Kaijuu 8-gou

What makes a story good? Is it the animation? Picture quality? Art style? Sound? Well no, duh, its THE STORY! And well, far too many anime seem to forget that... Honestly i'm not sure at this point who the target audience for this, and many other shows is, because it feels like i've seen this show at least twenty times over before ever watching it! There isn't much to be said about it honestly.. What are the strong sides? Well, as i said, art, animation, and generally great production values. What are the weak sides? The most important - story and characters! Well, if you can call them that, they'recardboard cutouts at best - the stereotypical tsundere, the classic average anime protagonist, and his friend, the classic average anime protagonist #2... NOTHING new or original about them, you've seen it all a thousand times. Same goes for 'the plot', not only is very little of it revealed this season anyway, but also, if you can't predict what happens next from the little that does happen, this is probably your first, or maybe tenth or so anime watched! All in all, i can't say its bad per se, but its utter lack of originality and plot makes for a really bland time... And i'd probably not recommend it to anyone aside newcomers to the medium.

One word comes to mind when I think about how to describe this anime: disappointing. It has a rather unique setting, but instead of doing something with it the author made the most generic shounen possible. Let me give you a bit more details here. World. What did I expect after reading the description and watching the first episode? Humans fighting against giant monsters that emerge from time to time and wreak havoc on cities and countries, or maybe something even more dire, like existential threat to humanity (like in AOT). Sadly, in this world real kaijus are more of a background noise, there are nospecial defences or architecture solutions to minimise the damage (walls, some kind of detection perimeters for early warning), cities look exactly like any city in our reality and the only thing in them that acknowledges the existence of kaijus are bunkers/shelters. So even the world itself does not recognise those monsters as anything but nuisance, and that is further reinforced by the ease that special forces show while removing said kaijus. And now the most disappointing part about it - both the hero and the “new deadly kaiju” are humanoids. Yes, just some average height dudes that look weird, like they are monsters (or mutants, or humans in special suits) from any other generic shounen. So what was even the point of taking a setting about giant monsters if you are not going to use them? I have no idea. Characters. The next disappointing part is the effort that was put into characters, or to be more precise - lack of said effort. If you read the synopsis or just watch the first episode you will see that our MC is 32, he has a broken dream, a broken promise to someone he cared deeply about, a dead end job and nothing in future to look up to - this is some really depressing and heavy background for our protagonist. So please explain to me, how come he behaves EXACTLY as most 14 yo protagonists of shounen anime, constantly making himself look like a fool and a clown when out of combat? Why none of the secondary characters have any personality at all? Even the “best friend” character has only one thing going on in his mind - “I must get stronger”, but his motivation isn’t even unique as most characters in a typical shounen fashion are obsessed with it. Sure, one is cooler, the other is more aggressive, the third is a professional type - but their personalities never go deeper than their talking style, none of them gets development. Considering how many characters are there in this short anime - I never expected them to be deep, but I at least expected something, not replaceable cardboard cutouts with one defining trait. Also the fact that the childhood friend who is the main reason why our MC enrolled into anti-kaiju forces is simply ignored for the most part of the anime (cause “I'll talk to her later, OK?”) is just a cherry on top of all that mess. Fights. Yes, they look good. However, there is a reason why most shounens use superpowers or melee weapons - and this reason is “logic”. Superpowers are both flashy in style and can easily explain why character X is better than character Y. Similar goes for melee, different schools of combat, different sizes of weapons, so different strong and weak sides. You know what lacks any uniqueness? Standard military gear. So when a character easily kills an enemy with “other type of bullets” for their gun and no one except him switches to those bullets EVER - I just get confused and my already low opinion on the writing falls even lower. When melee weapons appear - they are presented exactly like you would expect from shounen - screaming stupid move names like telling it aloud will make the attack stronger or something. In a fantasy title it would be fine, we are used to it, but this world looks like our modern world does, and blades don’t cut worse if you are not shouting some cringe power move. But wait, I am only speaking about the weapons that the secondary cast uses, what about our main kaiju guy? Welp, he doesn’t get much action. A better way to describe his combat scenes is “you wait for them for far too long and they end way too fast”. I know that there is a large cast that needs their time to shine, but keeping away the main hero from action even though his action scenes are the most interesting this anime has to offer - well, that’s a wrong move. Pacing/story. While this is the last point of my review, it isn’t the last in terms of importance. I would even say that most people would not care that much about lacking worldbuilding or empty characters if the story did something interesting and managed to capture viewers attention. Sadly the story is like the rest of this anime - generic, basic, dull. Each episode ends with a cliffhanger - and yet said cliffhangers are so obvious you will know EXACTLY what happens next. And the same goes for any and all events - as soon as it gets a bit too peaceful you will think “well, now this thing will happen” - and it does, every time. And since you already know what is going to happen - all the attempts to build up tension just fall flat and achieve nothing, it just feels that you are waiting for the part you already know to end so you can guess the next part and wait for it to end, and that makes the whole anime feel really slow Overall: this show is too dull even for watching as a background: it is generic and devoid of any interesting details. The only good thing about this show is its opening, so you can check it and stop watching right after - you will not lose anything worthy of your time.

