Kaiju No. 8 Season 1 Thoughts

[Wickett]

Not here to be long winded or anything about my overall take away with the first season of this anime, but I do personally believe it is at least deserving of applause for bringing as much entertainment to my week as it did. It's Shonen done excellently, not groundbreaking but solid none the less. It has a great mixture of action, mystery, humor, and sentimentality. Each episode had something to offer and none of the 12 episodes felt tired or stale. I also felt that the voice acting left nothing to be desired, as did the animation.

I have never read the manga so I really don't know what to expect in season 2 (which of course has already been green lit), and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. 

[Ohayotaku]

2 hours ago, Wickett said:

Not here to be long winded or anything

Afraid I’m not going to be so considerate Likewise though, I’m not familiar with the source material, so my impressions are based on the anime’s 1st season only.

As you pointed out, this is pretty much a perfect shonen anime, despite the protag being in his early 30s trying to keep up with comrades  a decade younger. Indeed one of the complaints I saw most from MAL users was that he was too goofy acting & not enough of an adult. I think this is largely because the synopsis is for a humanbeing inside a monster’s body, which makes them think of edgy series like Attack on Titan or Chainsaw Man. Make no mistake there is a lot of violence, blood & guts, though sometimes it’s more of a gross-humor thing. And judging from the OP you might think edgy is a good description.

But that’s not the case. Kafka (the MC) is a big ole lovable dork with a knack for saying/doing embarrassing things. But that also means he’s willing to swallow his pride to do contribute to the team while still striving to improve himself. While his teammates refer to him as “The Old Guy” and sometimes laugh at him, they know they can count on him & admire him for his heart. So while the ED might not seem to fit, it actually does

The animation of the action & fight scenes is top notch and there’s actually some decent worldbuilding with more to come I’m sure. The biggest weakness is the characters are still pretty undeveloped at this stage but I’m expecting this to change. For example the final ep actually did give some nuance to character that gave an early impression of being unlikable. Overall this is actually a very positive series where I have no reservations about rooting for the MC & it’s something I desperately needed after JJK’s Shibuya Incident arc.

I scored 9/10. Runner up for my Anime of the Season 2024. Currently my #3 for the year, practically guaranteed to be in my Top 5 for 2024.

[Wickett]

I, personally, do not understand how anyone could complain about Kafka's character. I actually find him very relatable. He's surrounded by gifted and adept youngsters who practically walked through their exams and he has almost nothing to bring to the table except his depth of character, which ends up being the only reason he was able to overcome. What makes him special is his heart, which again, is another Shonen trope, but it's done excellently. While I don't think the current sense of humor in the story will change, I do feel like that next season, especially by the end of it, his character will be much more confident and hardened knowing that he's found his place (and is probably extremely good at it).