Kaijuu 8-gou
Kaiju No. 8

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I think Kaiju No8 started off on a strong note cause of the initial premise. The world in Kaiju no8 is a world ravaged by Kaiju and humans formed the Japanese Defense Force, a military group that specializes in killing monsters. Our MC is a middle-aged man who works as a Janitor who cleans up after each monster is killed, but in reality, he longs to join his childhood friend who works as one of the strongest fighters in the Japanese Defense Force.

Kaiju no8 is not breaking new grounds or anything cause once you boil it down, it's pretty much a generic shonen manga. ... A loser MC who accidentally gains immense power and is now tasked with dealing with the responsibilities that comes with this ability, recruited by a secret/powerful organization, and gaining dangerous enemies along the way? That's literally by the book shonen.

But I think most readers, including me, noticed Kaiju no8 had some unique aspects built into its story. First, the MC was a middle-aged janitor. In a way this was refreshing cause most manga MCs are essentially teenagers, so perhaps a person with middle-aged wisdom could put a spin on the old shonen format. Also Kaiju no8 had giant monster battles, who doesn't love that?

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I think the story started off good. We are shown the MC being really good at his work as a janitor and that even if he can't do what his childhood friend does, he still gives his work all he's got. Some things happen and the MC obtains the ability to transform into Monster #8, a extremely powerful monster. MC is hesitant at first, but with the encouragement of his friend, he tries out for the exam to get into the Japanese Defense Force and gets in!

As the story goes on, it seemed like there was some good potential plotlines along the horizon. The childhood friend seems to still remember MC so there was potential for drama there. The MC's new friend was, at first an annoying stereotype, but was warming up to be a really fun new character.

As of this review, I have read up to chapter 54. Characters have died here and there and... and I gotta say, it has gotten stale in terms of storytelling. I'm not sure where things really went wrong. Actually I don't think there was a specific point where things went wrong. It was like a slow decline into a pit of tropey nonsense. I'm going to try to be spoiler free here so the rest of this review is gonna be really vague.

Things will happen in this manga where I as a reader knows its supposed to be emotionally impactful. Like a big 'WOW' moment, when things get shaken up or like a turn-the-tables situation, except the story doesn't have any build up. In fact the story kind of doesn't even try to show the impact when these types of events happen. Things just get revealed and it's like "Ok, but nothing has changed in terms of status quo". Nothing really feels like its earned or even worth caring over. A character can reveal some kind of secret to another character and literally nothing has changed.

There's also a big issue with the usage of tropes. It feels like the author is running out of steam and is just throwing whatever trope they can find to see if anything sticks. In recent chapters, there was a big fight and the story kept doing the generic ace-card-up-my-sleeve trick so much that surprise factor was lost long before the fight ended.

Also this is something that I am not sure is just a personal issue or something that every reader noticed, but as Kaiju no8 kept going, the chapters felt empty. Almost like there was no substance at all except for large panels and fight scenes. Personally this really hurt the pacing of the mange and made the most recent arc feel like a complete slog to get through.

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Kaiju no8's art is serviceable. I can't say it's great, but it isn't unpleasant by any means. Basically middle of the road stuff. I actually feel like the early chapters had some really good art but as of lately, the art seems to just look generic.

The monster designs though, are a different story. It's probably just my opinion but Kaiju no8's actual Kaiju designs don't do Kaijus justice. What I mean is, when I hear 'Kaiju', I think big hulking beasts that stomp through cities and dwarf the average human. I think of stuff like Godzilla, Mothra, King Kong, Daggerhead, etc etc. In my opinion, Kaijus are a balancing act between the schlocky Mutant Creature Flicks and Eldritch horrors. They shouldn't be just a dragon or a giant bug, but like Gigan, a giant laser buzzsaw space chicken.

