World Trigger

Episode 10

After the last three minutes, I can't say that absolutely nothing happened in this episode, but it sure comes close. Here's what went down: Jin takes everyone to Tamakoma Branch headquarters in order to protect Yuma from the other factions. Osamu is shocked to learn that the place is rundown and homey, completely unlike the imposing Border HQ proper. Repeat for fifteen minutes, then shove a bunch of promising revelations about the identity of Yuma's father's friend, Yuma's life on the other side, etc., and end on a cliffhanger for more exposition.

We get a glimpse of Yuma before he arrived on Earth, when he still had black hair and fought alongside his father in one of their endless wars. His dad was even important there, a strong fighter who didn't ally himself with any one nation. The friend at Border that Yuma was sent to find is already dead – his name was Soichi Mogami, and he sacrificed his life to become Jin's black trigger. A-rank agents can also go to the other side, as explained to us by a new character, the Tamakoma Branch's operator and seeming homemaker Shiori Usami. There's yet another new character, a little kid named Yotaru Rindo who rides around on a capybara and becomes the source of most of this episode's dull comedy. The capybara is cute enough, but at this point it feels like drops of water in a desert of entertainment.

I hope you're not sick of Yuma's duckface yet, because this show sure thinks you're not. I seem to remember him turning it off more earlier in the series. I mean it was still overused, but the duckface to non-duckface ration was closer to 1:1. Now he's just sort of stuck like that for most of the episode, as if he has lockjaw. I wonder if this is a side effect of the show trying to pull off comedy. It doesn't help that they've given the capybara kid permanent °3° face as well.

This adaptation consistently feels like it's stretching out one-panel gags into minutes of screen time. That's never been more obvious than here, with most of the episode turning into duckface-offs between Yuma and the five-year-old. Previous snoozefests were at least reiterating character or plot details. This is just 15 minutes of “Tamakoma headquarters is a homey place.”

World Trigger is a bad show in the most boring way. Neither repellant nor interesting, it's just maybe ten minutes of content watered down into twenty minutes of runtime.

Grade: C-

World Trigger is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.