World Trigger

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

I have a personal tradition for Christmas.

Every time the holidays roll around, and I am out and about getting gifts for my parents, I always make sure to pick them up a couple of ornaments. A new Santa one for my father, and a new snowman one for my mother. Fancy. Cute. Interesting. Whatever the make, I make sure that whichever I choose is a fun one to unwrap.

If World Trigger were a gift, I would never give it to my parents. I would never give it to any of my friends or strangers on ... the street. I wouldn’t even give it to my sworn nemesis.

It’s that deplorable.

STORY

In a world where evil Neighbors invade and Triggers are used, Osamu, a teenage boy yearning to become a member of the protective Border Agency, has a fateful encounter with an even younger boy named Yuma. Yuma, as it turns out, is also a Neighbor, but he has come to make peace not war. These two, together with their close friend Chika, find themselves supporting one another as they face the troubles laid out on their path.

This description is not a thorough one for World Trigger, for the anime is seventy-three episodes long. True, it is not as long as those most popular, long-running shows, but seventy-three is not a number to scoff. After all, the majority of anime are either twelve or twenty-four episodes in length.

Unfortunately, its length is also its downfall.

Repetition is a concept that many people are familiar with. Especially if they watch anime or take part in discussing them. Repetition can be a positive if it is used as a plot point or as a thematic element. Often, though, it is a negative, demonstrating a show’s inability to add variety or a need to linger on the same events, outcomes, and character appeals.

World Trigger takes it several leaps further.

It’s almost astounding how much the show repeats itself. Take its in-world knowledge. The different weapons, the types of Neighbors, how the structure of Border works. A lot of time is set aside to explain these arguably minor details. A smart move. Giving the audience more about how everything operates is (usually) worthwhile.

But, in what can only be described as a blunder, the anime has this segment at the end of almost every episode called “World Trigger Fun Facts.” There, they repeat much of the same information that was already given. Those weapons? Here they are again with next to nothing new added. Those Neighbors? Covered once more with the same information. Those rankings? S, A, B, C is “tough” to remember, so it’ll be wise to break it down again.

These “fun” facts do not stop here because, once the anime reaches roughly past the halfway mark, it begins to repeat the same info from previous segments. The guns, the Neighbors, the rankings. A lot of it is repeated – again.

Repetition continues with Yuma’s infamous pout where, for “comedic” purposes, Yuma purses his lips and dons three horizontal lines for eyes. A repeated gesture that is basically a characteristic but gets used in almost every situation by him (and others). (Thankfully, the anime calms this down a bit as events get more serious later, but it still appears at a nominal rate.)

How about always displaying the names, ages, and roles of the different characters no matter how many times they are seen? The invariance of enemies? A need to litter every battle with explanatory dialogue rather than letting them play out?

Yet the worst (best?) example is each episode’s opening. In almost every single episode, the anime replays a fixed reel with narration played on top of it. While it can change when the arc does – about once every fifteen episodes or so (so about five different sets in total) – it takes up roughly a minute and thirty seconds of that episode’s time. Which in turn takes away the show’s chances of doing something not repetitive.

The kicker? The anime will then proceed to replay exact scenes from the previous episode. As though the reels were not repetitive enough, the show makes its audience sit through reused material that contains verbatim dialogue and replicated events as if it’s expected.

Episode forty-one is particularly egregious: The first four minutes and twenty seconds are literally the overused reel and copy-pasted content from the previous episode.

The repetition is horrible, but, somehow, the anime does not stop hitting itself in the face.

Pacing manages to be a problem. The first arc is recognizably slow as the show takes way too much time in setting up its characters, world, and general atmosphere for roughly twenty-one episodes. During this span, the anime does have a couple of battles and a bigger fight break out to help minimize the monotony, but it is still noticeably slowed down.

From episode twenty-two to thirty-five, the anime enters its large-scale-Neighborhood-invasion arc, and it is at this point that pacing goes out the portal. Over the course of these fourteen episodes, the anime stretches out hours of in-world time, slowing everything down again. It even goes so far as to extend seconds of in-world time (into minutes of airing time), killing any reasoning for the pacing.

