Aww :(

This episode started with a Smile Smile but it was definitely not Smile Smile by the end. What a good episode. Not a lot you can say except for RIP Darrgon.

Akito (with help from Ribut) taking out Darrgon was pretty bad-ass. Plus with the GUTS-Falcon actually being effective it's nice to see GUTS-Select doing some damage.

Megalathor is a such a good looking monster goddamn and the reveal of it is done really well! It still has Carmeara's laugh which is a bit creepy. I'm excited to see what it can do.

Maybe next time you don't introduce the new super duper mode toy too soon.

Hope and pray Kengo's flower will be full bloomed in the final episode. Some say that the flower is Megalothor's weakness, just like Sidon Flower being the weakness of Vulgyre in Toei's FiveMan.

You have no idea how much I want the show to end with Kengo looking at the flower and saying "Wait, this is just plastic!"

Weren't some saying that the plant was suspicious because of the implications of its name?

It's official! Superior 8 Ultra Brothers is coming to disc!

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...lu-ray-release

Ew, Carmeara's real face is enveloped inside that thing.

Kengo's plant was on the bridge the whole time!?

Carmeara may be a rampaging monster, but she's still got her personality and obsession with killing Yuzare/Kengo and getting Trigger back. Yuna tries to talk some sense into her, but all she cares about is consuming the universe and Trigger.

This might be the last time we see the Circle Arms, so we may as well cycle through each of their modes while Trigger's in Multi-Type.

Yuna is ready to sacrifice herself like Yuzare did to protect everyone's smiles, but Akito won't let her. Because who would smile if Yuna had to sacrifice herself?

Ignis shows up as Trigger Dark and the two Triggers battle Megalothor, set to an instrumental version of Pull the Trigger, and after a heated battle they're able to actually destroy her with a dual Ultra Beam! Or at least they think because she just re-forms. You can't finish off an Evil God that quickly...

Kengo's mom takes him being the incarnation of light and astral projecting to her in stride, probably because she's used to weird stuff after adopting a random baby on an archaeological dig.

Megalothor evolves into a snail-like cthulu monster which looks even more horrific, and she has one thing on her mind...killing Kengo.

I guess no better time to tell everyone that you're Trigger than when your other self' psycho ex-girlfriend is coming after you to kill you. And the team take it fairly well, gaining newfound respect for Kengo and what he's done for them in secret.

Ignis and the chairman's talk about fighting for your loved ones, even on another Earth, was pretty poignant, and it was capped off with a heartwarming hug between Kengo and Ignis. And Ignis even did the salute!

Couldn't go without finally giving us a dual transformation with Kengo and Ignis as the brave pair of Triggers race off for the final battle against Megalothor.

This is what it felt like when Calmira/Carmeara/Carmilla/Carmy/whatever revived:
Attachment 61569

Well, here we are at the penultimate episode of this season, and it had its highs and some lows. Let's get the negatives out of the way first, we get to see a new guy appear who has some relation with Marluru, then he leaves. I kind of wish we at least saw him in an earlier episode before he appeared now, but maybe that's just me. We also got to go back to Mars... kinda. It really is a shame they didn't play with the Mars setting more, as that's perhaps my biggest critique of this show, but the scene with Kengo and his mom was nice.

It's always a big moment when the hero's Ultraman identity is revealed to everyone else but having support like Akito and Yuna was fresh for this show, which made the way they handled the reveal very nice, but also a bit lackluster in terms of what we got of the other GUTS Select members, but overall, I did enjoy this.

And of course, the fight scenes in Ultraman are always a spectacle to behold, and this episode's feature fight with Trigger and Dark double teaming Megalathor was great. Although it's a little sad we moved on to a new form right afterwards that's just a rebooted Tiga Final Boss (I haven't seen all of Tiga but I have seen the monster in question, but I keep forgetting it's name), but I'm not mad, nor disappointed, though I do wish we kept that first design and maybe did something a bit different for the final form.

It also seems we're getting a new Trigger form, likely for the movie named Trigger Truth, if the toy listing I saw on HLJ is any indication. Probably not going to be anything too much since they're doing the Tiga route, but hey, maybe they'll add some bells and whistles like Glitter and Dark.

Final Episode: Hey! Hudram and Dargonn are back (under mind control)!

The new guy is a character from a Trigger spin-off program exclusive on Tsuburaya Imagination, which goes into the backstory on Marluru and Guts-Select.

