English Dub Season Review: World Trigger Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

In Mikado City, everything was peaceful until a ‘gate’ opened one day. This gate allowed aliens from another world, called ‘Neighbors’ to enter. The invaders attacked without mercy, but an organization called Border rose up to combat the Neighbors with their own Trigger technology.

Four years passed as Neighbor battled Border. It was becoming the new normal. But then a strange boy named Yuma Kuga showed up. Presumably a 15 year old human, he quickly is revealed to be a Neighbor himself. He befriends a fellow nerdy teenager named Osamu Mikumo who works as a Border member. Kuga has no idea about life in Mikado City, so Osamu has to show him the ropes. Slowly, they begin to form a friendship.

Eventually, they meet other friends such as Chika Amatori, a shy girl who gets brought out of her shell by Yuma and company, and Yuichi Jin, a carefree guy who cares deeply for his friends. The wind up in Border as a team led by Osamu. Mikumo Squad’s members work together to rise in the rankings of Border and defeat the Neighbors along the way.

Our Take:

Originally released back in 2014 on an under-the-radar TV channel, the English dub of World Trigger is now available for streaming on Crunchyroll. It’s your standard sci-fi adventure anime series, complete with an underlooked, up and coming hero, an alien turned ally, and plenty of explosive battle sequences between space invaders and the human protectors of our world. If you’re a fan of the manga (which is generally regarded to be a more solid version than this anime adaptation), then you might as well check this out if you haven’t gotten a chance to before. But for everyone else, I’d say you’re safe to steer clear unless it fits into your wheelhouse.

The storyline of World Trigger revolves around aliens called Neighbors who invade Mikado City and have to be beaten back by agents of a group called Border, which is in command of the defense of the city. Their agents use alien tech called Triggers in order to gain power to repel the invaders. Yuma Kuga himself is a Neighbor, but his dad sent him to Earth before his death. Kuga quickly teams up with Osamu and Border in order to fight against his alien origins. It’s all fairly run-of-the-mill sci-fi stuff. The more anime I watch, the more my enjoyment depends on the characters themselves. There’s only so many kinds of plot developments you can write before they become repetitive, so it’s important for a series to be able to attract and keep viewers just based on their characters alone, not solely for the goings-on of the plot.

And on the character front, World Trigger doesn’t do half bad. At first, I kind of hated Yuma because he’s just kind of annoying with his know-it-all, better-than-thou attitude. But his dynamic with the more serious minded Osamu is fun (“Triggers are not supposed to be used on civilians, ever. And beating up other kids isn’t my style.”), and as the episodes progress, I found myself enjoying the two of them more. Yuma even turns into somewhat of a lovable little scamp. The other characters considered leads are Chika and Yuichi. They’re fine, but not quite as nuanced and interesting as Yuma and Osamu. The other squads they meet once joining up with Border for real are cool, though, and I love seeing all the different squads hanging out, swapping trash talk, and of course, battling it out in the arena.

When it comes to the more production aspects of the show, things are a mixed-bag. At it’s premiere, the show was somewhat criticized for its animation. Watching it now, it definitely can’t stand up to current high-quality productions, but I didn’t think it was remarkably awful or anything. Maybe I’m just biased in favor of that mid-2000’s look, but I found it fine. And the character designs themselves, I really like. Yuma, with his perpetual cat mouth, is great. Osamu is kind of bland, but many of the side character have fun details like poofy hair or spiky teeth, or even a cat riding in their hair! (Yup.) The dub is solid for the most part, with the main cast being consistently in-character and most of the background voices fitting their roles well. It’s worth mentioning that an English dub was not produced for episodes 49-63, which apparently comprises a so-called ‘filler’ arc that is not beloved by fans.

Having said all that, I’ll repeat that I don’t recommend the series for anyone who doesn’t have a specific reason to watch it. More casual viewers will probably be turned off right from the start of the first episode, when the show opens up with a five-minute (literally, I counted) montage that essentially is a slideshow with text labels explaining everything in a boring, textbook-like fashion. For those that do stick around, they’ll get some fun action and a handful of interesting character relationships… but in the end? I don’t think it’s worth pulling this trigger.