Review of World Trigger

Although I enjoyed this anime, it was also a terrible disappointment at the same time. The anime clearly had designs on joining the ranks of Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, etc... as a long running anime, and 73 episodes is not a bad run. But, poor pacing, a BRUTAL and ill-timed filler arc that destroyed the momentum of the series, and a sudden ending, takes what could've been an amazing anime and brings it down to just "pretty good". World Trigger has two great draws: A large and interesting cast, and intelligent tactical fights. The cast in the anime isenormous, and they clearly know it is, as they never fail to remind you of everyone's name, every time you see them. (And it's necessary, because there are tons of people.) They were still introducing new and interesting characters even as the show hit a sudden and abrupt end. The best characters of the series were easily Jin, Kuga and Yotaro, for me. It's a shame it ended before we could delve more into Kageura as a character. The rest of the cast was also strong.

Unsurprisingly, the weak link of the cast was the MC. While he had some of the usual respectable traits of an MC: Earnest, honest, brave, etc...Mikumo was just weak. Really weak. And while with many shounen anime, the MC starts off as weak, at some point, they progress to catch up with the rest of their team. But with World Trigger, Mikumo remains weak for far too long. The disappointing aspect of the abrupt cancellation is it appears like he was just about to turn the corner mentally.

The fights were excellent, however. They were much different from the DBZ-style fights you normally see in anime. Everything was completely tactical. The characters deeply analyzed the environment, their opponents, strengths, weaknesses, everything in order to bring out a victory. It helped to create more engagement in the fights when they happened. There were some truly awesome moments in the fights, as well. I wouldn't say they were the greatest animated fights, but they were very fun to watch.

The downside here, and I think what probably led to an early cancellation for the show, was an ill-timed filler arc surrounding two characters named Xeno and Lilith. As good as the rest of World Trigger was, this arc, was just awful. Amazingly boring, uninteresting, and Xeno was one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever seen. It was a big mistake to switch from the large, enjoyable cast with exciting tactical fights to a skeleton crew trying to be a cheap Naruto knock off. By the time the anime returned from the filler, the whole pace was just destroyed. I watched World Trigger in binges. I could only imagine how it must have felt going through it for four months watching it on air.

I believe that directly resulted in its cancellation, which is why the ending is so abrupt. They drew out everything so long, that the heroes are still in the midst of trying to accomplish their first objective: "Make it to the A-ranked Teams". There were a series of things they wanted to accomplish, that I won't mention in order to not spoil things, but it ended before they even crossed the first hurdle. Now THAT is how you know your pacing is off. 73 episodes and you don't get past the first step to the main objective?

Overall, it seems like things behind the scenes killed what could've been a great, long-running anime. I would recommend watching World Trigger, regardless of its flaws. But, without question, as soon as you hear the name "Xeno", skip the episode, and don't stop skipping the episodes until you know you wont see that name again. Trust me.

Story: 7
Art: 6
Sound: 6
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 7
Overall: 7