TLDR: ts is boring n stale asf but if you eat shounenslop anyways (like me) and like lots of squads of characters similar to the structure of Naruto's squads but without the colourful characters you might like this and having group based battles you might like this
You'll often see the words "extremely underrated" being used to describe World Trigger. The truth is however, World Trigger gets a little more praise than it deserves with how surprisingly bland the series turns out to be. Despite that, It's not a series I can bring myself to violently bash for being overrated like I would for Bleach or
...
One Piece; it's just bland and uninteresting. I apologize for how often I'll say bland or uninteresting for the rest of this review but WT truly feels like chewing on a sheet of blank paper.
Art: 6/10
Just to get the small stuff out of the way, lets go over the art. It's really not as bad as other people might say it is but it also isn't really anything to write home about either. At one point you'll start confusing characters for each other because some really do look the same or at least similar to others and it doesn't help that there's so many characters too. Most characters genuinely lack expression and heck, even emotion which makes them so much less memorable. Even weapon design is really plain and straightforward which the same can be said of the manga itself. Overall, the art is really plain but clean which makes it easy on the eyes but consequentially really uninteresting.
Writing - Story: 5/10
WT has an intriguing enough premise to make you want to continue reading and at one point you'll hear (VERY MILD SPOILERS) of the existence of many different worlds aside from Earth that the neighbours reside in. This opens the gates for lots of creativity. Perhaps we'll meet humanoid beings that differ greatly from humans with really unique abilities, properties, and maybe even their magic systems will differ by a bit? Maybe we'll get the world building you see in something like Negima when the characters get isekaid to the magic world but through these neighbour planets? Nope! WT would never!
Which brings me to the greatest issue of WT. It's boring.
It doesn't even try to be anything more interesting and creative than how it already is. There isn't crazy world-building, twists (that are actually surprising or interesting), emotional moments, not even fun slice of life moments. The neighbour planets are just one example of an idea that WT presents but never explores. It very much stays within it's boundaries. Additionally, most of WT doesn't even focus on set antagonists. You'll be primarily seeing either ranked team vs team matches which have zero stakes aside from not ranking up fast enough to be on the A rank team or the fights due to company/character disputes. Dying in human instigated battles have no consequence as it just sends the person back to base so the tension and stakes at hand are truly never very high.
Writing - Characters: 5/10
Holy crap I could not care less for any of these dudes. The MC's personality is bland as hell and I'm gonna have to put him aside because WT has way way too many characters. I can't remember half of them let alone remember their names. It's like how forgettable half the people in all the different Bleach villain/soul society groups are. All of them are characterized by like 2 defining details such as, this guy uses this weapon and is very laid back or this guy is laid back and reliable and a top rank fighter. Out of roughly 60 characters only maybe 3-5 will actually stand out for having a tiny bit more detail and writing than the others. Character development? Rarely will you be seeing that in WT.
I also nearly forgot to write about the antagonists. They kinda exist. That's about it.
Writing - Battles/Magic System: 6.5/10
Genuinely the only aspect of WT I can praise is how battles are unique from most other battle shounen. Rather than 1v1 or 2v1 type battles, most of WT's battles are group vs group. You'll be seeing how a group of characters strategize themselves professionally to take down their opponent(s) which at the very least is much different from most battle shounen. Each character has a specific role to fulfill in combat and even when things don't go according to plan you'll see how they improvise and change their plans accordingly which all gives this sense of professionalism in battle akin to leading troops in a war, which makes sense considering the 3v3 ranked matches are called rank wars.
The magic system is also not too bad. Triggers being able to vary and be used differently adds a layer of personalization that actually serves as one of the few factors in remembering any of the many characters.
I do think that trion being from some magic invisible organ that has always existed without showing any signs (aside from attracting neighbours if you have too much) is a flaw, it could have been incorporated into something like how much physical energy a person can have or maybe their cognitive potential but that's moreso just my opinion. It might have just been me not reading close enough, but it's never explained how people can have unique triggers. Early on they show how there's 8 main types of triggers which you can divide into gunners and melee but they never explain how people can perform abilities such as grasshopper or lead bullets. It's also made explicit that these abilities are not usable by everyone but it's never explained why.
Enjoyement: 6/10
I'm a braindead slop eater, I'll push myself through all the major battle shounens and then say "yeah 5/10 it was dogshit but i read all 700 chapters". Despite that, WT was honestly more boring than even those shitty ones. Nothing happens. Ever. The stakes are always so low. I also found all the battles to be pretty boring with the only interesting ones really being ones involving unique trigger abilities. The characters are extremely forgettable and all in all I have no clue why I even read this.
But it's WT is never in your face about how plain it is. It's just like "hey i'm stale but i don't bite" and doesn't have a rabbid fanbase so It's hard to dog on WT for what it is. If you want a straight forward battle shounen that isn't annoying and cringe but you might also have dogshit taste, then here you go.
Final Rating: 6/10
World Trigger is genuinely just a nothingburger of a manga. I don't exactly hate it so it's hard to give it a 5/10, so I'll settle with a 6.
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Apr 3, 2025
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TLDR: ts is boring n stale asf but if you eat shounenslop anyways (like me) and like lots of squads of characters similar to the structure of Naruto's squads but without the colourful characters you might like this and having group based battles you might like this
You'll often see the words "extremely underrated" being used to describe World Trigger. The truth is however, World Trigger gets a little more praise than it deserves with how surprisingly bland the series turns out to be. Despite that, It's not a series I can bring myself to violently bash for being overrated like I would for Bleach or ... |
