World Trigger

WoTri is one of those manga that is really underrated. while i myself started without any expectation or whatsoever, i find myself anticipating every chapter release from this series. this is my first review, so i hope i don't screw up.

[Story]
Not the most original plot on the whole manga-verse but i'd say, well-executed. this is your typical "invaders invading earth and some guys are here to protect us all". generic story but this one offers foreshadowing, unpredictable outcomes and ditching of most common shounen tropes (i'm looking at you nakama powers and will power) and sticks to the logical side of battles.

[Character]
now, this one boasts a lot of characters. as for the main characters, i must say, they are all likeable and this series is taking character development seriously. this is no story of a mc doing training several chapters then becoming super powered god mode-zilla in just a few chapters. this one explores how the main characters changes from this dude to that kind of dude to achieve their goal x.
as for the other characters, what i liked about this is that despite the huge cast, they were still given development and were not treated as stepping-stone or catalysts to make the mc stronger. growth here doesn't only mean a power-up for an ability but growth in mental aspect and in character.

[art]
well, the art is not really the best there is but i'll give it a thumbs up for the author for not sexualizing her female characters by drawing them in skimpy clothes or with unrealistic body measurement. the weapons and the background on the other hand, are very detail (props to the mangaka) and while his art is not really the best, it's more or less evolving. overall, unique art style maybe not everyone's cup of tea but i like some aspects of it.

[enjoyment]
i am enjoying this manga. the suspense and story are well-written. if you want a refreshing shounen manga give it a go and read 20+chapters because it started awfully sloooow.

Honestly I had low expectations when I first started. But as I read each chapter, I was looking forward to the next chapter so much! Very underrated manga I'd say. This is my first review so I hope I do good!

Edit: I wanted to add some more so…

*Partial Spoilers*

Story: 7
The plot and the story is amazing! It first starts off as those "invasion from another race" thing but as it progresses, you'd realize that WT executes the the theme really well. Also I found that the mangaka foreshadows things a lot which makes you want to know more! It was 121 chapter so far but there is still a lot of potential. The world building of this verse is really interesting too! There's a lot of dialogue but it will help you a lot! I'd give it a full 10 if it lives up to the potential. It may start off pretty generic but just be patient. As the story progress it shows that the being called Neighbor's are much more when it comes to their backgrounds and their countries. Also some of the foreshadowing brings out a darker side of this story.


Art: 8
Oh man, the art is one thing I love about this manga! One of the few manga where I find every single character design hella appealing! The art style is really fitting for a sci-fi genre. I also like how much detail is put into the backgrounds.

Character: 7
Urgh, the characters are great too! The character development! The MC in this isn't your typical shonen main like Naruto. Mikumo Osamu is weak in combat compared to the other casts (he is actually weak he doesn't go op even after going through months of training). But his quick thinking and tactics make it up a lot. He gets the most development in this manga. He may be frustrating to see but just pay attention to his growth.

Kuga Yuuma is Osamu's partner and a shocks you at the end of the first chapter! His =3= face is the best! He also gets some development so its fun to see him grow in the course. He first starts off ignorant and gradually learns from Osamu. Osamu also learns from Yuuma.

Amatori Chika is a smol precious peach that must be protected. Like Osamu, she can be quite frustrating to watch for some people. Her growth irather slow, but it pays off later.

Jin Yuuichi, he's one of those cheerful "big bro" type but as the series progresses, you find out his down side which makes me want to cry. His ability he has is op, but there are limits that makes it interesting. But the more you read it, it become more apparent that the author is plotting something about Jin.

WT had ridiculous amount of characters but I would let it slide because of the world building. The many characters are needed because WT relies on team battles and the use of tactics instead of one on one fighting most shonen does. Even when they do one on one fights, each characters figure out and either defeats or get out of the situation in a interesting way. The tactics they use to fight are pretty creative and refreshing to see in a shonen manga.

It's hard remembering names unless you're a hardcore fan like me. But don't worry! Every time the minor characters appear, the manga shows their name, age etc.

Again like the story, some may come off as tropes, but each character's are handled nicely. The interactions between character make up their lack of appearance. The way they interact is honestly quite refreshing.

