Pursuing your own goal is great and all, but wouldn't it be better if you fought alongside
others who shared that goal? Because, you know, I know how, you know, difficult it is to let other
people in and to really let other people help you and to help them, but, you know, honestly,
we weren't made to go through this life alone. You know, we were all designed to be part of a
community, part of a team, and part of that is using your own strengths to help compensate for
someone else's weakness and then vice versa. And honestly, to me, it's something special,
almost magical about a bunch of people coming together for the same goal, the same united effort.
And one anime that I feel captures this sentiment almost perfectly is an underrated title called
World Trigger. Hey, what's going on, guys? My name is Nate, and you're listening to the Otaku
Liberation, a show where we help you break free from the chains that are holding you back in your
life by connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime. And without
further ado, let's get into it. All right, so World Trigger is a series written and illustrated by
Daisuke Ashihara. Forgive me if I butchered that name, but I'm doing my best. And it started
serialization back in 2013, and the manga is actually currently ongoing. And the anime just
finished its third season, I believe it was the end of 2021. Now double check, but I do believe
it's the end of 2021. So it's relatively recent. And essentially the backstory, you know, kind of
give you guys a little backdrop is the in the world that they live that the characters live in,
right? The aliens exist, just to get out, get that out of the way, they exist, and they're called
neighbors. And the reason they're called neighbors is because the planets that the neighbors come
come from, they is it's kind of hard to explain. So the planets are are on a on their own type of
orbit, right in a different in different dimensions, things like that. And when two planets or multiple
planets come close to each other on their on their orbits, then travel between the two or between the
the neighboring planets are is possible. And so that's why they call neighbors because the
planets are currently neighboring each other in their in their orbits. And in the series itself,
they've experienced an invasion of hostile neighbors, because you know, not all of them
are bad, but not all of them are good either. And the typically than the hostile neighbors
are invading because they looking for another resource called Tryon. And Tryon is this world's
energy source, more or less, and most living things have it, have some degree of it, some people have
more than others and things like that. And the invading neighbors have various different reasons
for coming over to Earth in this world Earth is called Medan. They come over to Medan to, you know,
gather more soldiers together people to use as essentially as batteries, and just some just just
to wreak havoc, right. And to come to combat this, Medan has there's essentially is secret military
force called Border. And it's what is border is just a group of agents group of Earthlings who
figure out how to use the Tryon and use the technology from the neighbors to fight the
neighbors and and divide them in some aspects into joint forces with them and others. And then after
the first major neighbor invasion, border was was revealed to the public. And because beforehand,
it was it was a secret, not many people knew about it. If you didn't know about it, you were a part
of it, so to speak. And when the enemy picks up over the manga kind of, you know, is quote unquote
modern day, is after after border is made public, and people know that neighbors exist and that they
have this fighting force to to go against them. And it really reveals a common enemy, right.
And I think that's important, important to note that when it comes to, you know, any type of team,
anything you others, you know, like military, that sports teams, even your work group at work,
right, is important to have a common, common goal, whether it's a common enemy, a common,
just some something that we're all trying to achieve for essentially the same reason. And,
and in this is it is allow the people of me to essentially come together and focus all of their
intention and efforts towards one defending themselves and to exploring the neighborhood,
which is the alternate dimensions are called the neighborhood, and to see what else is out there
and what we can do to prevent this invasion from from happening again, so to speak. And, and, and
what I want to kind of look at from that is, is how powerful a common goal is, because it can
immediately eliminate hostilities and animosity between, you know, two or more groups. Because,
hey, we don't, we don't accomplish this, this together, then neither one of us are, it's gonna,
it's basically gonna survive this, right. And now you still may have some tensions and ever have all
two year motives and things like that, depending on how malicious they want to be. But at the end
of the day, having a common goal, having a common focus helps bring out the best in, in everybody
and then the whole initiative, because nobody wants to see this fail, right? Whatever, whatever
the goal may be. So let's say you, you, you got a school, a school project you're working on,
nobody in there wants to get an F, right? No one in there is trying to fail the class, because,
you know, they got to take it again, right? So even if you and somebody in your group,
you don't like each other, you guys have had beef before, maybe they called you ugly,
and you called them fat, you know, whatever, whatever it is, the words were said and feelings
were hurt. But now that you guys are in that group together, you had to push past that, you know,
at least for the time being to get to get this work done. And that just being, being able to do that,
is honestly, it's harder than what I'm making this sound out to be. Because if you, if anyone
who's ever had somebody who they, you just, you just didn't like, you just didn't get along with,
no matter how much, either one of you tried, or maybe they're not trying, that's the issue. But
no matter how much you try to extend that olive branch, or they try to extend olive branch to you,
you just don't want to take it, you want nothing to do with them. So it's hard to look past that,
right? To look past your own, raising your own feelings to accomplish what's needed to be done.
