Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” really goes off-rails from the original canon, but this time in a good way. With this episode featuring some nightmarish content of the botanical variety, it really leans into horror far more than the 1998 anime ever did. Frankly, this seems like a great direction for this reboot anime to take, even if it took 11 episodes for them to do it.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World”: Details

'Trigun Stampede' NA key art.
It’s amazing that this anime is at its best when it’s not this bright and happy.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 here) of this sci-fi post-apocalyptic Space Western CGI anime. Trigun Stampede is actually a reboot of the 1998 anime Trigun. Trigun in turn is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Yasuhiro Nightow.

Unfortunately, just like with all of the previous episodes, we have no idea who was responsible for this episode in particular. The most we can give you is general production staff info for Trigun Stampede as a whole. Kenji Mutō is still the director of the reboot anime, with Katsuhiro Takei still producing. Tatsurō Inamoto, Shin Okashima, and Yoshihisa Ueda are still the writers; with Tatsuya Kato still composing the music.

Speaking of music, ‘Tombi” by Kvi Baba is still the opening theme music of Trigun Stampede. Meanwhile, “Hoshi no Kuzu α” (星のクズ α) by singer Salyu and composer Haruka Nakamura is still the ending theme music for this reboot anime.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” premiered on March 18, 2023. You can watch this episode as well as all previous episodes only on Crunchyroll. If you become interested in the original 1998 anime as a result of this reboot anime, then you can also watch Trigun on Crunchyroll. In either case, though, you need to pay for a premium Crunchyroll account to watch them. Unfortunately, Crunchyroll hasn’t believed in free anime for a very long time now.

Warning: spoilers for Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” below. If you want to watch this nightmarish episode for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve fled the attack of the plants. It makes sense in context. Trust me.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World”: Plot Summary

This episode is even more nightmarish than this thumbnail.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” doesn’t quite pick up where we last left off in the previous episode. Instead, we follow Meryl as she goes back up the elevator with Roberto’s derringer in hand. She runs into Nicholas and tries to get him to help, but he’s not interested. He has a priest’s certification from Dr. Bill Conrad and intends to live a full life with it. Meryl spits in disgust and leaves him, leaving Nicholas to head down the elevator alone, with only Roberto’s corpse for company.

Meanwhile, Vash is now stuck swimming/drowning in a liquid-filled tank as Knives also jumps in and floats down to him wearing an…interestingly skintight outfit. Knives though is only interested in impaling Vash with a bunch of his combat tentacles. This gives Knives the ability to access Vash’s mind, and he uses that access to erase memory after memory. Why? Apparently, Knives is doing this to gain total control over Vash’s mind to use his black hole-generation powers.

As it turns out, they’re not black holes. They’re wormholes leading to the higher dimension that the Plants access to produce energy, and Knives wants in on that energy to somehow give all Plants in his “care” a soul. How? Not really sure, since he doesn’t explain. All we know is that Dr. Bill Conrad is in on it too as an atonement of sorts, and not even Meryl threatening him with a derringer will make him stop. Not least of which is because he’s already dying.

Little Plant Shop of Horrors?

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 "To a New World" screenshot depicting some unsettlingly pregnant Plants floating in a tank, looking a bit traumatized.
Does anyone else find their forced pregnancy a bit nightmarish?

Inside Vash’s mind, Knives deletes memory after memory until the only thing that’s left is Vash’s memory of Rem. This final memory finally reveals why Knives started his genocidal intent toward humanity. As it turns out, Tesla/Tessla from the 1998 anime also existed in this reboot’s canon. Unfortunately, she suffered the same fate as her 1998 counterpart, as it was revealed when a young Knives and Vash accessed her storage capsules and discovered just how many of them were needed to store her dissected pieces. That incident combined with Knives reading a history book caused him to lose all faith in humanity’s ability to change and decided that they all needed to die.

So after Knives wiped that last memory of Rem and Vash is under his total control, he got Vash to make a wormhole to the higher dimension and goes straight through. Unfortunately, there’s no Stargate visual effect. We do see Knives get a small glowing ball, which gives him UNLIMITED POWER! This results in a bunch of the Plants in the tank with Vash opening up to reveal some disturbingly pregnant (and shocked-looking) Plants floating in the liquid. It also results in vines/stems growing out from the tank at a very alarming rate. The plant matter quickly escapes the lab and begins invading JuLai City, smashing apart and crushing everything in its way. JuLai’s military firepower is unable to do anything to the plants, and the city ends up being destroyed. You know, just like the 1998 canon.

The plant matter then coalesces into a massive humanoid plant creature. The creature towers over even the tallest JuLai City skyscrapers. Its face of buds then opens up to reveal massive flowers that look disturbingly like eyes. What does Knives want to do with his new 50-foot-tall plant abomination? Well, that’s what we’ll find out in the next episode of Trigun Stampede.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World”: The Good

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 "To a New World" screenshot depicting Vash hugging an non-responsive Rem in his mind as his world falls apart around him.
And all that was good in Vash blew away like petals in the breeze. Probably.

Weirdly enough, the best part of Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” is the writers’ decision to go completely off the original canon. Yes, I know I’ve been ragging about the writers disregarding certain aspects of the original canon before in previous reviews. But in this case, going off-rails improved the story. It’s not just that the writers are now clearly doing their own thing independent of the old canon, but it’s quite riveting to boot. Especially in that last part where they delve deeper into horror. I wouldn’t be surprised if that giant plant abomination gave everyone the heebie-jeebies.

The other great thing about Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” is, surprisingly, Meryl Stryfe. She’s come a very long way since her initial appearance in this reboot, especially now that Roberto is dead. Now she’s fighting on her own and is filled with determination. In fact, Meryl is now the most like the old canon version of her. I eagerly await her developing fully into her old cape-full of derringers-toting self.

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World”: The Bad

Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 "To a New World" screenshot depicting Vash apparently drowned after Knives stabbed him with his tentacles.
Vash, walk it off. It’s only drowning.

At this point, the only thing I will criticize about Trigun Stampede Ep. 11 “To a New World” is the lack of Milly Thompson. Even then though, it seems very much like the writers are setting up her appearance for the finale. Personally, I honestly, truly hope this is the case. If not though…oh well. At least the rest of this reboot anime is actually good enough to compensate for her technically still unexplained disappearance.