Kaiju no8 doesn't really have these designs. Instead it seems like they lean into the shlocky Mutant Creature Flick designs for inspiration. They also aren't really all that big either for me to think of 'Kaiju' sized. The monster designs just give off the feeling of being pulled from a generic Monster flick. Giant ants, a fungus guy, wyverns. They just don't scream 'Kaiju' to me.

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Character-wise Kaiju no8 is pretty generic as well. We have loser MC who suddenly gets great powers, cool best friend who excels technically, blonde twin-tailed loud mouth girl, cold yet successful childhood friend, etc etc. Nothing's really wrong with generic character designs, but there's nothing really good about them either to be honest.

But what about the middle-aged MC though? In the beginning there seemed to be something unique. Perhaps his age has brought wisdom thus bringing a new MC perspective to a shonen story.

Except the MC basically devolved into a generic shonen MC. His age literally does nothing to change the perspective of the story and he could have been written as an 18 year old and not much would have changed along with it.

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Overall, Kaiju no8 had potential. It started off strong and put its best foot forward, but as time went, it revealed that was the only foot it could stand on. The story devolved into generic shonen storytelling, full of tropes and unimaginative ideas. It's characters promised something new to the shonen landscape but just seemed to fall into place just like the rest of the shonen lineup. Overall, 4/10.

Kaiju no. 8 is the most corporate, most soulless manga I have ever read. Everything about it feels entirely artificial, like some below-average parody of shonen tropes. This is a FAR more in-depth review than this series deserves, but whatever I had fun writing it.

Never in my life have I read a manga with as much wasted potential as this one. The first 30 or so chapters were genuinely decent and had promise of potential. The idea of an MC needing to hide his powers and live a double life is a neat gimmick, and the MC had a nice bromance going on with his ... best friend. I liked how Kafka was some 32 year old loser working a dead-end job, and decided to give his dreams a second shot after befriending Ichikawa. They had a nice dumbass-and-straight-man dynamic going on, and it made the early chapters of the series pretty charming. I liked how the MC had a little circle of friends who knew his secret while the rest of the defense force considered his alter ego to be an enemy. Nothing great or revolutionary, but it was enjoyable. For a while, I thought Kaiju no. 8 was going to be a fun series that told a story that's somewhat different from its contemporaries in the shonen demographic.

Now if you look at the other reviews for this series, you see how over time the majority of the reviews go from "recommend" to "mixed" to "not recommended"? That's cause this shit falls off HARD. Without going into spoilers, there is a specific moment 30 chapters in where everything the series had going for it flies COMPLETELY out the window. For the past 60 chapters (2 thirds of the series as of the time I'm writing this) the series has been nothing but aimlessly fighting flesh monsters with what is by far the worst powersystem I have ever seen in a battle manga. Whatever charm the MC had as a goofy everyman loser vanishes entirely. The problem with Kafka, the MC, is that he originally worked because he was a loser who no one outside of the two other leads respected. It made him sorta charming and relatable. However, he just doesn't work when he's taken outside of that context and becomes this dude who everyone realizes is hot shit and is primarily defined by his desire to hang out with his childhood crush (Who, in spite of how much she's pushed at the start of the series, barely gets any development) and do the right thing. While I'm not against having somewhat standard "good guy" protagonists, Kafka lacks the substance or charisma that makes protagonists like that work.

And speaking of characters, the series throws so many minor characters at you, but barely any of them are actually interesting. You'll constantly get characters referring to people who showed up in maybe one panel and the story somehow expects you to remember. In the more recent chapters, it tries to make the cast more interesting by doing the whole "mid-fight flashback" thing again and again, but it overuses this so much that you can't find yourself giving a shit about any of them. I can count on one hand the amount of characters I actually give a shit about: Ichikawa, Hoshina, and Shinomiya. Ichikawa had a kinda fun dynamic with Kafka at the start of the series, but he hasn't appeared in so long he's pretty much irrelevant. With Hoshina, you can TELL the author wishes he made him the MC instead of Kafka. Despite not being considered a "main character" he probably gets more focus than the actual main character. He is at the very least somewhat more entertaining than Kafka (I don't even think Hoshina is that "good" of a character, just... fine). Shinomiya, the heroine, is genuinely the only character who I would say was decently handled. She's easily the character who has the most consistent focus and is the only character who's gone through something of an arc. Even if said arc isn't particularly unique or interesting ("I'm a strong confident prodigy!" -> *gets saved* -> "That was humiliating :( I need to get stronger" -> *gets stronger*), it's still SOMETHING, which puts her above the rest of the cast.

