World Trigger Season 2

Episode 11

At some point, you gotta feel bad for Osamu. The boy has trained and studied and worked his bespectacled ass off to go from total scrub to a genuine contender in mere months. He has risked his life in a series where everyone's supposed to have technology that prevents that. This scrawny, nebbish child has done what most of us could never even hope to accomplish in his pursuit of helping his friends and making the away team. Yet for all that, this guy cannot survive a Rank Wars match to save his or anyone else's life. Even when he got to show off his cool new wire trick, Katori made sure to sever his jugular just out of spite, and now he finds himself facing down the princely bishounen from hell.

Not that Tamakoma 2 doesn't try to make a fight out of it. Yuma, the consummate professional child soldier that he is, does his job well in eking out points in the chaos of Ikoma and Oji squads' clash. Chika gets in danger a few times but uses some clever thinking and her oil tanker of a trion reserve to get out of it no worse for wear, and does a great job providing Yuma with backup to give him the edge even when outnumbered. Osamu even gets another kill! But then Oji arrives to understandably pick off the weakest threat and the entire skirmish becomes an exercise in bullying. The guy literally fights Osamu off with one hand, and then adds insult to injury by choking him with that hand before stabbing his throat out. Oji treats it as just business, but you really have to wonder if he only said that because there's no toilet nearby to dunk Osamu's head in.

Meanwhile Ikoma, the ultimate chad of World Trigger is just following the beat of his own drum through this whole thing. While everyone else is strategizing and playing 4D chess, this man among men knows 2 things: he can make his sword really long, and he's very good at it. It's a testament to both Ikoma's skill and his teammates' savvy that they manage to fair so well despite having no clue what's going on half the time and just winging it through this whole fight. The only thing they're really concerned about is which of them will have to take out Chika – not because they're afraid of her, but because it's a real bad look for a grown dude to beat up on a cute girl. Thankfully their sniper, Oki, is a solid 8/10 so he can probably get away with it without losing popularity.

That's more or less where we stand by the end of this episode. Ikoma is down to their ace and sniper pairing, same as Tamakoma 2, while Oji is on his own and down one leg. But we've seen time and again that a cornered operator is not the same as a defeated one, so it's anyone's guess how this fight will turn out next episode. Right now the odds are ever so slightly in Ikoma's favor, since they have a lethal sniper and an uninjured ace. But Yuma has more battle experience than anyone and Chika could always snap and just blow up the whole map if things turn hairy. Oji's also got a fighting chance even with a severe handicap, so really, anyone could win this. And this has been a well-played battle on all fronts regardless, so no matter who gets the most points, I don't think there are any losers here.

Except Osamu's dignity. You'll get 'em next time, kid. Maybe.

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World Trigger Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.