World Trigger gets its pacing wrong again when it halts the progression of its B-Rank-Wars arc in favor of the Xeno-and-Lilith arc. Doing so killed the build-up, the sense of progression that Osamu, Yuma, and Chika had been making. It resumes the B-Rank-Wars arc later, sure, but, by that point, the paced-based damage had been done.

And as if the show could not get any worse, it makes some questionable choices throughout its run.

That Xeno-and-Lilith arc has no consequence on the events within the season. The idea is that what the group did will pay dividends sometime in the future. But, for the here and now, the arc represents nothing more than an unnecessary diversion (especially since they were supposed to be training but had to deal with this whole conflict instead).

The idea behind triggers switching out one’s physical body for a virtual one, while futuristic, removes a lot of tension since their actual bodies are in no real danger.

Episode sixty interjects the arc that already interjected the arc before it. It’s meant to be a comedic one-off starring “Tamakoma branch’s most powerful member,” but it has no place in the occurring narrative.

Even how the season concludes raises eyebrows. It chooses to make the cutoff right as the newest Neighbor invasion starts as well as right before Osamu and the others go into the pivotal B-Rank match.

The latter tears the muscles around the eye. They aimed to win the B-Rank wars (and thus go on the away missions into the Neighborhood) all the way back in episode eleven. Meaning, even after the remaining sixty or so episodes unravel, the show fails to accomplish its original goal for the season.

All these problems are bad on their own, but, again, they occur across seventy-three episodes. In other words, the repetition, the pacing, and the poor writing choices are each compounded, exacerbated by the long length of the season, turning these problems from intolerable to wholly insufferable.

ANIMATION

World Trigger has a clear positive in its visual arsenal: The trigger transformation sequence. Blue-and-purple, space-like effects spread over the characters as their virtual bodies replace their physical ones. It’s fancy-looking, and it works.

But it’s repetitive.

Oh, do not be mistaken. Repetition does not stop with the story. The transformation gets a pass because it at least tries to be interesting. But Yuma’s squinting face? The drab teal outfits? Osamu’s glasses constantly fogging up on only one lens to make him seem serious when, in actuality, it only makes it look as if he does not treat his eyewear with proper care?

The setting, too. The show almost exclusively takes place in the same city and within the same Border headquarters. It would not be a problem if the anime attempted to spruce up these areas given that they are seen all the time. Nope. It’s the same low-detailed, repetitive locations.

It does try to break up the monotony with its weapons and its enemies, but these, too, suffer from lack of intrigue. The weapons are mostly swords and shields (and their variants) that go without any distinguishing characteristics besides their yellow-laser composition. And the enemies are giant, bug-like creatures that go featureless save for their same giant-eye weak-point.

Among the rough, its Black Triggers, which it claims are powerful and unique, are, in fact, powerful and unique. Portal creation, translucent-Trion-coagulating birds, and an all-reaching blade stake their claim as the top-tier gear. If only because everything else is so abysmally tame. (Indeed, the Black Triggers make one wonder what could have been had the show given a similar level of attention to its other parts.)

At the very least, the anime’s character designs are not awful. Yes, Osamu is too plain, Chika’s mouth is oddly triangular, and Yuma already needs to dye his hair as a teenager. But, considering the size of the cast, the changes to hair color, pupil formation, body image, styles, and accessories help to differentiate the characters while also giving them their own personalities. Kirie, in particular, gets a brand-new look when she turns on her trigger: a winged hairstyle as well as a light-green outfit.

Then it goes right back to being intolerable with subpar actual animation. The fights are not given enough room to breathe, characters usually only move their mouths, and everybody has a hard time even walking around the room as they discuss the same set of topics for the umpteenth time. At least the glowing cube pieces dart around, right?

A few negative shout-outs are still in order.

The first goes to the visuals for the second ML (acronym explained later) track. Having each character “sing” a portion of the song is not cool in the slightest. Especially when Chika, a female, lip syncs a male’s voice.

The second goes to the final episode. It is somehow leagues worse than all the episodes before it. Disproportionate heads, stiff animation, and weak choreography end the anime with even more distaste.

The third goes to the “fun” facts epilogues. They went cutesy and minimalist to fit their “fun” mood, but it really just seems as though the anime was cutting corners with the cutouts.

