I believe some of you may have heard the old phrase, “why can’t the show be about these more interesting characters than the comparatively dull main leads?” Well, World Trigger seems to have done just that. While the first episodes were all Wet Blanket and Duck-face, now it only has them for the sake of explaining new triggers while the main action and focus is on Jin and the Arashiyama squad. And yeah…the series is a bit better for it, because things are happening, and some of those things are kinda cool.
Like Jin and his crazy razz ribbon slash ability. It can make all these crazy slashes, but it has a limited set. Its powerful, but requires some strategy to use. Still, h uses one o take out an enemy (as in cut off his head, albeit in a pg rated manner.) You know, that’s something I realized. With the safe manner violence is handled, the simplistic characters, and those little after episode refreshers on the plot, this feels like a show for younger kids. Like..even younger to the demographic that watch One Piece, just very safe. Its baby’s first shonen.
Case and point, when the guy is killed by Jin, we see the full extent of what happens, when he’s shot back to Hq, his trion depleted by not having a trion head. Does make me wonder, do they all go to HQ? Are they going to fight then end up there shooting the breeze after fighting one another?
One thing interesting has been more reveals for Jin. He and the other guy have this big rivalry which continued, even after Jin got the black trigger. While the other guy’s more skilled, the black trigger gives Jin the edge too. The reason not much seems to have happened is because they are evenly matched and trying to get an advantage. However, this does lead to another plot hole. Its said that black triggers are very specific, and only are compatible with very select people. Which means it makes even less sense for Border to be after Kuga’s, because they probably won’t even be able to use it. Cartoon villainy here.
We get to see Jin hiding slashes to be used at other time, and that’s a pretty neat trick. However, the other side still has more men. I once heard that a lot of this show is strategy and positioning rather than raw strength, and I can see that. There’s somewhat of an early Naruto flair to it..before it became all about giant super ultra attacks.
Its an interesting fight, wherein one guy uses this trick to get to Jin when he’s out of slashes, only for Jin to show he had hidden his final slash in the wall to be used. We get to see part of what makes Jin at his best an elite; he can see the future, and thus plan every counter move in advance, which can easily be done with his Fujin.
More exposition on types of triggers, whooooooo. However, to their credit, they at least have the common sense to show the weapons being used while explaining them. Its both way more entertaining and actually shows what they mean in practice. Here its all about guns, with really powerful basic bullets, explosive shot guns, one’s that sot of scatter around, and homing bullets.
Actually, the other fight going on is in some ways better than the one with Jin, if only because there are more people at work, fighting around. And, we can see how and if those people are taken out.
For instance, spear guy is taken out, as is the other guy in Arashiyama squad, with the other two wounded in the legs. However, even then there’s a sense of strategy. Hideki didn’t like how they were falling back a lot, but sometimes that’s just how battles and skirmishes are. Its about territory and momentum and the element of surprise and all that other stuff. Anyways, all the enemy are going to move in on Jin, so the remaining Arashiyama guys need to find a way to stop them while not being in the best shape. I’m actually curious as to how they will pull it off.
So overall, I enjoyed this episode much more than previous ones. Yeah, it was mostly battles and exposition, but hey, it was still pretty entertaining, and I now have enough interest to be mildly excited with the next episode.
“However, this does lead to another plot hole. Its said that black triggers are very specific, and only are compatible with very select people. Which means it makes even less sense for Border to be after Kuga’s, because they probably won’t even be able to use it. Cartoon villainy here.”
The anime narrative pacing makes it a little harder to pick up (I think the manga explains it a little better), but the primary reason Border HQ is going after the Black Trigger isn’t so that they can have one of their own wield it, but that they consider it a political risk if a Black Trigger remains in Tamakoma Branch hands, since Tamakoma would then potentially have two Black Trigger wielders to HQ’s one Trigger. Being able to use Yuuma’s Trigger is obviously a bonus, but Kido’s primary aim here seems to be that Rindo/Jin don’t have control over two of them.
I did really enjoy this episode – Izumi and his bullet brain totally makes all battles better, even when his animation is shoddy.