As for the plot... it's barely even there. The series had an initial plot hook of Kafka wanting to hide his identity as Kaiju no. 8, which was sort of interesting for a bit. However, that eventually disappears entirely. The closest thing to a "plot" in Kaiju no. 8 is that there's this one mushroom-head guy who wants to kill humanity (for no defined reason) and REALLY has it out for Japan in particular. And not having a concrete plot isn't even a dealbreaker for me, since (To compare Kaiju no 8 to an actual good series running in the same magazine) the closest thing there is to a "plot" in Dandadan is the male lead trying to get his testicles back. The difference, however, is that Dandadan has a cast of charming characters and puts them in crazy situations that are actually fun to read about. Kaiju no. 8 meanwhile has the cast fight a boring flesh monster... and then they fight another boring flesh monster... and then they fight another boring flesh monster, and so on.

Now I know what you're thinking: who CARES about all of that? Kaiju no. 8 is a battle manga, and so everything I just said can be forgiven if the series has cool and entertaining fights. After all the series has KAIJU in the title, so I'm sure most people are going into this series for the sake of reading about giant monsters hitting each other with buildings.

And therein lies the single most damning flaw of Kaiju no. 8: the fights are TERRIBLE. Kaiju no. 8 has some of the most boring, played-out, and sterile fights I've ever seen in a manga. I binge read the whole manga and I think the only fight I thought was kind of interesting was when Hoshina attacked Kafka in the second arc. While the manga has the word Kaiju in the title, the fights lack any sense of scale or weight that makes kaiju fights interesting in the first place (Another thing Dandadan does better than this manga, by the way). There's NOTHING going on in them. No interesting abilities or fun banter or strategy. They hit each other back and forth until the character with the higher powerlevel wins. I think the ONE time the series did anything interesting with a fight was when Kaiju no. 9 was having some villain monologue, and Shinomiya attacked him from behind and she sliced his dialogue box in half. And that isn't even a crazy hype moment or whatever. Just a neat-ish moment because I REALLY cannot name any other moment that I think is worth bringing up.

The power system in Kaiju no. 8 (and even using the term "power system" is being EXTREMELY generous) is by far the worst I have ever seen in a battle manga. The characters get these suits that allow them to harness a certain amount of power that varies between characters, which in practice means that they all have their own powerlevel. That's... honestly all there is. With the exception of Hoshina and his whole sword gimmick, the characters all use the exact same set-up, with all the differences like Narumi's gun or Shinomiya's axe being so inconsequential that even mentioning them feels like I'm giving the series too much credit. The choreography is messy and it's hard to understand what's going on a lot of the time, but it doesn't really matter because it all just boils down to the bog-standard set-up of "Grrrr this kaiju is stronger than I expected -> *flashback* -> *powerlevel increases* -> "I'm not strong enough yet" -> *powerlevel increases again* -> *oneshots the kaiju*. That's every single fight in this manga, until the rest of the cast jobs against Kaiju no. 9 and Kafka comes in to oneshot him because the author wants him to be Goku. I can get enjoying a manga for the sake of cool fights and nothing else, but it's just not here. If you're looking for fights, I'd recommend ANY series over this one.

