My Adventures With Superman's Clark & Lois Were Inspired By A Classic Western Anime

The best Superman stories are the ones that nail the love story of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. On that front, the ongoing animated series "My Adventures with Superman" succeeds and soars like Kal-El himself. This Clark (Jack Quaid) and Lois (Alice Lee) are adorable apart and even more so when they're together.

In "My Adventures," Clark's bumbling nerd persona isn't just an act to divert suspicion from him being Superman, he really is that nervous around Lois. Lois is reimagined as not yet a master reporter, but merely a Daily Planet intern who wants to be one. She's less sardonic, more scrappy and ambitious, but still plenty clever. They've experienced some relationship trouble so far (between Lois's trust issues and Clark's fears of rejection), but it never feels artificial and they always come back together.

Though an American production, "My Adventures with Superman" often feels like the Man of Steel is starring in his very own anime. The art-style is "anime-esque," where the characters all have big round eyes and simple flawless faces. The show's take on Supergirl is Kara Zor-El by way of Vegeta from "Dragon Ball," and in turn, the planet-destroying Brainiac (her puppetmaster) resembles Frieza. Even the title sequence is anime-ish, from the guitar-riffing song to the climatic shot of the heroes facing down a crowd of their foes together.

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According to the show's co-creator Jake Wyatt, the "My Adventures with Superman" Clark and Lois characters aren't only modeled on the original comics, but their look was also inspired by two famous anime heroes — Vash the Stampede and Meryl Stryfe from the Space Western manga/anime "Trigun." In an interview with ComicBook.com, Wyatt said bluntly: "Meryl Stryfe is basically the investigator girlfriend to a Superman ... That is the dynamic. [Clark and Lois] are Vash and Meryl. So we pulled from her very deliberately."

When I first read this, I could practically hear the sound of two puzzle pieces snapping together.

As a Space Western, "Trigun" has earned comparisons to "Cowboy Bebop" and "Firefly." On the surface, it leans more on the "Western" side: There are no spaceships, and all the action is gunslinging in the desert. But the series' context reveals the sci-fi: "Trigun" is set in the distant future on the planet Gunsmoke. After societal collapse on Earth, colony ships departed for a new home, but several ships crashed on that desert world. The series takes place generations later, when the survivors' descendants have built a civilization resembling the Old West's frontier. 

Vash the Stampede is the lead of "Trigun," a gunslinger with a $60 billion "double dollar" bounty on his head. Vash has a reputation for leaving destruction wherever he goes (he's nicknamed "the Humanoid Typhoon"), but he's actually a kindhearted pacifist; though handy with a gun, he's also sworn never to take a life with it. Vash's characterization is just one of the reasons that "Trigun" is something more thoughtful than just an action anime. He's also got a super-distinctive character design, rocking spiky blond hair with tinted sunglasses and earrings, a red trench coat, and a robotic left arm. Posters for "Trigun" often show Vash holding his gun with a steely Clint Eastwood glare, but in the anime itself, there's kindness in his eyes. 

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Clark Kent in "My Adventures with Superman" looks like a raven-haired Vash, his face slimmer and more delicate, tailor-made to blush, without the broad square jaw, cleft chin, and spit curl of comic Superman. Just as Clark is truly a Kryptonian, Vash looks human but isn't. He's really a "Plant," an interdimensional race of angel-like beings. Most Plants can't survive outside of their dimension, so they're kept in giant lightbulb-shaped reactors that the humans of Gunsmoke draw energy from. 

Throughout "My Adventures with Superman," Clark (who knows less about his origins than in most versions) fears being rejected as a freak. Task Force X hunts him thinking he'll bring an alien invasion on Earth. Vash, too, is hated and feared, but he never stops believing in the goodness of humankind.

Meryl Stryfe is one of the rare humans who sticks by Vash. An adjuster from the Bernardelli Insurance Society, Meryl sets out with her partner Milly Thompson to find Vash and send him the bill for all the property damage he's caused. That means that, like Lois follows Superman, she's doggedly following after Vash and reporting on him. The "Trigun" title sequence shows Meryl furiously pounding a typewriter as Milly scrambles across the room in the background. 

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Studio Orange's new 3-D anime "Trigun Stampede" went a step further and reimagined Meryl as a journalist, making her and Lois even more alike. Like Meryl, Lois in "My Adventures with Superman" is about two heads shorter than her man and sports a pixie cut. The difference, though, is that Lois is the excitable and risk-taking one while Clark is more cautious. In "Trigun," Vash is a goofball while Meryl is more serious (or at least tries to be).

"My Adventures with Superman" is much more explicitly romantic than "Trigun," too (Clark and Lois are kissing halfway through season 1). The original "Trigun" anime made it clear that Vash and Meryl were right for each other, while Yasuhiro Nightow's original manga left it more open-ended. We'll see what round three brings when "Stampede" season 2, "Trigun Stargaze," rolls around.

"My Adventures with Superman" airs on Adult Swim, and season 3 is currently in production. "Trigun Stargaze" is in production, but does not have a confirmed release date at this time.