Animangaki 2025: Studio Orange On Trigun’s Future

The past few years have been ripe for remakes and reiterations of existing 80s and 90s manga and anime series, with Trigun being one of them. A sci-fi western show featuring a lone gunman called Vash The Stampede who is on the run from people chasing him and his huge bounty, the show combines comedy, action, and kick-ass-looking guns, scifi tech, and weaponry that encapsulates the grit of the Wild West while also being slick-looking.

CG-adept anime studio Orange are behind the latest iteration of Vash and co. -subtitled Stampede- telling a new plot while adhering to the same scifi universe centered around a scifi-Western hybrid theme. While new anime watchers enjoyed the look and action, some fans of the 90s series aren’t into Vash’s new look and the overall revised plot.

That isn’t stopping Studio Orange from making a follow-up to Trigun Stampede, Trigun Stargaze. On whether the new 3D CG Trigun will get new fans on board Stampede and Stargaze over time, the studio is very confident in this regard, at least according to director Kenji Muto and producer Yoshihiro Watanabe.

“I think we were able to capture the existing fan art of Trigun in Trigun Stampede. I don’t know if I can say yes or no.

Basically, the characters that appear in Yasuhiro Nightow’s manga Trigun exist somewhere in that universe. The storytelling of Trigun Stampede is done on the premise that it’s based on Mr. Nighttow‘s world.

And everyone who exists in Nightow’s comic world exists somewhere in Stampede, or the world extending from Trigun Stampede. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. 

As for the original audience from Trigun Comic and Anime, we feel that we strongly were able to appeal to them. But each person, what they feel precious about Trigun in their own way. 

And we’re not trying to make something that’s changed what people felt special about. We were trying to create something, another special thing with Trigun Stampede. And we feel that if people could feel that this is another special thing that they could feel with their hearts, it’s something great for us.”

In our minds, more Trigun is always good, right? That’s what the director thought. 

“We’ve built quite a lot of concept art and design drawings during Trigun Stampede. So we’re confident that we’ll be able to continue to create as many as we can in the second season.”

The future of Trigun Stampede is looking bright, as Trigun Stargazer is set for 2026. Both producer and director teased what’s in store in the future.

“In terms of new characters or old characters we’re thinking of the comics?I can’t get into details yet. Definitely there are certain name drops that happened in the Stampede series.“

One major namedrop was Millie Thompson, Meryl’s business partner in the Trigun anime back in the 90s.

“One thing I can say is that she exists in that universe.We can’t say anything beyond that at this point.But how the character has been structured, I really look forward to how people find out.”

Trigun Stargaze will be out in 2026.

This interview is brought to you by the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur.