After a five year hiatus, due to health issues of the writer and illustrator of the manga, Daisuke Ashihara, “World Trigger” returned in 2021, with a season that showed that none of the quality of the original has escaped neither the author nor Toei Animation, who continued handling the adaptation.
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The second season continues directly from where the first ended, with the narrative unfolding it two axes. In the first one, the veterans of the Border Defence Agency, having successfully held off the invasion by Aftokrator, are now faced with another Neighbor crew, whose tactics are more in the search-and-destroy path, instead of the full head-on the previous ones implemented. Their goal seems to be the destruction of the Border Expedition Ship, and their efforts are quite organized, while also having the disarray the previous attack threw the agency in, in their favour.
In the second axis, the B-rank wars continue, with Kuga, Osamu and Chika fighting other teams in an effort to reach A-rank, which is the only way to be included in the upcoming away mission into the Neighbor's dimension. Meanwhile, the presence of Hyuse is still a source of strain for both the group and the higher ups in the agency, which his role eventually decided in a rather tense scene where Kido and Osamu “fight” for his future.
The second season is much more action-oriented than the first, although the machinations, particularly among the members of the council, and the underlying metaphor on immigrants, as presented through Hyuse, are still here. In that fashion, the first ones, between the Veterans and the Neighbors are much more violent and brutal, as they are actually the real thing, even if the whole concept of being retracted instead of dying every time someone is beaten, somewhat detracts from their intensity.
The ones between the B-teams, on the other hand, include more strategy as the title presents the preparation of each team, the scouting of their opponents, and a number of changes of plans during the battle. As all of them try to take advantage of their strengths and exploit their opponents' weaknesses, the battles are rather intricate, while the presence of commentators implements a level of analysis that reminds of sport games (with replays, comments, etc), which definitely adds to the entertainment the title offers.
Both, however, include outcomes that cannot be predicted, thus piling up on the agony each fight entails. The animation by Toei is impressive in those scenes, with the number of action scenes highlighting the amount of work Eisaku Inoue, Ikuko Ito, Toshihisa Kaiya and Yuuya Takahashi have put here. The character design by Toshihisa Kaiya could have been a bit better, since a number of individuals look too much with each other, but considering their plethora, that is to be expected, while the main ones definitely stand out in that regard. The silly faces and the gags are not completely absent, but their number is quite low, something that definitely benefits the series.
“World Trigger Season 2” in terms of genuine shonen titles, is right there at the very top, with its creators essentially doing what “My Hero Academia” should be doing. The title does not win any laurels in terms of originality, but every aspect of it is quite well done, which deems it one of the best titles of the year.
