If I had to describe Studio Trigger in one phrase, it would be this:
They're the very definition of style over substance.
Part of what made their early shows, such as Kill la Kill, Inferno Cop, and Little Witch Academia, stand out was their bombasticness and over-the-top style.
This made sense since this Trigger was founded by former Ginax members such as Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Ōtsuka, who helped make these shows; this only increases fans' trust.
The way Trigger animated their shows was like no other, so much so everyone in the anime community treated them as the saviors of anime.
However, as time passed, it became more evident that one of Trigger's biggest weaknesses was in their writing.
Signs were showing with such forgettable animes as Kiznaivers, whose entire plot was about people sharing pain, which concludes that sharing pain is bad.... yeah.
However, this was all but confirmed with Darling in the Franxx. Yeah, I know that anime was more Co-Produced between A-1 and Trigger, but many former members, such as Atsushi Nishigori, who was not only involved with most Gainax former animes, such as FLCL and Gurren Lagann but also worked on the Evangelion rebuilds films.
Which is made all the more funny because it explains why Darling in the Franxx blatantly ripped off all those former Gainax animes.
It was a fan fic that went horribly wrong.
Not only was this anime tone-deaf, but they also had moments where they piloted the robots in a doggy style yet expected the audience to take it seriously.
It was made worse by the fact that it tried to send some asinine message that kids need to get pregnant to save Japan from a decreasing birth rate, but it handled this so poorly that everyone just dropped the show, and that was before the big twist that aliens were the real bad guys.
This was made worse with one of the next shows, Brand New Animal, the furry anime.
That series tried to explore the complexities of a community and a whole race dealing with the consequences of racism, and boy, did they fumble the ball.
Despite BNA trying to do its damnest to tell you that the beast-man are misunderstood people mistreated by humanity, in reality, they're a race that sells out their kind, including children, and will turn into hostile monsters if they get stressed out.
Again, this plays into Trigger Strength.
They might be top-notch animators, but without a strong script and someone to keep them in check, it's all for nothing.
Edgerunners and Dungeon Meshi don't suffer from this problem because they have a better writer to keep them focused and a better script to execute their ideas.
Which is funny since both of those anime are adaptations of other works.
