AKA: Wārudo Torigā, ワールドトリガー

Genre: Action, Science Fiction

Studio: Toei Animation

Episodes: 98

Seasons: 3

Available On: Crunchyroll

I discovered this gem back in 2021. I had it on my watchlist for years but never managed to sit down and watch it. I know I have A LOT of shows just like this. I have no clue what they are about but as soon as I watch, I will fall in love with it and wonder “Why didn’t I watch this sooner?” I am not the biggest sci-fi fan. I don’t know why, I just am not. What I mean is, majority of what I watch doesn’t seem to fit that category so I never really think about the genre that much. I don’t actively hate it or anything I just never seem to watch much science fiction.

The first thing that caught my attention was the cover of the manga, which back then was just Kuga Yuma, and was instantly drawn in. I have a love/hate relationship with white haired anime men. They are always iconic and will be my favorite hero or villain. Yuma is no exception as he is my favorite character. He stole the show for me when he turned up. Creators just know what they are doing when they make white haired characters. They are all so savage and funny without even trying.

Toei Animation is the lucky production studio for this project. If you are unfamiliar with Toei, well, are you even an anime fan??? I mean Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Slam Dunk, what have you been watching? Thank goodness Core Reviews is here to help.

Background

The series focuses on the battles between Border and the Neighbors. In Mikado city, there have been invasions of these monsters that are called neighbors and they happened to appear by a “gate” that opened in the sky one day and let them come. Naturally, there were protocols put in place and an organization by the name of Border was created to defeat these monsters. Now this is where it gets even more interesting. The border agents fight with what is called “Triggers” which allows them to use energy they have, make it into Trion which can be used as a weapon. Did I lose you? Because honestly when they were explaining it to me for the first 20 episodes I was lost too. They usually activate it by saying the nifty “Trigger On!” and then they get a new look.

Their looks are pretty simple but some can look completely different than their actual selves. So far, I’ve only seen 1 example and that would be from Kirie Konami. When she activates her trigger she gets a shorter hair cut and a bright lime outfit. She is actually apart of the original Tamakoma squad along with Reiji Kizaki (my husband) and Kyosuke Karasuma. They were dubbed the “strongest border squad” by the director of Border (also my husband).

I love her look and I wish everyone had a more unique Trion outfit as well but everybody’s not as bold as Konami! As I explained, they use these when fighting against the neighbors which usually look like giant insect monsters. The Border agents go through rigorous training in order to prepare against them and not anyone can be an agent. The first half of the show really explains most of this and it follows the main character Osamu as he befriends THE Kuga Yuma and helps him to become a Border member.

There’s a lot to unpack in the show when you start watching. The one thing I will say is that it can be overwhelming when you first watch because they are just dropping all of this knowledge on you and you’re trying to keep up (it was reminding me of when I tried to keep up with all the rules in Death Note or all the politics and history in Attack on Titan).

That is one of the cons of the series; the first season was pretty much just a lot of dialogue and setting up the setting and story. Now if you’re like me, this isn’t really a problem. Especially since I know later on all of this information will be useful somehow or another, but there are people who watch and want action like the minute the show starts and they want that energy to be kept all season long.

If I were rating the seasons, season one would be in last place, and not just because of the lengthy talks. The animation was a bit poor as well (this later gets much better in the second season) so I would knock points for that. I will say after season one, everything goes uphill from there. We get character development, the plot gets more intense, it’s great. World Trigger is also a show that I am caught up on in the manga as well so I compare a little bit and it really does stick to the manga well. They do take out some dialogue but don’t worry, you still get the meat of the topics.

Characters

There’s SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. I am not kidding, I can’t even remember most of them because of the bulk that they introduce you to. In Border, there are teams and these teams can be teams of three, four, or even five. It just varies. Now usually, with a lot of characters, you do tend to run out of personalities but honestly, each character is pretty unique and different. They even all have different reasons for joining Border.

