Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Alien monsters suddenly appear from another world to attack Japan, and super powered people group together to defeat them. Well, that’s what World Trigger is, a show about that. How does it begin?
WITH THIS THING!! Honestly, I just hate it when shows uses flashbacks/flashforwards as the stinger for the first episode. The very beginning should draw us in, not leave us confused (that little summary above was told after the credits with some narration). As for the critter itself…it doesn’t wow me. The CGI doesn’t really make it look real, the design of it has nothing really cool or interesting about it. Lastly, apparently the evil alien threat that is trying to take over the world? They’re called “Neighbors”. I’m serious. Puts a deep chill down your spine and fills you with dread doesn’t it? “Oh no, the Neighbors are attacking!!”
So yeah, we’ve got monsters, and a mysterious group called Border which fights them off. Not a bad premise, but not one that’s that original either. Most toku series, action series, even magical girl series can have that same basic story. What World Trigger needs is some cool characters and other things to make it different..so does it?
First we have Osamu here. He’s your basic, stoic, goody two shoes guy. He doesn’t talk much, but he’ll defend the weak even if it gets him his ass handed to him. Also, one thing I just…CANNOT get over is how, for some UNKNOWN REASON the part of his glasses that’d cover his eyes are gone when its sideways. I mean..look at THAT! Were the animators asleep? And don’t say its “future glasses” because when at another angle, they’re there.
And I wouldn’t harp on it that much but this is not just a one-time flub, this is constant throughout the episode.
Other than that, he’s very standard. Now, Yuma, the white haired boy..he’s another story entirely. He’s the transfer student, who sees unperturbed by anything, carefree, eccentric (for instance refusing to remove a ring he’s wearing due to school rules). He’s funny, if only because of how strange and out of touch he is. Of course, he also is a little creepy, something that Osamu picks up on.
Creepy….
..Goofy.
Say hello, btw, to Yuma’s duck face. If you made a drinking game out of how often he does this, you’d be wasted by the 10 minute mark. Anyways, Osamu can tell somethings not right with this kid, but still defends him from some discount bullies from a 90’s anime. Osamu, despite the fact Yuma’s never asked for help or even shown he was the least bit threatened, decides to step in to help.
This is what happens not 5 seconds later…
Well, at least our bespectacled hero has the support of the guy he tried to save, right??
See, this is the way in which Yuma is funny. He just..doesn’t get it, and his reactions so contrary to what we expect is just…kinda funny in a “Oh my God I can’t believe he just said that” way.
However, this after school special is cut short due to a monster attack. My guess is these happen most days that end in Y. Another point about the Neighbors that does not wow me…they’re giant monsters…but they can’t even bite a human in half!!
If that was a Titan, he’d already be dead. How can I take a monster seriously if they can’t kill a civilian thats literally in their jaws.
What’s Yuma’s thoughts on this?
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! Anyways, its now that we get into some actual fighting. First Osamu trying to fight the monster with his Trigger….and failing. Then Yma fighting it…and winning in like…5 seconds.
I will say this, the episode did throw me for a few surprises. I honestly expected Yuma would be a member of Border, not Osamu. And the reveal at the end, that Yuma is himself a Neighbor both surprised me, but also made a lot of what he did and said make a lot more sense. His alien behavior now fits perfectly because..well, he’s an alien. However, while the twists were nice, and the bit of action we got at the end was nice, I found not a lot compelling about this show. Its got a basic plot, with nothing exceptionally defining it yet. Osamu’s bland, Yuma is strange, and the monsters are..underwhelming. I’ll continue watching with Hideki, hopeful for things becoming better, but so far…non-plussed.
-Savage
Hideki’s First Impression
Oh boy it’s my turn! Well since Savage did such a fantastic job of recapping the episode, i suppose I’ll give my take on the show. Firstly, I didn’t expect much coming in. If you read my Fall 2014 post on this I actually said the phrase “BRING ON THE GENERICNESS!” Because I knew what i was getting into. What I DIDN’T know was that I was basically going to watch Pacific Rim the anime.
One of the things that Savage did not bring up which I feel I have to bring attention to that bothered me was this fact. They say in the opening that these monsters popped out of portals. But with the new group they call “BORDER” they managed to keep them behind a wall. And…for some reason none of the people evacuate. EVER. After the initial attack they kind of just…go back to their lives kind of forgetting there’s monsters within a walls distance of them. And they stay that way for FOUR YEARS
Another thing that irritated me was the generic use of bullies. It was like ‘Hah! We’re jackass bullies for no reason!” Hopefully they’ll do something with these bullies, but they probably won’t. You know who did bullies really well? Eyeshield 21. I DARE this show to develop their bullies as well as Eyeshield 21. I FUCKING DARE THEM.
But I know they WON’T develop these bullies. They’re going to use them an episode 1 jumping point. Like I said show, prove me wrong.
The glasses didn’t bother nearly as much as it did Savage, but to me, I really couldn’t stand the CGI monsters. They look so bad in this environment. Like they don’t belong at all. And not like an ironic “Well of course they shouldn’t they’re from a different dimension!” No, more like a, clashes against the other art and looks stupid. (See above Savage pictures for reference)
All in all, I’m not THRILLED with this show yet, but who knows. Maybe it’ll be great. Maybe I’ll love it. But as of right now, there’s no real character I like, the premise is overdone, and the art is….okay? except for the monsters which are stupid.
But…I will be continuing covering this on a bi-weekly basis alternating with Savage. I don’t think either of us could take this mehness on our own.
Scores
Head (Plot and such): 6
Eye: (Art) 6.5
Heart: (How it makes me feel) 4. (honestly I didn’t care about anything or anyone)
Watching: Yeah, I want to see where this is going.
Blogging: Yeah, alternating with Savage, but yeah.
Well…..at least it isn’t as boring as Ushinawareta….
-Hideki
Everything you both said was on point. (LOL that duck face made its appearance way too often, and was kind of annoying!) I decided to sample this anime since the title sounded really cool, but my overall reaction was “MEH.” The plot was generic, the characters cliched and boring, the art unappealing, and the animation AWFUL. Those ‘alien’ things look like giant bugs, and if I wanted that I’d be watching Terra Formars. Which I’m not.
Based on the animation alone, which was shoddy at best and nagged at me throughout what I watched of episode 1, this series may have been popular 10 years ago, but not today, where animation is so much better. Even anime like Code Geass and M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane, which I was not interested in, caught my eye because of their animation. Toei either needs to step up its game or get out of the race. >.>