NOMAN'S LAND

NOMAN'S LAND
Series
Japanese Name	NOMAN'S LAND
English Name
English Name (Pioneer)
English Name (Funimation)
Season
Episode No.	1
Original Airdate	January 7th, 2023
US Airdate
Writer
Director	Naomichi Yamato
Previous Episode
Next Episode	The Running Man

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This article is about the Trigun Stampede episode. For the similarly-named planet, see No Man's Land (planet).

"NOMAN'S LAND" is the first episode of Trigun Stampede.

Synopsis

A flotilla of ships navigates through space, the SEEDs fleet, passing through the upper atmosphere of a desert planet. Aboard one, SEEDs Ship Five, a boy in cold-weather gear enters a room full of hundreds of people in cryogenic suspension and greets them, some by name. As he does this, he is knocked off his feet by an explosion. The boy is called to return to his other companions over the PA: his twin brother, Nai, and a woman he addresses as Rem, their adoptive mother. Rem hurries both boys to an escape shuttle as the ship falls apart around them, deflecting Vash's fearful requests to know what's going on. After climbing into the pilot seat, Nai asks Rem to come too, but she hangs back. She tells the boys she loves them and that meeting them has brought her joy. Then she launches the shuttle, just before a gout of flame roars through the corridor and erases Rem from sight. Nai is almost entirely stoic, but the other boy - Vash - is tearful and devastated. Nai steers the shuttle through clouds of debris, around other dying ships, and towards the desert planet's surface.

May 25, 10:00 AM. Two people drive across a desert, driving a truck towing a battery pack with a satellite atop it and listening to November Public Broadcasting for the news, reporting that the July city government is after a suspect in a series of widespread mass murders and Plant thefts. The driver, a small young woman by the name of Meryl Stryfe, is talking with her older male colleague, Roberto de Niro, who persistently refers to her as "Newbie". It turns out that they are reporters working for a news agency and have been assigned a story, and that she is the newest recruit to be brought on. Recently graduated from the high class November University, Meryl is eager to prove herself and change things for the better while Roberto says that her good intentions and inexperience will be quick routes to death - the planet they inhabit, No Man's Land, is a harsh and unforgiving place (as demonstrated by the enormous alien whale breaching the sand behind them). As Meryl grows defensive and irritated with his cynicism, the truck's engine suddenly dies, which Meryl is embarrassed to realise is because she forgot to charge its battery.

Roberto and Meryl continue on foot, the harsh sun quickly tiring Meryl and leaving her thirsty. She asks if the so-called "Humanoid Typhoon" even exists. Roberto tosses her a tabloid-style magazine with an article on the topic, complete with a caricatured illustration, and tells her he's dangerous - anyone who encounters him is marked for death. She scoffs, saying that no person is only a monster. They pass near three bodies tied up and hanging upside-down from a pile of scrap metal, which Roberto stops to identify as the work of the Bad Lads Gang. The central corpse, Meryl realises, is not a corpse, as she accidentally pulls off its prosthetic left arm investigating. The very much alive young man in a bright red long coat spins on the rope and cackles madly. Declaring him a "creep", Roberto turns to leave, but Meryl decides to help him down rather than abandon him. Roberto notes the heavy pistol in his holster and his "Lost Tech" prosthetic arm, and asks if the mystery man is a gunman of some kind. Now seated on the ground and refitting his prosthetic, the young man acknowledges he can use his weapon but denies being a fighter.

Just then, the July military police show up riding toma, large bird-like creatures with blue feathers. They produce a "Wanted" poster bearing the face and name of the man that Meryl and Roberto just rescued: Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon. He's wanted alive by the city of July for $$6,000,000, being suspected of mass murder and Plant theft. Realizing he's the subject of their assigned story, Meryl lies and sends the military men off in the wrong direction before throwing a rope around Vash and demanding an exclusive interview, either to learn more details of his story, or perhaps even clear his name. Vash agrees with enthusiasm, congratulating her on her integrity (Roberto is immediately distrustful) and says that they can do it at the diner in the nearby town. Startled to learn civilisation and water are close by, Meryl begins dragging Vash around by the rope while he makes comedic protests and Roberto looks at his poster and wonders: Who is Vash?

