WORLD TRIGGER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionWorld Trigger
ANIME ActionWorld Trigger 2nd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  nephilimk

  70/100
  The future of battle shounen?

  If you have been watching anime, be it a few months or several years, you might be familiar with the Battle Shounen genre. Boasting the largest and most popular titles in modern anime/manga such as the Naruto, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, My Hero Academia and so on, it goes without saying that their influence and presence over the medium is here to stay. At conventions, it is often the norm to see people break out into their favourite finishing moves, cosplay as their favourite characters, defend their favourite fights and moments vehemently. It is one of the foundations on which the modern industry is supported, serving as the channel of entry to new fans. I was also one such fan, starting my journey in the medium with Dragonball Z back in 2000, albeit lacking knowledge of anime at that point in time. And while my current attitude to the genre is cold to lukewarm at best, I won’t deny that it is close to my heart.

  And why wouldn’t it be! Despite my changing taste, fights like Rock Lee vs Gaara, Kenshin vs Saito, Yusuke vs Toguro and so on, are moments that I revisit from time to time, indulging in a sense of nostalgia that only this genre offers. These characters and their struggles feal real enough, despite being in different worlds or time periods and I can’t help but egg them on as they strive to achieve their potential and personal goals. With all that said, the genre is not free from flaws. While it might be filled with great moments, the lead up to a lot of them, often tend to be underwhelming. Crumbling under the weight of bloated casts, which only keeps on increasing as the series goes on and resorting to cheap resolutions in the form of power of friendship or power creeps which render existing threats, toothless. It is a genre which has had no sense of direction and innovation since the late 90s (exceptions do exist as is always the case) and people who have known me long wouldn’t help but agree with my disdain for the genre due to the aforementioned reasons.

  GRASSES ON

  

  Enter World Trigger, the focus of our review today. World trigger is set in Mikado City, where an organisation named Border must protect the city and its inhabitants from visitors from another world, aptly called neighbours. These neighbours are here to kidnap the residents in order to fuel their own economies and society in the other world. It is up to Border and its employees to stop them and ensure life continues as normal. The story focuses on three main characters, as they fight and grow in the organisation and strive to achieve their goals. Stock standard battle Shounen as they come.

  Where it differs from other BS is in terms of how it approaches the whole world vs characters dichotomy. While the characters are the main focus of the series, the world is an overwhelming presence and the cast must keep that in mind as they navigate around Border. The series maintains a level of mystery to it and we along with the cast are offered titbits of information at appropriate times, which enriches our knowledge of the world and its systems, without overwhelming us with aforementioned information. The cast and us, the viewers, then have to process this new information and adjust our understanding of the world. And in that, it is very reminiscent of how Oda, of One Piece fame, presents the world to us, the viewer/reader.

  World trigger also offers a rather grounded power system, unlike its other Battle Shounen counterparts. The power system is called trion and functions somewhat similar to other systems like Ki or Chakra, in that, there is a finite amount and it requires time to recharge it. Unlike the other two, the big differentiator here is not how large the trion reserves are, but rather how efficiently it is used to meet combat goals. And I say combat, because that is how the series approaches conflict. Not a lot of silly 1v1s centred around pride and showboating, but rather conflict with respect to principles of strategy, implemented through astute tactics. It is not out of the ordinary to see concepts like staggered columns, defeat in detail, supply chains, logistics, combined arms, etc rendered in a Shounen mold. Series like Naruto alluded to it, but World Trigger fully embraces it and I can’t help but admire it for that.