Thanks! I do remember there being a Marluru special but didn't know that guy was part of it.

I thought it was random how some guy turns up and has a working relationship with Marluru, and he was introduced in a spinoff...

man ultraman orb looks hype

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAEYUovocoU

Finally finished The☆Ultraman (Joneus). It had a weak start since it tried to be an Ultraman remake in anime, but once the U40 plot introduced then it turned to a much better series to set it apart from the rest.
https://twitter.com/mohammadkadhim1/...61493245284358

I finished Ultra Q, which was also my first time watching an Ultra show! It is definitely incredibly impressive for its time period and still feels very unique to me as a modern viewer. Not too much to say though, it was just a cool proto-toku!

Is the plant going to be important? Everyone kept staring at it!

Megalothor is such an awesome design I love it so much. Then the evolved version looks even cooler. Add in Carmeara screaming MANAKA KENGO and man, it's just the best. One of those "I Feel Sorry for the Suit Actor" kind of costumes though.

The shots of Carmeara's face inside Megalothor remind me of the Triceratops Dopant from Kamen Rider W. Oh hey, those episodes were also directed by Koichi Sakamoto!

The reveal of Kengo being Trigger didn't seem quite as dramatic as they wanted it to be? But I guess half the people there already knew and the Captain sort of knew. I did like the Captain bowing and thanking Kengo. He's cool.

I also didn't know who the guy talking to Marulu was. But now I do!

I'm excited for the finale!

Started watching Ginga S, 3 Episodes in deep.

It definitely has a noticeable budget upgrade, and some neat new characters. But other than that there's not much going for it for me right now. Willing to give it a bit of time though but so far I still consider Ginga (Despite the budget constraints) above Ginga S in terms of my enjoyment.

Ginga S is what I'd call one of the weaker New Gen entries. Many of its creative decisions are a response to fan feedback saying they disliked Ginga largely because it didn't have many of the usual Ultraman tropes... and it really shows? It takes the square peg of Ginga and tries to stuff it into the colour timer-shaped hole of standard Ultraman, and a lot of that just doesn't work out. I feel there's definitely a lot of things to like in the show, particularly some of the last few episodes; but on the whole it's not fantastic imo.

I-- yeah

Ginga S was the first series that actually killed my interest and the movies were an absolute chore to get through

Ginga was quirky, S was just meh

It almost killed it for me, too? My journey with Ultraman was Orb, then the Zero Movies, then Ginga, then Ginga S. And at the time I appreciated what Orb and Ginga were doing but they weren't entirely for me, I got nothing out of the Zero stuff and then Ginga S was. Haha! Not great for me. So I thought Ultra might just not be a show for me. ... and then the next thing was X which very quickly very easily changed my mind

Z (but really Geed), then X for me with Ginga/S after it
very glad I waited to watch Orb after X, Ginga/S because it revived my entire interest in the franchise.

Whenever Ginga S is mentioned I feel obligated to mention that "Tears of Gan-Q" is one of single best episodes in Tokusatsu, ever. It’s so good.

I like the show itself, its fun. It came out during the time Ultraman tried to find its footing again so I can forgive some of its weaknesses.

That's one of the ones I meant! Really good episode

It definitely goes without saying that "Tears of Gan-Q" is one of the highlight episodes of Ginga S and one of my favorite episodes in general, it's just too good to put into words.

As many flaws Ginga S has, I actually rather enjoyed it, as I was also watching Ultraman Leo at the time at the beginning of my Ultraman journey. Orb aired shortly afterwards, and needless to say X, Orb, and Geed are some of my favorite shows of all time, and a testament to why I love Ultraman.

I've made my goal of 2022 to get through the New Gen shows from the beginning starting with Ginga, and I'm on episode 6 of Ginga S now.

You can definitely tell it's trying to be a more traditional Ultra show because you've got the traditional miniature city where the battles happen instead of a mountain quarry all the time, an attack team with uniforms, more budget flexing, etc.

I'm liking it well enough but I kind of...miss the vibe of Ginga? Like, just these group of teenagers and childhood friends hanging out and just bouncing off each other and in-between that and questions about their dreams they fight random monsters summoned from dolls. Kind of surreal, yet refreshing? It kind of felt like a student film-esque take on Ultraman, and that surprisingly worked for me.

Like I really have to admire how much they committed to the premise of Taro being a main cast member as a literal, animate, doll that everyone talks to and treats seriously. And he just floats around, uses his powers, gets into comedic mishaps, and it's all hilarious.

