Kaiju No.8｜Anime

2024.01.03

“Kaiju No.8” is a Japanese manga work by Naoya Matsumoto, serialised in a webcomic from 2020.
An anime was broadcast on TV from 2024.

Synopsis

Japan is a “monster country” where monsters destroy people’s daily lives. The main character Kafuka Hibino, whose childhood home town was destroyed, promised his childhood friend Mina Ashiro that they would “exterminate all the monsters”.
However, at the age of 32, Kafuka’s dreams are dashed and she finds work as a ‘monster sweeper’, a dismantler of monster corpses.
Kafuka, however, is told by Rino Ichikawa, a young man who has come to work part-time as a dismantler of monster corpses, that the age limit for the JSDF has been raised, and he is urged to take the entrance exam again. Kafka renews his resolve, but a mysterious creature erodes his body into a monster and calls him ‘Monster No. 8’.
Kafuka is named ‘Monster No.8’ and becomes the end of his existence in Japan.
Nevertheless, he does not give up on his dream of being discharged from the Defence Ministry and confronts the scene of a monster disaster.

Kaiju No.8 | Recommendations

The story of “chasing a dream” is not a particularly unusual one.
However, the protagonist of this work, Kafuka Hibino, is already over 30 years old and probably belongs to the generation of people who have given up on their dreams and are now called “uncles”. However, he belatedly remembers the dream he had with his childhood friend and begins to pursue his dream after he turns 30.
‘Uncles working hard on their dreams’. If taken badly, this could be seen as comical, but the human nature of ‘Kafuka’ and his relationships with the characters around him make you wonder about his future.
The film is also talked about for its high reputation as an animated work, with the huge scale of the monsters and the battle scenes being very powerful.
The creators’ multiple layers of attention to detail can be felt in every tiny movement. In terms of sound, too, the creators have put a great deal of effort into creating an atmosphere that amplifies the sense of immersion in the world of the story.
This is a work where you can fully enjoy the feeling of being drawn into the world from both the visual and sound aspects.