World Trigger Season 2

Episodes 1-2

We are BACK. It's been a good long while since the world of, er, World Trigger last crossed over into the anime neighborhood, and even longer since the previous season's short-lived Daily Streaming Reviews tenure. Unfortunately there's way, way too much to cover for a proper catch-up, so I'm afraid folks who are new to this world (trigger) will just have to catch up at their own pace. I highly recommend the manga, for what it's worth, and the entire series is available on the Shonen Jump app if that service is available in your territory. This current season picks up right around chapter 120. So go on, have a good time, and don't read this review until you can identify all these squads by silhouette.*

But for the sake of situating veterans who may not remember exactly where the previous anime left off, here's a brief summary:

1. Osamu, Yuma, and Chika (Tamakoma-2) are currently prepping inside Border HQ for their next B-Rank Wars match against Katori Squad and Kakizaki Squad. Since Border is trying to keep the current invasion on the down low, our main characters actually don't even know there's an invasion going on, and won't unless something seriously bad happens.
2. Speaking of invasions, that's being led by agents of Galopoula, a vassal state of Aftokrator (who were responsible for the previous large-scale invasion in Season 1). These Neighbors' goal is to delay Border's imminent away mission by destroying the ship the earthlings have been building for it. The only thing standing in their way is, uh, virtually every single named character in Border we've seen up to now, and a couple new ones just for good measure. Good luck, Galopoula.
3. In the middle of this chaos is Hyuse, the Aftokrator soldier that Jin took into custody during the previous invasion. He was abandoned by his fellow invaders when their mission failed, and is now hoping to meet the Galopoula agents and hitch a ride back to the Neighborhood. Hot on his heels are Yotaro and Raijinmaru, respectively a 5-year-old and a capybara. So obviously he's doomed too.

If that sounds like a lot to take in, that's because it is. World Trigger chose a very weird place to go on a 5-year hiatus, and I can imagine a lot of folks might feel overwhelmed taking in a multi-front battle involving 90% of the established cast except our main trio. But thankfully the anime has been up the task by bringing every one of these fights to life with fantastic animation and direction. It's a minor miracle this second season exists at all, but whatever blood ritual was used to make it look this good so consistently was well worth the occult sacrifice. Whether it's Miwa Squad's fight with a dude who has a shield made of astro-glide or Nasu Squad's standoff with their opponent's doppelganger trigger, this season is giving the already tactical fights of Ashihara's manga a sense of speed and impact to make every last one a joy to watch.

And that's good, because even for a shonen battle series we are likely in for a lot of fighting. Along with the two I just mentioned we also have Kuroe and Kitora facing off against another invader, the ongoing large-scale fight against the Trion Soldiers, and a 4 vs 2 match between Galapoula's leaders and Border's strongest Attacker-class fighters. Those are all happening more or less at the same time, and there's also Jin as a wildcard to keep track of along with Hyuse's escape attempt. Hopefully as these fights move on we'll start to get more focus on a single front, because otherwise half of these episode reviews are going to just be play-by-play for everything going on. Or maybe they will anyway, as this is around where World Trigger's fights start to become even more complicated and tactic-focused than before.

Either way, I'm still just giddy to have this series back in such excellent form. There's a unique kind of heart to this show's approach to battle shonen storytelling, and I'm hoping this new season will both remind old fans of what makes WT special, and open the door for new fans to try it out. It probably won't ever become the next big explosive hit, but for folks willing to give it a show, there's a lot to love.

Also Konami is Best Girl. Don't @ me.

*Here's the answer sheet. Don't feel bad – I had a hard time with Arafune Squad too.

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World Trigger Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.