CHARACTERS

World Trigger is yet another anime with a massive cast, reaching about one-hundred distinct characters. Therefore, just the main four will be investigated: Chika, Jin, Yuma, and Osamu.

Chika is a young girl who finds herself attracting the evil Neighbors. It’s not her fault, for she simply contains an unbelievable amount of Trion (especially for someone of her size). Her indirect relation with the Neighbors caused her to distance herself from others in order to protect them, leaving her in a spot without too many friends.

Unfortunately for Chika, and early on, the show reveals that not only did the Neighbors kidnap one of her close friends, but also her brother went missing beyond the rift, too. In retaliation, Chika enlists herself at Border to save those that were taken from her.

Her gargantuan Trion levels made her gun-type role a no-brainer. With a sniper in tow, she can literally raze entire hills, earning her the nickname “Cannon.”

The beginning of the season only gives the audience the tidbits to her background and motivations. The middle section has her being the target of Aftokrator because, to them, she is the “golden baby bird” they were seeking. In other words, Chika does not do a whole lot for a long while.

Not until the last one-third or so does a new characteristic officially enter the field: She cannot shoot people.

Her mental obstacle is extremely annoying since it comes off as a cheap excuse to stop her from decimating the competition (when most of her foes are in no danger of dying anyway). But it does give her the chance to grow. She eventually manages to fire her gun as well as changes to a different setup that plays to her strengths. Namely, her huge store of Trion.

Is Chika a strong character? No. Mostly since she’s relegated to the side without accomplishing much. However, she’s the best of the four – and that is telling.

Jin is notable for his amazing “Side Effect,” special abilities that certain characters possess. His Side Effect is reading the future. He cannot predict it, but he can see the various intersections as well as influence which one the world could take.

If that were not enough, he has his own Black Trigger, making him one of, if not the, most powerful Border agent.

Jin does receive some attention early on, being the one that inspired Osamu to put his all into joining Border. And he interacts with Osamu and his group often enough, getting them a spot at his branch as well as looking out for them elsewhere.

Unfortunately, his character starts to go downhill shortly after.

Jin gives up his Black Trigger, sensing (through his Side Effect) that it would be for the best to let others wield it, reducing his overall impact and coolness. Then, after warning about Osamu’s potential death during the Aftokrator arc, he basically vanishes, appearing only a handful of times without having any impact on the events at hand.

Jin even (way later) turns down Osamu’s invite to their group, a bold move to make Osamu’s team that much stronger.

Which begs the question: Why is Jin even considered a main character let alone plastered on the front of the anime’s main graphic? His background is not investigated, he does not have an internal conflict, and he sits on the sidelines for a large chunk of the show. In all regards, he’s a massive step down from Chika.

Yuma is technically a stronger character than Jin but not by much. Yuma is a humanoid Neighbor, something that Osamu and the others had never heard of before. Yuma, alongside his trusty pal Replica, has a Black Trigger of his own, granting him boosted powers and increased battle prowess.

But, as his background shows, he does not necessarily need it. When he was in the Neighborhood, he was with his dad, learning about fighting, skills, and battle tactics. In other words, he was already a seasoned fighter.

Sadly, a dark entity maimed Yuma, forcing his father to sacrifice himself. In exchange for his life, he creates Yuma’s Black Trigger, saving Yuma by placing his body within it. I.e., Yuma’s current body is actually a fake.

All this information on Yuma is revealed rather early on (mainly episode eleven). And, to be fair, it is welcome info. The problem is that that is all Yuma has.

He’s already a versatile fighter, so the battles do not mean much to him. The show never goes back to the Neighborhood, so he does not get context on his background. And he does not have any notable interactions with any of the other cast members, including Chika and Osamu.

Speaking of Osamu, he is easily the worst of the bunch. From the very beginning, it’s obvious that Osamu has no latent strengths. He is not suited for Border due to his lack of fighting experience and his lack of Trion. He only gets recognized when Yuma gives him the credit for saving the school.

And that’s Osamu’s character for the rest of the show. He is constantly trying to find an out. He is constantly looking for help. He is constantly doing what he can to not be useless.