  

  On the cast itself, the trio (Mikumo, Kuga and Chika) are like any upstarts trying to make it big in their world. Their motives are not as ambitious as leads of yesteryear Shounen series, but is still admirable. They are a likeable bunch and I can’t help but support them as they aim to achieve their goals. The series also boasts a large supporting cast, as is the case with a series focused on the world building side of things. I was pleasantly surprised in terms of how it managed to flesh out the supporting cast and make them damn likeable. They were individuals in their own right and were not presented only to be undermined by the lead trio. Reveals of the world also affects them and impacts their own personal equations and this is only bound to be richer as time goes on. The series is also not afraid to show what really is the top of the world, in terms of power. We, the viewers know what to expect from the lead trio once they reach the top. Just smacks of confidence from the creator and I can’t help but appreciate that. The character dynamics is great and love how the characters bounce off each other.

  Honestly, I could go on for hours why I love the cast and world, but that would make this review too unwieldy. So, let’s move onto the shortcomings of season 1. While this was technically a rewatch, I won’t deny that the earlier episodes are somewhat of a challenge to get through for someone new to the series. The series takes a lot of time in setting up its world and characters and that might irk a lot of people. It also doesn’t do any favours that the art and animation is underwhelming. This series is an example of Toei at its absolute worst. Often spending 3-4 minutes in recaps of the previous episodes and having the opening at weird times, be prepared for a tough start. However, the good writing kicks in and would only make the ride even more enjoyable. The music is serviceable, without being tiring. Oh, and do skip 49-63, which were fillers. They don’t add anything to the story and does everything that the series isn’t about.

  With that said, I’m glad I got around to rewatch the series and derive so much enjoyment from it. Hope you, the readers of this review will get the same. And for people who have already seen s1, go on ahead to read my reviews of the subsequent seasons!

  Review of the following seasons can be found here:
  S2 link
  S3 link

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• 

  tbhdrinkwater

  65/100
  Spoiler Free Review: Great Tactical Battle Shounen Held Back By Its Lacking Production

  World Trigger is a very solid battle shounen that focuses more on tactics and strategies in it's fight rather then the usual ass pulls we see in most shounens nowadays. It's similar to why I love the battles in Railgun, they rely on no power ups mid battle and only their current selves and the show does this very well making each of it's battles very enjoyable and engaging to watch. Adding onto it is a great wide cast of characters all with their own quirks and way of fighting that adds onto how enjoyable each battle is. It's power system Triggers are done very well, it could look complicated on the outside but it's fairly simple once you understand it. The show definitely hits it's peak during the middle where we got to see all of this at its best.

  The content after the middle sadly isn't as good I found. One complaint I'm sure most know of this anime is that it's pacing is very slow, and it definitely is but honestly I don't think it gets that bad until near the end. It takes its time building up everything to it's big arc and it does that well enough to where I didn't really care how slow we were moving at the beginning. The B-Rank Wars is where I feel you really start to feel the slow pacing at its worst, it's a fine arc but the battles in it feel much slower bogged down by lengthy dialogue that feels like too much at times. Of course the dialogue is what makes half of World Triggers fight so entertaining, seeing how characters plan out their next move against an enemy, but with this arc some fights also have constant cuts to flashbacks of characters backstory to flesh them out throughout multiple episodes that after a while just feel annoying.

  

  You start to enjoy a fight only to be interrupted five minutes later by something you most likely wont even remember, it makes each battle harder to enjoy. I'd rather we just get all of the backstory in one go just to focus on the battle without this many cuts. Quite honestly I'd recommend the manga for the last part of the series, you'll go through it much faster and probably have the same or even more amount of enjoyment there. I just wanted to get back into the interesting parts of the story by the time I was on episode 70, I had stopped caring for the most part about the B-Rank Wars. World Trigger in it's writing is solid and easily the best part about the show, I have no issues with it's story. If you're a big fan of any shounens new or old you'll probably enjoy this.

  But when it comes to the production is when it starts to show it's flaws. Along with it's slow pacing is Toei Animation consistently giving you the most bare bones C- grade animation, it's very rough around the edges but is barely passable enough to keep me invested in how each fight will play out. They can still make a fight feel fast pace but their was multiple times where I had wished the animation were better. Side note one of Toei Animations freelance aces [Naotoshi Shida](Naotoshi Shida) only showed up once throughout the series which I even now find surprising. I would love to keep this at a 7 but these flaws became more and more apparent as the series went on, still I had a great time with World Trigger very interested to see where the series goes.

  oh and episode 49 - 63 are filler, skip that shit.

