "Hell", in the words of one survivor). In the manga, 200,000 people are killed directly in the explosion.

Other appearances

Vash the Stampede makes a cameo appearance in the videogame Wild Arms 2 and in the anime Excel Saga. A Black-haired character resembling Vash appears in Episode 2 of Cowboy Bebop. "Stray Dog Strut" In artist, writer and musician Voltaire (musician)'s fourth Deady book ("Deady: Big in Japan"), there is a cosplayer dressed as Vash eating pocky.