New York Comic Con 2022 was incredible, and it brought me back to a feeling of familiarity with the pre-pandemic era. I got to relive my Comic Con dreams of nerding out and taking pictures with and of people in amazing cosplay costumes. Now I must admit I am but a young pup in this whole Comic-Con culture and community. My first Comic Con was in 2018, so I haven’t had that much experience. One of the things that I did for the first time this year was actually attending multiple days and having my very own 4 day pro pass! On one of those days, I got to do something I’d never done before at a Comic Con: sitting at a Worldwide Premiere. Now, this was a big deal for me. It may not have been a major headline-grabbing premiere, but nonetheless, the content that was shown was worthwhile. I got to see World Trigger for the very first time, which is a popular anime across the globe. When it comes to anime outside of Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Naruto, Pokemon, and One Punch I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to anime content consumption. I only really started to get into it heavily in 2017. If you are like me and aren’t familiar with World Trigger, I would say if you’re a fan of Code Geass, Sword Art Online, and Blue Exorcist, this anime is right up your alley.
World trigger premiered officially in 2014 in Japan and has steadily gained popularity across the globe. As with most Anime series the Japanese to English Sub (or Subtitles) get released well before the Japanese to English Dub (or Dubbed Voices). I am a dub fan more than I am a sub fan, and for those who already saw these episodes in the sub, this review won’t have any new surprises for you. The Season 2 World Premiere of Episodes 4 and 5 of World Trigger English Dub was very entertaining, and as someone who has not seen the show before, it was easy to pick up the storyline, and the action and animation kept the audience intrigued. The emotion and high energy of the storyline were nonstop; the rhythm kept me on the edge of my seat. I really got wrapped up in the plot of the characters, especially the character Yuma Kuga voiced by Cathy Weseluck, Yotaro Rindo, voiced by Saffron Henderson, who Dubs multiple voices on the show. Hysue voiced by Jonathan Ostonal, and Captain Gatlin, Voiced by Ian Sinclair, had very interesting action and story arcs.
To give some light on the back story of the show Yuma Kuga is the main star of the show his father is from Japan and raised him in a whole other Universe. Unfortunately, in a fight on one of the other worlds, Yuma’s father died and created a black trigger to protect his son, who was also wounded in the battle. Yuma’s dad told him if he ever died that, he should travel to Japan and look for the organization Border because he had friends there that could protect him. Now the people of Japan aren’t too knowledgeable of the other worlds around them, but the organization that protects them seems to know more about the other worlds than the general public. Having said that there is still a ton of stuff that not even Border knows. Yuma ends up coming to Japan to find Border and has an AI companion named Replica, a floating head-shaped robot who can change his shape and reduce his size to be concealed in Yuma’s Clothing and make little versions of himself. Replica was created by Yuma’s Father and has vast knowledge of all the worlds that they have explored together. When Yuma arrives on earth, he enrolls in school. He is only 15 years old, and most of the characters in this show are between middle school and high school ages. He encounters a classmate who teaches him about their country and tells him that their city has an organization called Border in place to protect them from foreign invaders called “Neighbors” the classmate’s name is Osamu Mikumo. He turns out to be a Border agent Trainee referred to as a C-Rank Agent. He lets Yuma know that anyone that has come through a gate from another world is labeled a “Neighbor” and that they are extremely dangerous because the first attack happened 4 years prior, and the people of Japan had many citizens captured or killed to harvest a very powerful element called Trion. Yuma says technically, he is a neighbor because he came through a gate looking for the friends his father says would help him. This is new to Osamu because had never seen a Neighbor that looked human. All the neighbors he had seen before were large robots that looked like creatures and monsters, and Yuma told him those were military weapons used by Neighbors who sought to cause war and that not all neighbors are like that.
So to fast forward, Yuma and Osamu form a team in Border and move up to B-Rank along with a very cute but very powerful friend named Chika Amatori. Their goal is to become A-Rank agents so they can go on an expedition to other worlds to recover Replica after he sacrificed himself to an invasion by one of the most powerful foes, the warriors from Aftokrator. This brings us to where we are now as Yuma and his team await their next match to level up in the B-rank wars, which is a friendly tournament where B-rank teams from 2 to 4 members compete to see who can level up to A-rank. But before the battles start, a secret invasion from another Neighbor world called Galopoula goes on a mission to attack the Border base and destroy their exploration ship so that they can’t leave their world. Following that episode, we see Yuma’s Team, called Tamakoma-2, begin their next B-rank Match. I would definitely recommend this anime for people to watch. I would rate it as a 4 out of 5.
*Bonus Content*
The original plan for the premiere was to have Ian Sinclair as Captain Gatlin there for a Q&A. However, that part was taken off the program due to the late time of its airing and the size of the audience that had a low turnout. But I got to take some cool photos of myself at the podium and on the dais, role-playing as if I was taking questions and giving answers.
Cameron Bhola
Eric Snell
esnell@comicattack.net
