World Trigger Season 2

Episode 8

Ah, how I've been waiting for this. It's to be expected that even action-heavy series will tap the breaks and slow down after an eventful fight. But this week World Trigger brakes, comes to a full and complete stop, shifts into neutral on a two-degree incline, and then sits back in the driver's seat while listening to C-Span radio. I hope everyone watching out there is ready for two straight weeks of orderly and civil board meetings!

I joke, but this really is one of World Trigger's quintessential quirks. In other series, if the good guys wanted to get the higherups to agree to let a former enemy join their ranks, it'll be a big dramatic deal that ends with some kind of reckless bet or ultimatum on the part of our heroes. But Ashihara has precisely 0 patience for that, and instead we spend the bulk of this episode with Osamu, Yuma, and the rest of Tamakoma branch piecing together their case for why Border's top brass should allow them to recruit a second Neighbor into their squad AND bring him on the away mission aiming to rescue prisoners of war from his home planet. That's a tough case to make, especially since Hyuse refuses to offer any strategically valuable information about Aftokrator in exchange, but I'm confident that next week Osamu will lay out a sound and compelling argument!

What, you thought we'd resolve that this episode? Sorry buddy, that's not how things work around here.

Outside of that, this episode is mostly populated with followup commentary from the peanut gallery for Tamakoma-2's new strategies. There's some neat stuff in here, like Hyuse deducing some of the tricks Osamu pulled with his wire traps, but it also works to make my job redundant, so I refuse to dwell on it, on principal. There's also a scene following up with Yoko “Sore Loser” Katori throwing a tantrum at her loss, where (most of) her team comfort her and assure her that the frustration she's feeling is proof she still can and wants to improve. That's a nice little moment, and a reminder that there is some genuine sentiment and humanity behind World Trigger's sometimes cold and calculated storytelling. Plus we get some interesting new details about Tamakoma branch, like how they've apparently been harboring another Neighbor as their engineer for a good while. That's a tasty tidbit of worldbuilding that could prove important later.

That said, this is still a massively dry episode. It's 100% people sitting in rooms talking, often about how to prepare for the next scene where they'll be sitting in a different room and talking. It's not a total drag, as characters like Yotaro and Konami inject some humor and personality into the proceedings, but it's far from the most compelling television. Despite that, there is a certain charm to seeing a shonen series so completely avoid its peers' conventions to follow the beat of its own drum. This is just how World Trigger is, and if you've been reading or watching this long you've either made peace with that or actively love it. And if I'm being honest, I am genuinely interested to see how this negotiation with Kido goes next episode. Then maybe after that we can watch Osamu file his taxes, or follow the exciting adventures of Yuma filling out immigration paperwork!

Rating:

World Trigger Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.