DEMONS EYE

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This article is about the anime episode. For the similarly named manga chapter, see DEMON'S EYE.

DEMONS EYE
Series
Japanese Name	DEMONS EYE
English Name
English Name (Pioneer)
English Name (Funimation)	Demon's Eye
Season
Episode No.	15
Original Airdate	July 15, 1998
US Airdate	April 23, 2003
Writer
Director
Previous Episode	LITTLE ARCADIA
Next Episode	FIFTH MOON

"DEMONS EYE" (Eng: "Demon's Eye"^Funimation) is the fifteenth episode of Trigun (1998 anime).

Synopsis

The episode opens with Meryl and Milly seemingly driving along in a convertible. Milly likes that the ride is smooth, but says that it would be nice if the car could go faster. The camera then pans down to reveal Vash carrying the whole front car seat that the girls are sitting in on his shoulders. Meryl admonishes Vash when he whines, saying that he's got no right to complain since he's the one that wrecked the original car in the first place - and she intends to make sure he takes full responsibility for it. Vash wails.

In the nearby town of Jeneora Rock, some trucks pull up to the rest of a convoy parked outside of a bar. The townspeople stare as a group of thuggish-looking men and some barefoot girls get out and head inside. Exposition from the other bar patrons reveals that the thuggish men are the Roderick Thieves and are not at all liked, but are very menacing. Nobody knows who the girls are, but the patrons feel for them nonetheless. There is a small jazz band led by a saxophonist playing on the stage at the back of the room.

The Thieves get themselves situated around a sofa and coffee table, and their leader demands the best booze in the house. The waiter, a young man who looks like he's barely into his twenties, brings it to them but is absolutely shaking the whole time. One of the thieves, Nagi, teases the waiter by pulling out a gun and pretending to shoot him, which makes him physically jump back and gets uproarious laughter from the rest of the gang. He turns to the girl next to him to see if it impressed her, but she is blank-faced and does not react.

While this is going on, Legato is seated at the end of the bar eating what is supposed to be a stack of pancakes. The girl that Nagi was trying to impress happens to notice him and her eyes light up. Unfortunately, Nagi notices her reaction - as well as what she was looking at - and loses his temper. He smacks the girl to the floor and proceeds to stomp on her and curse at her until the gang's leader tells him to stop. Nagi then makes the fateful decision to challenge Legato to a fight.

Nagi tries to provoke Legato (with some help from the gang's leader), but can't seem to get a rise out of him. This just makes him angrier. He manages to shoot the top off of Legato's fork and then rain a hail of bullets around him when he asks for another, which is what finally does the trick. Legato turns and asks Nagi why he's in such a rush to die when humanity's going to meet its end soon anyway. Nagi starts to mock him, but soon regrets it when his arm starts moving of its own volition - he is appropriately terrified but cannot make it stop. The rest of the Roderick Thieves watch in horror as Nagi quite literally reaches into his own chest and pulls out his heart. He then collapses to the ground dead, in a pool of blood.

The rest of the gang react in shock and anger, pulling out their guns and moving to avenge their fallen comrade. To their surprise, however, the leader shoots at one of his own men. Then the other men all take aim at each other, utterly unable to lower their arms or move out of the way. The leader of the gang curses Legato as the Roderick Thieves open fire on each other. Legato returns to the bar and proceeds to finish his pancakes, band wailing in the background the whole time. When he is done and the bullets have stopped flying, he approaches the girls and tells them to make good use of the time they have left before the end of humanity comes. Then he leaves. As he walks down the town's now-empty main street, Legato muses to himself about what he just did, saying that it was unlike him but that it must have to do with Vash irritating him somehow.

A short time later, Vash finally arrives in Jeneora Rock with Meryl and Milly in tow. Meryl taunts Vash by dangling her canteen in front of him while Milly notes that the town is unusually quiet. Vash attempts to head into the same bar from earlier, only to find the aftermath of the earlier Roderick massacre. He is disturbed by the brutality of the attack and wants to know who's responsible. Milly and Meryl notice his reaction and ask him what's wrong, but he won't be forthcoming. Meanwhile, Legato has managed to make his way to the top of a pillar of rock containing the town's giant windmill, where he is confronted by the rest of the Roderick Thieves. A commander in the gang's hierarchy demands to know just how Legato managed to kill everybody down in the bar, including the vice-chief. He then says that the Roderick Thieves are bound by bonds that go deeper than family and will therefore avenge their fallen comrades. He aims to shoot, but one of the other gang members prevents him from shooting his gun by grabbing his arm. The commander tells him to stop, but the thug insists he can't - his hands are not under his control.