It would have been tolerable had he actually grown at a steady pace, but, at every junction, World Trigger seems intent on keeping Osamu at a below-average state for the entire season.

His crawl is realistic, sure. Going from the absolute bottom to even near the middle of the pack would not (should not) happen overnight. But the anime is seventy-three episodes long. What is normally a crawl turns into an excruciatingly slow waddle that barely gets him past the base of his figurative character mountain.

This problem is World Trigger’s biggest. It fails to use its very long season to its advantage. Instead, the show’s main four not only reach a new level of stagnation but also fail to feel meaningful to the story at large.

One argument in favor of the cast is their roles. Yuma’s the ace fighter, Chika’s the overpowered sniper, and Osamu’s the tactician. They form a solid group whose weaknesses are covered by each other. For instance, Yuma takes on the toughest enemies, Chika destroys landmarks when needed, and Osamu develops the plans.

Their composition, however, is not enough to elevate their individual persons.

The best character World Trigger has to offer is not out of these four; it’s Xeno. He confronts the main group, has a personal conflict in trusting others, gets his background explored, holds a special relationship with Lilith, and resolves his conflict when he befriends the others and escapes the planet.

But one strong side character – a character that is inconsequential to the proceedings – is not enough to save this anime from the abyss.

SOUND

World Trigger, surprisingly, does something unique. Not good unique but unique nevertheless: It does not have an OP or an ED. Oh, no. Instead, the anime created a brand-new entity.

The middle track (or ML for short).

Remember those repetitive reels? They almost always play at the beginning of each episode, leaving no time for an OP to play. And remember those “fun” facts? They almost always play at the end of each episode, so an ED has no place. That leaves the meat of the episode. The important parts. The middle.

So, World Trigger, being World Trigger, does not care. With its ML in hand, it will interrupt the flow of the episode to make sure the audience hears what it has to offer. Sometimes twelve minutes in, sometimes a staggering fourteen minutes and thirty seconds in. It must play it.

What is heard? The first ML has fast lyrics, but the “change the new world” English bit and the boring background beat squash any hope the song has at becoming listenable. The second ML tries really hard to be cool, with its different vocalists and fade out, but it comes off as incredibly lame since the anime is simply not on the same coolness level. As for the third ML, it stands above its brethren, but that’s not saying much. Its first half is uninspired, but the second half at least has some nice vocal work and a varying pace, making it the only passable piece of the bunch.

When the ML is not playing, the rest of the original soundtrack does instead. The tracks are often slow, ambient tunes, relying on flutes, drums, and reverb effects to strike at the slice-of-life, action, and sci-fi moods. They’re forgettable pieces, overshadowed by the ML’s strangeness.

Not to be outdone, voice acting missed the mark. Megumi Urawa as Youtarou was annoying to hear, and Tomo Muranaka as Yuma sounded too disinterested. The others failed to impress.

ENJOYMENT

You know what’s ironic? My favorite part of the entire show happens to be repetitive.

Kirie and Kyousuke’s running gag, where he lies, she believes him, and then she proceeds to pound on Osamu or whoever else is nearby for “tricking” her, miraculously made me smile. In this swathing sea of dislike, I did, indeed, find something I liked.

The cat, too. His emotionless stare and laziness was likable.

And those are the only parts I liked.

Kitora was a huge jerk to Osamu for no other reason besides thinking he was coddled too much by everybody else. Chika always bailing out during the fights, rather than trying to help Osamu and Yuma, got on my nerves. Osamu’s half-fogged glasses.

Can’t say I liked the action with its boring shoot-outs. I did not have much in the way of romance to cheer for. Takeru’s “comedy” made me want to punch myself in the face. And don’t even get me started again on the show’s inept repetition.

Is this the worst anime that I have ever seen? Maybe. If nothing else, it is trapped at the bottom with the other lowest-execution anime.

