Jay☆Jay

I'm going to be comparing StampGaze to Trimax (the manga) because the directors said they were going off of that in addition to working directly with Nightow.

Stampede director KIYOTAKA WAKI talking about the reboot:

I will be giving a bit of grace to Trigun Stargaze due to the season suffering from behind the scenes issues and director switch. Most of the comparison will be pulled from Trigun Stampede.

In this text post I’ll be covering misogyny in literature, Trimax Wolfwood’s caretaker traits, StampGaze Wolfwood's lack of said traits, the treatment of Meryl and how it parallels to Wolfwood, and lastly why this flattens Wolfwood's character in StampGaze.

1. Let's define misogyny!

“Misogyny is the hatred of women. Misogyny also refers to contempt for the qualities that are associated with femininity, whether exhibited by women or by men.”(UCLA).

I would like to argue that Wolfwood has traits commonly seen in literature as “feminine” or assigned to women. I believe Wolfwood falls into the nurturer archetype. Writer Jennifer Ellis defines the trope as,“tied up in caring for others particularly children; Sacrifices self to help others; Often a supporting character”.

2. How does this trope reflect in Wolfwood's Trimax characterization?

A big part of Wolfwood's character in the manga is connected to the orphanage he grew up in. We see in manga how he gives his money away to some children and advises them to not steal for their own safety. This behavior is then reflected in flashbacks to Wolfwood as a young boy. Wolfwood cares for the younger children by taking them to the bathroom, changing them, making wooden toys for them, etc. It seems like it comes natural to Wolfwood to take care of others before himself. In fact hes so concerned about the kids back home that he stays away from them to protect their innocence. He feels unfit to take care of them anymore, fearing that his sins will taint them.

A lot of these behaviors are reserved for women in literature due to the misogynist idea that women are born to care for children and aren't complete women without it. This reduces an entire gender identity to a single skill and any divergence from it is seen as "unnatural".

A woman in literature having these traits isn’t misogynist by itself but the repetitiveness of this trope being assigned to women regardless of personality is. It implies that caring for children is connected solely to female biology instead of personality and choice.

As a male character with these traits, Wolfwood is a unique outliner that shows taking care of children is not something that requires you to be a woman/feminine adjacent. Wolfwood's ability to care for children is not seen as a weakness to his character but rather his strength in general. He's able to keep going because he has the orphanage to take care of even from a distance. Overall it is great to see that Wolfwood is able to fall into a traditional feminine trope and still be a well rounded and strong character.

3. How does studio Orange portray these traits?

StampGaze takes a different direction with Wolfwood's connection to the orphanage. Orange chose to focus on Wolfwood's relationship with Livio. That alone is not a bad change but I think the way Orange went about it is rooted in misogyny.

Orange turned Wolfwood into more of a rebellious child that was like an older brother figure to Livio. My problem lies in the fact that it’s ONLY Livio that these older brother traits are shown to. None of the other children are shown this type of care on screen from Wolfwood. This weakens his connection to the orphanage as a whole compared to the manga. He clearly didn’t want the orphanage to be destroyed, stating he would hurt Vash if the orphanage was touched. However studio Orange connected so much of Wolfwood's childhood to Livio, it seems like he cares about the orphanage out of nostalgia for Livio instead of individual care for the children who live there. Which again, weakens the impact that his orphan upbringing had.

In my opinion, studio Orange wanted to mold Wolfwood into a more recognizable stoic and cool deuteragonist that accompanies the joyful protag in many animes/mangas. EX: Naruto and Sasuke, Killua and Gon, Goku and Vegeta

Usually these deuteragonist characters are less optimistic and more self centered than the protag. To a degree Wolfwood IS that to Vash, but more complex.

StampGaze Wolfwood feels more like a foil character to Vash

Trimax Wolfwood feels like a reflection character to Vash.

4. Why do I think this change is rooted in misogyny instead of a simple character direction change?

I came to the conclusion that misogyny had a part to play in this change because a slightly similar thing is seen with Meryl and Roberto. In the manga Meryl is very assertive and confident in her job. She seems to be the more experienced one compared to Milly.

Trigun Stampede takes place before the manga timeline so studio Orange made her more inexperienced and younger. This alone is not a bad idea. The misogynist part is the addition of a man to be her mentor. An independent gun slinging reporter girl is really uncommon in anime, especially at the time of the manga's release. Most female characters in the anime and manga space don't even pass the bechdel test.

Studio Orange’s addition of a male mentor feeds into the idea that women need a man to teach them to survive/succeed. Roberto could have easily been an older woman mentor that highlighted the sexism in the field of work Meryl is in. Sex-based discrimination in the workplace is something Meryl has to deal with in the manga. Through her resilience and bravery, she disproves the idea that women are less capable than men in her field. This aspect of Meryl's character is intentionally stripped away by the active decision to create a whole new male character to take Meryl's self-taught development away.

With this provided context, this is why I believe that the changes to Wolfwood's character is rooted in misogyny. Meryl’s development was changed to be connected to a man simply because she's a woman. So who's to say that Wolfwood’s caretaker traits were stripped simply because he’s a man.

5. Why does this change negatively affect Wolfwood's character?

Trimax Wolfwood is very expressive and caring outside of his role as the Punisher. Vash even makes a comment claiming that Wolfwood is,“forcing himself to become a devil while his heart cries out”(I’m paraphrasing). This makes sense for Vash to say after seeing Wolfwood care for others, even killing for Vash to protect him. During their first meeting in the manga, Wolfwood comments on Vash’s genuine smile, calling it a nice compliment in itself (again paraphrasing).

StampGaze Wolfwood would be caught dead before saying this.

The StampGaze version of this is Vash saying Wolfwood has, “the eyes of a good guy”, after giving a disguised Zazie a lollipop to comfort them. Theoretically Vash probably picked up on the fact that Wolfwood was sent by his brother. The kid Wolfwood comforted being Zazie in disguise probably strengthened this suspicion. All this to say that this act of kindness doesn’t feel as genuine as the manga counterpart. Vash delivering this line in StampGaze feels naive on his part.

Traditionally in literature, high emotional expression is associated with femininity. Manga Wolfwood is very honest about how he feels and only shields how he's really feeling in order to protect people. StampGaze Wolfwood's emotional expressions are saved for comedic relief mostly. Any other time it’s very minimal or not shown at all.

In conclusion StampGaze Wolfwoods character suffers from studio Oranges attempt to turn him into a recognizable sasuke-like anime trope and the studio’s misogynistic ideals which stripped Wolfwood of a lot of his core traits. Therefore creating an overall flat character compared to the source material.