Review of World Trigger

The 2010s era of anime was a great time for shounen jump anime adaptations because, for the most part, all the shounen jump adaptations were not only great in terms of quality but they managed to be near perfect adaptations. Sure some of them had filler episodes in it but compared to other shounen jump anime adaptations from the past decade or two they were pretty good for what they are despite being non-canon. Haikyuu, Assassination Classroom, Bakuman, Hunter x Hunter 2011 and My Hero Academia are the some of the best examples of this of how to adapt the source maternal correctly as wellhaving its own charm in the mix.
Now out of all the anime series from shounen jump that came out in the last 8 years, I feel like World Trigger is the most underrated of the bunch.
Why is that you may ask?
You're soon going to find out.

Story.

In Mikado City Humans are overwhelmed at first when their weapons are found to be useless against Neighbors, until a mysterious organization appears that is able to repel the Neighbors' attacks. The organization is called the National Defence Agency, or "Border," and has appropriated the Neighbor technology called "Triggers," which allows the user to channel an internal energy called Trion and use it as a weapon or for other purposes. By activating a trigger, the body of users is replaced by a battle-body made of trion which is stronger and more resistant. Members of Border are divided in three ranks, A, B, and C, with only the members of rank A possessing the most powerful triggers, comparable in strength to those of Neighbors.

Four years later Mikado City has gotten used with the occasional battles with the Neighbors and have returned more or less to their everyday lives. The story follows a Yuma Kuga who transfers to Third Mikado City Middle School where he meets another boy named who is a Border Agent. However, it turns out that Yuma is actually a Humanoid Neighbor, and his arrival signifies that not all is what it seems in the war against the Neighbors.

The story is pretty good for the most part.

For starters, World Trigger does a great job at establishing its own world and setting.

Border is not like your typical shounen school setting which forces character interaction right down your through between set characters, it doesn't force countless written exams in such upon character for basic characterization but instead Border functions like an organization where no one is characterized solely of how overpowered and smart they but instead the method in which they come about them.

The power system for world trigger was very interesting as well being well expanded it great detail. The Trion system in World Trigger resembles like a video game where you have to master the class purpose in combat as well mastering its skills for that class to deal with situations that they are in so they can fight back. This reason alone is why I adored the fight structure in World Trigger because instead a of having a bunch of overpowered characters ganging up on strong foe where they will most likely get defeated unless the writer does a random asspull the characters in World Trigger actually have to work together by communicatingwith each other as well planning out strategies and tactics to defeat their foes. Thanks to the great fight structuring the fights in World Trigger are extremely unpredictable to a point where you never know who is going to win in the end which adds more tension to the fights and because of this all the arcs minus that filler was all fun watch even if the pacing of the show can be a bit too slow at times which I will talk about in a bit.
The one thing that World Trigger was successful is its themes of teamwork and commutation where characters have to get along as well synergize with each other in order to win fights.

As much I praise the story of World Trigger as well how different it was in terms of setting, unfortunately, it has two flaws that completely hold it back from being one of the greats. I'm, honestly not going to pretend that World Trigger has great pacing, in fact, World Trigger at various times has pacing issues where it’s too slow to a point where certain parts of the show where there were no fights involve just seemed to drag on to a point where at times the show can get boring to sit through. Personality the pacing in World Trigger didn’t bother me all that much as I am used to shows that have slow pacing but I do acknowledge that it’s a problem especially for fans of the shounen genre who are very used to fast-paced shounen like Naruto, Fairy Tail and My Hero Academia.

While the pacing issues in World Trigger didn’t bother me that all that much the second and final flaw almost completely ruined the show for me. The arc that I am talking about is the Fugitive Arc. As much I really liked World Trigger as a whole I simply cannot defend that arc. Not only it was a filler arc that was not good but the directing, writing and even the visuals were at an all-time low in that arc. Plus the new characters in that dreadful arc are contrived morons who were extremely unlikeable and they are just as interesting as watching grass grow. Am not joking. Lucky for me I skipped that arc during my re-watch of the show and as soon as episode 48 I jumped straight to episode 63 and nothing was lost in the progress.

If you’re planning to watch World Trigger skip episodes 49-63 because that’s where the cringe-fest filler arc begins and honestly the less you know about that arc the better.

Overall besides the horrendous filler arc that shouldn’t exist as having pacing issues at times, I really liked the story for World Trigger as it’s very different to many shounen series from the past in terms of setting.

8/10

Characters.

World Trigger has a large characters cast but at the same time, they managed to a good job of handling it’s character cast minus the one in the Fugitive arc because they are shit and not worth mentioning in the slightest.

Yuma is a pretty interesting character. Despite his lack of knowledge of Japanese culture and customs acts as almost a social critique of Japanese society. Yuma openly states how he doesn't approve of specific traditions and the "way things are" in Japan, which really delivers a message to the audience in the form of social critique which was a nice touch to this series. I also adored his character interactions with the other characters in this series as they are often interesting as well being hilarious to watch. Yuma character interactions along made me chuckle a lot. Besides Yuma being funny he is also a strong character who gets developed very well and his backstory overall was nicely told it honestly made me tear quite a bit.

Jin is a badass character that I loved. I loved his layback personality as well being a general badass on screen. I also liked his views of the Neighbor where despite losing his mother to a Neighbor he still thinks that not all Neighbor are enemies where he also thinks that humans and neighbors should be friends showing that both races could co-exist. This is the stuff that I love about anime.