  S2 Thoughts
  S3 Thoughts

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• 

  Bokunomuichiro

  77/100
  A review of all 3 seasons of World Trigger [Spoiler-Free]

  
  
  Anyway, let's start getting into this review using my usual template as I don't know how else to write one xD
  
  __Plot:__
  Starting off with one of World Trigger's strongest points. Unlike other typical shounen where the winner is decided by who has the flashier/bigger attack, World Trigger's power system is balanced and the winner isn't usually who is stronger but instead based entirely on strategy. For example, even one of the strongest characters could lose to a well-planned out strategy and oh my god are the strategies good. Each strategy is super entertaining to see play out and was unique and different enough to keep me invested.
  
  However, the plot isn't amazing. Certain arcs did fall into quite a stereotypical shounen mould such as the B-rank war battles aka the classic tournament arc and whilst it did start off interesting and manage to get me re-invested at the end, it did feel repetitive.
  Due to that, I find it hard to rate the plot of World Trigger any higher than an 8/10. It was still really good but the repetitive structure of the last arc let it down in my opinion.
  
  __Characterisation:__
  And now we move on to something else World Trigger did brilliantly. The focus and attention given to each character is insane. It's not anything One Piece level but the amount of side characters that are introduced is a lot yet I never felt too overwhelmed. Each group and team is interesting and the characters are all different enough to tell apart. Although, yet again, by the last arc it did get a little hard to remember who everyone was. 
  
  As for character development, there is a shit ton of it. The main trio ofc all have their own developments whether through using new moves/strategies or through overcoming their past weaknesses but there is also lots of character development for side characters too which I loved. 
  
  Overall this section is an 8/10 as despite the intense character development and cool side characters introduced in the latter parts of the seasons it got to the point where there were too many characters to keep track of.
  
  __Character Dynamics:__
  Fitting nicely with the last section, this was also done well. The dynamics with each group were all so interesting and mainly the developing dynamic between our main group was super interesting to see. However, my favourite part about the character dynamics has to be the friends that the main trio makes outside of their squad/base. For example- <span class='markdown_spoiler'><span>Kuga ends up befriending all the strong fighters through the Solo Rank wars; Chika makes friends with all the sniper peeps; Osamu starts making connections of his own through other gunner fighters</span></span>
  Anyway, this was done really well and I don't really have an issue with it- 8.5/10
  
  __Visuals/Animation Quality:__
  Right then this is where there is a huge split and I'll have to discuss the seasons separately. Season 1's animation is C-grade at best and it's quite clear that the anime was created purely to boost manga sales. It is barely passable and in some situations, it even worsened action parts of the season which is sad as, in my opinion, the best arc takes place within the 1st season and I would love to see that arc in season 2/3 animation. Speaking of season 2/3 animation, this is incredible. The animation flows really well and, especially in the closure of season 3, the animation goes next level and blew me away.
  Therefore due to the pretty bad animation in season 1 compared to the better animation in season 2/3- I will give this a 7/10 in order to balance it out. But for those that want to start watching World Trigger, even tho I've given loads of hate to the season 1 animation it is still watchable and I enjoyed watching it was just annoying because I know it could've been done so much better, especially when comparing it to the most recent seasons.
  