And honestly, that, it takes a lot, right? It just takes a lot, because I don't think not all of us
are wired that way. And it's definitely something that we all have to work on each and every day,
especially in terms of like longer, longer, longer unions, right? And looking at marriage
or long-term relationships where you get two different people who, you know, hopefully you
like each other, right? But either way, you coming together for a common goal, whatever
you, your goals are that you want to build this life together, right? And that means there's
going to be some hard times, or there's going to be times where neither one of you want to deal with
each other at all, right? Because somebody messed up, somebody didn't do what it's supposed to do,
or, you know, whatever the case may be. But when you're part of a team, when you're part of a union
like that, you have to be able to reconcile and be able to move forward. Because if not, in the case
of Border, if they don't move forward together, then they're going to get sent back to the Stone
Agents, literally, or they're just all going to get killed off. That's just kind of how it is, right?
And the emphasis that World Trigger places on it is a big focus on teamwork, and both within your
own team and with other teams as well. So the way the hierarchy and the structure works in
World Trigger is that the agents, the agents of Border are broken up by ranks. So C ranks, B ranks,
A ranks, and then S rank. And C ranks are people who just applied, who just got accepted, they had
to go through the training and initial steps and things like that. And they are normally kept as,
you know, reserved, as reserved, more or less, they're kind of there for like, for home defense
in case something happens, you know, they'll be mobilized. But B ranks are the main fighting
force. And then it's when you become a B rank is when you, when you join, you join a squad,
whether you make your own or you join an existing one. And, and, and within Border, they have this
way of testing the B ranks, what they call them, and rank wars. While B ranks and A ranks, they go
through rank wars, but the majority of the series focus on the B rank, rank wars, because the main
characters of the show or the series are B rank. And in the rank wars is it's squad against squad,
and against squad nine times out of 10, typically a three to four team deathmatch type, type thing.
And it, it simulates real life battle, real life war, because you're, you're dropped in randomly,
you're not, you're not necessarily going to be next to any of your teammates and things like that.
But you have to work on a strategy that works best for your team, while also hindering the opponent
team so you can, you know, eliminate them, score points and things like that. And, and throughout
the series, we see different approaches from different teams, different styles, because,
you know, the main, the main crew for, for the series, you know, the leader, squad leader is
arguably the weakest one on the team. Like in terms of stats wise, he can't fight by himself
to save his life, literally. He, he's the first one to go nine times out of 10. And he has another
person on the team who she can't fire at people because she's a sniper. I mean, even though she's
a sniper, she's there to watch their back, but she can't take the shot when, when she's needed.
And then you got the other guy who's their ace, he's the one who gets all of their points,
because he's just the best out of the three. And when you first look at it, that team dynamic is
severely skewed and it still kind of is, but within it, they all realize their own strength
and weaknesses and how they can play up each other and to support each other. And that's the whole,
that's pretty much the whole premise of the, and the entire show, at least in my opinion,
is that knowing, knowing yourself well enough to trust somebody else to do what you can't do,
and then for you to do what you can do to the best of your ability. And then that way you guys are
just, you guys are just covering all the bases that you possibly can. And of course that takes
time. That takes a lot of just your own self-work. Cause again, it starts with you knowing what you're
capable of and what you're not. Because, you know, if you try to do everything, you'll wind up doing
nothing. And that's something I personally had to learn, you know, growing up, going through school
and things like that. And now granted, it's, it's hard sometimes when you have people who don't want
to pull their weight. So you end up having to do everything yourself anyway. Otherwise, like I said,
before you're all going to suffer and you don't want to suffer because someone else wasn't doing
their job. But on the flip side, when you have people who are willing and able to do something,
especially when they do, when they can do a better job than you can, let them,
just, just let them take yourself out of the way, take your own ego out the way and let,
let someone else do what, let someone else use their gift to do something that you,
you can possibly do even if you try it, you know, 10, 20, 30 years at it. Right. Cause it's just not
your gift. Could you do it? Absolutely. But you're still not going to be as well off as,
as they would be because again, that's their gift, that's their talent. That's what they've been
called to do. And, and once you learn to kind of let go and just release that, then, then you're
going to, then everything's going to be running a lot, a lot smoother. Right. Again, we got to get
out, get out of our own way and allow other people in who, who can help us and who we can help. Right.
