STOP Sleeping on World Trigger!

If I were to think of a single shounen-action anime series in this modern generation that's been massively and wrongfully underrated and unappreciated by majority of the anime community, I'd think of the adaptation of Daisuke Ashihara's work by Toei Animation; World Trigger.

It'd be safe to say that for an anime that's ran all the way since 2014, being a battle shounen, it hasn't been widely noticed and accepted by the community the way others of its type have been..

Even those who aren't sleeping on it, don't give it much thought, purely due to biased evaluations of its setting compared to similar popular works.

So, Today I'm gonna be discussing World Trigger, and sensitizing you all who look down on it or don't even give it much thought at all as to why you should definitely consider this an anime worth seeing and appreciating.

So, now let's take a dive into the various reasons why I love this show, and why you all should definitely be taking it more seriously.

First of all, it's Setting.

A show that's seemingly about giant monsters called 'Neighbors' plaguing the earth and threatening human extinction, being faced by agents of an organisation named 'Border', who combat these threats using weapons named 'Triggers', might seem awfully derivative of hits like Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Seraph of The End and practically the many other animes with rivaling species that fit this description in setting, but it's a lot more than that.

World Trigger unlike these other works maintains a clearly scientific perspective towards this setting. The monsters wreaking havok are simply beasts from another dimension running wild and the word 'Neighbor' expands towards a broader meaning, defining beings who crossover the dimensional gates into this world, which in turn have a home world equally as civilized and scientifically sophisticated as earth.

The world building in this show although not much, really highlights the various regions of the invading world and just how much the this world has scientifically developed in comparison with the human world.

One thing that truly makes this show different from the apolcalyptic shows similar to it, is the fact that the stakes in the epic battles are little to none. This may be seen as a bad or unclimactic aspect of the show, but I honestly don't see it that way. I think it makes the show unique as this highlights just how far the technology has developed, each fighter having their body replaced by a 'Trion body' during battles when they unleash their triggers and a 'Bail Out' System to immediately transfer them from the battlefield back to the safety of the headquarters in a case of diminished trion. This might make it a lot less climactic and passionate as high staked shows like Attack on Titan, but its a system that makes sense given its futuristic setting.

The aspect of the setting I find most amazing is how well detailed everything is in such a broad range of innovative criteria. For instance, Border agents are grouped into squads, identified by their team names and uniforms, and each team member designated with their assigned roles either being a 'Shooter', 'Sniper' or 'Attacker', equipped with their own unique trigger. The triggers are such a creative approach towards weaponry; being of various types, from scorpions to kagetsus to vipers, each having its own functionality and battle range which could be manipulated to fit various fighting styles. Relevant equipment added include 'Bagworms' for stealth, shields, lead bullets and of course 'Side Effects', which are unique abilities a select few characters weild.

All these add up to enhance the experience of the fights and make them a whole lot unpredictable.

Which leads me to my next point, The Fights.

I'm gonna say this very plainly and unapologetically; The fights in World Trigger are some of the most sensible and smartly thrilling I've ever seen in battle anime.

The fights are so logical and elaborate, not relying on the typical bursts of emotions or powerups that determine the victorious side of almost every battle shounen.

The outcome of every battle in World Trigger is the product of a sequence of well planned amd structured events that are coordinated in the most thrilling way possible.

WT makes remarkable use of a concept that's extremely significant in real world wars yet slept on in most anime; Strategy.

The fact that the risk of death is practically eliminated in the characters' combat forms makes it possible for these high staked training sequences and ranking battles to be held at the full capacity of the characters' abilities.

Before every battle, ample focus is given to the strategies of not only the main team but the opposing team(s) as well, and we get to watch those strategies play out and clash with one another in a rhythmic flow of events,  creating an exhilarating and unpredictable ambience during battles.

An amazing aspect of this anime in terms of fights is just how much consideration was put into the values of teamwork. Each team has to synchronize their techniques in these fights and the outcome isn't just determined by the strongest or most passionate team, but rather by a combination of several factors such as strategy, experience, speed, instinct, coordination, flexibility in use of weapons and of course power.

It's honestly unnerving how elaborate and intense the fights in this anime are, watching the innovative use of weapons and fighting styles from each character complement eachother in these team battles creates a fantastic experience every episode.

My next point has to be the Characters.

For one thing, this anime literally has no shortage of awesome and powerful characters and the amount of effort put into highlighting these characters' proficiency is honestly very impressive.

To back up it's elaborate organisational features, World Trigger established what's looking to be one of the most detailed and well structured ranking systems in anime for its characters, particularly the agents at Border.

The typical rank system of military ranks A-D exist for each squad alongside individual rankings, but reinvigorated through a grand event which teams are given the opportunity go up the ranks by facing each other off in a grand tournament event called Rank Wars.

Actually both the past two seasons have been centered on these Rank Wars and to be honest it's been amazing.

Watching the wide range of teams face off in these grouped battles not only perfectly highlights the characters' abilities, but their fighting styles, distinctive traits and how well they work together as a team.

The idea that it's a ranking war which could be considered training doesn't make it any less epic, the fact that it's been spread across two seasons shows you how much of a big deal this arc is in preparation for the upcoming arcs, and it's honestly been more enjoyable than even the battle arcs.

The fights already being awesome, the intuitively executed commentary and fight analysis gives a clear explanation of the unclear events and a stern overview of every battle. 

The characters in this show are honestly amazing and even in their great number, we get to see what makes each character special.

Mikumo not being the typical powerful or naturally gifted main character certainly didn't help this anime get more liked, but I genuinely see it as a great thing. A weak insufficient main character in a story filled with stand-up amazingly powerful and interesting characters like Kuga, Jin and Tachikawa, gives a clear picture of how uneven the scales are and how much more effort he has to put into developing himself in order to accomplish his goals.

World Trigger is a fantastic anime that deserves more credit for the unique aesthetics it's displayed this far.

It's story is more of a progressive one split into various arcs with different aims in its progression, but the story boarding is actually done really well.

The work put into the characters, the world building and the overall structure of this show and making it its own entity in a world filled with genericness and ripoffs, is something that I honestly admire this anime for. 

And to cap it all off, the production quality is remarkable, every fight is well animated and the music quality in battle OSTs and openings is truly amazing.

So I urge everyone viewing this ; go see World Trigger if you haven't. It's currently in its third season which has been completely fantastic so far, and the experience of it pretty much inspired this write-up.

To those who belittle this anime or overlook it, I hope you're convinced to give it a second try and/or take it more seriously now.

Be sure to leave your comments on the anime and this review as well.

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And anticipate my upcoming Seasonal review weebs

See you all soon!