Among anime debuting this year targeting the shounen demographic, there's no shadow of a doubt that Kaiju No. 8 has been one of the biggest shows. Based on the manga of the same name, there are numerous reasons as to why this got so hyped. Even Crunchyroll and Twitter decided to livestream this anime live to a global audience at the same time as Japan. It's not an overexaggeration to say Kaiju No. 8 does have some selling points to deserves its hype. If the name Naoya Matsumoto sounds unfamiliar to you, fear not, as I'm sure many are on the same boat. Their previouswork didn't attract mainstream attention but now, he put his name well on the map. Kaiju No. 8's plot revolves around a fictional Japan being attacked by monsters known as Kaiju. These gargantuan monsters have devastated mankind until they were able to employ Kaiju Fighters, people capable of using advance technology and tactics to fight against them. We are introduced to main protagonist Kafka Hibino who vows to serve as a member of the Defense Team. Kaiju No. 8 draws similar circumstances to shounen related to monsters and a world of post apocalypse. It relies on a group of characters to fight back to survive and saving themselves from total annihilation. The protagonist also has a background story about their motivations and why they want to join the fight. For Kafka and his childhood friend Mina Ashiro, their hometown suffered at the hands of the kaiju. However, there is a twist where Kafka becomes the very thing he vows to destroy. It's a recurring plot element in these type of anime in recent years such as Attack on Titan, but beyond that, we have a rather memorable story to tell. It's true that while the plot revolves mainly around mankind vs Kaiju, there's also a degree of character exploration. Some of this is told through background scenes while others are conveyed through the character personalities. From the start, Kafka Hibino is identified as a man who is eager to prove to himself, and to the world, that he belongs in the Defense Force. He even declares in one episode that he wishes to stand by Mina's side. On the other hand, Mina Ashiro has risen to the ranks of a captain and in the present, they are barely on speaking terms. Unfortunately, this season barely scratches their relationship as it appears to be more complex than just their childhood promise. As stoic as she is, it appears Mina shows more emotions whenever she is involved in Kafka. While it appears Kaiju No. 8 may be a depressing anime with body horror and despair, there's plenty of time for light humor. It often inserts in timed cartoony moments that lighten up the mood. The anime aimed for a broader audience with an adult character cast and military, sci-fi themes. The shounen-style battles appeals to audience looking for cinematic fights and jawbreaking animation. Essentially, this is comparable to classic Godzilla movies and the Ultraman franchise. Humor comes with character reactions that sometimes have awkward timings, mostly due to Kafka's airheaded personality. This is evidenced through his segments with Kikoru Shinomiya, Reno Ichikwaa, among others. The exception is Mina Ashiro as she treats him, and everyone on a professional level. This includes recurring gags where she punishes others for insubordination by assigning them to do pushups. A 1-cour, 12 episode series is not nearly enough to adapt the manga as there's far more characterization, storytelling, and themes explored. It's a travesty as this comes off as if the anime season serves as an advertisement for the manga. Nonetheless, fans should keep expectations in check for character studies and deep dives into their personalities. The origins of the Kaiju and their dark history is also vaguely told through background stories. It's a major setback that holds this season back because I'm sure there are people who wants to know far more than just the 'mankind vs kaiju' plot. This season does introduce more dangerous antagonists beyond the mindless kajiu monsters we see. With each developing episode, we see how humanity has evolved to fight them through power armor and science weapons. The most fascinating element is Kafka using his kaiju form to fight them through sheer force and power. Kaiju No. 8 explores identity issues as Kafka grips with the idea of what he became. As predictable and even perhaps cliche as it sounds, Production IG is the studio that is capable of making this comes to life. It just fundamentally makes sense given their history of projects, and adapting its cinematic fight segments. Kaiju No. 8 has many larger-than-life moments that requires well-timed camera angles. The director and studio put emphasis on making the fights look like movies. Kafka's kaiju form also becomes a symbol of hope for humanity as it fuses his body and armor together as a living, biological weapon. Character expressions throughout the show also tells more about the characters themselves. Mina for instance rarely show emotions and represents a model commander for her people. She's designed with a tough appearance, yet also charismatic with a commanding presence. Others such as Kikoru and Soushirou look deceptively fragile until we see what they're capable of. Production IG overall handled this fairly well, on a level that meets expectations. Even the soundtrack and music synchronizes well for its battle sequences and overall representation of the show. Kaiju No. 8 is a definitive example of a mainstream anime this year that will be talked about one way or another. The manga has reached a level of popularity that becomes a hit for the audience. The plot is simple but has some rather deceptively complex characters, that does need more time to decipher. This is the type of show that be talked for years to come and the popularity is not ending any time soon.

As an adult cast military themed anime this deservers a 1. This is mostly inspired from gacha games, where each character has a combat power which even affects the strength of the bullets they fire. Every character portrayed, commanders included, show a severe lack of tactics or strategy. The only tactics that ever work are those that use brute force. And for some reason nobody in the cast has bothered to research their enemies or their weaknesses. Apparently that is the only way the MC can be shown to not be completely useless, because it's truly hard for everyone to remember that the abdomen or theback are the weaknesses of certain types of monsters. Maybe they all have a side job of being games journalists. Another such example is with a side character which for some reason is the only one that ever uses freeze rounds. All other squads are portrayed using mostly ineffective bullets, probably because they wouldn't be able to win at rock paper scissors if their opponent played his hand first. Overall it's the typical shounen aimed at 14 year olds where the only way one character can be shown to be of higher intelligence than everyone else is by dumbing the others down SEVERELY. As such, there are no real adults in the cast at all, nor does it contain any sort of military formations or tactics, which is why the show deserves a 1. Next time use the appropriate themes, MAL. If none of them fit, don't add any, it's better than using the wrong ones.

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