World Trigger is a boring mess. The story is repetitive. The characters are stagnated. The art is lame. The music has no timing. The entertainment value is minimal. The anime is an ornament that shattered into seventy-three different pieces: worthless.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, horrible repetition, elongates seconds to minutes, and does not even have relevant narrative arcs

Animation: Bad, boring setting, below average actual animation, and okay character designs

Characters: Terrible, stagnation in Osamu, Yuma, Chika, and Jin’s characters prevent them from finding purpose or value

Sound: Terrible, bad ML’s, bad OST, bad VA performances

Enjoyment: Terrible, a running gag and a cat do not cover this year-and-a-half slog

Final Score: 1/10

The STORY of World Trigger don't go anywhere and ends incomplete like nothing really happen in 73 slow episodes , talking about the setting this is explore superficially is pseudo-science that most of the time its told by powerful teenagers that apparently are more smart than adults of there superiors creatures in this world. Talking about the CHARACTERS the principal cast most are super smart and powerful teenagers , as i said the teenagers are super smart but in other times are only fools that only fight then start to cry and make determination dialogues to win then are super smart again , the ... enemies are the same but are evil adults that apparently are more mature but inferior to teenagers there personalities and development are very unbalanced also there is more characters that stereotypes of shonen are only to make the principal characters more superiors or only waste time. The ART is simple poor the move in fights even in times that is not action is clumsy and the music is forgettable. For a final thought the series is more for teenagers that like rule of cool vibrates and feel superior even most of the enemies are describe by evil adults but this is a excuse to give a 2/10 even i can said that the of the series writers think that teenagers are stupid so make this kind of shows

First of all I hate animes that does a freaking long review of the entire series, instead of just the most reason development, I mean if you haven't watch the series from the beginning then it doesn't matter either way cause this is a freaking long anime. That said can't believe why so many positive reviews of 8s and 9s seriously.

This anime has such terrible main cast, 2/3 were useless from the beginning. The main guy tries to improve himself throughout the series and we're force to follow his boring non-progressive development for almost the entire time. The worse part is the MC received ... help from many of the top rank guys but still remained as useless as if he never had any training. Can't rant anymore without spoiling too much regarding the plot.

Bottom line is only watch this crap if you have nothing better to do. Even then I think there are way better animes to watch then this, or if you like the kind of idiot that is weak as hell but sprout about how he wants to be a hero and safe everyone but accomplish absolutely nothing besides talk, this is for you.

I don't understand the really positive reviews. This was NOT a good anime. The premise was a great premise, but the show have a few major flaws throughout.

1) World logic was not consistent. The show would introduce world logic for some component, and they would then forget about it or even contradict it in later episodes. They were usually minor things, but this was frequent enough to really question the story flow. Stuff like how an entire faction despises all neighbors and wants to kill them to the writers forgetting about what motivates this faction by the end ... and it just being overlooked. Things like how "points" are relevant for a few episodes...and then they aren't. The fact that the head of Border effectively starts a coo, and everyone is okay with it. One guy can see the short future, but can also see the future years in advance to almost pinpoint accuracy...and he is then portrayed as some sort of high-level counselor to the head of the border? Etc etc etc...the list of these items are endless.
2) Characters were relatively vapid with some of the protagonists kind of being annoying to deal with. The world seems to be fascinated Osamu, who is a protagonist and "captain" of the protagonist team. He is a very weak and melodramatic character whose only exceptional talent seems to be occasionally coming up with something witty, being uncharacteristically brave for someone who is so timid, being incredibly altruistic to the point where you kind of want to barf and always being overshadowed by everyone else around him. Yet, for no reason given, this "bravery" or "tenacity" (blind luck usually) gets him the attention and sponsorship of everyone... WHAT A BAD PROTAGONIST!
3) Every episode has a few minutes going over what has happened in previous episodes. This is just a waste of time... it also adds to the feeling that the anime presents where they are trying to just run the clock and waste time without providing too many filler episodes.
4) Some of the editing is poor in the beginning with awkwardly long still frames of a moment as it has ended. This gets resolved later on in the anime, but it makes the anime seem amateurish
5) Story premise is fantastic! It is unique and fun...yet they took a great story premise and filled it with poor to amateurish writing which really diluded the show. Some characters don't even need to exist! There are also TONS of times where deus ex machina is introduced and someone appears out of thin blue, surprising everyone and saving the day. One scene has a helicopter appear out in the middle of the sea surprising everyone when someone shoots down a ladder...??? Are you trying to say that there just HAPPENED to be a comrade in a helicopter that NO ONE NOTICED in the middle of the sea that flies right next to the characters as they need to be saved??? Alot of poor writing like this is rife throughout the anime.
6) Artwork is meh...its not terrible, but its not anything to rant about. I do enjoy some of the character designs and flow, though there are also times where the artwork designs don't seem to mesh well.
7) Tied in with the world logic, for a story that seems to center on comradery and appeasing a surprisingly privileged civilian base, people seem relatively apathetic towards death. There are times when some damage is done in a city due to Neighbor attacks, or even some Border soldiers are kidnapped and the public loses their minds and start blaming Border for things that are not possibly in their realm of control. But when tons of people die, no one seems to bat an eye?

