World Trigger has by far one of the best shonen power systems I've ever seen. It's in-depth and well thought out, allowing for levels of tactical warfare I didn't think was capable in a mere shonen series. However pretty much everything else is lacking as a result of this heavy focus.
The plot is fine...It's really nothing special. The main crew want to go to space and fight the big evil dudes that kidnapped their friends and shit, but they have to get on the team that's doing the mission. And so they have to win a series of fights and get enough points to be eligible for the mission. The biggest issue here is the pacing...once again. Since if you're bothering to read this review you probably know about it from the previous seasons, but the pacing in this show is just so...so bad. We get several episodes of hype for each fight, but there's not enough subplots in this stretch to pad it out, and many of the ones that do get focus don't really contribute enough to be distracting us from the main story.
There's actually a lot of smaller subplots here that are mostly character based. Osamu especially gets a lot of focus as he questions his competence as a leader...again. Chika's arc is the most interesting because it's a drastic shift from her previous character progression that recontextualises her character in an interesting way. Hyuse is also a good addition to the cast dynamic, as his battle hardened experience and stoicism bounce off well against Yuuma's more playful childishness and Osamu's insecurity. But most importantly, it is his willingness to push Chika that really produces some of the most interesting drama the show's had for a while.
But this is where the show kind of fails. Aside from what we've got from Chika, there's a severe lack of depth for these characters. Hyuse is an alien who is from an entirely different culture, but because of his stoicism and the way the show handles it, his perception of life here on earth is never really explored, and we don't understand his goals and motivations aside from what is literally told to us by Hyuse himself.
Osamu wants to help Chika and do the right thing. He is extremely insecure because he feels like he holds his team back due to his own incompetence and low power level. However this is once again where is characterisation ends. We don't really understand what drives his sense of righteousness - it's never explored. But the greatest problem with his character is that he is currently going over the same arc over and over again. New challenger approaches - Osamu feels insecure, he doubts himself and works on a strategy. The strategy works and he is validated (or if we're feeling daring it doesn't work and his arc is prolonged further). Then rinse and repeat. I get that it's part of his character that he is insecure, but it doesn't feel very organic to see him trapped in this character progression loop that makes us feel like he is going in circles.
Now Yuuma wasn't always an empty character. When first introduced he was quickly found to be goofy but wise and battle-hardened. A somewhat distant character, Yuuma seemed to be holding out some secret - which turned out to be the fact that he is dying. However since it was brought up, Osamu mentioned how he will try to fix the problem, and it has never been brought up again in any meaningful way. As a result Yuuma has had no development on his character at all. He is the most static of all the team and there really wasn't much the show could do to develop his character - which means that he simply needed to be placed in new situations so we could learn more of his character. When a character can't be progressed, they can still have development placed on who they are now, and flesh out some of their morals and values a bit more. Yuuma as he is now is just an empty box that was once an interesting character.
Now this is a combination of poor characterisation and poor character design, but the various teams that Tamakoma-2 end up facing in the rank wars often feel completely forgettable. They are mostly either tall adult-looking characters or short-ish teenagers. However they all have a uniformity to them that makes these characters very difficult to distinguish without multiple repeat viewings.
What makes any of them even somewhat memorable are what I call the "boss" leaders of some of the teams. Particular team leaders who interact with our characters and who are actively participating in the story outside of the battles or just being goofy. They often have (relatively) unique designs and at least one character gimmick but even then they are almost always lacking.
Overall the animation is continuing in season 2's footsteps (it wouldn't surprise me if they were supposed to be one two cour season before the [i]varus[/i]) and has some incredible moments in the actions scenes, and remains passable during the more static moments (ie: the vast majority of the show). I've always liked the score for world trigger but after hearing the same tracks for the thousandth time I would really like to hear some more variation. Maybe work on a new theme for Tamakoma-2 since Hyuse has joined them. Although music is rarely given the focus it deserves by generic anime (especially Toei anime).
Overall, this season delivered on some incredible big brain fights and gave us a new direction for Chika. However it also has some very stale characterisation on pretty much everyone else to some degree. The extended cast is bloated and struggles to be memorable due to their poor characterisation and generic world trigger design. And the pacing and plot is barely passable and is in need of a major overhaul.
As much as I like World Trigger, I think a lot of these issues will turn people off, and I'm haunted by the fact that this has to potential to be a masterpiece if more effort was put into the characters and pacing.
