There’s no denying that it is a very favorable historical moment for kaijuto the point that one could even venture a term like kaiju renaissance – to imitate that a little zombie renaissance that has hit entertainment over the past decade and maybe a little more. On the other hand, a film like this is doing its duty at the box office in theaters Godzilla and Kong (here you can catch up on our review of Godzilla and Kong – The New Empire), we still have fresh memories of the historic Oscar won by Godzilla Minus One (and here we refer you to our review of Godzilla Minus One), The attack of the Giants after all, it has recently finished its extraordinary run (and here we finally invite you to rediscover our review of Attack on Titan – The Final Season). Simply put, audiences want fights between giant monsters, the industry is often accommodating him – despite for example the ups and downs of MonsterVerse – and in the field of animation in particular, a void has opened up to be filled, although it is honestly hard to immediately expect something on the level of the sumptuous anime of MAPPA.
And so, while Apple triumphantly announces the second season of Monarch and new spin-offs related to MonsterVerse, in anime he begins his adventure Kaiju No.8based on the manga of the same name by Naoya Matsumoto and which debuts in Italy today on Crunchyroll. We had the pleasure of seeing the first episode as a preview, which opened the doors to us certainly an interesting and charismatic productthough far from revolutionary or even particularly courageous in any way.
Cleaning is hard work
But what is he talking about? Kaiju No.8? The protagonist of the anime is Kafka Hibino, a boy like many others who however lives in a world where the constant attacks by the kaiju are all in all normality. His goal, in fact, is to join the Defense Forces against the kaiju for reasons that we will not reveal to you in this context, but in the meantime he must be content with working in the cleaning sector following the ‘destructive attacks of the monsters-occupation not exactly pleasant, indeed, Kaiju No.8 reminds us in great detail how uncomfortable the intestines of any living being can be. Kafka’s life is destined to change radically when, after saving the newbie Ichikawa from a sudden attack, he ingests clumsily – or intentionally? Who knows – one of the small monsters, which gives him the ability to transform into a kaiju.
Now, clearly these are partial sensations due to a simple pilot, but Kaiju No.8 presented himself well, without overdoing it and avoiding putting too many irons in the firewith a good dose of charisma and sympathy: Kafka as the protagonist works immediately and has a good presence on screen, compared to many other modern shonen he doesn’t reveal his cards too early or inundate the viewer with an infinite amount of information and characters – suffice it think of a Fire Force – and the design especially of the monsters seems to be impactful. Furthermore, the intuition of having our hero act not immediately at the center of the action or almost, but in an adjacent work which is always ignored in big blockbusters adds a pleasant layer of irony and freshness to the wholean aspect that never hurts.
A good start, but not sensational
Someone has to clean up or tidy up after a big Avenger battle – and yes, we know Damage Control theoretically exists – or clean up the endless MUTO carcasses in the MonsterVerse, no? Here, in Kaiju No.8 Our Kafka will take care of it and we probably couldn’t be in better hands. If we then also add a technical sector that convinces – but without making one cry out for a miracle – by Production IG, a picture of a potentially interesting anime capable of entertaining from the first minutes. However, this is precisely where the problem lies, because everything is good but never extraordinaryas if Kaiju No.8 wanted more to check off a checklist than to offer a real preview of his universe.
Every single aspect is taken care of, but in some ways stereotyped, standardized, there is nothing that is truly unique and unrepeatable. So perhaps the real luck, both of the manga and above all of this anime, was to ride the so-called kaiju renaissance and to enter now, in 2024, a market that at least in animation is orphaned by clashes between giant monsters. As already mentioned, these are considerations based solely on a slim bet, therefore Kaiju No. 8 has plenty of time to amaze us. But now we have to bet on an existence, we will bet on an anime that will also do its job with extreme pleasure and nothing more.