The list for these things goes on, but there are simply better animes out there to watch. They took a good premise for an anime and filled it with mediocre filler. A few episodes are entertaining until you need to rush through a few more to get to that next entertaining episode. Is it worth the watch? ...Meh...I suppose it is, though you'll probably want to skip a lot of episodes or entire swathes of sections in episodes that are just boring. Every relationship and character is so weak that the only really entertaining parts are sometimes the fighting, and even then, it becomes redundant, annoying at times, spread out too thin across multiple episodes and should only be a facet of an anime, not the only entertaining thing about it.

I decided to try and watch World Trigger. So, what went wrong?

When watching any given medium of storytelling, there’s usually some consistent points I look out for to help me evaluate whether I like it or not.

Are the main character’s interesting, do they have goals? Are they conflicted, challenged in some way?

Is the story interesting? Is it unique, or is it a uniquely adapted genre? Does it have depth, or substance? Does it inspire me to continue watching by virtue of its own merit as a story?

And lastly, is there tension?

... This show has none of these things.

Its characters lack specific goals, and for what goals they do have, there’s no tension behind them to give me the viewer a sense of rising urgency. The story is very generic, lacking any outstanding sense of originality from its anime peers. And most of all, a point I normally don’t hold to too high a merit, its animation is woefully lacklustre. In fact, that was my last straw. On episode fourteen, I was watching an incredibly boring battle, in an anime that is practically designed to show off combat, and it felt cheap. The studio behind it, for some reason, had decided not to adapt the first real human to human combat scene with any remarkable effort. Maybe they’re saving they’re budget? I don’t know, and I’ll never find out. Hunter x Hunter ran for over one hundred episodes and never looked so drab and uninspired as the battles shown up till that episode.

The enemies are dull, the combat is unremarkable, the characters lack meaningful objectives, and the world is incredibly generic.

World Trigger inspires no one.

World Trigger is a pretty average anime with very good characters and an interesting world. The characters are extremely likable and I would say it is one of the strong points of the series. The world is very intriguing and the story does a great job expanding on it. The story overall is pretty average. However, it does seem like it has a lot of potential. Normally, I would give this anime a 6 if it wasn't for it's horrible flaw.

This anime too often uses a majority of its episodes on recaps or repeating what has already been said. The first 3-4 minutes of every ... episode is a recap. If that wasn't bad enough, there are times where the episode recaps what was just said 2 or 3 episodes ago for a portion of the episode. It also suffers from have multiple episodes where the entire episode is essentially a recap. I am only on episode 32 and I believe I have already watched 3 of these episodes. This does make the viewing far less enjoyable and it might be better to read the manga instead. I will say the action scenes are converted extremely well from the manga to the anime. If this is an anime you might be interested in, prepare to do a lot of skipping.

Absolute garbage. The only reason I'm not rating this 1 is because of Fafnir. At least the first twenty or so episodes were passable, but the war arc is absolute garbage. The premise of the show is good, but the execution is so bad. First, why were citizens allowed to live literally right next to an active warzone? Why weren't they immediately evacuated when there were premonitions of a large-scale invasion? Why are the C-rank triggers not outfitted with bail out options? Why is Kuga Yuma not allowed to freely use his Black Trigger against the large-scale invasion? How is it possible that 3 minutes ... of time is expanded into a 20-minute episode? Who greenlit 4 minutes of recap every episode? Why are there boring flashbacks every few minutes in the middle of intense fighting?

