World Trigger – 12

Three Types of Agents — Attackers, Gunners, and Snipers

Now that our trio have decided to form a team, Chika is asked whether she wants to be an operator or a combatant. She goes with combatant after some encouragement from Yuma, which means that she has to decide which type: an Attacker, a Gunner, or a Sniper. As it turns out, these are the three different ways to classify Border agents, based on their range of attacks. It’s self explanatory, but Attackers are melee-range fighters, Gunners are mid-range shooters, and Snipers are long-range shooters. This leads into a cute little moment where Osamu churns out Chika’s positives – she’s patient, has stamina, concentration, and is surprisingly flexible – which comes to one result: sniper – which makes sense, really.

Now that that we’ve got the different classifications of Border agents cleared up, it does put into perspective how each fits into the composition of their team. Even though there are three types that doesn’t mean that each member of the squad has to have one of each – heck, some teams have more than three members. Miwa Squad, for example, has an all-rounder, an attacker, and two snipers. Arashiyama Squad, to name another, has three all-rounders. With the various combinations is could be very interesting to see how each Squad utilises the preferences of its members to get the best out of their fights.

The A-Rank Tamakoma Agents

First up we have Konami Kirie (Kugimiya Rie), who, by the way, is the third most popular character of the series (according to the official popularity poll) after Osamu and Yuma. She’s a hit amongst fans; she’s got the typical tsundere attitude and now has typical tsundere voice actress to boot, but even from this episode I’m seeing anime-only viewers enjoying her character. She’s not my favourite of the cast, but I’m at least happy that she’s the most popular non-main character of the series. There’s also the scruffy and handsome Karasuma Kyousuke (Fukuyama Jun) and the laid back muscle, Kizaki Reiji (Maeno Tomoaki) who don’t make as much of an impression with their introductions, but there’s still time, especially since each is paired off with one of newcomers in order to train them for the tournament in three weeks time.

The Training Begins

I find it amusing that Yuma technically has the potential to be S-rank (like Jin) straight away, thanks to his Black Trigger. But as that would mean abandoning Osamu and Chika, which defeats the purpose of him sticking around in the Human world, so we can’t have that. Since he and Chika have to advance in the ranks the hard way, that means they need to be prepared. One thing worth noting – which will be explained before too long – is the sheer amount of triggers available at their disposal; it will soon become clear just how much depth there is to the combat system in World Trigger – the three different range classes were covered this week, but once you factor in the various weapons themselves and how each is used for different things, it creates lots of potential.

Episodes like this are the butter to your bread when it comes to battle shonen – think of any big series of that genre and I’m sure you can come up with a few key moments that stick in your head. Sometimes they can be tedious, but with this it’s genuinely interesting. It’s been explained before how Trion bodies differ from real ones, as we’ve seen Miwa ‘bail out’ in order to return his real body to the Border HQ. That’s elaborated on more here after Chika activates her cute new outfit and is told about the different levels of pain that come with a Trion body, from painless to as accurate to real life as possible. The simulated environments and Trion-free training rooms also add something fresh, proving a change of setting, even if the unfortunately frequent horribly drawn shots do drag it down every so often.

Information Digest:

Synopsis:

• Four and a half years ago, a gate to another world appeared in Mikado City. From the gate the Neighbours appeared to wreck havoc.
• But the mysterious Border defence agency arrived to fight back against the alien invaders, allowing the city’s residents to live their lives normally again.

Previously:

• We learnt that due to Yuma being fatally wounded by a strange lifeform, his father gave his life to give Yuma a new trion body.
• After learning of Yuma’s past, Osamu convinces him to join with Chika and form a Border team together.

Details Digest:

Chapters Covered:

• Chapters 22 – 23

New Character Introductions:

• Kizaki Reiji (21), Tamakoma Branch, A-Rank agent
• Karasuma Kyousuke (16), Tamakoma Branch, A-Rank agent
• Konami Kirei (17), Tamakoma Branch, A-Rank agent

Rank Tournaments:

• As was mentioned before, in order to get to A-Rank, Yuma and Chika first need to advance to B-Rank.
• And to do that they need to participate in the rank tournaments that take place every few months.
• In comparison, Osamu’s promotion was a different matter.
• Since he was a special case and was surrounded in controversy, he was promoted by the decision of the higher ups.