I miss some of the old gang. Like, it feels weird seeing Hikaru without Misuzu (Arisa is pretty fun though), and I almost cheered when I saw Tomoya again. I keep waiting for them to bring Jean-Nine back, because that was an awesome suit.

Sho is kind of growing on me and I'm getting a lot of Gamu/Fujimiya vibes from him and Hikaru.

I'm planning to go through Ginga - Orb and then watch the Zero Saga before watching Geed.

Well just got through Disc 1 of Ginga S with it's mid-season finale.

Ginga S is an enjoyable watch so far but it doesn't reach the level of heart that the original Ginga has. I think my favorite episode out of the set for the most part was Episode 5 with Yapool. Something about him just hijacking the plot for his own scheme involving Gouki was pretty refreshing.

Did enjoy Episode 7 and 8 though. Seeing Five King's first debut was pretty great, and seeing all they had to go through just to beat it was also cool. Overall so far, Ginga S is average with some good spots.

I'll post more thoughts once I'm done with the latter set of episodes.

I was extremely wary of Ginga S back when it was new specifically because I could tell from a mile away it wasn't that interested in being Ginga, but when I eventually got around to watching it a few years later, I thought it was extremely entertaining for what it was, without necessarily stomping all over the first season the way I worried it would. I'm glad it seems like people appreciate how unique Ginga was way more openly nowadays, but I really hope that doesn't come at the price of Ginga S being seen as merely some inferior half-step towards the New Generation era as we now know it, because I really do think it's more than that.

Tomorrow is the day we pull the final trigger on Ultraman Trigger New Generation Tiga! That's on January 22, 2022 Saturday 9:00 a.m. JST (January 21, 2022 Friday 7:00 p.m. EST/4:00 p.m. PST). I think it's because GUTS-Select has been "ran out of rounds".

Wow, the city sure got hit hard...how many people were they able to evacuate in time?

Megalothor's shell is too hard for them to do any real damage.

GUTS Falcon and GUTS Wing coming in for the clutch!

Poor Trigger Dark didn't last long...but we got one last action scene with Sky Type and Power Type.

Glitter Trigger Eternity absorbs the overflowing Eternity Core energy for one last desperate attack against Carmeara/Megalothor, causing a huge explosion enveloping them both...and even that doesn't stop her.

The only thing that can stop her is the true Trigger, a Trigger of light and darkness together, and with Ignis, Akito, Yuna, and GUTS-Select's support, Kengo dons his true form...Ultraman Trigger Truth, which is Multi-Type with a snazzy new color scheme.

I guess it was nice to see Hudram and Darrgon in the finale, albeit as fake soldiers. It was nice chance to give GUTS-Select more to do, but Darrgon deserved better.

Akito said the line! Everybody but Captain Tatsumi and the Chairman said the line!

Nothing quite like the support of children, a Tiga call-back, the Opening, and GUTS-Select to change the tide as Trigger's power is restored and he busts a can of whoop @#$ on Megalothor, finally finishing her off with a giant Eternity-sized beam.

Kengo finally got through to Carmeara and made her realize who he really was, and Carmeara finally understood the appeal of the light as she died in Triggers' arms....which is probably the best end she could've hoped for.

Although even with Megalothor defeated, the Eternity Core is still unstable, and Kengo has to sacrifice himself to keep it contained. Nobody on the team takes it well, least of all Akito and Captain Tatsumi who barely keeps it together, but just like Kengo's flower finally bloomed after 25 episodes, there's always hope for tomorrow.

Ignis going out into space to restore his planet, but he'll be around if the Earth needs him (Cough) Episode Z (Cough).

Time moves on for GUTS-Select, but they make sure Kengo's plant is taken care of until Kengo can finally return to them. Now, on to Episode Z!

Only with the power of Trigger and smiles can we defeat our greatest enemy... Twitter.

And so, we turn the final page of Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga, and honestly, this finale was really good, except for the ending to be extremely rushed.

The fight with Megalathor was fantastic, even as someone who didn't watch Tiga to its entirety, I was actually reminded more of Godzilla Vs. Biollante than anything else, which is great! Trigger Truth debuts, and while it is pretty much just a pallet swap, the fact that some of Trigger Dark's features are present on the head and body markings makes this a nice form. I'd also like to add how much I love the overhead shot with Trigger and Dark fighting Megalathor amidst the blazing city.

