SUMMARY
Kaiju No. 8 lacks the “X Factor” to stand out, relying heavily on stunning visuals.
The anime struggles to bring fresh elements to the table, feeling familiar and plain.
Despite exciting fight scenes, the story feels like a vehicle for battling Kaiju, lacking depth.
Despite the impressive visuals Production I.G. has put out, it hasn’t stopped Kaiju No. 8 from feeling a little blasé. While it’s amusing to see Kafka scream, panic, and even destroy a city block with a single punch, the anime – and the manga it’s based on – doesn’t have much to make it stand out on its own. In the end, it takes more than an aesthetic to become worth revisiting week after week.
On paper, Kaiju No. 8 seems to be a sure winner, pushing away from the clichés of shonen with a grungier, more visceral setting. However, the same plainness of the scenario only puts the familiarity of the cast into sharp relief.
The result is a setting that treads familiar ground, doesn’t strike out far enough in new areas, and relies on I.G.’s stellar visuals to sell itself. Overall, Kaiju No. 8 feels disappointing, but the fault lies in the source material itself.
Kaiju No. 8 Lacks an “X Factor” That Lets It Stand Out
The Anime Gives Few Reasons to Return Every Week
Kaiju no. 8 suffers from “plainness” on several fronts. While battling against monstrous hordes is intriguing, the last 9 episodes haven’t provided much in terms of stakes: the incidents feel isolated, as if visiting one is just as good as the next in another episode. The Kaiju and their exterminators, for that matter, in attempting to portray a “grounded” take, have little room to make the fights more interesting. The powered suits can only boost a character’s speed or strength, leaving them dependent on a practical, but uninspired armory of guns, melee weapons, and their bigger siblings.
Compounding this is a central cast that has little to call their own that hasn’t been borrowed from universal anime archetypes. Reno starts as a conceited newcomer, and Kikoru as a wealthy but insecure perfectionist, but doesn’t have much beyond that that makes them stand out against others. Meanwhile, secondaries like Iharu have less worth noticing, besides loud brashness. Lead character Kafka, too, once one looks past his age, has little in his story arc that hasn’t been repeated by other shonen manga, nor has the story seen fit to give his Kaiju form much use besides punching things very hard.
Production I.G. manages to spruce all this up with exciting fight scenes, but ultimately, the animation feels celebratory of itself, rather than its source material. When the combat is exhilarating, but the story feels like a vehicle to move the troops from one Kaiju turkey-shoot to the next, it is hard to feel invested in looking forward to what the next battle scene could possibly add.
Despite all the excitement for Kaiju No. 8 before its premiere, there doesn’t seem to be much worth remembering after its broadcast finishes. Of course, the story can get more exciting as it moves forward, but at the same time, manga readers know that to make room for the classic exciting shonen tropes, Kaiju No. 8 will also lose focus on much of what made it unique and original in the beginning.