  __Voice Acting:__
  Tbh I don't know what to say here. The voice acting was good and I don't have any issues with it. There were no voices that I found annoying either so ig this is an 8/10
  
  __Music/Soundtrack:__
  Here we go time to talk about the opening and ending themes. So in the 1st season, we have easily one of the best openings of the entire series being this one:
  <div class='youtube' id='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQHqUm_yN0w&t=5s'></div>
  This is so good and always served to hype me up at the halfway point of each ep. Now you're probably thinking- wtf do you mean the halfway point??? So basically season 1 has no ending themes so to cope with that the opening theme is placed halfway through the episode which at first I found strange but I got used to it pretty quickly. As for the other openings of season 1, they were okay. Nothing too special about them- they weren't necessarily bad but they didn't do much to hype me up.
  Anyway moving on to the BEST opening of World Trigger. The season 2 opening.
  <div class='youtube' id='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_CALJPXVQY'></div>
  OMG TxT don't miss, do they? Not only does the song slap but the imagery as well took exactly what I said above: "I would love to see that arc in season 2/3 animation" and they actually did it!!! Taking the best arc of World Trigger and turning it into an opening with beautiful animation. So yeah that's my fave opening and if you watch it I hope it will be your fave too. As for the ending theme of season 2...imma be honest I skipped that each time. I wasn't a fan. 
  And lastly the season 3 opening and ending theme. The season 3 opening is nostalgic af and the ending just slaps so hard and in both cases, the visuals are great too.
  
  Now moving on to soundtrack. Each song worked really well with the scene it was placed in and I never had any issues with it or songs I didn't like.
  So overall this section is an 8.5/10 for me just because some of the openings let it down
  
  __Fight Choreography/Pacing:__
  Right then, this is where some issues come into play. I'll first discuss the fight choreography in season 1. There wasn't that much and even when it was there it was super clunky due to the animation level. There was still strategy but it always felt kind of off which ofc like you might have expected, season 2 and 3 solve. Both of the fight choreographies are entertaining and, as I mentioned in the plot section, are heavily focused on strategy as to who can outwit their opponent first.
  So fight choreography is a 7/10 cos it was let down AGAIN by the 1st season.
  
  Moving on, this is where the issues come into play within both seasons, unfortunately. The pacing is hella slow. Within season 1 out of all 73 episodes, we only get like 4/5 arcs and one of those arcs is a filler arc (which lasts eps 49- 63) soo we can't count that. Now I'm not saying that these arcs weren't entertaining because they definitely were but in some areas, it definitely did drag on a bit and nowhere else is that made more apparent than the B-rank war arcs as not only does it last 21 eps in season 1, the other 2 seasons are also still focused on it. I think you can see why the pacing is an issue now, can't you? Now yes season 2 does have another arc to break away from the battles but for the most part, it is basically a tournament arc that lasts 47 eps...yep you heard me right...47!!!!! So yeah the pacing is painful, to say the least, but, unlike shows like One Piece where the content has obviously been stretched out within World Trigger, it is still watchable. Yes, there may be more dialogue than necessary but ultimately it is still watchable and enjoyable.
  So anyway the pacing is a 5/10 cos it could be so much better but it didn't ruin the series or anything.
  
  __Genre Mixing:__
  So this section is for when a show mixes two juxtaposing genres and how well they handle it. As for World Trigger, I haven't really found any scenarios where they've necessarily done this. If you are still confused with what the fuck I mean an example would be a serious scene that then uses some comedic elements and how that is handled but as for World Trigger I feel they keep the comedic/serious aspects separate which works well. So yeah this section doesn't really apply but I thought I would mention it anyway.
  
  __Conclusion:__
  Right so overall World Trigger is a lot of fun and I 100% recommend checking it out. I definitely recommend it to those that want something slightly different than the usual shounen as the use of strategy makes it stand out in comparison to other shounen titles. 
  
  My scores for the 3 seasons would be:
  -Season 1= 7.2/10
  -Season 2= 8/10
  -Season 3= 8.2/10
  Therefore overall I will be giving World Trigger a 7.7/10.
  
  Anyway, I hope I might have convinced some of you to check out World Trigger and that those that have also watched World Trigger agree with my thoughts :)~~~

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