Cause again, it's not all about us, even though we are the main characters of our story, but so are
they. They're the main characters of their own story. And I mean, we've seen all the classic
team. Look at the Avengers, right? They're, they're all literally main characters in their own story,
but they still come together or sorry, they assemble to take on whatever the big bad is at
the time. Right. You know, DC fans out there, same thing with Justice League, like Power Rangers. I
mean, it's all the, the classic team ups, right. And does it, I'm sure at some point, all of them,
they want to be, you know, the lead. They all want to do, do their own thing because they're
typically used to it. But once you, once you start messing with people really well, once you understand
yourself and each other and how you work together and what works and what doesn't work, then,
then you'll see that you're going to go even further beyond what you thought you could,
that you thought you can go in the first place. And, and so, and so then another aspect that kind
of ties into the whole teamwork and then the rank wars and the battle system for a world trigger
is that the battles are very tactical. You know, it's not about overall power, but it's really
about how well each member uses their strengths for the betterment of the team. Right. So back
to the example I gave you earlier, but the main squad who, who the story is based around, right.
Again, the squad leader, he's, he's not a fighter, right. He's just, he's just not even on a one V
one, he's going to lose nine, nine out of 10 times, but where he shines is, is his tactics and his
kind of off the wall type thing that he comes up with. And I'm not going to go too much into
it right now because again, he has his own episode coming up, but he, he realized that,
Hey, fighting isn't my specialty. That's where my teammate comes in. So what I need to do to,
for the betterment of the team is find out ways to make his job easier. Essentially, essentially
what it would have broke down to. And, and so he took what he thought as a, as a weakness, as a
weakness of his, he, he allowed it to play into his strength, his, with his strength being his
tactical mind and the way he observes the battlefield and the players in it. And,
and honestly, he used his weakness as a, as a bait most times because everyone's going to target
him because they know he's the weak link. So I, again, I'm not going to go too, too much into it,
getting away off good here, but, but it, so just take that scenario and then multiply it by everybody
else on the show. Cause even the strong players, the strong fighters in, in the series, the ACE on
the main squad and the, all the other, you know, ACE B ranks and A and A rank fighters, they all
know their strengths, but they also know their limitations too. So they, sometimes they use their
limitations to, to bait in the enemy. And other times they, they just play up their strengths
so much that, you know, it's just kind of like an overwhelming force, but either way they don't,
they don't let themselves be a detriment to the team, right? They don't allow themselves
to get in their own way and then, and then get in their, in their teammates way as well. They,
everyone is typically on the same page. Everyone's communicating and again, cause we're all going,
they're all going for the same goal. They're all trying to achieve the same thing. So there's no,
no room for the, you know, I am the king of the land type, type aspect that we've seen in previous,
previous episodes talking about borrow and Vegeta, right? There's no room for that.
And I'm thinking about just no one on the series so far has been introduced to have that type of
mindset where, you know, they just, they think they're the best things in sliced bread in reality.
They're not right. Everyone is pretty humble for, for the most part, cause again, they,
they all, they're all used to working together as, as a team. And, and honestly, I think there's just
so much that, that we can learn from it. I mean, I'm, I'm trying to do the best justice as I can,
but again, you just, you just gotta watch it, right? And maybe a little biased cause it is
one of my top five favorite anime or series of all time. And because it's because of the different
take on, you know, friendship and camaraderie. Cause again, if you've been in, in the anime
community long enough, you know, that the power of friendship triumphs over all, right? But sometimes
it's just like, come on, you know, they should have lost, but because friendship they, they won,
that's not the case with this. Isn't, isn't, it's not the case at all with this is very much
who has a better strategy and not only that, who executes the better strategy. That's no, honestly,
that you can come up strategize, you have an excellent game plan, but if you don't execute it,
right? You know, if you don't execute at all, or if you don't execute it well enough, then
it is all for not right. And that can, that can go in anything, not just in a team,
team set setting, whatever your, your goals, your dreams, whatever it is that you're trying to achieve
it. Yes. Plan for it. You have to plan because if you don't, you know, if you don't plan, you're
just planning to fail. But once you have the plan, now it's time for the execution. And I know
for me personally, that was the step that I had the biggest struggle with was actually executing and
really taking that first step and then the next step and then the next step. And then when I fall
getting back up and he really keep going forward, that's the planning, the planning part is easy.
