World Trigger – The Most Underrated Anime Ever?
World Trigger is one of the best anime out there yet, many people don’t watch it or if they do; they leave it after 3-4 episodes. The plot isn’t its strong point. But, the world-building and the range of well-written characters it offers is much better than an average anime. For this article, I will try to put my love for the series aside and list only the facts. It really makes me sad when people ignore or leave such a great series after 3-4 episodes. Let’s dive right into the review then.
Story
Strange creatures called “Neighbors” invade Mikado City through portals called “Gates”. Traditional weapons do not work against them. A private security agency called “Border” reverse engineers Neighbor weaponry and develops weapons that work against Neighbors called “Triggers”. Every day in Mikado City is basically war. Even in such delicate situations, trainees such as Mikumo Osamu are forbidden to use Triggers without permission. But when, his new classmate, Kuga Yuuma is attacked by neighbors Osamu has no choice but to use his trigger. To his surprise though, Yuuma makes short work of the Neighbors he was struggling with. Yuuma then reveals himself to be a Neighbor as well.
As I said earlier, the plot isn’t the strong point of World Trigger. While it’s certainly good, it is sort of a common plot with a few clichés. What separates World Trigger from the common rabble is its world-building. Everything happens for a reason. Every scene is shown for a scene. Everything is explained. Everything comes full circle. World Trigger has a very well-written and explained world which is rather rare in this type of anime. After that, what makes this series indulging are the:
Characters
World Trigger has a lot of characters and new characters keep coming as the story goes on. And trust me when I say this, every single character is well written. There is no single overpowered character. Every character has their role and specialty. Even Kuga, who you think is overpowered at the first; is just an average soldier later. Even Osamu the protagonist, is not strong. Like at all. He is smart but, he is just above average and not super smart like – Light Yagami or Lelouch. The series does not focus on a single character. It gives almost every character the same amount of love and time. This works very well with this anime.
Animations and Fights
The animations are average. Nothing more to say. Now the fights are a completely different matter. The fights are amazing. They build up hype real quick. They are focused on single or multiple teams where every member has their own role. Humans never win through brute force. They win with strategy and strength in numbers (many times humans are outnumbered. leaving them only with their wits to win). Once the serious fighting starts, you will run out of episodes quickly. The 73+ episodes will just fly away before you even realize it. The fights are beautifully paced across the episodes so, you will be burning through episodes really quick.
Why is this anime usually ignored?
There are mainly 2 reasons why this anime is usually ignored:
- The season it came out in was full of big names. It came out in fall 2014. Fall 2014 was filled with 5 big names – Your Lie in April, The Seven Deadly Sins, Parasyte, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, and Psycho-Pass 2. To top it all off, Naruto: Shippuden, Fairy Tail, Akame ga Kill and Sword Art Online 2 were still airing in that season. That’s a lot of big names so, no wonder a few would get ignored.
- The anime starts out slow. Many people believe in the 3 episode rule but, it does not work with every anime. There are quite a few anime that start out slow and get ignored because of that. World Trigger is the same. For the first 10 or so episodes, World Trigger are slow because of all the introduction and world-building parts. But after that, the series will end very quickly as the plot is fast and engaging.
Death Note
Yes, this one will trigger a lot of people again. Calm down and listen to me here again. The first 25 episodes of death note a psychological war that no other anime can ever match. The 1st half of the anime is nothing short of a masterpiece. But, it would have been better if it ended on the 25th episode instead of continuing. Light of all people lost to a mere child and a trap? Both of whom are not even equivalent to L’s shadow? Sure L trained them to be his successors and all but, even both of them together are not half as smart as L and Light lost to those 2? What the hell?
The last 12 episodes of the series just died. Light’s character was getting worse each episode. Now you will say that his god complex had reached its limit so he was not thinking straight. Light is not that soft. No matter the emotional condition, Light had shown the ability to stay calm in every situation. Come on man if you wanted Light arrested or killed, L should have been one to do that. N and M are nowhere close to him.
Scores
- Story – 8/10
- Characters – 9/10
- World-building – 10/10
- Animations – 8/10
- Trigger: on – 10/10
- Overall – 9/10