Another thing I like about the character is that they don't get any random power ups. Even the ones that you think is gifted and OP, they always have some sort of harsh consequence (for example Yuuma).

Enjoyment/Overall: 10

Man, I really wish more people would give this manga a chance! Although, the pacing in the first few chapters might be slow for some of you, it gets really good! So again, please give WT a chance. It is very underrated.

The series itself while a slow starter is very well written and well developed. While each arc seems to be centered around big events in the series, the story does not get stale as multiple points of story are shown at the same time, which can make the arcs seem longer than they actually are. I think it is an underrated series as not many people recognize the name off hand. Some of the topics that appear in the series do make one wonder "How would I react in their shoes?" This is one of my top 5 manga reads and in my top 5 manga made into an anime thus far. I am glad that the series has restarted. It is my hope that it continues at a reasonable rate and that Ashihara keeps in good health while he works. But if he needs to take a break every now and then to tend to his health. I am all for it.

Thank you Ashihara for creating such a deep and amazing series.

World Trigger is shounen series mix with some sci-fi elements and its kinda work.

[Story]
Earth is under attack by different dimensional alien monsters. That all you need to know and it's a good set up, a lot of room for the creator to plexes his imagination. Plus open goal for the story to move freely on its own pages and perfect for a long epic war story.

[Art]
the alien monsters and the setting are beautifully drawn but the characters design is the biggest reason why I dropped this manga. They are drawn in simplistic designs, meaning the lack of expression and it's terrible. It's something likes this:
Normal scene: stupid faces
Life and death combat: the same stupid faces !!!
I mean it's just so frustrating to see the same F***king faces on every F***king characters at every F***king moment.

[Character]
I have nothing again the characters, they're fine. Nothing to hate but also nothing to like.

[Super Power]
What I like about shounen are the creative ways they used super power.
And World Trigger really know how to use its power system. From what I see, everything it's very balanced, every match wins by skill and experience. Plus the main cast progress at a reasonable rate and no bullshit power buffs.

[Enjoyment]
The terrible art alone kills the entire experience for me. But if it doesn't bother you then I completely recommend reading its.

Although I can see most people saying this story is underrated, it's not. People just don't talk about it that much. Also, I am up-to-date with the manga, so I can say this much:

Story: It's not that bad, but not entirely the best. But one thing about it is that it's not at all predictable, unlike other manga series. Okay, maybe sometimes it is, but it's still good enough for me. One more thing about the story is that it somehow related astronomy and used their own words for it.

Art: It doesn't really suit my taste. It's a simple style though, which I can easily understand. I can figure out how the fight/battle scenes are supposed to look like, which is okay. I've only seen a few colored parts in this manga, but it's simple and it doesn't hurt your eyes, so it's okay.

Characters: The characters in this series are likable enough. There are times when I slightly find some to be annoying, but it doesn't make a huge difference. The characters slightly relate to some people in real life, so I think it's fine. You can easily tell the characters apart, which is a good thing too. All their abilities are explained well and the way they think in this series is good.

Enjoyment: Personally, I'm really enjoying the manga series. It gives the right amount of twists and turns, not in every chapter though. Eh, it's not especially better than other manga series that I'm currently reading, but it's not bad at all. Although to be honest, I don't think those who like a lot of action would like this. It stays loyal to its "sci-fi" genre. The characters, plot, and how things work in this manga are well thought of, so it would be hard to say you don't understand what happened.
So, would I recommend this? It would depend on the person, but I think it's worth a shot.

World Trigger... This is one manga that is extremely underrated and needs more followers. With the end of the longest arc, I can see just how much talent Ashihara has.

Story (may include spoilers, read at own risk):
World Trigger starts off as your normal "aliens invading Earth" story, but proves it self not to be. However, as we learn about the invaders (called Neighbors), we learn that they're so much more, and with the revelation of several Neighbor worlds, a story is set up since our protagonists are going to face it. While it goes into softer parts, especially during training, when the protagonists go to the other worlds, there will be lots of suspense; the invasion arc proved it.


