When Kaiju No. 8 first released in 2024, I was hesitant to watch it. It seemed a bit overkill, doing giant monsters when we already have Pacific Rim and Godzilla. I couldn’t understand the hype behind it – the memes that came from it, the screenshots, the jokes. So, it wasn’t very high on my “to-watch” list.
Boy, was I wrong.
I cannot believe I waited as long as I did to watch Kaiju No. 8, and if I could go back in time… well, I probably wouldn’t because then I’d have to wait for the weekly releases which is such a pain. But I definitely would have watched it sooner, and for good reason.
Kaiju No. 8 is the story of Kafka Hibino, an ordinary man who works for a cleaning company that specialises in cleaning up dead Kaiju parts after they have been killed by the Special Defense Forces. Please note that Kafka, the main character, is 32-years old – probably one of the few older main characters that you can find in mainstream anime.
As a child, Kafka and his best friend Mina swore to be the coolest members of the Defense Force. Sadly, Kafka was never able to join the Special Forces, and thus resorted to the next best thing Kaiju-related: clean-up duty. That all changes when one day, after he and a colleague are attacked by a Yoju (sub-species of Kaiju) and a parasitic mini Kaiju forces itself down Kafka’s throat, it turns him into a… Kaiju!
Please note that Kafka, the main character, is 32-years old – probably one of the few older main characters that you can find in mainstream anime.
And that’s all I can really say in terms of explaining the premise of the anime because anything else becomes a spoiler, and we do not like spoilers in this house. Otherwise, the story of Kaiju No. 8 is pretty decent, with some jabs thrown at Kafka for being an “old man”, and lots of jokes about his age thrown in to add to the absurdity of the situation. (I both do and don’t understand how the picture below became so popular, but some people hear Kaiju No. 8 and this comes to mind for absurdity reasons.)
That’s probably one of the main reasons why I ended up enjoying Kaiju No. 8 so much – the anime plays into the age of the main character, and utilizes it in a way for some comedic relief. It was so refreshing to experience an anime where the main character who is given these big powers is an actual adult, and not a hormonal teenager still in high school. Even if the adult in question seems to struggle with “adulting”.
When it comes to the animation style, that is the majority of the reason why I didn’t want to watch Kaiju No. 8 when it first released. The animation felt and looked like only the barest amount of effort was put into the characters, with slightly more effort going into the backgrounds, and all of the budget into animating the different Kaijus.
Of course, I can see why they would put more effort into the Kaijus, because we all know what a human looks like, and the Kaijus needed more detail to show us just how alien and different they actually are.
The animation felt and looked like only the barest amount of effort was put into the characters, with slightly more effort going into the backgrounds, and all of the budget into animating the different Kaijus.
But what the characters lack in animation style (Kafka doesn’t even look like a main character but more like a side or background character), they more than make up for in terms of personality. Kafka’s personality is basically that of a friendly dad, looking out for others and offering advice where he can. Heck, there’s a side character that comes in later that has big main character energy, and as much as they annoyed me when they were first introduced, they eventually grew on me.
The writing of the characters and story is well-done and engrossing. I’m not sure how the anime compares to the manga, but it was definitely enough to keep me clicking “Play next episode” until season 1 had finished. As in most anime where the main character has a hidden power, you spend a lot of the time wondering when it will be revealed, and when there comes a crucial point where you think Kafka will reveal his powers, it doesn’t happen. I’ll leave you to go and find out for yourself if his powers are revealed, and when it happens.
Kaiju No. 8, while not quite being an original concept, does bring some fresh ideas to the genre – having the male lead work to catch up to the level of the female lead, having the two main characters be in their late twenties to early thirties, and spending more time animating the monsters than the humans. The fight scenes are fluid, and the backing track for the anime itself is fantastic, adding to the tension during the fight scenes as well. (Also, season 1’s opening theme [Abyss] is performed by Yungblud with OneRepublic performing the closing theme [Nobody and Invincible], and season 2 sees Aurora performing the opening theme [You Can’t Run From Yourself] with OneRepublic again performing the closing theme [Beautiful Colors].
Written by Samantha Crerar
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