Anyone who rates this show above 5 does not know what they are talking about. This show is absolute garbage and does not deserve a 7.59 rating on MAL. It is incredibly boring and slow. Almost all of the characters are caricatures, and the only ones that are fun are comic relief characters.

Story - 2: Boring as hell. The concept is basically Solo Leveling or any other of the numerous stories like it, but way worse. The fighting is not enjoyable, the motivations of the characters involved are not fun, and there's a lot of unnecessary exposition of characters' powers. BNHA's Quirk descriptions should be an industry standard, not minute-long ramblings about what move this person just used and why they used it.

Art - 4: It's just ok. There are times when the animation quality drops, but there's no reason to hate it.

Sound - 1: Bad. Half the time, the sound does not match the mood of the scene. The other half of the time, it's used to cover up shitty writing. There's also the issue of incredibly long pauses for absolutely no reason other than to pad run time.

Character - 4: The characters are almost all caricatures. The adults are stupid, and the children are smart except when the story requires them to be stupid. Basic shonen shit.

Enjoyment - 1.5: At least I could watch it, but I have to skip through the annoying flashbacks and dull dialogue to get to the parts that actually matter.

Overall - 2: See rant at the beginning of this post.


TLDR: The only show I will ever rate a 1 is Unlimited Fafnir. 2 is the new one. World Trigger is lucky Unlimited Fafnir exists.

NOT ENTIRELY SPOILER FREE REVIEW!

I will try to keep this short as there isn't that much to say. World Trigger, for an anime that has such a high rating is probably the most disappointing anime i have seen in a while and I can usually sit through most shows. I will start with the good aspects:

1. It has great voice acting and several fairly famous voice actors that actually pull off the characters they are voicing and do a great job.
2. I find the setting of the show (a small area in a big city) to be an interesting concept and one that often is ... not used in shows like this one.
3. The characters aren't bad or dull, especially 4-5 of them (won't mention names as they aren't introduced early on) and add a lot of color.

Those were the only good things i can really say. Now with the bad aspects:

1. The pacing was absolutely horrible in the first 20 episodes, it almost made me want to quit at around episode 10. It feels like nothing happens for most of the episodes and it either drags on forever or it's going so fast you didn't even catch it.
2. Too many characters out of which only about 10 matter and look so similar that i could not distinct them.
3. The music was so not interesting that i don't even remember a soundtrack out of it.
4. The art isn't as bad as people say but it can get very dull.
5. And for the last one, the protagonist is so dull that anytime he was on screen i didn't like him.


Overall, i would recommend this anime if you enjoy incredibly shitty paced animes, muted colors and a huge cast of characters. Other than that, watch other shounen type animes, you will have a good time. I

This is a story about Border agents and their fight with otherworldly invaders. aka Nighbours Invaders want Trion that are some sort of a spirit energy that reside within humans inside an invisible organ. This story kicks off with Osamu, a border agent's meeting the Neighbour Yuuma. Yuuma is attracted to Osamus kind heart and his selflessness and so the story begins. The plot was very interesting and compelling and Yuuma is a very well written character.

And yet with such a good plot it is one of the poorly written stories you could ever come across. I have waited for a whole 50 ... episodes for the characters to get good and the story to be sensible and not just "we are the good, kind hearted guys". The MC osamu is the kind guy who doesn't even fight back when he is being bullied he just doesn't want to "stoop to their level". I mean bro this gotta stop. We aren't stupid enough to like such characters and whats worst is he is the MC.

If there is anything good about Osamu then it would be his hard working nature, gotta give credit for that. This is actually a refreshing story where the underdog MC has no hidden talent, power or at least an OP supporter who wants to make Osamu stronger. But sometimes the story goes out of hand to stress something and doesn't make any sense.

Like that one time when Chika, the teammate of Osamu and Yuuma gets taken as hostage by a Neighbour to replenish their Trion energy because they are in some unfortunate circumstances. Guess what happens next Chika feeks sorry for them and willingly becomes a live stock for their energy. Does this make any sense to you. And that was my cue to stop this nonsense.

In conclusion if you are someone who is just here for a fascinating plot and great actions scenes this is really great anime for you. And if that's the case the rating could even be a 9. But this just isn't for me, I am someone who loves character development and their personality even if they are some random Mob character a or the antagonist.