Art:
Oh man, the art is amazing and fits a sci-fi setting. Each character, Trigger, and background is drawn with so much detail that you can virtually see the characters moving in battle. And the colour pages are extremely appealing, anime worthy.

Character (spoilers, read at own risk):
While not World Trigger's biggest point, it certainly deserves to be acknowledged. An example of character development in the series would be Osamu. He is one of the few shonen protagonists who are weak and work hard for their strength. On top of that, he has strength in other forms like mental resilience and intelligence, which Ashihara cleverly uses. Another example of this would be Chika's high strength but low battle ability.

Overall, I have enjoyed the story very much and can see it becoming very successful if Ashihara keeps up his unique and interesting way of storytelling and showing.

This show just screams wasted potential, the premise isn't that unique to say but the perspective the main character gives a breath of fresh air. He's not OP, but not too talentless, his design is bland ( but I think that's deliberate), he finds alot of methods to make himself stronger instead of the usual i gonna try my body so hard that I can fight talented me and improve hard work pays of blah blah blah. This is just a guy who doesn't have much time and is trying to take the shortest route to do undertake a certain objective. I think Kuga and the MC are fine additions and both play off with each other quite well now.

This at times has really good shading and some good development and motivations through out the place, its fun enjoyable read now I gonna say why it's wasted potential.

But I have to say the Latest Arc with the B tournament is actually great, its fun we see new characters different strategies, seeing peoples quirks etc... Just previous arc does this a disservice

Art Style is really bland, its quite mediocre I feel like if the author did this monthly it would work better due to his health or if Jump allowed the author do an issue once every 2 weeks.

Character Design again they established a decent world, but problem is that everyone looks the same, so much reused models and sometimes it's so hard to tell which person is who.

Villain Models- these are bad, like terrible when u have an all out war and fighting the same enemy it just gets boring, i can do in depth why but just take my word for it.

Pacing- I think the pacing for this manga isn't bad, but after certain War arc that where the problems lies, they are so many chapters of images that really do not need to be there its pointless filter. If u wanna pace a war sequence of an invasion read Kingdom is one of the best war kinda mangas or if u looking for a power fantasy One Piece Whitebeard War is how to pull it off. Keeping the main focus with the protagonist where as we see the other characters fight to show development for whose necessary and but still being focused. I think this improves after this war arc is finished but the problem lies that is 38 chapters long is not good almost an entire was dedicated to this arc.


Characters again I think that this shows pro, the fact I can read that so unappealing visually and paneling wise also but because the characters are sorta relatable it's kinda pushing that away especially the main two leads. But the other characters they sorta have development but it's so cliche and tiresome at times I sometimes skip chapters because they are so boring and personalities of cliches u have seen a million times. Also, i do not like Jin he is way too OP and gifted and is so similar to other better characters I know.

But my biggest problem with this show is the lack of consequence, the main power has such a convenient ability its kinda frustrating because u know people can' t die.

Overall its actually not bad and if it wasn't that war arc I would have given it a higher rating but again this is standard. This, not HxH that an anime will improve on the concepts they on page, it produced by Toei so don't expect the anime to be good, serviceable maybe.

"Extremely underrated" this is what I have seen all too often from most of my friends and various reviewers on MAL, so I'd told myself I'd give it a try. Quite frankly, someone has to take the bad role here, and I'm expecting a fair amount of hate for this review, but no matter, I'll stay as impartial and clear as possible.


Story: 5
I'll get straight to the point, it's bland, basic, cardboard cut, whatever you want to call it. The story in itself had potential, however, it's so awfully generic that I really can't get myself to enjoy it while reading. I've always been bad with shonens, while this manga somewhat tries to be more serious (oscillating between shonen-styled writing and seinen-styled) it fails to do so. The synopsis is quite simple, so I'll keep it short. "Random gate pulled out of my ass brings random monsters wanting to destroy the world for the sake of it, then some random Japanese speaking teenager comes up, claiming to be one of them but says he wants to save the world" the rest of the story then proceeds as the following: monster appears, destroys stuff around him, MC&co. arrives, saves the day and repeat. This is my main problem with shonen, I can't support the fact that it's always the same thing, some people like it, because we see the characters fighting against yet stronger enemies and powering up after the fights (one piece, fairy tail or dbz are excellent example of such stories) and while some people like it, it really isn't my cup of tea.