The main character, Osamu Mikumo, is a high school student who just wants to protect his friends. He is the captain and shooter of Tamakoma 2 and also the weakest on his team since he doesn’t produce a lot of Trion. Regardless, he’s very much a leader and very intelligent. He doesn’t jump headfirst into things, he is a thinker.

The cube he’s holding actually represents the amount of Trion he has and as you can see, it’s so smol and cute, which isn’t that great for him.

My favorite character and the second team member of Tamakoma 2 is Kuga Yuma. He’s my favorite personality-wise and the boy’s fighting skills are incomparable. He is actually not from Earth and is instead actually a neighbor. He’s just a friendly one. His father was Japanese so he doesn’t have much understanding of Japanese culture which leads to his funny encounters with Japanese residents.

He becomes close with Osamu and eventually supports him as a leader. Because he is a neighbor, his trion level is massive, meaning he’s able to last longer in battles. He’s also very logical and unintentionally funny. Yuma is just the BEST BOY. I love his laid-back attitude but his savagery when it comes to defending himself and attacking.

Third member is Chika Amatori. I have a love/hate relationship with her. She joined Border in order to find her missing friend and older brother. She has an insane amount of trion which makes her one of the strongest in terms of firepower, however, she is afraid to shoot people so she doesn’t use real bullets, which is where I have the problem with her. If my teammates or friends were in trouble, I’d like to think I could be able to help.

Hopefully, it is something she can overcome but I guess that also makes her, her in a way? She’s a real sweetheart and loves to eat rice (I just love that random fact). Like I said she is sweet but sometimes I feel like she drops the ball during combat and Hyuse was right, one day it might cost the lives of her teammates.

As I mentioned before, her main motivation is to get selected for the special team of Border agents so she can look for her friend and older brother. I admire that about her but I really want her to shape up! 😅

Lastly, my second favorite on the team is Hyuse. Now Hyuse is a special case. He is actually a neighbor just like Kuga, however, he was first portrayed as one of the antagonists during the second season. I do love the shift from him nearly taking out Mikado City to now being a Border agent and making friends. He’s very stoic yet savage. It’s something of a pattern with neighbors who look like humans. They can be so calm and collected and take out half a city with a snap of their fingers.

My personal favorite thing about Hyuse is his cute friendship with Yotaro. They are the second best duo in the show (Mikamo/Kuga takes number one) and then later on you get to see just why they work so well together, but I won’t spoil that surprise. Just like with other neighbors, he has a huge amount of trion so in battle he’s great. He’s also very strategic and intelligent as well. I can definitely see him being the leader of Tamakoma 2 but deep down he is letting Osamu be the leader since he has a better knack for it (when push comes to shove).

If you’ve noticed, he has horns which is his normal state but he has to hide that he is a neighbor so he’s usually in his trion outfit which does not have the horns. He seems pretty cold but I’m waiting for the day he really warms up to everyone.

Pros

• Creative storyline/plot
• Vast number of characters to get into
• Lots of action scenes
• No suffering from character deaths (….FOR NOW)

Cons

• Lengthy dialogues
• Sometimes plot may seem complicated
• Even with explanations, a lot of questions still unanswered
• Prone to long hiatuses

Conclusion

As I said before, I’m not the biggest sci-fi fan so this was a real step away from what I normally watch. This show was very intersting and kept me glued to the tv all the time. I found myself wanting to follow along with the plot and even would rewind just to make sure I understood carefully. Like I said, it’s a creative plot and it’s making me want to explore the genre even more. With that being said, I also think the show is HIGHLY underappreciated. There have been spotlights on a lot of shows and, in my opinion, some of them have been pretty….basic so I scratch my head a lot wanting to know when World Trigger’s time will come?

Then again, maybe I like the small fandom that we have. I am definitely going to give this the rating I truly believe it deserves, which is a cool

🍙🍙🍙🍙

I ALMOST gave it a perfect score but I did knock just 1 onigiri off due to how I did have to push my way to get through the first season. I can’t in good conscience rate a show 5 onigiri if I struggled to get into the plot in the beginning but other than that, it’s an amazing show that I will always recommend!

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