The battle ramps up
What They Say:
Osamu Mikumo is a member of Border, an organization designed to protect Mikado City the from alien invaders knows as Neighbors. One day a mysterious new student named Yuma Kuga transfers to his school and turns out to be a humanoid neighbor himself. The two are supposed to be natural enemies, but could there be more to neighbors than Osamu has bargained for…
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Well that’s a bit more like it. The beginning episodes to this arc stumbled a little bit thanks to some awkward direction and dialogue, but it finally hits it’s stride in these pair of episodes. As the situation escalates it makes for some great action and development, bringing the best material the show’s had to offer to date.
There’s a lot of back and forth action going on these episodes as Border tries to deal with the Rabits and it’s some of the best the show’s ever put out. It’s not the first time the show’s bumped up it’s animation but it flows really well here and thanks to the constant tension of the situation it feels a lot more intense. On the downside the direction for the Border boardroom scenes seems to have gone back to being kinda awkward thanks to some moments where it’s really clear how much they’re trying to force the tension, but it’s minor compared to how much the direction for the action scenes has improved. The way a lot of the urban warfare style battles play out really gives the impression the author’s into shooting games, and with the kind of enemies being fought they function pretty well in that respect and it’s cool to see them won using actual tactics rather than special moves or abilities like most shonen.
Though while there’s a lot to love about the action in these episodes there’s also some good character moments too. Yuma gets tested to the reality of his situation as a Neighbor when he has to deal with the fact that he could come under attack by other Border agents (although it’s kind of weird the higher ups wouldn’t have made his existence public to the rest of the organization knowing what could happen), and Kitora gets a chance to show off after seeing how much she’s been helped out by Osamu and Yuma, deciding to pay them back in turn. Of course the best moment comes from Osamu who gets a chance to show how much he’s improved when he goes up against the same type of Trion Soldier that almost killed him way back in episode 3. In the grand scheme of things it’s a pretty weak opponent and reinforces how far behind he is compared to everyone else, but for him beating it on his own is a small step towards getting stronger and it displays how much he’s learned to start using his head in battles. His development is always a neat little highlight and it’s refreshing to see a weaker character get progressively stronger rather than powering up through external means.
Aside from all that the other major development here is the introduction of the humanoid Neighbors behind the invasion. We don’t get to learn too much about them but it’s not too hard to get a grasp on their personalities since they’re all pretty straightforward. What isn’t however is their plans which Border has a lot of trouble piecing together since it seems like the Neighbors are exhausting too many of their resources towards the invasion when most of the agents can escape the Rabits thanks to the bail out system. Though it turns out that the real objective is to capture the C-rank agents since they can’t escape that easily and given Chika’s massive amount of Trion, it’s likely she’ll end up being the prime target. It looks like the brunt of that is being saved for next time along with the humanoid Neighbors themselves going into the fold so that should make for some pretty good action but what we’ve gotten for these two episodes works just as well. Here’s hoping the show can keep it up.
On a bit of a side note, the second of these episodes displays a new “opening” for the series. Though Toei apparently seems to have gotten the words “opening” and “ending” confused because it doesn’t play until the very end of the episode, and is more of a clip show than anything else. Unfinished animation would be one thing but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of thing happen and it really makes me wonder just how much this show’s production is suffering behind the scenes. Well at least they seem to have figured out most everything else but I’m really hoping this isn’t the final product as far as that’s concerned.
In Summary:
World Trigger delivers on a pair of really solid action episodes and the best the show’s displayed so far. The battles feel a lot more intense thanks to some improvement on the battle choreography front and there’s some good character moments here too. Though there’s a bit of weirdness regarding the new opening and a couple of minor direction flaws, the adaption’s really managed to hit it’s stride as of late and it would be really great if it could ride that train all the way to the conclusion.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
