Triggerhead

Ahem. I want to make this post to gather my thoughts and better understand the antagonists of the show, as they aren't heavily featured and explored like Akane. It's just my own analysis based on what I can observe in the show, so some parts would be more vague and generate different interpretations. This analysis may seem obvious to some and not so much to others, but I hope it'll offer some clarity regardless. Tl;dr at the bottom.

The General Motive

It's pretty much given in the show. The Kaiju Eugenicists wanted to destroy humanity and create a world where themselves and kaiju can live and be accepted. They believe that the world is a better place as you're no longer being tied down by human bonds, granting you unrestricted freedom beyond even the laws of physics. This is their shared goal. However, each of them have separated purposes and things they want to achieve along with this.

Onija

Let's start with the 2 more obvious cases. Onija clearly stated what he wanted to do - kill all humans. How many times did he yell this out? It's kind of shoved-in-your-face. No other Eugenicists expressed this desire as strongly as he did. At the base level, he simply wanted to live. He was brutally killed once and was determined to not let it happen again no matter what. This is why "I thought I was dead" was a constant running joke. It's also why Onija had a deep personal grudge towards Gauma and humans, who were the cause of his death 5000 years ago.

Juuga

Juuga had a deep admiration for Gauma and looked up to him. Unlike Onija, he didn't wish to oppose Gauma, but to make an alliance instead. When the Eugenicists first appeared, Juuga said:

It's clear from this line that he wanted things to be the way it was 5000 years ago, where they were a group of friends working towards the same goal. He missed and yearned for that carefree time. The original Eugenicist group was the most important thing to him. You can see that he never fought with any other Eugenicists, but remained calm and passive towards them at all times. This attitude only extended towards the Eugenicists, as he had no qualms about killing anyone else for his goal, including the Dynazenon crew.

Even when Mujina stole Dyna Striker, the first thing that came to his mind was using it to negotiate with Gauma and get him back.

Mujina

These last 2 Eugenicists are slightly more complicated to pick apart, as they process things more internally.

At first, Mujina was very indecisive and didn't buy much into this kaiju thing. All she wanted was to finish it quickly so she could leave. She was lost in life and just followed the other Eugenicists around because she had no directions of her own. Then Mujina found Koyomi, someone who also didn't have anything going for himself and just plainly a loser in his life. He was someone she could feel related to. Mujina's attitude supposedly changed after she was tackled by Koyomi, but I believe this just pissed her off and only played a part in her personality shift. The other cause, I think, was Sizumu's encouragement, where she "realized that kaiju is all [she has] got" and that she had to take responsibility for her actions.

Koyomi came to play a major role in episode 11, when Mujina witnessed him starting to look for a job. The only person who she could feel related to was unaffected by the aftermath of the kaiju and moving forward with ease. Meanwhile, Mujina, who had just found her purpose in life, lost it once again and was now completely stuck, as the future where the Eugenicists could live and be accepted was destroyed. When facing such a crisis, one would seek to put the blame on something for all of their problems, and Koyomi just happened to be the perfect target.

Sizumu

Toughest one to crack here, but I'll shoot my best shot. In the beginning, he opposed the Dynazenon crew the least among the Eugenicists. He suggested against killing them, had the most interaction with Yomogi and Yume, and suggested Mujina to return Dyna Striker for seemingly no reasons at all. His main reason for not killing Team Dynazenon was to see more kaiju, and getting close to Yomogi and Yume was for his kaiju to absorb their emotions. However, I believe there was another underlying reason that tied his actions together. He was looking for an alliance.

Contrary to Juuga, the alliance he was looking for didn't only include Gauma, but Team Dynazenon as a whole. To understand why he searched for this, we must first look at what he was. He had an ability that allowed him to hear kaiju voices, which gave him a much deeper understanding of kaiju compared to the other Eugenicists. Due to this, while the others more or less thought of kaiju as a mean to create a world where they can live and be accepted, Sizumu would consider kaiju as his own kind, so much so that he had a severe disconnection with humans. He distanced himself away from even the Eugenicists, almost as if he only tagged along because they shared the same basic goal.

