Has ‘Kaiju No. 8’ Done Enough To Prove Himself Worthy … of a Second Season?
Kaiju No. 8 was one of this year’s big action anime releases and it’s already over. The first season that is. With Kafka finally revealing himself to be Kaiju No. 8, we will have to see where the story will take us next. But is there a next chapter?
Kaiju No. 8 roared onto our screens on April 13 bringing with it huge monsters, monster killers, and a monster killer who is also kind of a monster. The show was marketed as one of the big action releases of the year (living in Japan I couldn’t go through a station without seeing a poster for it!) and it lived up to its promise, providing us with a rip-roaring anime that featured a few slight twists on the shonen action genre.
Thanks to its popularity, a second season has been confirmed! Yahoo! So we can look forward to Kafka, and everyone else’s story continuing.
What happened in the season finale?
While the Third Division sits around and waits for the news of Kafka’s punishment, Mina is ordered to headquarters where she must give her own testimony. Meanwhile, Kafka has been overtaken by his kaiju core, who sees General Shinomiya as a kaiju threat, due to him using parts of Kaiju No. 2 as weapons, and is going above and beyond to crush the general. Trapped inside his kaiju body, Kafka is trying all he can to stop himself, and just as he is about to deal the killing blow, he redirects it inwards, damaging his kaiju core and ending the fight.
General Shinomiya then decides that, though he no longer sees Kafka as a human, the Defence Force can use his unprecedented power as a weapon. Kafka is relieved to hear he will live but promises that he will make them see him, not as a weapon, but as a Defence Force officer. The Third Division celebrates, whilst Kaiju No. 9 plots his next move.
The season finale, whilst predictable, was enjoyable nonetheless. The fight scene was impressive to watch, especially the musical score, which was somewhat reminiscent of the best-animated fight ever to grace our screens, that of Zuko and Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender (though not quite at the same level). The use of melancholic string music whilst these two goliaths battle it out made for a moving moment, where you feel the anguish of Kafka and the resolve of Shinomiya who I believe was always secretly rooting for his opponent.
A second season is in the works
The first season of the series received positive reviews overall from fans and critics alike, and that’s because Kaiju No. 8 works on a lot of levels. It follows many tropes we have seen before, a lead character is somewhat imbued with the abilities of the enemy (think Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, and Chainsaw Man) and uses those abilities to help fight for his friends. Where Kaiju No. 8 differs, is that, though still an action anime with life-and-death consequences, it remains quite upbeat thanks to its protagonist being so humorous and good-natured.
Thanks to such praise and consistently high viewership ratings, Kaiju No. 8 has been renewed for a second season with confirmation coming through on the same day as the finale. Production has been confirmed, so hopefully we won’t have to wait long at all till we return to see Kafka fight another day.
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