As a kaiju manga, Kaiju no. 8 fails entirely. The entire appeal of kaiju movies is that you're watching these all-powerful goliaths go at each other, and Kaiju no. 8 just doesn't have that. The kaiju in this manga feel less like kaiju and more like generic fodder monsters. If you watch a Godzilla movie, Godzilla and whatever kaiju he's fighting that movie completely tower over all of their surroundings. Even if you can tell you're just watching a guy in a lizard suit, there's still a strong sense of scale. They always show the kaiju alongside skyscrapers or similarly huge structures. They do a good job at conveying the sheer gap in size between the kaiju and humanity. Kaiju no. 8 just lacks that sense of scale. None of the kaiju are THAT big, or at least it never feels like the kaiju's size actually matters. Even when the kaiju are "big," the human characters are all agile enough that they can jump up to the kaiju's eye-level in a single bound. At most, you'll get some throwaway line where a character says "Damn this kaiju's skin is too thick. I can't injure him with my cuts," and that simply isn't the same as watching Godzilla casually walk through pylons and trample tanks. And on that note, not only does this manga do a bad job at emphasizing the kaiju's size, but it does a bad job at emphasizing their power. The better Godzilla movies will spend a good chunk of time on human characters who are completely helpless against these gods of destruction. In Godzilla vs Mothra, for example, I'd say maybe a bit over half of the movie is about the military trying and failing to stop Godzilla. Humanity simply stands zero chance against this behemoth, so when Mothra comes in and puts up a serious fight against Godzilla, it feels like a big deal. Whenever a character in this manga is unable to defeat a kaiju, it's simply because their powerlevel wasn't high enough. And then what happens is that either said character has a flashback which raises their powerlevel and allows them to oneshot the kaiju, or Kafka comes in and oneshots the kaiju anyway. It's hard to take the kaiju seriously as a threat when they're constantly getting oneshotted left and right. If Ghidorah or Mechagodzilla could get oneshotted by Godzilla, no one would take these guys seriously, and yet I'm expected to still care about Kaiju no. 9 after he's gotten his ass handed to him time and time again. While it's understandable that Hoshina or Shinomiya are able to hold their own against kaiju, given that they themselves are infinitely stronger than the average soldier, the problem is that since the vast majority of the manga is spent following Hoshina or Shinomiya, their powerlevel is the baseline to which all other characters are compared. This manga TELLS us that the kaiju are a major threat, but it does a terrible job at SHOWING it.

The art is... fine. It's not great or anything, but it's pretty to look at and there are a couple of spreads that make me go "Hey that looks pretty good." Nothing I'd want to write home about, but it's worth bringing up I guess.




In conclusion, Kaiju no. 8 is not well-written nor is it entertaining. It had an interesting and charming premise, but dumped it down the drain. It feels like the author resorts to the most predictable of shonen cliches, not because he thinks they're good, but because he's only doing this shit for the money and is throwing shit that other series do in the hopes that something will stick. I haven't "dropped" this series, not because it's good, but because each chapter takes maybe 30 seconds to read so what's even the point of dropping it? The single most interesting aspect of Kaiju no. 8 isn't anything in the manga itself, but rather how this shit is somehow still selling solid numbers in Japan. I have no idea why anyone would still be enjoying this series enough to spend money on it, but I guess that's their perogative.

Ok, so I've read the first 3 chapters (The only chapters out now)

I must say it's really nice and looks really promising

Ok, so the mc made a promise with this girl when they were children to kill all kaijus (monsters) so they tried joining the defense corps.
But the mc was kind of weak and he ended up with a job to clean up the corpses of the monsters after the defense corps kill them.
He gets new powers one day to turn into a monster.

Ok, this manga has action and comedy, and was fun to read. The comedy is especially nice.
Do I recommend this manga? Sure, ... go ahead

Alright, I might piss some people off, so please bear in mind this is just my opinion.

Come here after the promising episode 1 and 2 of the anime, and 105 chapters into Kaiju #8. So far, the last arc has been. Meh. Honestly Kaiju #8 has been a blast from the start. The best part is definitely our main character, but the side characters man.

