First impressions are important, especially for people who are looking for new shows to watch. With so many things out there to grab people's attention, it's necessary to make a big impact early on, or else there's nothing to keep them sticking around for more.
Studio Trigger is the absolute master of making first impressions. The studio makes no attempts to hide whatever it creates, shoving it right in the audience's face the minute the first episode starts playing. There are no slow burns -- only fast-paced ridiculousness with all the dials cranked to 11.
Trigger Always Starts Off With a Bang
Kill la Kill is the exemplar of Trigger's dedication to hooking the audience right from the get-go. In the first four minutes of the premiere episode, everything is already laid out, plain to see, with no confusion about what kind of show Kill la Kill is. There's the short character introductions, completely over-the-top animation style, and the introduction of the hero and villain of the story. The only thing missing, ironically enough, is the actual plot. Many fantasy series like to open up with some kind of exposition, usually about the big bad, leaving the audience to draw the obvious conclusion that the main hero will eventually square off against them. These opening four minutes make no attempt at this, instead preferring to draw the audience in with pure spectacle alone.
The remainder of the episode does more to keep the audience invested, as it's revealed that main character Matoi Ryuko is searching for the person who killed her father, who she believes to be Satsuki Kiryuin. Ryuko then later fails to win against Satsuki, being defeated by her underlings, which then becomes the conflict for most of the first half of the story. There isn't any slow-burn storytelling to be found in Kill la Kill; it simply doesn't have the time for that. There are, of course, twists and turns in the plot, but those are secondary to the animation -- the thing that hooked viewers in the first place.
Edgerunners Is the Newest Trigger Creation to Go All Out
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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has a similar philosophy to Kill la Kill in that it simply doesn't have enough time to hold the audience's hand while the story is told, focusing almost exclusively on the gorgeous visuals and vibrant animation style. It doesn't even have time to explain the in-universe terminology the characters use, instead leaving it up to the audience to figure out.
That's because Edgerunners is constantly moving at a million miles per hour, always jumping from one scene to another and building upon itself in new and interesting ways the whole time. The first episode starts off with an action-packed, ultra-violent sequence of a standoff between a cyberpsycho and the police of Night City. It's a visual and auditory assault, ending with the realization that it's all just a video sequence being viewed by main character David Martinez.
Edgerunners bounces from this opening sequence to David's life at school to his relationship with his mother and his home life, then to a grizzly sequence where his mother dies in a car crash, David getting beat up at school, and opting to install dangerous military body modifications, all jammed into one 20-minute experience.
Trigger Is the Master of Controlled Chaos
Studio Trigger shows are like out-of-control car crashes that never seem to veer from the path they're on because, despite all the insanity, there's a method to the madness. Trigger is one of the most lauded anime studios out there and for good reason.
Even before watching a show, simply seeing the Studio Trigger label denotes a certain quality and style. Some fans might get tired of it, as their character designs and gags can sometimes feel a bit same-y between shows, but there's no denying that Trigger brings a unique sense of controlled chaos to the anime landscape, all evident from the opening minutes of everything it touches.