Characters: 5
Bland. Bland. Bland. I'm using that word too much, I know, but I don't have more appropriate terms in English to describe the overly boring charecters of the show, so instead I'm gonna use the French word "chiant", have fun googling it. The MC is the epitome of the shonen character, strong, virtuous, practically flawless, oblivious, always believing his "nakama" and standing up no matter what. Reminds you of anything? Of course it does! It's practically any other damn shonen MC ever created! The main problem with this manga, like I believe I said earlier, is its lack of originality. Most of the supportive characters are mostly plot convinient and have the rather usual upbringing in shonens.

Art: 7
Probably the strong point of this manga. While it is definitely not the most beautifully drawn manga out there, the art is quite steady, it improves quite well with time as well as being visually appealing. The character designs are surprisingly well done, so I don't have much complaints about it.

Enjoyment and overall note: 4
And I'm being generous here, the thing I hate the most (after messed up adaptations) is the lack of originality in stories. I believe the world created in this manga had a lot of potential, especially after I had seen the first chapters, I thought to myself "huh, maybe this shonen could be fun after all!" Oh, how wrong was I. All of this brings me to my final and next point: I do not think I have to judge one's taste, but I really do wonder what in the world do people find interesting and underrated it this. I can't quite bring myself but to think of this as another generic shonen story.

In the case of World Trigger, I would say I probably enjoy it much more than the average reader. Now atm of writing this I am caught of to the manga and I must say I really enjoyed reading it so far and am excited for it to continue.

Breakdown-

Story- 7/10
The overall story is a fun read and has its interesting quirks in itself. The pacing for me personally feels a bit slow but it does a good job with details and who the story follows, as it switches around a bit. It follows a format that does seem to become repetitive however each time it repeats it is obviously a different experience due to the characters and abilities they hold. It isn't so much where it becomes boring in fact it actually helps increase interest. ( for myself at least)

Art- 8/10
The art isn't too complicated nor is it too simple. I find it to be a fun and beautiful style to see throughout the story, especially in battle as it is still pretty detailed.

Character- 8/10
Personally, I love the way the manga handled the characters. I find that despite its large cast it does a good job and diversifying them. On top of that, a good portion of the characters are pretty decently developed, and we get an idea and sense of who they are. As well as that fact they often show up multiple times throughout the manga. Of course, with such a big cast not everyone gets a large amount of screen time but overall it is well done for the number of characters in it. ( all of which are important in their own ways)

Enjoyment- 9/10 I definitely loved reading up to this point and can not wait to continue reading. The next arc is sure to be fun and the upcoming plans as well. The manga as a whole was a delight to read and I do think that the first season ( anime) was able to convey it.
( despite some of the animation issues ), so hopefully people will come to read the manga and see where it steems from.

Overall- I would highly recommend World Trigger to people as it is a fun read with some good world building and I think the idea's it has are sure to be entertaining. Of course, some will not love it as much as I, but it is definitely a good recommendation to give.

As Far as shonens go it is of the mature kind. This may be because of a personal bias, but I think having cheap tsunderes, silly rivalries, unnecessarily loud characters, etc etc really dumb down a show. But those exist because it isn't easy to fill in those gaps. So when a show can give me interesting characters and story without having to rely on show story tools I really appreciate.

The beginning has good execution although it isn't necessarily ground breaking in its originality. But later on in the series it does overcome those barriers by expanding on this simple sci-fi template greatly by adding a decent level of politics, not on par with seinen/politics-focused shows but definitely good. politics isn't always the house of cards kind, real politics is simpler.

And really on the best things about this is show is the power system, the weapons and the strategy. Which really makes it one of a kind.

I love this series sucks the Mangaka is currently on hiatus and has been for quite a long time so the series is just stuck at Volume 18 and it's unsure when or if there will be more. I love the art of this series and it's what initially grabbed me when I read it but I stuck around though for the setting and characters. I didn't like Osamu in the beginning but he has been coming into his own like many of the characters. The power system is also a lot of fun since there are a lot of unique ways the powers are used and it's really disappointing that they didn't get to finish the great tournament arc they're in the middle of.