Legato's attention is then seemingly diverted, and he proceeds to have a one-sided conversation with an invisible third party. They both agree to kill half of the remaining gang members, which causes all of the other Roderick Thieves to draw their weapons and attempt to open fire. Suddenly, all Hell breaks loose. The Roderick Thieves are savagely attacked by what are seemingly very powerful unseen adversaries, though in actuality they are the members of the Gung-Ho Guns. When the dust settles, Legato tells the Roderick commander that the reason he spared half the men was so that the half spared could bury the dead half and thus know the pain of living. He then makes the Roderick commander shoot himself.

The Gung-Ho Guns then have a roll-call. The saxophone player from the band at the bar introduces each member before introducing himself as Midvalley the Hornfreak. Legato notes that someone named Chapel is missing, causing Midvalley to remark that this Chapel seems to be as unreliable as the rumors say. Midvalley then says that there's an awful lot of talent assembled at that location for just one target, but he is reassured that it won't all be wasted. Legato insists he has more respect for them all than that before introducing Dominique the Cyclops as the Gung-Ho Gun who will be engaging with Vash there at Jeneora Rock.

Back in town, Vash is banging on doors and hoping to get the attention of anyone he can to find out more about what happened at the bar. He happens to see somebody peeking out of a nearby house and runs to catch them at the door. He asks if the man responsible for the slaughter at the bar wore a white jacket, but only gets the door slammed on his finger in response. Meryl admonishes Vash while he nurses his wounded finger and tries to figure out where to find his adversary. Just then, a glint of light catches his eye and draws his attention to the town's giant windmill - miraculously, he is able to see Legato standing up there leering down at him. Angered, Vash jumps up and runs off to go confront him while leaving Meryl and Milly baffled at his sudden change in behavior (apparently they don't have Vash's eyesight). Milly offers to shoot him with her stungun, but Meryl tells her to stand down.

Vash gets to the top of the rock pillar to find a pile of corpses and Dominique. He angrily demands to know if she was the one responsible for killing them, and she is more than willing to take the credit. He tells her that no one is allowed to take the life of another, and then they fight. Dominique is seemingly able to teleport around the field, giving her an edge over Vash and almost besting him. She brags about her battle prowess as she fights with him. Vash wonders how he'll outsmart her teleportation when a thought occurs to him - perhaps if he focuses on something other than her, her gimmick won't work. He decides to focus on his injured finger, and it pays off - Dominique tries to deploy the Demon's Eye, but to her surprise Vash is able to best her because it no longer affects him. He shoots the cover off her eyepatch, revealing the Eye and ruining her whole gimmick.

Just then, Meryl and Milly finally make it to the top of the rock pillar and re-connect with Vash. Upon seeing Dominique looking shocked and disheveled, Meryl hauls off and decks Vash while Milly asks if Dominique is okay. Vash defends himself by asking if the insurance girls saw anything that just happened. Dominique flees from the windmill and down through some backstreets, wondering how she could've lost to someone like Vash before running into Midvalley...

Back at the windmill, Meryl demands to know exactly what happened that day. Before Vash can speak, however, a sax riff catches his attention - he looks over to see Legato and Midvalley perched on the pillar of rock next to his. Legato smiles tauntingly at Vash before a cloud of dust spirits he and Midvalley away. Vash then proceeds to tell the insurance girls in no uncertain terms that they need to stop following him, since events have now gotten far too dangerous for them to continue without getting hurt. Meryl tries to object, but Vash shuts her down. The episode ends with Vash vowing to turn the tables and hunt Legato down, whatever it takes.

Characters

In order of appearance:

• Meryl Stryfe
• Milly Thompson
• Vash the Stampede
• Roderick thieves
• Jeneora Rock citizens
• Enslaved girls
• Roderick second-in-command
• Nagi
• Saloon patrons
• Kuroneko-sama
• Midvalley the Hornfreak
• Midvalley's band
• Waiter

• Legato Bluesummers
• Roderick captain
• Gray the Ninelives
• Hoppered the Gauntlet
• E.G. Mine
• Caine the Longshot
• Dominique the Cyclops
• Zazie the Beast
• Leonof the Puppetmaster
• Rai-Dei the Blade

Manga

This episode's story is adapted from portions of the Trigun chapters "DEMON'S EYE" and "FIFTH MOON".

Gallery

See subpage Gallery

Notes

Trivia

• The Monthly Satellite Times headline for this episode reads "The Group of Thieves Called "ROADWRECK" is Destroyed in GENEORAROCK."
• A screenshot printed on the TRIGUN STAGE-8 LaserDisc package shows an alternate version of the scene where Vash reacts to his finger being slammed in the door, depicting him with a less exaggerated facial expression and head shape as well as his shoulder, arms, hands, and injured finger being drawn and shaded differently than is seen in the episode.

• 

  Package screenshot.

• 

  Episode screenshot.

Credits

See subpage Credits