He didn't seek to understand humans, but instead for humans to understand kaiju. His goal was to create a world where not only the Eugenicists were accepted, but kaiju themselves were accepted. He believed that the world was better off like this, because, from his perspective, kaiju could liberate people from human bonds and offer them unlimited freedom. To me, this is rather hypocritical as he never understood why people tied themselves to these bonds in the first place, so he wasn't in a position to say what was better and what wasn't.

Sizumu was the only Eugenicist to mention this kaiju power and express his distaste towards human bonds. He explained this very early on to Yomogi and Yume, and why did he do this, you may ask? Why, to help them understand his views and create an opening for a potential alliance, of course. If his only purpose was to absorb their emotions, then that's quite a lot of unnecessary effort to make himself look friendly and approachable to an uncanny degree, especially when being "friendly and approachable" wasn't his forte. No, he was testing the water to see if he could get them on his side.

Then came an unexpected opportunity for him to determine once and for all if Team Dynazenon can understand and accept kaiju. He let a failed kaiju run free and distracted the Eugenicists away from it (with a tactic he learned from Chise) to see what the Dynazenon crew would do. Some people said that it's to test if any of them were kaiju user, and while that's possible, I think it's a little unlikely. Sizumu only observed them at 2 instances, first was when they started the search for the kaiju, the second was when their beam destroyed the kaiju. Unless the kaiju voices could tell him, there would be no way for Sizumu to know if any of them used Instance Domination, until the very end when Yomogi used it on him. The likelier hypothesis would be: he saw them searching for the kaiju > he saw the kaiju being killed > he surmised that kaiju couldn't exist peacefully with Team Dynazenon, and didn't seem to be particularly happy about it.

From then on, Sizumu decided that they couldn't be his allies thus no longer approached Yomogi or Yume. It seems that he arrived to this final conclusion:

And this is where the series itself left off. Kaiju simply can't co-exist with humans. They are irregulars to the human society. Furthermore, the freedom that they offer can't be allowed to exist as running away from society and real human connections is wrong, even if reality is ugly and difficult to face. This is what make the series similar to Gridman. However, unlike Akane, the antagonists of Dynazenon failed to realized this and didn't get their happy ending.

(A detail that I'd like to mention is that Sizumu was silent during the entire final battle in contrast to the other Eugenicists who were pumping themselves up. It was like he was saying, "Didn't want to do this but I guess you left me with no choice". Though silence can mean anything so it's not a concrete evidence.)

TL;DR and Final Words

This is so much longer than I thought and I really apologize for it. I just don't want to make anyone do logical leaps when reading this post.

Tl;dr:

- Onija wanted to live and had a grudge towards Gauma and humans for causing his death.

- Juuga wanted Gauma to join them again and for things to be back the way it was 5000 years ago. He cared for nothing outside of the Eugenicists group.

- Munija wanted a purpose, found one, then lost it again. She envied Koyomi for regaining his sense of purpose and moving forward with his life.

- Sizumu wanted humans to understand kaiju and a world where kaiju can set humans free from their bonds. Initially considered an alliance with Team Dynazenon, but concluded that them (and people in general) couldn't understand kaiju after all.

- Final message of the show: Go touch some grass and talk to humans you fucking weebs.

Misc

When using Instance Domination, the palms of the Eugenicists always face towards the kaiju. The only exception is the last battle where Sizumu's palm faced towards himself, indicating that the kaiju was inside him. I believe that it was located at the center of his chest, where he shot out that weird magical light beam. Just a small thing I find interesting.

If we want to take it a step further, I believe the seed inside him had already grown into a kaiju, but it was still relatively small until he used Instance Domination on it. Eerie, huh?

And this is more of the theory territory and leaving the analysis, but this could possibly be why he was able to hear kaiju voices. Chise was able to understand Goldburn and translated for him at the end, so maybe having a kaiju inside of you would allow you to understand other kaiju somehow? If this is the case, he would probably have had the kaiju inside of him since 5000 years ago.

