World Trigger

Episode 8

How does this show keep getting cheaper? This episode takes it to a new level by including minutes of unnecessary flashbacks to previous episodes, and even earlier in the same episode. Soon we'll just be looking at a collage of images pasted onto the screen.

All this reused animation is a serious narrative problem. It means that this show conveys character information through endless exposition rather than just showing whatever is happening, because it allows them to rely on easier-to-animate talking heads. That is so boring. This show's Number One story issue is its pacing, which is so slow that it's almost unwatchable. What happened in these twenty-three minutes, for example? Yuma beats up those two guys who were attacking him and we learn a couple of new things about triggers. Yuma's special because he has a black trigger, a super-powered type of trigger that's only compatible with certain individuals. Jin also has one. We don't know what they are, we just know that they have them, and they're important. Over several agonizing flashbacks, Osamu and Chika reaffirm their friendship with Yuma despite him being a Neighbor. One of the guys Yuma fought, Shuuji Miwa, especially hates Neighbors and doesn't trust him. He runs off to sulk. Osamu and Jin go to another board meeting, the board of directors orders him to capture Yuma's black trigger, and the episode cuts off.

The Neighbors' threat doesn't feel real, and this is a huge hindrance to the show's emotional resonance. They keep telling us about the carnage they've caused in the past and could cause in the future, but it's always averted in terms of immediate stakes. Osamu rescues civilians, they take down the Neighbor, etc. I can't decide if this problem stems from the original story or whether it's a failure of adaptation, but it's difficult for me to care about what happens. The exposition slideshow used to explain the Neighbors in the first minutes of the first episode feels like the point origin for this failure - the emotional stakes never took root in the beginning, and now the show is stuck playing catch up.

This episode's brief moment of joy was the fight scene, which was tactically neat and had some well composed shots. Otherwise it's an expected installment for this disappointing adaptation.

Grade: C-

World Trigger is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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