Holy f*** the side characters. Omega mid. Like seriously. Every single one of the "new generation" is boring as f***. We got Narumi, the "Gojo" from Walmart. We got the what's-his-name Levi/Zoro knockoff. We got the "rival" lil-bro side character ... which is also boring as f***. And we got the mary-sue turned into damsel in distress (The Mary sue has to be a damsel in distress in order for our MC to be a Gigachad, otherwise what's the point?). A fate for all strong beautiful female characters in your typical shonen.

Yes, unfortunately it's true, typical shonen! Especially the power-scaling after training is just too cringe for me. It's like screaming, hey I'm just your typical shonen. This is just Bleach with different flavors. Literally the best part of this series is the main character development. The author kinda try to subvert the trope and try to make things darker, but ended up going back into PG-13. I'm sorry but. Holy boring. I don't know what I'm expecting though, I guess I come here expecting a mature story with dark comedy, like the level of Chainsaw-Man writing since the main character is a full-grown adult. But I just met with another typical shonen formula series.

Again. My god. The only appeal is the main character Kafka. He's the only interesting character, but when you don't make him grow and make the focus too spread-out, you undermine the best thing in the whole series. This ain't One Piece, where the side characters are far more interesting than Luffy. It's the actual opposite. My god everyone is boring as f***.

Conclusion, Mann. I don't know though. Maybe I'm writing the review too early. So far the latest arc hasn't been concluded yet. But after seeing how the power-scaling results after training. It's too predictable it's not even funny. I don't have much hope for this manga to be honest. Regardless, maybe, just maybe the author will make the best plot twist ever. Maybe the show will get darker as I wanted it to be. Or maybe, as I expected, it'll be mid. Hell, less than mid. At least Bleach had villains that were kinda fun to watch! Most of these Kaiju chumps don't even put up a decent fight or interesting designs.

I don't want to do this. But I'm sorry y'all. 6/10. Great starters, very bad executions until this point. Let's hope I'll be proven wrong in the next chapters. Will wait for a year or two and redo this again. Maybe.

Okay I have read up to chapter nine and to me it looks pretty good yeah sure I haven't read that much manga but I really enjoyed reading this
this is just my personal opinion and if you think that I am wrong than I am wrong but that is your opinion.

story:9/10
I really liked the story and think that it has room to improve in the future. (not that it needs to improve)

art:8/10
When I was reading it I wasn't really paying to much attention to the art but then I looked closer and realised how nice it looks.

characters:8.5/10
The main character is really funny ... the first few episodes I couldn't tell who the main really was until he got his powers and it has the right mix of different personalities.

overall:9.1/10 now to some people this may be really high but may I restate I haven't read much manga hence my low standards but by my standards, it was really good I enjoyed reading it and that was the only thing that really mattered to me I hope they continue this on that's for reading my comment this is my first review so sorry if it's not the best.

As of right now there are 13 chapters. It started pretty strong (I'd say an 8), but over time I just can't help but feel nothing is happening, at all.
Sure, there was a fight, an exam and a little twist and mistery, but the dialogue is so empty and the characters so... bland. I can't help but feel like I've seen all of them before, and done better.

I'll keep reading for now, but the only kind of strong point is the art, because the story started ok but now is a solid 6, and the characters aren't much better except for the MC who's a ... 30-something years old dude, which is refreshing in a teen-filled genre.

Overall if you like Kaijus you can read this and have a pretty okay time, just don't expect them to appear and do anything else besides mindlessly dying here and there.

A series that doesn’t really have anything going for it other than the MC’s monster design. If you've read a shonen manga before, then you've probably already read Kaiju 8. This series is incredibly by the books and the few elements that deviate from the norm, it executes in the stalest, most disappointing way possible. From the setting, story, and characters, just about every element of the series is exceedingly derivative.

The MC is an interesting but otherwise squandered choice. Kafka Hibino is 27 and beginning to feel those pangs of regret from unfulfilled dreams, but this is completely wasted in favor of a character ... who, 60-something chapters later, has nothing that distinguishes him from every other teenage battle shonen mc. Every side character is a walking trope the author can’t be bothered to develop beyond their lukewarm introduction.

