Ya know what I've been watching recently?
World Trigger
Why did I start watching? You'll find I give this answer a lot but, white haired anime boy. I've loved them since Toushiro Hitsugaya from bleach and it has not changed.
What is it? A sci-fi, action, shounen anime. Four years ago Mikado city was attacked by invaders from another world called neighbours. When all hope was lost an organisation called border came out of the shadows, wielding weapons called triggers and defeating the invaders. Now, border stands between earth and incoming invaders from another world.
What are the characters like? Border is made up of many small teams which means lots and lots of characters, so one of the things that impress me most about this anime is that I don't get confused on who is who. Sure, I forget a name every so often but I was impressed that there were very few designs that were so similar it was hard to tell two characters a part. I find most anime/manga artists tend to have a limited number of designs so they overlap but World trigger blew me away with it's variety with such a sizable cast. I particularly love the design on one guy who's hair looks like feathers. Almost all of these teams have very different ways to fight too. I'll get into it later but the powers have been built in such a ways that very few of the agents have the same style and the variety is fun to watch.
Anyone particularly cool? Osamu and Yuma, the guy with glasses and the white haired boy (maybe biased, you be the judge) on the poster there. Yuma is the kind of character I love. He came from a different world and has a very different idea of how things work. He's so impressed by what should be normal things and interested in learning more. He had a very different view on battle and how to deal with threats reminding me of Killua from hunterXhunter at times (who I also loved). Osamu shines because he is by far your typical Shounen protagonist. As much as he shares in their angst to get stronger, he got through the entire anime without any kind of power up. Osamu is weak. It's constantly pointed out by other characters who look down on him for it but he doesn't give in an inch. He thinks his way out of situations but still makes the wrong call from time to time. He's a very human protagonist. He doesn't get to scream determination and friendship and somehow succeed dispute the rules of the universe saying he shouldn't like many Shounen series. He's not the kind of protagonist that will end up with god like powers by the end of the series. The rules of the universe are never broken and the rules say Osamu is weak but he pushes through anyway. He's a very relatable protagonist with an inspiring determination.
There is also a character I like called Souya Kazuma. Why? He is small, he is super serious and badass. No other reasons I just like characters like that.
What's the bad news? I see why this show never made it as far as other shounen jump shows. The pacing at the start can be a bit slow. It takes a long time before the three main characters form their team. This could probably be improved by not showing us a summary that lasts about 1-3 mins at the start of EVERY episode! I literally skip to about a minute into each episode when I start it because I know it's just going to tell me about the neighbor's original attack 4 years ago, again. Also, because of this long ass summary, the opening gets pushed into the middle on the anime which is just confusing and again has an impact on the pacing.
Sadly, I wish I could end there on what is lacking about this anime but the music isn't great either. Music can make all the difference in an anime and as much as I remember the tunes of World trigger I can't say they got me partially excited about anything. I'm lucky I'm the kind of person to gets attached to characters more than anything.
And the good news? I love how the powers have been built in this anime! Triggers are super cool. They've got shotguns, assault rifles, snipers, pistols. They've got lightsabers, swords that can come out of any part of their body, spears. They've got stealth tech, short range teleportation, little platforms they can make in mid-air. They've got magical cube bullets that they can control the direction and speed of after firing. It leads to a lot of exposition but once you know it's fun to think of the possible combinations of trigger powers and their application. The anime makes full use of this making combat feel like strategic chess matches of getting the right person in the right place for the right attack. Again, it makes it stand out on shounen series for being more logical rather than just yelling loud enough as you punch something (there is a lot of many yelling from some characters too but it doesn't make them stronger and Yuma is pretty much silent as he fights) The structure of the neighbor world is also a fascinating concept. And lastly, this may be a bad thing for some but there is virtually no fan service in this anime. (I'm saying virtually no because there might be some I forgot about but off the top of my head I can't think of any) You can watch without fear of someone's boobs going out of control (looking at you Seri from K). Even in the obligatory beach episode.
Would you recommend? For a fan of shounen anime, I would recommend it. It's not one of the greats by any means but it's still fun to watch as long as you skip the first minute of most episodes.
If you're not into a longer series and can't deal with a slower paced series then I'd give it a miss.