The closure for Calamaria/Carmearra/Kalamari/Carpenter (I'll figure something out one day) was expected but made for a really nice scene, which I really liked, same with R'yelth finally blooming, though I wish I could say the same for the cameos of the other Dark Giants here (wasted opportunity for Ignis to trounce Shadow Hudram). But overall, I liked this finale. It's certainly not the best by New Generation Ultraman standards, but it wasn't bad at all, and still remained an enjoyable watch.

Well, I guess now I'll just wait for Episode Z and Ultraman Decker to appear, and hopefully Tsuburaya takes some new approaches to this show and improve where Trigger fell short. Until then, keep that Trigger pulled, and do it with a smile! He said with a power frown*

How to say you liked it but also saying you didn't really like like it? 'Cause that's how I feel with Trigger. Half of its episodes had my soul leaving my body, the other half being really good. It's pretty mixed! But I did like that sacrificial ending, even tho he's just gonna come back anyway.

I guess I can just say, it gets a thumbs up from me.

With that, however, I'm taking a year (or two?) off from Ultraman, especially if the show is a "New Generation: Dyna/Gaia" something like that.

Edit: Carmeara's end described the show for me.

Correct, but not quite right.

https://i.imgur.com/09Vat7a.jpg

It's like Sakamoto and Naoki Hayashi rewatched the finale of Tiga and tried to do the same thing here, but absolutely fumbled all of the catharsis and emotional beats that series had in their failed attempt to recreate it. It was all payoff for things the series never established, or established poorly.

I just couldn't bring myself to care about this crew because it never gave me a chance to. The show was so focused on telling its story of "light vs. darkness" without actually building up any of its characters outside the three leads and Ignis. So when Kengo got to say his "final" good-bye, it just rang totally hollow for me.

And "Pull The Trigger" will never replicate "Take Me Higher".

Good bye Ultraman Trigger, I'm not going to miss you.

I feel like I grew to like the GUTS-Select team in-spite of their lack of development, so it still hit me, but ironically for a show that seemed fairly razor-focused plotwise for an Ultra show it maybe could have used a few one-off filler episodes developing everybody and showing Kengo/Trigger being close to kids.

So, I've got some final thoughts on Trigger as a whole, since I figured, I don't even need to have seen Tiga in its entirety to make this post. And much like a lot of people, this show was never going to be Tiga. It may have had a boost in technology, fantastic designs, and special effects, giving us some great action scenes and choreography, but failed in just about everything else. Honestly, I don't even believe it pulled a Saber, or at least nowhere near as well.

I do give points for its new takes on the Ultraman formula, such as Akito's role, but even then, the lack of spotlight and development for the other characters weighs it down, as much as I liked the dynamic of Akito or the character of Ignis. The problem being is that in every New Generation Ultraman season every character gets their time to shine, with and without character focused episodes, not only that but better pacing and themes overall, which in a sense means that Trigger actually could have been almost to the level of Tiga, but unfortunately misfired. But the wasted use of the Mars setting honestly takes the number one spot for Trigger's list of disappointments.

The Tiga tributes themselves are probably the best parts of this show, while the rebooted Tiga approaches simply lacked the essence and power of its predecessor to really stick the landing. I don't think Trigger is a bad show, but neither is it great, much less a worthy successor to what it tried to be, but as I said many times, it still had its good points which I enjoyed.

Moving forward, I really hope Tsuburaya tries a slightly different approach to Decker and the all-but-confirmed New Gen Gaia. The former, while I have pretty much no knowledge of Dyna having not seen it, I do know it was a spiritual sequel to Tiga, which means if anything this one will likely be the least interesting of the TDG New Gen Projects, but on the other hand, there is the possibility they'll bring in some of the GUTS Select crew for some much-needed development (I kinda doubt it, but I like to be optimistic). The latter, being that Gaia is disconnected from Tiga/Dyna to the point of being a standalone, and the potential for a great (or at least good) Ultraman Duo.

Even if these anniversary projects fail, we do have whatever plans they have in store to give us at least something on the level of the New Generation shows. Until then, I'll give these a shot and we'll see if Tsuburaya can work its magic.

Back in July, probably a few days before Trigger's premiere, I was being kept up at night by an upset stomach, and I decided to watch the show's preview special thing just as something to try and take my mind off that. And you know, those things are the definition of filler – like watching clip shows of a show that hasn't even aired yet – but man, let me tell you, listening to Maxwell Powers narrating about Ultraman stuff in that smooth voice really hit the spot at that exact moment in time.

