World Trigger

When a gate to another world suddenly opens on Earth, Mikado City is invaded by strange creatures known as "Neighbors," malicious beings impervious to traditional weaponry. In response to their arrival, an organization called the Border Defense Agency has been established to combat the Neighbor menace through special weapons called "Triggers." Even though several years have passed after the gate first opened, Neighbors are still a threat and members of Border remain on guard to ensure the safety of the planet.

Despite this delicate situation, members-in-training, such as Osamu Mikumo, are not permitted to use their Triggers outside of headquarters. But when the mysterious new student in his class is dragged into a forbidden area by bullies, they are attacked by Neighbors, and Osamu has no choice but to do what he believes is right. Much to his surprise, however, the transfer student Yuuma Kuga makes short work of the aliens, revealing that he is a humanoid Neighbor in disguise.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kuga, Yuuma Main

Muranaka, Tomo Japanese

Jin, Yuuichi Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Mikumo, Osamu Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Amatori, Chika Main

Tamura, Nao Japanese

Hyuse Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Konami, Kirie Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Rindou, Youtarou Supporting

Urawa, Megumi Japanese

Kazama, Souya Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Tachikawa, Kei Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Kageura, Masato Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Mizutani, Kei Producer, Chief Producer

Yanai, Hiroshi Producer

Teramoto, Satoshi Assistant Producer

Hongou, Mitsuru Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jul 14, 2026

Soggy_Auggy

Recommended

Allow me to preface this by saying that I absolutely love World Trigger. I watched this first season back when it originally came out, and I fell in love with the series ever since. That being said, it's really hard for me to recommend this to new watchers.

Let's get this out of the way, the animation and editing is really rough, at least for the first 15 or so episodes. It is an absolute slog. Within these first 15 episodes, every shot lingers for 1-2 seconds too long. Also wow, the animation is really jank. Honestly you could pause and zoom into the characters ... that are in the BG or a bit further away and have a great time collecting hilarious photos. Even as a diehard lover of the series, I have to force myself to go through the first 15 episodes. So why do I love the series so much?

If you can ignore the dangerously jagged and unpolished edges of the first episodes, World Trigger's first season is genuinely a gem. There is no other shonen battle series like it. The cast of characters is immense, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is endearing, memorable, and incredibly well written. World Trigger's world feels so real and lived through and big. I love the focus the series shines on all the secondary characters and their lives and interactions. Everyone has lives and different values that all bounce off each other, and it's done so amazingly well.

World Trigger's battle system is also incredibly unique. By and large, it is a sandbox system. Think of an arena style FPS game, a la Halo. Generally, everyone has access to the same equipment and weapons, so it's down to their differences in tactics, creativity, and experience to fight. Where this really shines is in the various tournament arcs, where the teams' tactics are really shown off and deeply examined. I'm serious, when it comes to the depth of strategy and tactics, no other series even comes close to World Trigger. Once you get to the large scale invasion arc, the series' quality and enjoyability grows exponentially.

If the first season is so rough, why should you watch it? Well, the second and third seasons are absolutely amazing. The animation is genuinely great in the later seasons, and they retain all of the other strengths World Trigger has. That being said, there is an upcoming reboot of this first season that will hopefully fix all of the issues the original season had. But until then, this is way to get into World Trigger. The fights, tactics, and characters from the manga were beautifully adapted, in a way that I can say is better than the manga. So definitely give this show a shot and be patient with it, I promise that it is well worth it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 7, 2025

LegoC97

Mixed Feelings

60-SECOND REVIEWS

This one's a bit of a mixed bag of mixed quality. I loved the strategy in the fights and the intricate world building, which between the world and the game-like, rule-following fights they have throughout the show, reminded me of Hunter x Hunter. Unfortunately, the adaptation itself often confuses what is actually happening on screen.

This may also be the single cheapest looking shounen I've seen in years. Flat and choppy, and the sequels only slightly improve on this.

Toei Animation makes weak adaptations of great sources--just take a look at large portions of their One Piece adaptation or how drawn out Dragon Ball Z ... was--and this series deserved much better. There are great, fantastic moments sprinkled throughout, which only serve to give a glimpse of how great this material could have been in better hands.

It's hard to give this one a full skip, because the way tactics are integrated into the numerous fight scenes, each one filled with strategy and clever decision-making, each fight treated like its own puzzle to solve. Your mileage with the characters will vary. I liked a few of them, but there is a huge cast of side characters who have very little to set them all apart, so outside the central characters, it's all pretty bland.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 20, 2021

Finnelily

Not Recommended

Funny

First of all I hate animes that does a freaking long review of the entire series, instead of just the most reason development, I mean if you haven't watch the series from the beginning then it doesn't matter either way cause this is a freaking long anime. That said can't believe why so many positive reviews of 8s and 9s seriously.

This anime has such terrible main cast, 2/3 were useless from the beginning. The main guy tries to improve himself throughout the series and we're force to follow his boring non-progressive development for almost the entire time. The worse part is the MC received ... help from many of the top rank guys but still remained as useless as if he never had any training. Can't rant anymore without spoiling too much regarding the plot.

Bottom line is only watch this crap if you have nothing better to do. Even then I think there are way better animes to watch then this, or if you like the kind of idiot that is weak as hell but sprout about how he wants to be a hero and safe everyone but accomplish absolutely nothing besides talk, this is for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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