Studio Trigger had a reputation before they’d even made their first big series, with its founding staff representing the legacy of GAINAX that gave us shows likeGurren LagannandPanty and Stocking. Over 10 years later, they’re going strong and continue to make new hits, but there’s something that might just be the key to their continued success: the writers.
The studio was founded by Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Otsuka in 2011 and Imaishi in particular has been one of the defining directors of the studio and the public perception of their style. After all, he’s the director ofKill La Kill,Promare, andCyberpunk: Edgerunners, and the hype behind the studio was primarily because ofpast Imaishi works likeGurren Lagann. In a lot of ways, Imaishi is still the dominant presence in Trigger, and the influence of highly stylized Kaneda-style animation that comprises his and his colleagues' work is rooted in much of the studio’s portfolio. These stories can be wildly different and tap into a wealth of ideas and influences, but at times, they can feel quite similar.
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What Defines A Trigger Project
Despite being credited mostly as a director rather than a writer, the way Imaishi talks about his works and the process of creating them lends a sense of partial ownership over those narratives. He’s incredibly talented at building vast, ever-expanding, insane sagas around themes and motifs that permeate every square inch of the story. Subtlety is an afterthought and fans are here for it.
InGurren Lagann, the motif of a drillis tied to the story’s core themes of evolution, maturity, and the human spirit. InKill la Kill, threads and the cutting of threads worked in tandem with motifs like clothing and nudity to discuss the duality of life and existence.Promareused fire and water to echo the previous two stories to tell a story about the human spirit and duality through the lens of revolution and self-expression. As a bonus, it’s quite queer in its subtext.
And besides all of that analytical mumbo-jumbo, these were simply entertaining and wacky shows and Imaishi is highly skilled at creating controlled chaos like this on the screen. But he wasn’t the screenwriter - that title belongs to Kazuki Nakashima, the writer of all three aforementioned shows by Imaishi, including their manga adaptations in the instances where they exist.
Except forSpace Patrol Luluco, which Imaishi wrote himself, Nakashima has written every major series that has been directed by Imaishi since they worked together onRe: Cutie Honeyin 2004. He’s taken the ideas and concepts from directors like Imaishi and Yoh Yoshinari and forged them into full series/films. They are complex constructions with simple appeals and lasting impressions.
Nakashima has helped define the studio in a big way over the years, but this brings us to a criticism of the studio that one might have seen over the past few years. The complaint is that Trigger’s core appeal is overdone and that their projects tend to look and feel the same. While plenty would argue the merits of their visual & storytelling style, their biggest works do have a lot of the same people guiding the artistic direction.
A Time For Change
Nakashima’s scripts don’t always hit the same.BNAwas a fun series,but it struggled to juggle its myriad ideasquite as elegantly or as entertainingly as his past work alongside Imaishi. They make quite the pair, as evidenced by their next collaboration on Volume 1 ofStar Wars Visionswith “The Twins.”
What makesCyberpunk Edgerunnersso fascinating as the biggest recent success from the studio is just how different it is from a writing standpoint. Yes, it’s directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, but the story comes from Polish author Bartosz Sztybor and showrunner Rafal Jaki, with the screenplay written by Trigger co-founder and industry legend Masahiko Otsuka, who directed Trigger’s other short fromStar Wars Visions, “The Elder”
Edgerunners is arguably Trigger’s first adapted screenplay and the script feels unlike any other story the studio has produced since its founding. Imaishi’s directing chops are on full display, butthe tone is completely different, far more consistently serious and dark, with levity being more of a reprieve from Night City’s harsh realities rather than a common occurrence.
And Edgerunners isn’t the first to deviate from the standard Trigger tone - it’s merely the most successful. One of their best decisions was to let Akira Amemiya directSSSS. GridmanandSSSS. Dynazenon. At first glance, their off-kilter pacing and ridiculous action feel incredibly on-brand, but the longer the shows continue, the more the quiet sets in.
Amemiya’s use of silence is so unlike the roar of Imaishi’s directing.GridmanandDynazenonhave big bombastic fights between giant robots and kaiju, but in between the action scenes, the characters are written with a realism that feels grounded in a way uncharacteristic of Trigger. Keiichi Hasegawa’s scriptgives the characters' personal drama appreciable weight.
Trigger has always and will always be at its best because of the work of its artists, but their efforts are in vain without good stories for their work to propel forth. Creators like Imaishi and Nakajima have continued to live up to their reputation, but if the studio wants to continue to reach higher and higher, they need to take risks on new writers, new stories, and new ways to be a “Trigger production.”
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