Reboots of popular anime series aiming to more closely follow the original source material. Popular franchises like Fullmetal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter, and Fruits Basket have all gotten the proper reboot treatment, and it seems as though there are even more anime on the horizon aiming to do right by what the original creator had in mind for the series. Toei Animation has recently announced that they’ve picked up Daisuke Ashihara’s sci-fi shonen manga World Trigger for a brand-new animated reboot scheduled to release in 2027. The manga originally released in 2013 in Weekly Shonen Jump, and received a three season long anime adaptation from 2014 until 2022.
The reboot, titled World Trigger 1st Season, will be a ground-up re-adaptation of the manga from the very beginning that aims to improve the pacing of specific story arcs from the manga with improved art and animation. As of writing, there hasn’t been an official release date announced regarding when the reboot will launch in the new year, however, it has been confirmed that there will be new details revealed during Jump Festa 2027’s Red Super Stage. It’s also been confirmed that the World Trigger reboot will see the main cast from the original anime adaptation reprising their roles. Check out the new look at the reboot below.
The 2014 anime adaptation of World Trigger from Toei Animation has been heavily criticized by fans of the series for its low-budget looking visuals, poorly implemented filler arc, and issues with pacing canon story materials from the manga. The animation quality was stiff, and used 3D models for the monsters that appear throughout the series that contrasted heavily from the 2D animation used for the character models and backdrops. Episode structure was similarly frustrating, with drawn out recap segments at the beginning of each episode coupled with drawn-out opening sequences and end-credit shorts that padded episode runtimes so heavily that any actual story progression would only get about 15 minutes of screen time.
Considering the first season of the original anime was 73-episodes in length, these frustrations were glaringly obvious, and, for a series based on one of the top-selling manga in the 2010s, infuriating for fans. While the rebooted anime slated for 2027 is planning to more faithfully handle its source material, the same staff members who produced the 2014 series will be returning to work on the project, which is reasonably concerning for many. However, fans are hopeful that the team working on the series will be able to bring Daisuke Ashihara’s smash-hit shonen series to life in the way it deserves.
World Trigger takes place in a fictionalized version of Japan four years after a mysterious gate appears in Mikado City. Leading to an alternate world, beings called Neighbors begin pouring into the “real-world.” While humanity tries to adapt and fight back against the creatures, their technology and weaponry struggle to make a dent in their forces. The National Defense Agency eventually devise technology to appropriate and adapt the Neighbors defenses to allow humans access to a modicum of their abilities. The series’s protagonist, Yuma Kuga — a humanoid Neighbor living amongst mankind tries to blend in and evade defensive forces only to befriend a trainee whose vowed to destroyed Neighbors.
Daisuke Ashihara’s original work takes the age-old “fish-out-of-water” concept and truly flips it on its head in World Trigger, playing with political commentary in a story filled with fantastical abilities and sci-fi technology. The original manga is beyond stunning as well, and as of 2023 has sold more than 15 million copies around the world. Needless to say, if there’s any anime that deserves a second chance at becoming the next major mainstream shonen anime, it’s World Trigger.
