Friday 6 May 2016

Inside look into Animes I love (Part 2 - World Trigger)




On the surface World Trigger looks like a pretty generic long running shonen title which goes on forever until you start reading or watching it. My biggest problem with most of the shonen animes out there, is the main male protagonist. You know the one, the loud, spiky haired, always hungry and super powerful entity with an unlimited amount of 'potential', Most of the time they're less a character and more a super power with quirks. World Trigger has the opposite, the main character, Osamu is described as pretty weak and as he meets more and more stronger characters, the difference in power really shows.

He is complimented by the team he built  around him as they work towards a common goal. With him are Kuga and Chika, two young and very strong characters in context to all the other characters. Instead of Osamu being the defining factor of each fight and arc, wins are determined by how well Osamu tactically maneuvers his stronger, more naive teammates. 



I'm not trying to diss other shonen mangas/animes too much because I loved mangas like Fairy Tail and Dragon Ball but my thing is they all seem to blend together after a while. Also my biggest grip with this genre is the obnoxious main character, I don't watch/read Fairy Tail for Natsu, I do it for my waifus Erza and Lluvia. (Extra note: I stopped reading it after the time skip arc...it just started getting old)



Another point of argument is the epic failure by the name of 'Bleach'. I was obsessed with this when it first came out, I love all the characters, the premise and it was my introduction to the modern shonen genre. It ended up becoming an Ichigo ego fest with his getting stronger and stronger while the others fell behind. Chad, Orihime and Rukia ended up becoming wall paper despite Tite Kuno stating at the start that Chad and Orihime's power mirror the potential of a Zanpakuto. Also the females in this anime take a backseat to the men, this is no longer the 90s, even if males are the main demographic, we can accept the fact that a woman can be badass too. 

In World Trigger, the main heroine Chika retains her feminine demur in that she has hesitation in killing with her sniper rifle despite the fact that killing someone just teleports them back to their home base. I was afraid initially about how the author would deal with this issue as it has destroyed better characters in the past in other mangas but he dealt with it amazingly and did not use it as an excuse to keep her as kidnap bait *Cough Orihime Cough*.

I would suggest picking up World Trigger just as a supplement to the shonen mangas you already read as a breath of fresh air, or just because it's a really good anime/manga.   

No comments:

Post a Comment

Come join my gaming cult!