There's also this big brain moment from a 4chan user. The resemblance between Yume and Juuga is kinda uncanny considering they're both obsessed with the past.

That's it boys. I'm gonna crawl back into my hole until next century, or until Trigger drops Edgerunners. 8/10 show, VERY underrated gem. Trigger won't stop saving anime.

This post but on Reddit:

1. I'm a Villainous Daughter, so I'm going to keep the Last Boss

This is an overall well-done manga, with a strong plot and great conflict to keep you interested at all times. Generally, otome villainess MCs feel pretty OP because of how easily they solve their problems, but it’s quite different in this title. The MC is very competent in her plans to overcome the hurdles, but the level of threat is high enough to create some balance. Romance is very refreshing and wholesome, because the couple generally communicates well, being very mature and harmonious with each other. The comedy is always delivered on time and the art is flawless. This manga is completed and rather short, seems like it’s just promotional material for the light novel.

2. May I Ask for One Final Thing?

This one can rival the previous one for the top place. If there’s 1 title you absolutely must check out in the post, it is this. The MC is a boss bitch, and it’s the first time I’ve ever thought of the word ‘stan’ and I’ve decided that I’ll never stop stanning her. If you’re not too interested in romance, but rather has an ‘eat the rich’ boner, then this girl will fucking deliver. The manga focuses on societal problems, the crimes and corruption of rich people, and it gives the best justice orgasm. It isn’t an isekai and the MC isn’t reincarnated, but that only makes shits much more unpredictable and interesting to watch. Art is gorgeous and will absolutely help you enjoy justice being delivered scenes even more. Currently has 10 chapters.

3. Bakarina: Verge of Destruction Arc

Another one very close behind. This is a spin-off of Bakarina, where Katarina got sentient a little bit too late, just a year before her doom. Original Bakarina is good, but HARD MODE Bakarina is my delicious hot cup of tea. The threats here are very real and very high, because not only that she has little time left, but she also has to repent for all the evil acts that her original self did. Mind you, that’s YEARS of harassing, bullying and abusing in some cases, so this will have a more solemn tone (I’m trash for this), rather than just comedy. The characters feel more realistic now that they’re not sucked into OG Katarina’s charms, and surprisingly, this version of Katarina is quite competent. Excellent art as usual. Currently has 8 chapters.

4. The Daughter of the Albert House Wishes for Ruin

Yo I totally thought this one was dropped but the new chapter just got posted today, after a 5 months hiatus. It’s about the MC, instead of avoiding her bad end, hitting the gas and trying to slam straight into it. This title is generally more light-hearted than the ones previously mentioned, but it does hint at the harsh reality of being a noble. The girl has a serious reason behind this, but it’s slightly weird considering her problem and solution. Anyway, after seeing her in her sexy party gown she shot up at least 10 ranks in my list. So please check out, at least for the beautifully smug and confident MC, which doesn’t come without an art style that’s just as gorgeous. It’s at chapter 7 right now.

5. Slow Prison Life

Unlike the other MCs, this one doesn’t have a good heart deep down. And by that I mean she’s an actual fucking psychopath. She can kill a person and is willing to kill a person. Like other psychopaths, she’s very charismatic and knows how to wield her power and connections to achieve her goals. Observe as she manipulates and infuriates her ex-fiancé into insanity. The manga is a comedy and her schemes after schemes never fail to entertain me. It only has 3 chapters and to finish the whole story, I had to read the light novel. The ending is pretty meh but this is a story that’s more about the journey than the destination. (And yes, also has stunning art.)

6. Of Course, I'll Claim Palimony!

This started out as my 2nd favorite, but has fallen from its grace since then due to better titles. The MC is very relatable with her bottomless love for money and economic mind, and the story revolves around her schemes to earn more money shenanigans. Other characters are also interesting, only that her opponents are too incompetent to even pose a threat to a 5 year old. Some of these later chapters fall into some cliché so I didn’t find it as exciting to read. But give it a try, it has 13 chapters right now.

