News

World Trigger Anime Casts Tomokazu Sugita as Masato Kageura

This year's eighth issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine (issue cover pictured at right) announced on Monday that Tomokazu Sugita (Gintama's Gintoki, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya's Kyon) will play Masato Kageura in World Trigger television anime. Kageura is the leader of the B-class #2 unit called Kageura Unit.

The magazine also announced that Junichi Suwabe (The Prince of Tennis' Keigo, Kuroko's Basketball's DAIKI) will reprise his role of Masataka Ninomiya from the anime's first season. Ninomiya is the leader of the B-class #1 unit called Ninomiya Unit.

The magazine revealed that the anime will feature the original manga's "B-Class Rank Battles" story arc, starting with the 64th episode on January 31. In the anime's story, Kageura and Ninomiya will face off for a chance for their units to become A-class.

World Trigger: Tōbōsha Hen (World Trigger: Fugitive Arc) is an anime-original arcfeaturing all-new characters and stories not seen in the original World Trigger manga. The arc premiered on October 10 and concluded on Sunday.

The World Trigger television anime from Toei Animation premiered in October 2014. Crunchyroll and Hulu are streaming the series as it airs.

Toei Animation premiered the first three English-dubbed episodes at last year's Anime Expo. The show was not licensed by a US company: Toei Animation itself commissioned the English dub of the first six to seven episodes. Toei Animation then streamed an English-dubbed trailer for the anime last August.

Toei Animation describes the anime story:

World Trigger begins when a mysterious gate to another world is opened in Mikado City, letting invaders from another dimension called "Neighbors" overrun the area.

A new defense league called "Border" is created in order to protect the City from these apparitions. The fighters are equipped with an amazing weapon called "Trigger" allowing them to put on an armor and use special powers.

The story takes place four years after those events, when a young student, Yuma Kuga, arrives at Mikado City. He witnesses, along with another student Osamu Mikuno, a portal opening. To fight the creature, Osamu finds himself forced to reveal his affiliation to the Border and pulls his Trigger out. When Osamu is injured, Yuma joins the fight and saves him. Yuma turns out to be very powerful!

Who is really Yuma? Why did he come to Mikado City?

Daisuke Ashihara's original World Trigger manga debuted in 2013's 11th issue of Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Viz Media added the series to its digital anthology version of Weekly Shonen Jump, and also publishes the manga in print.

The manga also inspired the fighting game World Trigger: Borderless Mission for the PlayStation Vita, which shipped in Japan on September 17. Bandai Namco Entertainment announced on Thursday that it will port its World Trigger: Smash Borders smartphone game to the PlayStation Vita.