The Kaiju No. 8 anime, based on the manga of the same name, has received a second trailer and a premiere date.
The highly anticipated series, Kaiju No. 8, is getting closer to release and an exciting new trailer has been released, providing more details about the anime. Kaiju No. 8 is based on the Shueisha published manga by Naoya Matsumoto, which started serialisation on Shonen Jump+ in 2020 and has 10 tankoubon volumes as of August 2023. As well as a second trailer, Kaiju No. 8 also has an announced premiere date of April 2024. Production I.G, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell, is serving as the animation production studio, while Studio Khara, of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame, is credited with kaiju design and artwork.
The trailer kicks off with a kaiju emerging and going on a rampage before switching to various scenes of protagonist Kafka Hibino, his childhood friend and Defence Forces’ Third Unit captain Mina Ashiro, and his friend Reno Ichikawa. The trailer also reveals that Kafka is being voiced by Masaya Fukunishi, while Mina and Reno will be voiced by Asami Seto and Wataru Katou, respectively.
Kaiju No. 8 is a story about monster hunters. In the near future, the Japanese Defence Force faces a continual onslaught of monstrous kaiju. They fight and defeat these monsters using a wide range of powerful weaponry and suits that can magnify their capabilities. Our hero Kafka Hibino is part of the Japanese Defence Force, but not exactly on the “defence” side of things. Instead, he is part of the cleanup crew, relegated to cleaning up monster guts in the aftermath of battles after having long ago flunked out of the trials, while his childhood friend Mina Ashiro went on to become a star kaiju fighter. However, his life changes when a small kaiju flies into his open mouth, and he gains the secret ability to transform into a kaiju himself. Now that the Japanese Defence Force is opening trials for the combat team once again, Kafka gets another shot at fulfilling his lifelong dream. To fight kaiju, you’ve got to let a smaller kaiju enter your body and give you superhuman powers, it seems.
If you previously missed the first trailer release, you can watch it here:
Characters
Kaiju stories often live and die not just on the monster itself but also on whoever’s fighting against (or with) it. Whether it’s the military, other monsters, or giant robots, part of the fun can be seeing what’s able to go blow for blow with a massive beast that shoots fire out of its eyes or some such.
Alongside the trailers, we also received information about the characters, which I have detailed below.
Kafka Hibino, also known as Kaiju No. 8, is the main protagonist of the Kaiju No. 8 series. He is a Defence Force officer and a former worker for the Professional Kaiju Cleaning Company Monster Sweeper Inc. After a kaiju managed to enter his body, he obtained the ability to turn himself into a humanoid Identified Kaiju. He was formerly a member of the Third Division but was recently transferred to the First Division.
Mina Ashiro is the Captain of the Third Division of the Defence Force and Kafka Hibino’s childhood friend.
Reno Ichikawa is the deuteragonist of the Kaiju No. 8 series. He briefly worked at Monster Sweeper Inc. where he met and befriended Kafka Hibino. After witnessing Kafka’s transformation, Reno helped him enter the Defence Force and joined with him. He was a member of the Third Division, and after destruction of Tachikawa Base, he was transferred to the Fourth Division
Soshiro Hoshina is the vice captain of the Third Division of the Defence Force. He is a member of the Hoshina Family, a renowed clan of swordsmen from the Muromachi period.
Kikoru Shinomiya is the tritagonist of the Kaiju No. 8 series. She is the young daughter of Defence Force Director General Isao Shinomiya and a member of the Third Division. After Tachikawa Base was destroyed, Kikoru was transferred to the First Division.
About the Kaiju No. 8 Manga
Kaiju No. 8 was first launched in 2020 and rose to popularity very quickly. By September 2021, the manga surpassed 4 million copies in circulation, making it the fastest Shonen Jump+ manga (as opposed to manga running in Shueisha’s print magazines) to reach the milestone.
The series was nominated for the 14th Manga Taisho Awards in January 2021, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize last February, and the Eisner awards in May. It took first place in the seventh “Next Manga Awards” (Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishō) in the web manga category in August 2021.
It will be exciting to see if the anime is as popular as the manga. We’ll have to wait until next April to find out.
What do you think of the two trailers released so far? Are you excited for the anime’s release? Let us know in the comments below!