There's not much to speak of in terms of story. There are (mostly) unintelligent monsters doing bad stuff in kaiju infested Japan. There's no real overarching plot, just a single Sunday-morning-cartoon-style villain that's been around since the start of the manga. Basic questions like “why did Kafka get his powers” remain forgotten and unexplored. Did the author forget? I genuinely can’t tell.

Nothing noteworthy about the action. You have characters wearing suits made of monsters that increase their physical abilities by some arbitrary amount. Which is fine, not every series needs to be JJK or HxH in terms of complicated power systems, but there's very little in terms of interesting choreography or composition to make any of these fight scenes engaging.

There’s just not much worth talking about. It’s a mess from a sub-genre that’s already flooded with uninspired knockoffs. When people talk about boring, overhyped shonen there are a lot of mentions of series like JJK, KnY, and AoT, but this series really takes the cake. Kaiju 8 has no strong qualities that elevate it above the competition. The overall execution is reminiscent of a newbie mangaka despite this being the author’s third serialization. If you're new to anime or manga and the whole concept of shonen heroes getting into grand punchouts with cheap emotional payoff is still novel, you'll like it, otherwise, I'd say this series is without merit. It's not the worst thing I’ve ever read, it's definitely not good, just horribly, painfully generic.

So far at 7 chapters we're still really early on but, this is absolutely a series to look out for. If you're into the Kaiju or Tokutatsu genre you may really enjoy this series and it really does have potential to blow up.

The story follows Kafka, a man who works for a Kaiju cleanup crew who once wanted to be apart of an Anti-Kaiju organization to protect the innocent and fight back against mysterious Kaiju who have been showing up around the country. One day after meeting a new worker he is suddenly transformed into a half kaiju/half human and wishes to use this ... newfound power to fight back.

Similar in a way to Attack on Titan but it already feels like it has it's own identity and direction in mind and wants to be a Kaiju battle series which I'm personally all for. The art is clean and phenomenal and so far the Kaiju designs themselves are really unique and interesting, especially Kafka's himself. He has alot of emotion and expression in his Kaiju form and I can't wait to see what this series has it stock.

Kaiju No. 8 is an extremely formulaic shonen manga. I do not think that readers will be challenged or surprised by anything outside the initial premise. The story and characters are extremely basic and the primary antagonist is not interesting. In fact, he barely has any backstory or motivation for doing anything. He is a blank slate that looks menacing.

The art is also very basic. It is technically competent, but the flow of action between panels and pages is nonexistent. Pages follow a standard layout across chapters with far too many reaction panels. The author also overuses two-page spreads for impact, meaning that chapters fly ... by and the pacing is inconsistent at best.

All in all, if you want a by-the-book shonen action series that plays all the hits from previous eras, read this manga. It has all your favorite tropes you've seen dozens of times already. I think the current offering of shonen has much more to offer readers if they want something new and exciting, with new authors pushing the medium in interesting directions with their art and storytelling. Kaiju No. 8 does not have that. It is okay at everything, but not good at anything.

Chapter 85 update: you know things are dire when the series is blatantly ripping off Demon Slayer, and not even the best parts of Demon Slayer. It isn't even subtle. I hesitate to call Matsumoto a hack, but this is bordering on plagiarism.

Kaiju No. 8 is mid. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s mid. Here’s a quick lowdown: Kafka Hibino is a loser in his 30s working cleanup for giant monster battles while wishing he could fulfil his childhood promise with his bestie, who is currently a high-ranking military official, to fight the kaiju together. Monkey’s paw curls, he gets the ability to turn into a kaiju. Not just any kaiju, mind you, but one of the most super duper OP kaiju according to the internal power ranking system of the universe. Hibino finally sees his opportunity to join the special forces to fight against the ... kaiju, and things go from there.