This was the start of me enjoying Trigger more than I enjoyed Z. These things aren't always rational.

Because, you know, it's not like I'm going to come in here and tell you Trigger was unquestionably some underrated gem. The issues with it are pretty glaring and hard to argue against. What I more want to say in its favor is just... I don't really care? So Trigger didn't live up the standard of the show before it that won a Seiun Award, or the one it's based off of that *also* won a Seiun Award. Maybe it's okay not to live up to that pressure? Heck, I ain't even seen Tiga to compare it to, so while I don't doubt the iconic, revolutionary franchise reboot that catapulted Ultraman back into the spotlight was better than this, there's not much chance of that souring my own personal opinion on Trigger.

I have put a bit of thought into what the fundamental differences are between it and Z though, and I came to what I think is a solid conclusion. When I (and maybe you!) think of Z, I think of like, coveralls and sweaty, crowded hangars. A lot of emphasis on the grounded mechanical nature of STORAGE's day-to-day operations. Details that breathed a realistic life into the fantastic adventures of the cast, along with a ton of very naturalistic dialogue. It's the kind of drama modern audiences have an easy time sliding into, and I think all that was a key part of the show's success. When I think of Trigger, it's pretty much the exact opposite. I think of extremely slick, clean rooms filled primarily by lens flares, and a small group of characters, only three of which are ever allowed to leave them. I think of a deliberate, conscious focus on extremely theatrical fantasy lines a person would only ever say if they were a main character in a television series. The kind of conversations most shows nowadays would feel the need to undercut with irony and jokes to avoid looking "cheesy" to audiences who prefer a more delicate touch.

But I just can't bring myself to do anything other than love Trigger for exactly those reasons. Again, opinions aren't always about raw logic. I remember especially those first couple weeks, and just being really surprised by how thin a lot of the character writing felt, just like it seems most people were, but like, Kengo's cute, the action is awesome, the drama is still serviceable even at its worst... I was having fun! Trigger makes me smile for some reason, and as it went along, I think it found more of the strengths of its own writing, and those issues we all pegged it for immediately stopped bothering me in the slightest.

I guess one thing that might explain my weird attraction to this show is that I feel like it's a huge oddball entry in the franchise because of that writing style? I feel like in its whole run, it only ever faintly cared about the typical anthology approach Ultraman takes, with episode plots almost exclusively grounding themselves entirely in the recurring players. There are only a handful of aliens or monsters who show up to drive smaller stories with their unique personalities, thanks to the dark giants having the antagonist role so firmly secured, and indeed, more often than not, the side-characters get downplayed in favor of a focus on that core trio of Kengo, Akito, and Yuna, with varying degrees of assistance from Ignis.

And the show does some nice things with all those characters eventually, but it definitely seemed like Trigger was most interested in pushing the amount of action in a given episode to the absolute limit, and I feel like that's where it starts to become apparent the issues with this show aren't as black and white as it being "bad" or "average". When it came to having a sense of a threat that escalates throughout the episode, with events growing more and chaotic as the heroes scramble to pull together a victory in the end, I think Trigger was massively successful, especially in how it made so much room for the people filming that action to do what Ultraman does, and deliver a lot of insanely detailed and visually interesting fights. Some episodes just straight up open with fight scenes before even bothering to establish the context. Especially with Sakamoto as a main director, adrenaline was obviously a priority here, and I will readily commend Trigger for keeping me on the edge of my seat with that alone.

But you know, not *totally* alone. For as awkward as a lot of it was, I did find myself enjoying the whole big arc with Trigger's backstory. The way stuff was gradually revealed was well-paced, broadly speaking (the biggest revelations coinciding with Glitter Trigger's debut is very smart placement, for example), and the show could get clever in the weirdest little places, which, again, was highly endearing to me. Like, come on, how I am not gonna love a throwaway gag about Kengo somehow being able to tell the facial expressions of characters who don't emote evolving into genuine dramatic payoffs with both Trigger Dark and Carmeara? (Also, the Z and Ribut guest spots were both handled utterly fantastically, and I want to make sure I mention that somewhere.)

That's where I stand on Trigger, at the end of the day. When I look around, it seems like the people who didn't enjoy it are focused on what it didn't do, which is fair enough when it's literally calling itself a new Tiga, but I mostly look at what it did, and that was rarely if ever completely without merit. Trigger was a great time week after week for me, and while I won't exactly be rushing to recommend it to people the way I would Z, I definitely think it'll find its own audience, if it hasn't already. I've been saying for years that New Generation Ultraman shows simply ARE good, no exceptions, and I don't see a need to revise that statement just yet.

