The best of Kaiju No. 8 is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
We’re residing in the middle of a kaiju renaissance that reveals no indications of stalling. Gone are the days of Godzilla-crazed fans starving for a weak crumb of material. Now, folks can get their fill on movies whose human drama can either be outright overlooked for beast action extravaganzas or act as an anchor to moving tales about the indomitable human spirit that’ll make you pump your fist in the air. Kaiju No. 8’s best episode is bristling with all the trademarks of interesting timeless kaiju fights while wisely overturning a tiring shonen trope.
In Kaiju No. 8’s not-too-distant future, massive beast attacks afflict the thick metropolitan areas of Japan as often as earthquakes. Rather of running in a hysterical panic whenever kaiju rear their unsightly heads, individuals rubberneck in enjoyment to glance the Japanese Defense Force’s utter decimation of the hulking brutes before they have an opportunity to fall a single high-rise building. Treating what would otherwise be a catastrophic world-ending occasion like a pro-wrestling phenomenon is an entertaining imaginative touch.
Rather of front-loading audiences with the detailed ins and outs of its outstanding metropolitan kaiju fights, Kaiju No. 8’s best episode addresses a concern most anime do not trouble asking: Who’s the unfortunate sucker that needs to tidy up this mess? Get in properly called lead character Kafka Hibino.
Initially glimpse, there’s absolutely nothing about Kafka that recommends he’s about he’s about to become this universe’s equivalent of Spider-Man. Whereas many shonen lead characters are high school-aged prodigies wishing for the possibility to go far on their own, Kafka is a 32-year-old male who let his vibrant dream pass him by a very long time back.
Rather of indulging in the spotlight, Kafka gets showered in pieces of powerful beast carcasses on the day-to-day– the outcome of his thankless blue-collar task as a kaiju garbage disposal employee. Kafka’s ordinary life invested actually shoveling kaiju shit is specifically pitiful when contrasted with the best’s short bits of kinetic Attack on Titan-esque action series accompanied by ill guitar riffs. Instead of going the path of regression anime– a popular brand-new spin on the isekai category in which a cleaned loser can get a supernatural do-over on life– Kaiju No. 8 provides a lead character who’s amazing due to the fact that of his unyielding decision. Kafka is dead set on conquering the extreme hand life dealt him and make the world a much better location– no matter how unimportant his contribution is.
This isn’t to state Kaju No. 8’s very first episode is entirely a character research study that stints the extreme action shonen and kaiju fans pertain to these type of programs for. The fights appear as unexpectedly as a squall, putting audiences along with its heroes’ desperate fight not simply to win the day, however to make it through. The program likewise does a great task of not taking the occupational threat of its stuffed sci-fi story too seriously,