They arrive at the town of Jeneora Rock, where Meryl pulls ahead to enter the saloon. The reception is chilly until Vash walks in, causing the pregnant woman behind the counter - the proprietor and de facto town leader, named Rosa - to greet him happily. She shows angry suspicion of Roberto and Meryl for having Vash restrained, until he demonstrates he can slip free at any time (Roberto and Meryl are startled) and vouches for them. It's revealed that Vash saved the town once before. Roberto requests whisky from the bar but Meryl overrides him and orders water instead. She is surprised and concerned to realise the water she receives water is dirty, and is told that the town's water-producing Plant is broken. Rosa asks Vash take a look at it again, since he repaired it free of charge the last time it failed, so the group heads over to the building where the Plant is kept, behind a large and sturdy steel vault door. As they climb the stairs to access to the town's two Plants, Roberto asks Meryl if she knows what a "Plant" is, and she rattles off a textbook explanation. Roberto explains that Plants are Lost Tech and can't be built anymore: they are precious commodities and must be either bought for huge sums or stolen. Anyone who has one keeps it heavily guarded.

One Plant is red (the other, functional Plant is blue). Vash explains that it is dying, and while a new one may not be affordable, the situation will worsen dramatically if they don't act. He is visibly scared.

At that moment, the July military police captain chimes in to inform them Vash is worth $$6,000,000, which is just about exactly the cost of a new Plant. They've tracked Vash to Jeneora Rock and though Vash surrenders to their custody without resistance, they restrain and beat him. Rosa, though disturbed, says nothing, too desperate for the money to buy a new Plant. Meryl is appalled, but shrinks back behind Roberto when the July Captain pulls a gun. Roberto, however, steps up, goading the July MP Captain into a duel with Vash by calling him a coward and threatening to publish it as his legacy.

Vash and the Captain face off atop a scarp of rock overlooking the town. It's a quick-draw duel, so the last man standing wins. Meryl is concerned that Vash will get killed, but Roberto is more confident, telling her to watch and see whether Vash's claim he's not a fighter is the truth. Vash tries to convince the Captain to stand down by refusing to draw his gun on command and pointing out the situation is dumb. It seems like he might be successful as the Captain agrees and holsters his gun, until he replaces it with a rocket launcher and fires a cluster bomb into the air. Meryl angrily moves to confront him but Roberto throws her back into cover and informs her that they're here to observe, not run recklessly into danger, and she'll need to live a lot longer before being able to instigate confrontations like that. Meryl is crestfallen, but stays under cover.

Everyone in town runs for cover as Vash, dismayed but oddly calm, sighs that the Captain is crazy and decides to finally draw his gun. He takes aim and pulls the trigger, but the gun is empty, and Vash checks his pockets only to realise he's completely out of bullets. He panics and calls for ammunition, wailing and crying theatrically. Rosa approaches Meryl and hands her a single bullet, which Mery runs to toss up to Vash. The July MP Captain first knocks the bullet away before Vash can catch it, then when Vash does catch it and load his weapon, the Captain throws him off-target by firing on his pistol and rushes to shoot Vash point-blank before he can recover his aim. Vash dodges three such shots with impossible, inhumanly effortless grace, then grapples the Captain and flips him off his feet before knocking him out by hitting him in the back of the head with his pistol. He then uses a piston installed in his prosthetic to break a large rock out of the ground, throws it upwards into the oncoming cloud of missiles, and fires his single bullet after it. The rock shatters upon hit and its pieces are thrown outward, harmlessly detonating all the missiles before they can destroy the town. The police are thrown out.

The next day, Meryl admiringly tells Vash he has amazing skill, but Vash demurs, claiming that he just got lucky. Neither Roberto nor Meryl are fooled and Roberto calls his bluff: Vash was not frightened by the military police, but he's scared of something, and whatever it is, the red Plant has something to do with it. What is it? Vash drops his air of goofball incompetence and hesitantly reveals that he has a brother. A flashback shows the moment just after their pod crashed as children, where Vash finds Nai laughing maniacally atop a pillar of rubble while he watches burning SEEDS ships rain from the sky, and the pods with sleeping people inside being consumed by the flames. Nai triumphantly declares that his work is successful, and when Vash tells him in horror that he's committed murder with Rem among his victims, he names Vash his accomplice. The flashback ends, and Vash tells them his brother is named "Millions Knives". A strange insect-bird creature, one of several that have lingered around the town and Vash when he was tied up, flies from Jeneora Rock to the city of July. It reports Vash's location to a robed man playing a complex piano piece under the gaze of twisted, snarling statue: Knives. He is glad to know Vash has been located, and declares that he will go to him and claim him before exterminating the parasites once and for all.