I enjoyed Ignis and the crossover episodes, but overall this one for me was just a really big mess. Probably the closest I've come to disliking an Ultraman show? It just failed so utterly at setting itself up for its hits to land -- and I'll admit there's some pretty good scenes, especially the final scene of the show being beautifully executed with a lot of emotional acting; but it rings hollow because Trigger to me never put in any of the actual effort to establish its own identity, develop its characters or untangle the mess of themes it's juggling. It's at once trying to do its own thing but at every moment going "hey, remember Tiga? Tiga was cool, right? Tiga was so cool" and relying on that in a way that's simply not earned. I need to stress as well as a Tiga fan and a Z fan, while it sucks it's not living up to those (and I would argue that if you are calling yourself "New Generation Tiga", being a 25th anniversary project for it and grabbing every single aesthetic and plot beat you can for it, you should maybe try and live up to that), it's not very good on its own either. I can't think of a single good character outside of Ignis, all of them felt extremely undeveloped and more like Shonen writing tropes than actual people and I don't know them any better than I did at the start of the show. This is often said about the minor characters of the GUTS-SELECT crew, but I would argue the same for our main trio of Kengo, Akito and especially Yuna.

I... I don't know. I straight up think this is a really badly written show that has no idea how to do what it wants to do, and while I can sometimes find a diamond in a rough like that; I just couldn't do it here. Even my favourite character of Ignis, whose arc I felt was solid enough in its own right; did not do enough to fit into Trigger and parallel anything else that was happening which was really to its detriment. I'm not gonna miss this one, and if it's any indication of what Ultraman is according to leaks apparently going to be doing the next couple of years; I'm really not looking forward to those.

I think the show actually suffered whenever it tried to reenact Tiga instead of developing it's own story. I wonder if the pacing and characterization issues (which did improve) would have been less if the crew was making an entirely original show. I will say that the action was good and I came to enjoy the main characters, though.

This is pretty much where I'm at. It wasn't a bad show I would say, but compared to what came before, especially Z; it is just a whole lot worse in every aspect.

You know, Elon Musk can keep his electric motors, what I really want is a car that runs on the smiles, dreams, and/or wishes of Japanese children. That is clearly the most powerful renewable energy source in the world.

So yeah, Ultraman Trigger is over and I am going to miss it. Not, like, a lot, but I am going to miss it. It is a show that, by design, forces you to compare it to other Ultra shows and it definitely comes away lacking on that front. Does that make it bad, though? No. It doesn't help, certainly, but I think Trigger is perfectly fine when judged on its own merits. Definitely not great, but I'd never call it a bad show.

I don't think Trigger did anything wrong (well maybe one thing, see below) so much as it just didn't go into as much depth as it could have on most of its elements. The characters who aren't Kengo, Yuna, Akito, and Ignis are incredibly shallow. There was, I think, one episode that actually tried to do anything with the GUTS Select crew beyond giving them each a line or two in the background, but it was too close to the end of the series to really make a difference in how I perceived any of them. The villains were a similar story; there were some decent ideas with Carmeara and Darggon that mostly worked, but Hudrum was just kind of there. Same story with the show's lore: decent ideas that weren't explained in as much depth as they could have been (so we're just going to briefly mention that Kengo was a fucking magic space baby and never really go into that?)

The only thing that I came close to actively disliking on the show is Kengo. I've mentioned this once or twice, but he reminds me of a Sentai Red Ranger. Specifically, he reminds me of one of Sentai's Catchphrase Reds, the kind who use their personal mantra as a replacement for a personality. I ultimately came away generally liking Kengo, but I think he often got boiled down too much to "Smile, Smile" when there were options for doing something more complex with the character.

Anyway, tl:dr: Trigger was a perfectly fine show that didn't explore its concepts as much as it could have.

I'm actually glad that Trigger has its fans, since again, I don't think it's a bad show, so it's nice to know there are folks out there that did enjoy it.

Aso, the crossover episodes, while the Z one had almost nothing to do with Trigger, it was some of the best episodes in the show, even bringing out the best of Kengo. And the Ribut ones worked so well with the Glitter Trigger Eternity arc, since the idea of having the form so powerful the hero can't handle it was brilliant, and this gave us a look at Ribut's human form, which is a plus.