1. I'm a Villainous Daughter, so I'm going to keep the Last Boss

(aka Villainous Daughter)

This one is the first and best manga I’ve seen of this sub-genre. Words can’t describe how much I love the protagonist, Irene. She ain't fuck with nobody and has balls of steel. As the antagonist, she doesn't get much support and mainly relies on her wit and intelligence. It’s interesting to watch the protagonist using their wit to gain allies, and intelligence to strategize their way towards a goal. To me personally, Irene is terribly fucking relatable. I nearly teared up for her at chapter 1.

It’s mainly a romance/comedy manga, and it’s been years since I last saw a good romance anime/manga (because most of them are cliché). The romance feels refreshing because the main ship generally communicates well, and the comedic timing is on point. The plot is presenting a good conflict right now, because the antagonists are more threatening than just being plain assholes. It currently has 8 chapters. Worth checking out.

2. Common Sense of a Duke’s Daughter

(aka Common Sense)

If you like something more serious, then this one probably suits your taste. It’s similar to Villainous Daughter, except the protagonist, Iris, has probably evaded her bad end for good and got sent to a fief as its lord. The manga hence contains a lot of textbook knowledge of economics. The vibes are more serious/mature than Villainous Daughter’s shenanigan vibes, and the romance is developed gradually, so it fits anyone who likes a slow-paced story. It currently has 47 chapters plus tons, tons of extra chapters. I haven’t read much of it to have anything to say for now.

3. The Villainess Wants to Marry a Commoner!!

(aka Marry Commoner)

This one is quite the opposite. The protagonist knows she’s a villainess years before the game campaign begins, but there isn’t much planning or scheming to evade the bad end, rather she’s just enjoying her life as of now. She decides to just avoid the heroine and her capture targets, and spend time with her love interest instead. The love interest is giving me some suspicious vibes though. Marry Commoner is great if you want something more laid-back. Currently has 5 chapters.

4. Of course, I'll claim Palimony!

(aka Palimony)

My second favourite in this list. This isn’t an isekai, but rather the protagonist, Yulia, is selling a prophetic manga that portrays her as the villainess. Yulia is a businesswoman who fucking loves money. That’s a love I can feel from the bottom of my heart. She doesn’t give a shit about her (ex)fiancé and the heroine because they’re braindead morons. Palimony is mainly about Yulia developing her business while the writer of the prophetic manga tries to set her up with a prince. Yulia just lets her do it because she doesn’t give two fucks about romance either. I like the topic of business and money a lot, so I’ll stick around. It currently has 5 chapters.

5. I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags

(aka Bakarina)

Bakarina is similar to Marry Commoner where the protagonist, Katarina, realizes that she’s a villainess at an early age, years before the campaign begins. It gives her a strong head start and she uses it to work hard and make friends with the game characters. The manga basically runs on the power of friendship as Katarina solves every problem by making more friends. I got a little disappointed because this power is overused, especially towards the end. But overall, Bakarina is pretty strong. Currently has 21 chapters plus extras, and it’s up to what seems like the beginning of the final arc right now.

6. Fiancée's Observation Log of the Self-proclaimed Villainess

(aka Observation Log)

Something like Bakarina, but instead of trying to avoid the bad end, the protagonist, Bertia, hits the gas pedal and rams head first into it. She knows she’s the villainess and completely insists on following the game’s script, setting her fiancé up with the heroine. Like Katarina in Bakarina, she has also made friends with the game characters (but accidentally), and even though she claims to be evil, her friends love and want to protect her. Currently has 14 chapters.

Let’s go into the bad parts first. The plot was...average for Trigger’s standards. There wasn’t anything that makes it stand out from other Trigger shows. The movie didn’t have enough time to fully flesh out its world-building and develop its characters. I found that all of them don’t have enough depth, though they have pretty good motivations for their actions. In terms of world-building, we got this quick info dump before the final battle for why this whole Burnish thing happened in the first place. I’m not a fan of info dump, it was kinda boring and cliche. There was also a lack of strategies and planning. It’s mostly based on luck and Galo trying to punch harder if punching doesn’t work. The most (and only) thought out move is Heris blowing up the core. Kray being the main villain is completely predictable. They gave that away in the trailers they show us (as you probably have seen me complaining). In fact, I think Trigger knows that, that’s why they revealed his true colours so early into the movie.

