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World Trigger
Episode 7

by Gabriella Ekens,

Today I learned that there's a form of animation lazier than talking head lip flaps, and that's having Yuma talk by alternating his mouth between two different frames of duck face. It's kind of funny actually. Minutes of this episode are spent watching different scrawled number 3s exchange places on a dude's face while dialogue is played over it. The wonders of animation!

On a serious note, this was also our formal introduction to Chika Amatori, World Trigger's primary heroine. Chika's body produces massive amounts of Trion, so Neighbors are always after her. Yuma explains that their primary reason for entering this world is to kidnap Trion-producing humans for their own war efforts, harvesting their bodies for fuel. Trion potential is measured through the size of the holographic cube you project, which seems much less intuitive than a point scale or something, but whatever, gotta drive home the cube motif somehow. For example, subpar Osamu's cube is about the size of a cat, while Chika's is larger than a car. Despite being in constant danger from Neighbors, Chika refuses to seek refuge at Border because the first person to try and help her, her childhood friend, disappeared as a result. It's now difficult for Chika to rely on others. Osamu, however, is dedicated to helping her anyway.

This episode continues World Trigger's main problem of lingering on what should be brief exposition segments for so long that not much happens through the entire episode. The first 13 minutes were spent outright stating a bunch of information that was implied last time - Chika attracts neighbors, she has lots of Trion and a death wish, blah blah blah - before getting to the next actual development, where Border figures out that Yuma is a Neighbor. By conducting their experiment in broad daylight, the agents trailing them catch sight of Replica, Yuma's exposition-spouting robot babysitter, and attack. They even managing to land the first hit, which provokes a series of hilarious reused terrified reaction shots from Osamu. Together, two agents - one with bangs and another with pushed-back hair - manage to push Yuma into the range of their allies' sniper, and the episode ends.

It's a shame that Toei really doesn't want to animate fight scenes for this show, because that's the core of most of its appeal. It's all about battle strategies involving the different weapons, who's the frontline fighter, the sniper, the support guy, and how they work together to take down the enemy. We got a small dose of that here, watching how the soldier with the two-pronged spear (which was great to see by the way - spears are better than swords) and the one with the gun worked together to trick a stronger opponent into doing what they want. I'd like to see more of that when the Osamu squad proper forms.

This series also a has a problem with wanting us to pay attention to too many characters who aren't all that visually distinct. They keep introducing characters by their full names, but I'll maybe remember them for their hairstyle, one personality trait, or which fight they appeared in, if at all. There are just too many dark or brown haired young men in uniforms in this show, and not enough going on. Which ones am I supposed to care about? It's possible to make naturalistic character designs distinctive, even if they're all in uniform - just look at Attack on Titan. Right now the only ones I've got down are Osamu, Yuma, Kitoria, Jin, and Chika. Hopefully I won't be required to know who these other people are later on. So far, World Trigger most reminds me of The irregular at magic high school in its production value, pacing, and cheap tendency to explain what's happening via diagram rather than actual animation. At least we've reached the point past where I've read in the source manga - maybe some surprises will up my engagement a bit?

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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