I honestly have mixed feelings towards Osamu. I like the fact that he’s different when compared to most shounen protagonist where they are overpowered he starts off from the bottom where he is literally a weak fighter. While I like the fact, he starts off as a weak fighter I thought he never really got stronger as a character. Yes did a bit stronger as the series went on the problem he always seemed to get ass kicked by many characters in the series. However, while he's not a good fighter his determined to prove everyone wrong completely makes up as we the viewer can sympathize with. However, I will admit that he can quite be a boring character at times especially in the first couple of episodes.

Besides that, I thought Osamu was a decent character.

Now for my least favorite character in the series minus the god-awful filler ones Chika.

Okay, I don’t hate Chika by any means, in fact, she is an okay character. The problem with Chika is she is literally a coward in battle. I understand that she is a kid and all but there were moments in the series where Team Osamu could have won if Chika actually shot someone in battle. Also, Chika kinda of getting on my nerves as the series get on as she never wants to shot someone in even though she has great sniper skills. Just like a shitty pacifist fighter where they hate violence even though they are in a war zone where they no choice to fight and that pacifist will only preach they lungs out of why war is wrong. Also, out of all the charters in World Trigger, she is the blandest character in the series. She’s being just eye candy for the viewer where she’s only cute nothing more nothing less.

When it comes to the rest of the characters in World Trigger, I was honestly shocked of how well handled and unique they are. They are not the typical throwaway side characters that you will see in most other shounen like Naruto where they don’t get any real screen time. The supporting characters in world trigger all get adequate screen time alongside this show over the course of its run abandons focusing on its main trio multiple times allowing other characters in the show to shine as well consequently demonstrating it’s fantastic job in avoiding the creation of a story that where every event and character interaction just serves the purpose of affecting only one to two characters *cough Naruto Shippuuden.*

Some of my favorite side characters in world trigger include Souya, Shuuji, Kyousuke, Yousuke, Shiori, Shun, Ai and my personal favorite character in this series Kirie.

Overall apart from Chika the characters in World Trigger were pretty great and enjoyable for what they were.

8.5/10

Visuals.
When it comes to the visuals for World Trigger my thoughts on were rather mixed.

For starters, I really like how colorful it was. Instead of being colorful like in a typical fantasy setting it uses a sci-fi color pallet as we see a lot a lot of blues, whites, blacks and greens are used for the background scenery. The characters designs are all pretty unique, and they stand out very well from each other which was good because I was sick of tired at seeing similar character designs cough *Gundam Seed.* Unfortunately, since this show was done by Toei Animation the characters at times can go off model especially in the first couple of episodes.

As for the actual animation, it’s just decent at best. Sure at times this show can be well animated at that can deliver some great fight choreography but for the most part, the show uses basic animation with a quite a lot of still frames. It’s pretty sad really because if this show was done by Madhouse or Bones than the animation would be amazing. However, I will give Toei this it’s one of the better-looking shows especially when you compare to the likes of Digimon Xros Wars, Dragon Ball Super and Sailor Moon Crystal where they are consistently being a slide show filled with consistent art failures and choppy animation. Also unlike those shows, World Trigger visually gets better but it sadly will never be My Hero Academia good which is pretty sad. While the show is visually decent for the most part, the battles make it up.
Overall the visuals in World Trigger are pretty decent, and I don’t think it’s bad as everyone thinks it is and the strategic battles of the series completely make it up.
6.5/10

Sound.
The soundtrack in World Trigger is fantastic. At first, I didn’t really care about the soundtrack during my first watch of World Trigger, however, as I re-watch this show I started to notice how great and well created the soundtrack is. Every single track in World Trigger is memorable, and they fit well with the tone and setting perfectly. Easily in my top 30 favorite anime soundtracks.

World Trigger has 3 opening themes and surprising no ending theme whatsoever.

The first opening theme GIRIGIRI by Sonar Pocket is a good opening theme that fits with mood with the first 23 episodes. The second and third opening themes Ashita no Hikari by AAA and Dream Trigger by Pile are some of my favorite anime opening periods. They are just a joy to listen to.
Now for sub vs dub.
The sub is great overall that is filled with a lot of well known talented Seiyuus.
I only have seen some clips of the dub on YouTube and I thought it was good overall despite being a bit cheesy in nature. I hope the dub get’s release someday on the net as well having a Blu-Ray release because I would be the Blu Ray for World Trigger in a heartbeat.

9/10

Final Thoughts.
So after re-watching World Trigger for the second time what do I think about it?

I still think World Trigger is a pretty good shounen series that has a lot of great things in it. The story, for the most part, was pretty good and interesting, the tone was great, and most of the characters are great that have a lot of charm into them and the music/voice acting was great. It does fall in the few areas, though. The pacing was too slow for the most part. The animation wasn’t that constant and the filler arc overall was terrible that shouldn’t exist and you should completely skip it. Despite that, I still liked World Trigger for what it is. If this show was done by any other studio than this show would had been a lot more popular but since it was done by Toei it quickly dived in the underrated territory while Assassination Classroom, Food Wars, Black Clover, Boruto My Hero Academia and Haikyuu have gained the shounen jump spotlight which is a shame because I actually liked World Trigger more than Boruto and Food Wars.

As a shounen jump adaptation, this was a pretty good one overall minus the filler arc and pacing issues in the beginning.

Despite its shortcomings, I still think World Trigger was a pretty damm good show that I recommend to people. Just make sure you skip episodes 49-63 because that's where that filler arc start and it's not worth watching in the slightest.

Final Score 8/10