World Trigger is a show that I wasn't too interested in at first. The animation was pretty bland and the story seemed okay but my god did it improve. This review will include all 3 seasons and my thoughts and will be spoiler-free so if you've never watched World Trigger and are considering giving it a go then don't worry. Any spoilers I mention will be under spoiler tags but asides from that there won't be any.
Anyway, let's start getting into this review using my usual template as I don't know how else to write one xD
Plot: Starting off with one of World Trigger's strongest points. Unlike other typical shounen where the winner is decided by who has the flashier/bigger attack, World Trigger's power system is balanced and the winner isn't usually who is stronger but instead based entirely on strategy. For example, even one of the strongest characters could lose to a well-planned out strategy and oh my god are the strategies good. Each strategy is super entertaining to see play out and was unique and different enough to keep me invested.
However, the plot isn't amazing. Certain arcs did fall into quite a stereotypical shounen mould such as the B-rank war battles aka the classic tournament arc and whilst it did start off interesting and manage to get me re-invested at the end, it did feel repetitive. Due to that, I find it hard to rate the plot of World Trigger any higher than an 8/10. It was still really good but the repetitive structure of the last arc let it down in my opinion.
Characterisation: And now we move on to something else World Trigger did brilliantly. The focus and attention given to each character is insane. It's not anything One Piece level but the amount of side characters that are introduced is a lot yet I never felt too overwhelmed. Each group and team is interesting and the characters are all different enough to tell apart. Although, yet again, by the last arc it did get a little hard to remember who everyone was.
As for character development, there is a shit ton of it. The main trio ofc all have their own developments whether through using new moves/strategies or through overcoming their past weaknesses but there is also lots of character development for side characters too which I loved.
Overall this section is an 8/10 as despite the intense character development and cool side characters introduced in the latter parts of the seasons it got to the point where there were too many characters to keep track of.
Character Dynamics: Fitting nicely with the last section, this was also done well. The dynamics with each group were all so interesting and mainly the developing dynamic between our main group was super interesting to see. However, my favourite part about the character dynamics has to be the friends that the main trio makes outside of their squad/base. For example- Spoiler, click to viewKuga ends up befriending all the strong fighters through the Solo Rank wars; Chika makes friends with all the sniper peeps; Osamu starts making connections of his own through other gunner fighters Anyway, this was done really well and I don't really have an issue with it- 8.5/10
Visuals/Animation Quality: Right then this is where there is a huge split and I'll have to discuss the seasons separately. Season 1's animation is C-grade at best and it's quite clear that the anime was created purely to boost manga sales. It is barely passable and in some situations, it even worsened action parts of the season which is sad as, in my opinion, the best arc takes place within the 1st season and I would love to see that arc in season 2/3 animation. Speaking of season 2/3 animation, this is incredible. The animation flows really well and, especially in the closure of season 3, the animation goes next level and blew me away. Therefore due to the pretty bad animation in season 1 compared to the better animation in season 2/3- I will give this a 7/10 in order to balance it out. But for those that want to start watching World Trigger, even tho I've given loads of hate to the season 1 animation it is still watchable and I enjoyed watching it was just annoying because I know it could've been done so much better, especially when comparing it to the most recent seasons.
Voice Acting: Tbh I don't know what to say here. The voice acting was good and I don't have any issues with it. There were no voices that I found annoying either so ig this is an 8/10
Music/Soundtrack: Here we go time to talk about the opening and ending themes. So in the 1st season, we have easily one of the best openings of the entire series being this one: ▶ This is so good and always served to hype me up at the halfway point of each ep. Now you're probably thinking- wtf do you mean the halfway point??? So basically season 1 has no ending themes so to cope with that the opening theme is placed halfway through the episode which at first I found strange but I got used to it pretty quickly. As for the other openings of season 1, they were okay. Nothing too special about them- they weren't necessarily bad but they didn't do much to hype me up. Anyway moving on to the BEST opening of World Trigger. The season 2 opening. ▶ OMG TxT don't miss, do they? Not only does the song slap but the imagery as well took exactly what I said above: "I would love to see that arc in season 2/3 animation" and they actually did it!!! Taking the best arc of World Trigger and turning it into an opening with beautiful animation. So yeah that's my fave opening and if you watch it I hope it will be your fave too. As for the ending theme of season 2...imma be honest I skipped that each time. I wasn't a fan. And lastly the season 3 opening and ending theme. The season 3 opening is nostalgic af and the ending just slaps so hard and in both cases, the visuals are great too.
Now moving on to soundtrack. Each song worked really well with the scene it was placed in and I never had any issues with it or songs I didn't like. So overall this section is an 8.5/10 for me just because some of the openings let it down
Fight Choreography/Pacing: Right then, this is where some issues come into play. I'll first discuss the fight choreography in season 1. There wasn't that much and even when it was there it was super clunky due to the animation level. There was still strategy but it always felt kind of off which ofc like you might have expected, season 2 and 3 solve. Both of the fight choreographies are entertaining and, as I mentioned in the plot section, are heavily focused on strategy as to who can outwit their opponent first. So fight choreography is a 7/10 cos it was let down AGAIN by the 1st season.
Moving on, this is where the issues come into play within both seasons, unfortunately. The pacing is hella slow. Within season 1 out of all 73 episodes, we only get like 4/5 arcs and one of those arcs is a filler arc (which lasts eps 49- 63) soo we can't count that. Now I'm not saying that these arcs weren't entertaining because they definitely were but in some areas, it definitely did drag on a bit and nowhere else is that made more apparent than the B-rank war arcs as not only does it last 21 eps in season 1, the other 2 seasons are also still focused on it. I think you can see why the pacing is an issue now, can't you? Now yes season 2 does have another arc to break away from the battles but for the most part, it is basically a tournament arc that lasts 47 eps...yep you heard me right...47!!!!! So yeah the pacing is painful, to say the least, but, unlike shows like One Piece where the content has obviously been stretched out within World Trigger, it is still watchable. Yes, there may be more dialogue than necessary but ultimately it is still watchable and enjoyable. So anyway the pacing is a 5/10 cos it could be so much better but it didn't ruin the series or anything.
Genre Mixing: So this section is for when a show mixes two juxtaposing genres and how well they handle it. As for World Trigger, I haven't really found any scenarios where they've necessarily done this. If you are still confused with what the fuck I mean an example would be a serious scene that then uses some comedic elements and how that is handled but as for World Trigger I feel they keep the comedic/serious aspects separate which works well. So yeah this section doesn't really apply but I thought I would mention it anyway.
Conclusion: Right so overall World Trigger is a lot of fun and I 100% recommend checking it out. I definitely recommend it to those that want something slightly different than the usual shounen as the use of strategy makes it stand out in comparison to other shounen titles.
My scores for the 3 seasons would be: -Season 1= 7.2/10 -Season 2= 8/10 -Season 3= 8.2/10 Therefore overall I will be giving World Trigger a 7.7/10.
Anyway, I hope I might have convinced some of you to check out World Trigger and that those that have also watched World Trigger agree with my thoughts :)