Currently, I’ve read up to about Chapter 75 or so, and here’s what can be said.

Story: 3/10

The story isn’t particularly compelling for the exact reason that I’ve seen beats of the same story elsewhere in other media, while those other works having had done it much better. The issue is that, while the story takes itself seriously, the plot itself doesn’t have much in the way of, say, complex (read: unique) motivations being revealed or characters being developed thoroughly, creating a mismatch between tone and depth. It's almost an art in and of itself the way that every time the story presents an interesting question or conflict to explore, the author seems to take it upon himself to immediately resolve it in the safest, most bland way possible for the genre.

Also, look. The MC-transforms-into-the-enemy genre (Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu, Choujin X, Gleipnir, Dandadan, Jagaaan etc etc) is huge right now, but all of the examples listed are much better at showing how the world operates with these other beings as well as giving some insight into said coexisting species. In comparison, the kaiju are pure set dressing. Their designs aren’t particularly creative, or very kaiju-y for that matter, they don’t have any real motivations aside BWAAAHHHH IM A MONSTAH and there’s a lack of the sense of size or scale that comes from a really good kaiju property. The beauty of a large(r) enemy is that there's a level of creativity needed to take down an enemy much bigger and stronger than oneself- a classic David and Goliath story- but given that most of the main cast can punch/slash the enemies into submission, which is business as usual for shonen, it just feels like the main cast are fighting monsters but they’re slightly larger than normal, not kaiju. To add on, considering what is learned about kaiju in the story, they’re not really talked about that… much. Of course, aside from how to kill them and for the sake of tragic backstories. The main villain, a kaiju (duh), is also very lacking in personality and character, too.

I'd rate it lower if the story was actually bad, but it's just a bit of a nothingburger.

Characters: 4/10
Characters are fun to watch interact with each other. A couple of heartwarming moments here and there, and every once in a while some fun banter.
Glaring issue: lots of stock characters. Highly predictable. A seasoned manga reader can see the exact chemistry of these characters play out way ahead of the actual story, which often matches that mental image almost beat-for-beat.

Something unfortunate is that, while one of the main draws a reader may have towards Kaiju No. 8 is the idea of an older protagonist, practically every other relevant main character is in the same shonen age range as always, a 16 year old super prodigy being the worst offender, and that Kafka… doesn’t really act like a 30-something year old. He's a stock shonen protagonist in the body of a middle-aged man, and this issue really rears its head the more you read Kaiju No. 8 as it becomes increasingly clear the author clearly shows he doesn't know where to take Kafka's character. The story will sometimes scream at you that he's a middle aged man, he's getting old, he can't keep up with the youngsters, but five minutes later, it's back to Kafka being broken as usual, which is incredibly frustrating to read. Simply put, the older MC point is rendered moot by the manga’s own design (to be more appealing to teenagers).

Art: 7/10
Very good quality. Paneling is alright. Not much in the way of interesting set pieces or powers regarding action scenes, though. It’s a Shonen Jump manga, the action is competent. Boom.


Read it if you want. It’s got decent action and some silly moments. It’s not like there’s nothing to be gained, but it’s very, very paint-by-numbers. If you’re looking for a fresh, balls-to-the-walls experience, you’re out of luck.

Kaiju No. 8, a manga by Naoya Matsumoto, aims to reinvent the Japanese kaiju myth, deliberately avoiding the mecha element often associated with this type of story. While the idea is commendable, the execution is unfortunately disappointing. Creativity collides with a wall of conformity and blandness, leaving the reader unsatisfied and with a sense of incompleteness.

The character design suffers from a glaring lack of originality, with characters blending into one another under the weight of military uniforms. The protagonists are reduced to clichés, empty shells that struggle to embody anything at all. Their courage, a characteristic trait of shonen, seems to be their sole purpose, ... depriving them of any depth.

