So, World Trigger, is one manga that has been on my 'want to read' list for a very long time. Why? Well, I just loved most shounen manga I've read so far, and the title just sounded cool. Also, the premise sounded kind of interesting: man-made monsters from a parallel world are coming to our world through wormholes to destroy things and abduct/kill people. Our world reacts by stealing the technology of these "neighbours" to fight back, through an organisation called Border.
Looking at the art, there isn't really anything special to see here. The character designs are all typical shounen, nothing looks really bad but nothing looks really good either. Some faces are especially bad though. The monsters, on the other hand, look cool.
So yeah, nothing too repulsive imo (I can deal with some ugly faces, I look in a mirror on a daily basis), but nothing that will draw you towards this manga either.
Art: 7/10
The story is pure shounen stuff, made for the entertainment of less mature readers. It starts of at a school, but apart from some of the earlier chapters there is no school life involved.
The biggest problem I have with this manga is that it's virtually impossible for anyone to die. During the fights, the "triggers" are activated and the bodies of the combatants are replaced with bodies made of Trion, an alien form of energy. Thus, any injuries are just reset after a fight. Also, most of them have a "bail-out" function for when it gets too dangerous. I know it's typical for shounen manga to not kill many people, but this is kind of ridiculous imo.
Also, I feel like they're doing some things in the wrong order. First, they fought in a war for about 40-50 chapters, and now they're just having a competition within Border? Sorry, but this feels a bit awkward.
Lastly, because 70 procent of the manga was just fights, the story hasn't evolved all that much yet. I feel like I could summarize the 93 chapters I've read in 10-15 sentences. The author should pick up the pace a little, or he will need a huge amount of chapters if he wants to create a decent story. Of course, for some audiences, just having fights might just do the trick to get popularity.
On the other hand, I liked the idea of some people having extra powers because of their excessive Trion energy. It somehow made sense and made for more variation in the powers of the different characters.
Story: 6/10
When it comes to characters, I have to say that this manga is one huge clusterfuck. There are dozens of side characters, and most of them are named. Also, some character designs are really similar. This makes it quite annoying to discern the different characters during the moments of chaos, when there are multiple fights going on at the same time.
The main trio has well-defined characters though:
- "main character" Osamu, one of the weakest characters around and also not extra intelligent. One of the only things that really make his character is that he wants to protect people. The problem is his weakness, which makes him require lots of support from other characters or plot armor (not that much plot armor has been used so far, but he'll need some upgrades if the author wants to keep avoiding that).
- Kuuga Yuma, one of the most OP characters of the manga. His OPness is explained by the fact that he is a "neighbour" and a child soldier and because he has a special "black trigger". One could argue that he is the actual main character.
- the third team-member, Amatori Chika, is a shy girl that attracts the "neighbours". Because this has led to her friend and brother being abducted, she wants to be able to protect herself. She's kind of a bland character imo
- lastly, I want to mention Jin Yuichi, who is undoubtedly the coolest character of the manga and one of the main reasons I keep kept reading it
Characters: 6/10
Overall: certainly not the best manga out there, but reading it won't hurt you either. Recommended for fans of shounen manga or if you just want to have some fight scenes without a difficult story.