Overall I'd like to recommend the series but if you don't like when a series doesn't conclude I'd recommend waiting to see if it starts back up before reading.

With the upcoming adaptation it’s high time this series got at least one review on MAL. Let me say it straight from the start: at this moment (ch. 55) it’s an OK battle shounen, that many readers will find entertaining, though I can’t shake off the feeling that it’s a bit tryhard. WT works diligently on being a good action series for teens but rarely strives for more and doesn’t show many moments of brilliance. However the potential of the series is great and it can develop into something more profound in future.

I’ll start with the art, since it will be the obvious dealbreaker for many readers. WT is drawn in characteristic cartoonish shounen style. It’s not terribly expressive, facial features are simplistic, female faces are especially bad, because of the angular mouths. That’s a conscious choice – designs of the uniforms and of the monsters are seriously good, nonetheless it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and may take time to adjust to.

Then there’re characters. I’ll give you some hints of what to expect from the characters shown on all the promo materials. The main teen trio is more or less interesting. The most original of the cast is Osamu (the guy with the glasses), who is weak, both physically and in term of superpowers, but has a strong set of knight-like principles. Surprisingly, he doesn’t miraculously power-up and remains in his sad and complicated position. I am worried though, that if they will leave him like that, he will be too plot-armored, when the difficulty finally goes up, but who knows, maybe they’ll manage to make it work. Yuuma is the titular white-haired kid, an outsider to our world and, by all means, a child soldier. He is your typical overpowered good-natured shounen hero. As for now he is somewhat weak as a character, but thankfully he is often left at the background – more of a force to be used than someone who acts on his own. Yuuma can be annoying at times, because of his OPness. This situation won't last, but there have been enough chapters where he was like a cat among pigeons. The third one is Chika, - a shy girl with a big power potential and a terrible design. She provides great comedic relief and some motivation for rescuing, though you don’t feel the need to blame her for it. She is underdeveloped at the moment. The adult guy is Jin, OP as hell, self-consciously, but annoyingly flashy, at least for the first half of the available chapters. There’s a huge amount of named supporting characters, some of them even promising, though, maybe, there're even too many. The adult cast is so-so and a bit painful to watch after CCG from Tokyo Ghoul or Urakai from Kekkaishi.

The plot promises a lot. Most likely at some point in future the heroes will travel to another world or even worlds, and it may even happen soon, but until now the story has been pretty slow. Battle shounen doesn’t work without strong enemies and those appear around 50th chapter. Until then it had been mostly introduction and status struggle. A rank battle was even mentioned, but thankfully it won’t come or it is postponed. So I’d say that there is potential too, but the flow isn’t that good. My problem is that so far it has been pure shounen. The best works in the genre usually have something for more adult audience as well – some conflicts outside of the usual topics of saving friends and becoming stronger, but WT doesn’t develop these motives enough.

The setting is interesting and ripe with possibilities, most likely there’re a lot of hidden secrets. The monsters are good. The huge amount of parallel worlds perpetually at war allows for any number of interesting developments. The system of power is more or less detailed and logical. The not so good part is that they made things easy for the fighters. Despite all the talk about battlefields and everybody being battle-hungry 100% of time, until now it has been mostly a video game – nobody gets scarred physically or mentally during fights (townsfolk does sometimes, but offscreen). In battle mode the bodies are replaced with artificial constructs, so gruesome injuries do not matter. Combatants can bail out at any given moment. There’re even special virtual environments to train without care. I understand that it is a teen series, but some things are made way too convenient. These conveniences make battles look a bit less tense, than they should be in a series focused on exactly battling. It is changing slowly and the stakes and consequences are mentioned, but I can't help but get the feeling that they have it easy even compared to the other shounen series.

In short, in my opinion, WT is a solid and for the most part entertaining series, which, unfortunately, still doesn’t reach the upper tier of its genre, though it is very possible that it will develop in the future, so I wish it a long run.