And honestly, cause you got all the, especially in today's world, we have all the information
literally at the, the palm of our hand, nine times out of 10, right? You find almost anything on,
on the internet. And, and so it's not, it's not from a lack of information is not even a lack of
motivation. Most of the times it's just a lack of execution. We have to get better at executing.
And I say we, cause I'm speaking to myself too. I need to do better at actually executing the
things that I have planned out because if we don't do it, no one else, no one else is.
I mean, we can have a team, we have a support system, we have all of that,
but at the end of the day, they can't make us go. We have to go. And, but when we do go,
that's where, that's where the importance of camaraderie and having somebody who,
who got your back, like you got theirs, who were really to, to come down and pick you back up when
you stumble, to carry you when you're hurt. And then someone that you can lean on is, and I
encourage you all to be someone that, that can, that can be leaned on as well. Cause again,
it's not all about you. It's really not, it starts with you, but it's not all about you.
Just, just remember that. And again, this whole, this whole idea, the whole podcast is, is to
really have you, have you reflect, have you reflect and know yourself better than anyone,
anyone can possibly know you because self-awareness is honestly is probably the best superpower.
Any of us can really have, because once you have that level of self-awareness,
you can do anything that you put your mind to it, because you know your limitations and you know
your strengths, right? You know, you know, the ins and outs, nothing can really surprise you anymore.
So you can really go full tilt into whatever it is that you need to, because you already know,
all right, I was made for this. So nothing's going to stop me. Nothing's going to get in my way.
And when you get a group of people like that together, oh man, like the world better watch
out because you know, the mountains are moving, the mountains are moving. Things aren't going to
get done. When you get a bunch of people who know themselves well enough to say, Hey, I need some
help in this area, but I got this over here. You know, you let me work on this. You work on,
on this aspect that I'm struggling in. And then I'll come help you with the aspects you're
struggling in and boom, we're going to crush this thing. And, and honestly, nothing, nothing
speaks, speaks better to this than second Corinthians chapter six, verse 14 is this,
do not be yoked together with those who do not believe for what partnership is there between
righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship does light have with darkness? So again, it's
about having like-minded people, uh, who have a similar mindset and not who are just polar
opposites from you. Right now, I do believe there are some instances where enemies can,
can work together for a common goal. But when it comes to building something to really the building,
creating something, you want someone who was by your side, who see not only see, but believes in
the vision that you see. Right. You know, and because seeing is one thing, a lot of people say,
oh yeah, that sounds good. You know, I think you should do that. I really think it's something
special, but when you, when they believe in it, that means they're going to put the, you know,
just as much effort, just as much blood, sweat and tears into it as, as you are. Right. Because
they believe it, they believe it, they believe that this thing is meant to be something great.
So they're going to take the time, the effort and the energy to put into it. And again, man,
you get more than one person together, man. Things are multiplied tremendously. So again,
that's pretty much all I wanted to cover with you guys is that, hey, One World Trigger is an
excellent series. I think you guys should check it out. And there's a lot of things that I believe
everyone can learn from it. You know, just learn about yourself, learn your own shortcomings,
your strengths, and how you can apply that in a team setting, in a group setting, in any,
in really in any type of relationship that we have and just leverage it, you know, leverage your
strengths and try to strengthen your weaknesses in a way. And just find, find some like-minded,
like-minded people who, who you can get behind, who get behind you and you know,
just do this life thing together. But anyway, that's all I got for you guys today. So thank
you for tuning in to today's episode and I pray that you got what you needed out of it. And hopefully
you learned something new about yourself. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
I love reading you guys' reviews and comments and it helps me improve each and every episode.
And always remember, you are the main character of your story and that story doesn't end until he
says so. All right. Be blessed.