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World Trigger
Episode 6

by Gabriella Ekens,

So does anyone else always hear the title World Trigger to the sting of The Talking Heads' song Psycho Killer?

World Trigger

Qu'est-ce que c'est

fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better

Run run run run run run run away

Ha! Now that I've gotten that stuck in your head forever, onto the show proper.

This episode can be divided into two distinct halves. First off, in the aftermath of last episode's corporate slumber party, Yuma is out investigating the abnormal gates. BORDER's set up a barrier to prevent new gates from appearing for the next two days, so they have to solve the mystery in that time. Ace agent Yuichi Jin uses his future-sight powers to determine that Yuma is a Neighbor and recruit him, having predicted that he would lead to the cause of the abnormal gates. The culprits turn out to be Rads, tiny little robot Neighbors that do nothing but hide away and project interdimensional gates. Jin rapidly mobilizes BORDER's combined forces in order to locate and destroy them all, well within the 42-hour time limit.

In the second mini-episode, Yuma meets Osamu's friend Chika, a girl with an extraordinary ability to sense and attract Neighbors. Chika has a habit of running head-on into Neighbor attacks in order to minimize casualties that may occur from them chasing her through populated areas. She might also have a tiny bit of a death wish, related to a mysterious incident involving Neighbors and a childhood friend. In the end, Yuma rescues Chika while Osamu takes down a Neighbor with his newly acquired B-rank trigger. (This is also one of those baffling anime episodes where the OP happens halfway through the episode. Does anyone have idea why that happens?)

This week in exposition, it's revealed that people with high levels of trion (some sort of mana-like substance produced by the human) develop "side effects": extrasensory abilities that help them out in combat. Jin, for example, can see into the near future. The new character, Chika, can sense Neighbors before they appear. Trion is also what allows people to use triggers, and the strength of your trigger is based on the amount of trion you have access to.

One of the most interesting things about World Trigger is that it acknowledges the degree to which military operations need to perform for the civilian population to preserve public goodwill. While it doesn't seem to be commenting on it, BORDER's more prominent as a public relations machine than a defense organization so far. Our dominant image of them is through carefully-curated news broadcasts, and Osamu is allowed to skirt the rules largely because his actions make them look good. I wonder what will happen if Osamu starts making choices that don't lead to instant popularity? There's an underlying ideological conflict between Osamu, a truly selfless individual who doesn't care about his reputation one way or the other, and BORDER's leaders, a group of people who calculate and micromanage public perception. Right now I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, although it seems there are still a good dozen or so episodes before that'll happen.

Otherwise, this episode was boring and full of shortcuts, but not to the hilarious degree of last week's. The most baffling choice was illustrating Jin's mobilization of BORDER as a series of extreme closeups to his mouth followed by reaction shots of the board members doing things. Chika is off-model even more than most characters. It's especially bad in the first scene, where she's supposed to be a child. Her head-and-body proportions keep changing between shots; her face keeps swelling up like a melon. However, this was the least awful looking Neighbor so far... Although that might just be me taking pity on the poor thing because it looks like the Pokemon Dialga.

Overall, the brewing conflict of interest between Osamu and Border coupled with Chika's introduction had the potential to be interesting, but this show is dragged so far down by its production values that it's almost impossible to watch. At least it's not paced like molasses this time.

Grade: C-

World Trigger is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.


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