WT's first chapter was certainly better than HJ's, but that isn't saying much considering how much of a mess HJ's first chapter was. Unfortunately, I got plenty of terrible things to say about WT's debut.
Hungry Joker at least had an interesting premise to begin with and offered something new to the shounen genre. It is not often we get a scientist protagonist with science based super powers (as…odd as it is, but it provided some interesting/unique concepts that kept me reading it for a little while). However, with World Trigger, I swear there was NOTHING new offered in this story that I couldn't find somewhere else. It felt very generic in presentation (art) and narrative (story/characters) even more so than Bulge's first chapter (Bulge at least killed the "prince" in the first chapter which was new). Regardless, it still did a lot of things right that HJ completely failed at.
Based on the first few pages, I feared it was going down the HJ route and just throwing pages upon pages upon pages of exposition at us, but fortunately it was only three or so pages long of world building. The rest of the 40ish pages were strictly character development and some minor world building. It did a decent job in developing character through SHOWING what their personality is like through action rather than just smothering us with dialogue like in HJ (for example, the character's background and mysterious powers being explained in depth). Unfortunately I think this sort of development should have been reserved for Chapter 2 since Chapter 1 is suppose to be more memorable than just a new guy showing up, being weird and four eyes being a sort of generic "bullied" nice guy. Then it concludes with 5-ish pages of four eyes and new kids taking out a very generic looking sandworm-thing.
Major issue 1 Pacing: If this is going to be an action/adventure title, shouldn't Chapter 1 focus on showcasing more of the world/action? They could have cut out 5-10 pages of character development and invested in more of a memorable action sequence at the end. I mean…it's 4 eyes/new kid being bullied...when have we NOT seen that before? By first scene of the four-eye's introduction, we already know what the character's archetype is. After the new kid's introduction, we already know what his archetype is. We see the bullies before and we know they're suppose to be unlikeable/annoying characters. So why waste so many panels/pages in showing what we already know? These pages should have been used for showing us something interesting about the world. This sort of first chapter development is fine for slice of life, but not an action/adventure title that should be drawing us into an "interesting" world.
Major issue 2 Generic-ness: This setup is remarkably generic. Tell me if this sound familiar: In a high school setting in Japan (that happens to have some monsters lurking around from a different dimension), there is a relatively unpopular kid that has a knack for helping others. One day a new awkward kid comes along and "befriends" the unpopular kid. Soon we realize the awkward kid has an interesting super power that defeats a random monster that shows up and saves the day. I'm pretty sure I heard this story more than once. I know most shounen stories are pretty much retold multiple ways, but at least some authors hide it well (but unfortunately this one doesn't and its pretty obvious when you make it a high school setting, but heck…Bleach did a better job than this). Not to mention the art is remarkably drab as well. The characters designs are really slice-of-life-ish (which is usually pretty bland), but at least they're not awful looking. The monster is also very generic looking and completely forgettable (not to mention I think I've seen the monster's design somewhere before too). Fortunately the art is pretty functional (unlike HJ which is pretty confusing to look at), but it's definitely not interesting.
Major Issue 3 "Lack of Emotional Investment": It is really hard to care for a story that seems so remarkably familiar. However, the setup does very little to help the reader sympathize with whatever is happening within the world.
1.The world seems to be functioning fine (heck even the kids seem to trivialize the fact there are interdimensional monsters that show up in the first few pages of the high school scene). So I guess the monsters aren't really a problem if two high school kids managed to handle them. I suppose if we see how things actually look like in the border, we might see a more threatening world, but for now…the generic high school does not seem to be the most interesting locale to showcase in the first chapter
2.All the characters seem so mean spirited.
-Four Eyes: Outcast, helps others, YET he does not glean anything from it nor does he look pleased in doing it. In fact, I think he's pretty much a robot.
-New Kid: Seems like a decent character until we see him watch Four eyes get beaten up and do nothing about it (c'mon this guy stood up for you in class to keep your ring. wtf?). Also he seems like a brat which is a terrible vibe to get from a protagonist introduced in the first chapter.
-Bullies: Self explanatory
None of the characters are charming or sympathetic. To be frank, I pretty much hate all of them. One's a boring loser, the other is a weird brat, and everyone else are assholes. Most likely we will be getting more appealing characters in the coming chapters, but these are terrible characters to start a serie with (especially after wasting so many pages in developing them rather than the world). I know there are suppose to be funny moments with the new kid's expressions, but they come off as awkward or just plain annoying (in fact, it just only makes him more of an entitled brat). So technically there are NO comedic moments as of so far in this first chapter which most shounen action titles have at least one or two in the first chapter to develop some likeability within the protagonists or brighten the mood.
3. The lack of emotional connection to the "battle" at the end of the chapter. The monster was pretty pathetic and the way it was showcased was a complete disappointment as well. Usually there is an emotional investment to the "monster" in the first chapter of a shounen serie. For example, One Piece built up Higuma in the first chapter as a detestable villain that had a personal tie with the protagonists and proved himself to be threatening (kidnapping Luffy and threatening to kill him). Naruto had a teacher that deceived him and ended up backstabbing him at the end as a means for furthering his own agenda. In both of these build ups, there was a personal threat to the protagonist. However, there was very little threat with the monster in this first chapter for these particular reasons.
1.Lack of surprise: We already saw the monster in 4th or something page in the chapter, so we know what it looks like and what it does (based on that page, we know it just eats people and destroys things).
2.Lack of investment in the battle: You can barely call this a battle at all. All this monster did was pick up a bully, drop it, and then exploded after the new kid punched it (this was quite...anticlimactic and boring for a first chapter shounen adventure/action title). Heck, we barely get to see the monster do anything (let alone destroy any buildings or demonstrate itself as a "threatening" entity. The powers and choreography are pretty underwhelming as well. From what we have seen so far, 1.a beam sword thing 2.transforming super power suit.
3.Lack of Character emotional investment: Back with OP/Naruto, it is clear the protagonists were personally threatened by the enemy in the chapter. Most good shounen debut chapters have the enemy function as a personal threat to the enemy. However, with WT, the character's only investment in destroying the monster is because it is "his duty" or something. There is nothing personal about it. Yeah, the bully's life was at risk...but who cares? The threat would have been much stronger/memorable if there was a greater emotional investment into the scene.
-For example, instead of the bully (whom I'm pretty sure no one gave a rat's ass about), we could have had a relatively "likeable" character's life at risk (introduce a maiden in distress or someone related to the protagonist like a sibling or parent...wait, I think Bleach actually did this) and have four eyes still falter and emote appropriately to it (hence have character development within the fight instead of wasting panels with dull slice of life scenes). Heck, the author could have inserted a very brief teaser on a back story of WHY four eyes is part of the monster killing squad.
You know what I just realized...this chapter is like a kinda like a reverse set up to Bleach's chapter one but even worse. Pretty much Hollows are already wandering around and people are accustomed to them. Ichigo already has his Shinigami powers. Rukia shows up and is better at Ichigo at his job. A spontaneous monster shows up and is defeated at the end of the day. But at least give Kubo credit for HIS first chapter, it has more emotional investment in it and took some risks rather than this generic work. Still, its better than HJ and I'm going to keep following it to see if ANY decent characters will show up.
Sigh...the more new series I read...the more I miss Bulge's art instead of all this boring Hungry Joker and World Trigger blandness. Come back Horikoshi and bring a competent writer with you!
