My girlfriend and I watched Trigun in the original Japanese with subtitles, and I honestly think it's one of the best series created in modern anime, in both its storyline, and its adherence to the manga.
Watching Vash the Stampede, I came to think of him as sort of an Objectivist, and while I'm sure that's not what the original author had as an intention, it certainly comes across in a number of ways:
If someone reading this hasn't watched the series yet, I'd recommend skipping the rest of this post, as I may give away spoilers.
1) In one of the first few episodes, he is offered the chance to commit suicide instead of die by another's hand, and remarks that he finds suicide the 'most offensive thing a person can do', or something along those lines.
2) He has a huge price on his head (he, himself, is an object of great value) and though he comes across people who are struggling to survive, he refuses to give up his life and freedom to allow them to profit from capturing and turning him in to recieve the reward.
3) Even though he is a powerful, accurate, almost supernatural gunman, he - as far as my recollection serves - never initiates violence against anyone he meets, stranger, friend, or enemy.
There are a few more reasons that came to mind when I started writing this, but they've escaped me at this point, as it's been a few months since I've watched the series.
