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.   

Hearthstone (Card Soul Talk)

I have a huge love hate relationship with Hearthstone since my brother forced me to play it a year ago. He's currently a streamer for the Malaysian hearthstone association http://m8gaming.net. On one hand I love the game and the blizzard character cards, on the other, PvP tends to give me anxiety. 

In Hearthstone, you're given a set of basic cards and the option to buy rarer/better cards via in game currency or actual currency. With these cards you build a deck of 30 cards and use it to duel against other players. Some cards synergies with others to form a strong deck or you could build a deck using strong minions, the possibility is endless. Putting all the strongest cards in the game into one deck does not guarantee a win while using only the basic cards provided on the game before pack purchases does not guarantee a loss.




The next thing I would like to touch on is the concept of Heroes. These are character classes from Blizzard's own World of Warcraft. They are Mage, Warrior, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Shaman, Druid and Paladins. Choosing a class determines the spells (and certain minion cards) that are available to you along with a class exclusive power. This power spends 2 mana (the amount of cards (minion or spell) you can play on that turn) for an action that benefits you, whether it's healing with a Priest or summoning a small minion on the board with Paladins.




Each card has a mana cost, you start the game with 1 mana and it goes up by 1 to a maximum of 10 mana. Minion cards have a mana cost, and a HP and Atk number while spells only have mana cost and it spends it to cast a certain spell either to you, a minion or any of your enemy's character. The goal of the game is to get your opponent's HP down to 0.

It's a fun game that dwells in the veins of Magic: The Gathering and Yu-gi-Oh to name a few. You're able to play it online with a massive community of players, so you won't run into the problems of traditional card games of having to go to a venue every other day to practice your skills or participate in competitions.