WARNING: The following contains spoilers for World Trigger, Season 2, Episode 5, “New Technique”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Few anime have the guts to bench their protagonists for four episodes, especially when returning from a very long hiatus, but that's precisely what World Trigger does in Season 2. The anime eased its audience back into the series with the battle heavy Galopoula Invasion Arc, showing the ensemble nature of the series.
Now that the invasion is over, we are finally back to the B Rank Ranking Battle, Round 5, and our protagonists, Team Tamakoma Second, are more than ready to face their opponents with some brand new techniques up their sleeves in Episode 5.
The episode's exposition-heavy opening scenes explain the dynamics of each opposing team, Katori Squad and Kakizaki Squad, who are both formidable opponents. Kakizaki Squad leader Kuniharu Kakizaki is a former member of the A rank Arashiyama Squad, so he has the ability to match an A ranker. His team consists of three all-rounders who can attack at close range or mid-range. However, Kakizaki Squad has been stuck in the mid to low tier for a while, and this battle is their chance to advance to a top tier within B rank.
The real problem is Katori Squad and their powerful leader Yoko Katori, yet this episode reveals her big weakness: despite her talent, she's someone who easily quits whenever she encounters an obstacle. Katori’s arrogance and laziness frustrate her hardworking teammate Rokuro Wakamura, who cannot surpass Katori’s talent no matter how hard he works. After losing two ranking battles in a row and downgrading to mid-tier, the team has lost its morale and is on the brink of collapse.
Compared to the Katori Squad, Tamakoma Second deals with loss in a more productive way. In Season 1, leader Osamu and sniper Chika were both looking for ways to overcome their respective weaknesses: Osamu’s relatively weak fighting abilities and Chika’s inability to directly shoot humans. Having found answers at the end of Season 1, they're now finally able to unveil their new weapons.
Osamu was taught by Arashiyama’s Kitora about the new trigger “Spider.” This is the wire trigger previously used by Kitora to tie down her robot opponent like a rope. Osamu doesn’t have Kitora’s power and agility, so he instead uses the wires to preemptively lay down multiple traps between buildings to stop his opponents from attacking him. His teammate Kuga is able to see the wires and use them as footholds to move unpredictably in the air. This trigger can both limit the enemies’ movements and increase the teammates’ mobility, making it the perfect weapon for the strategist Osamu.
Chika’s mental block about shooting humans comes from her huge trion level. Everyone she shoots will be blown into pieces, a scary thought she can't get over. She has been used as a cannon that only shoots at buildings in past rounds, but this means that her position as a sniper will be instantly exposed once she shoots, so this technique can only be used sparingly.
Fellow sniper Yuzuru Ema suggested that Chika try the lead bullet. This bullet does not kill its opponents but instead becomes an anchor that weighs them down. The bullet is impervious to shields, but is slow and requires a large amount of trion to shoot, so Chika is the ideal user.
The combination of spider and lead bullets are great for Tamokoma Second’s team members. Their opponents will be forced to retreat to open spaces to avoid Osamu's traps, making them easy targets for the sniper Chika. Even if lead bullets don’t kill, they will greatly reduce their targets' mobility, creating more opportunities for Kuga to attack them in close range. This latest episode of World Trigger is only beginning to show how effective this combination of weapons can truly be.
