Kaiju No. 8 Premiere Review

The premiere of Kaiju No. 8 is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

We’re living in the midst of a kaiju renaissance that shows no signs of stalling. Gone are the days of Godzilla-crazed fans starving for a meager crumb of content. Now, folks can get their fill on films whose human drama can either be outright ignored for monster action extravaganzas or serve 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 premiere episode is teeming with all the hallmarks of exciting classic kaiju battles while smartly subverting a tiresome shonen trope.

In Kaiju No. 8’s not-too-distant future, gigantic monster attacks plague the dense metropolises of Japan as frequently as earthquakes. Instead of running in a hysterical panic whenever kaiju rear their ugly heads, people rubberneck in excitement to glimpse the Japanese Defense Force’s utter decimation of the hulking brutes before they have a chance to topple a single skyscraper. Treating what would otherwise be a cataclysmic world-ending event like a pro-wrestling spectacle is an amusing creative touch.

Instead of front-loading viewers with the intricate ins and outs of its superb urban kaiju battles, Kaiju No. 8’s premiere episode answers a question most anime don’t bother asking: Who’s the unlucky sucker that has to clean up this mess? Enter appropriately named protagonist Kafka Hibino.

At first glance, there’s nothing about Kafka that suggests he’s about he’s about to become this universe’s equivalent of Spider-Man. Whereas most shonen protagonists are high school-aged prodigies hungering for the chance to make a name for themselves, Kafka is a 32-year-old man who let his youthful dream pass him by a long time ago.

Instead of basking in the limelight, Kafka gets showered in chunks of sinewy monster carcasses on the daily – the result of his thankless blue-collar job as a kaiju waste disposal worker. Kafka’s mundane life spent literally shoveling kaiju shit is especially pathetic when contrasted with the premiere’s brief snippets of kinetic Attack on Titan-esque action sequences accompanied by sick guitar riffs. Rather than going the route of regression anime – a popular new spin on the isekai genre in which a washed loser can get a supernatural do-over on life – Kaiju No. 8 presents a protagonist who’s awe-inspiring because of his unyielding determination. Kafka is dead set on overcoming the harsh hand life dealt him and make the world a better place – no matter how insignificant his contribution is.

This isn’t to say Kaju No. 8’s first episode is solely a character study that skimps on the intense action shonen and kaiju fans come to these kinds of shows for. The battles erupt as suddenly as a squall, placing viewers alongside its heroes’ desperate battle not just to win the day, but to survive. The show also does a fine job of not taking the occupational hazard of its fraught sci-fi story too seriously, alleviating the tension from its trippy horror moments with much-appreciated jabs of humor.

Ghost in the Shell studio Production I.G. performs a stellar balancing act in the premiere, developing Kafka as an endearing character in a sci-fi world. Coupled with the fearsome kaiju designs from Studio Khara of Neon Genesis Evangelion rebuild fame, they set the stage for Kaiju No. 8 to become a must-watch weekly anime.