The good parts of the movie are mostly from the cinematic experience it gives. The amazing, wacked up animation of Trigger on the big screen, plus Hiroyuki Sawano’s music blasting to your ears, is FUCKING. WILD. I was hyped up so much, I had to resist the urge to scream the entire time. Of course, there were a fuckton of references to their past shows, and I love it. Being there among an audience really enhances your experience. When the awesome parts come, people clap and cheer, and you do too. When the funny parts come, people laugh, and you do too. I always love the fact that Trigger is completely aware of what they’re doing. Like when Galo, Aina and Lio just happened to find the dead professor’s secret lab, who just happened to develop a mech that they need. I was thinking, “Well, that’s convenient” when there it is, the guy named his mech ‘Deus Ex Machina’. Everyone was laughing their ass off. Trigger turned an otherwise very cliche part into the most hilarious scene in the movie.

Another memorable part is Galo’s life-saving kiss scene. Some people was groaning prior to it because we all knew what was gonna happen, then people kinda laughed, then the crowd slowly went wild when it happened. Everyone was clapping and cheering. For a non-romantic kiss scene, it has no business of being that long and that good. It’s probably one of the best kiss scene I’ve ever seen in anime, and this is, I think, the first time Trigger ever makes a kiss scene. Trigger, you better start making more romance anime now. Bitch can’t tease me like this.

Some other great minor moments include Galo’s energy being, “MMMMM YEAHHHH can’t really fight in this fugly robot”, and the final scene with Kray just sitting there. I can get how he felt. The plan that he had worked on for a big part of his life was ruined completely. It was hopeless for him so he wasn’t being all aggressive to Galo and Lio anymore, because it was useless. He just sat there and accepted it. We’re not really sure if he’s a redeemed villain or not. I hope that they will still charge him for his crimes.

So, as you may or may not already know, I stated in my last post that the antagonist could be trying to take advantages of this ‘flame’ or ‘power’ for whatever reason. But somehow, this video gives me the vibes that the bad guys in here just cause a ruckus to demonstrate a rebellion.

OK, hear me, so in the future, the government figures out how to defuse these outbursts and solve the problem without arresting people. Society learns how to live with these individuals. But maybe it’s still a controversy, and people have strong opinions on controversial topics. Many completely despise this ‘power’ and everyone that possesses it, and many take pride in having it. We saw that some people even worship it in the last PV.

The antagonist belongs in the latter group. He may not think that it’s enough to live equally. In his own twisted way, he may even think that those who possess this ‘power’ are superior to others, and feel the need to rebel. It’s not like we didn’t have that happen before in history. This is where our firefighters also take on a police job, catching these rebels. You can see that they have cuffs and the red/blue light like actual police.

Whereas squares are used to represent positivity and harmony. You can hear the music being ominous when triangles are present, and becomes hopeful when squares are present.

By the way, what are those pink squares on the roofs? Are those generators that use negative emotions to generate electricity? Have scientists in this timeline figured out how to turn human stress levels into an energy source??

Anyway, we can further see how these shapes are used as symbols in Lio’s (the antagonist) mech has this sort of triangular, rough-edged look, while Galo’s (the protagonist) and the ‘good guys’ mechs are more rectangular. Not to mention their body shapes are roughly similar to their mechs too.

So, from what I see from the first 5 minutes, apparently ‘flames’ just one day burst from people who had been suppressing their negative emotions, and killed hundreds of people. They created catastrophes, even. After being arrested and locked up, people went on protests and demonstrations for being oppressed by the government (because that’s what people do). They found better ways than locking them up in the future, and have these firefighter teams for outbursts and emergencies. But apparently some people want to use this power for ‘evil’, so they have to have these mechs to fight off. Then the protagonist and antagonist figure out how to work together to save the world or some shit. Sounds kinda cliché, but doesn’t mean it would be bad.