The Kaiju, on the other hand, enjoy a more inventive design, but this creativity does not translate to the soldiers' outfits and weapons, which are made from the remains of these monsters. The mega-Kaiju, though fascinating, fail to surprise with their predictable powers. As for the main protagonist, supposedly a perfect fusion of human and kaiju, he experiences no moral repercussions, further emphasizing the binary nature of the work.

Where Pacific Rim manages to blur boundaries and show the repercussions of creatures on society, Kaiju No. 8 falls short. Japan seems unchanged despite 60 years of devastation caused by giant monsters. The author lacks imagination in this aspect, leaving out opportunities to enrich the story: environmentalist groups, fallen soldiers, sectarian religions, or biological experiments.

The message of the work, if there is one, is drowned under the weight of its mediocrity. Kaiju No. 8 does not excel in any field and fails to stand out, leaving the reader accustomed to the formula unsatisfied. In short, a kaiju odyssey that could have taken flight but remains grounded due to a lack of daring and finesse.

I'll be honest, I only picked up this manga on a whim because I saw some panels on social media and thought it looked cool and after reading, I can say this that it definitely is one of the coolest manga I've ever read, The Protagonist is literally hype personified.

This manga is basically all about the hype factor, which it maintains very well throughout.

Story : Was not expecting as good a story as I got tbh, From the way the protagonist gets his powers to the fact that he is a 32 year old is such a fresh change of pace in the shounen genre ... (8).

Fights : This one is obvious but the fights in this one are really well done, like seriously the way the author shows the impact of attacks is another highlight. You can almost feel the force of it which is impressive.

Art : The art is really stellar, Some panels look extremely well drawn. The action and intent is conveyed very well by the author. I honestly think the art for this manga is one of the best points about it for sure (8).

Characters : A really well thoughtout cast, Good relationships between Captains and Vice captain and things of the sort. Its basically a serviceable cast of characters, with my favourite being the protagonist definitely (8).

Without spoiling, All I can say is that this manga is basically what would happen if a Mangaka decides to build his story around hype moments.Kaijus are such an interesting topic to cover because of their designs and battle abilities. Reminds me so much of Bleach in that cool aspect.
Its not the best shounen around but it is pretty damn satisfying to read , It has a really good flow between dialogues too.

Would definitely recommend this to anyone reading this review.
It's also getting an anime adaptation next year so its definitely gonna get even more popular.

Probably one of the uncreative manga series I've read in a while. I can literally guess everything that's going to happen in every single chapter. The minute the MC turns into the weird godzilla form, you already know it's going to be one of those. I had the same critique for chainsaw man with the aot bullshit. It's the mangaka's excuse for why the mc is stronger than everybody else without the hard work. You know I will say a non teenage MC is nice to see and his goals are decent. He's boring but not complete garbage. Everyone else is the equivalent to cardboard.

The ... art is...good enough. It seems the like the mangaka doesn't have much interest in drawing backgrounds and isn't great at drawing poses so you'll usually just get a close up of everyone's face so they can avoid it. The character designs kinda suck, the only good one is the chick with pigtails who looks like a little girl. The monster designs look neat, thats probably the best thing art wise in the series. IDK how anyone can enjoy this whose watched or read more than 5 shounen series, but have fun tho.

Story: 1

Art: 6

Character: 3

Enjoyment: 2

Overall: 2

Clean, strong, basic.

This has already blown up in Japan, so we'll be getting an anime adaptation announcement in the next year, probably. And it's not bad, in fact the detailed and dynamic action sequences will look great animated.

It's just that... man, another half human half [monster hated by humanity] protagonist who has to save the world with his [monster strength] with his [somewhat OP rival] by his side... This is such a bland story at this point I couldn't muster any enthusiasm while reading. Not much worldbuilding either, just, again cool action.

Before being eventually promoted to hero, the protagonist is a kaiju ... waste disposal officer (read: kaiju garbageman) and I think that would have been a much more interesting place to launch the manga.

I am currently up to date with Monster #8 and here are my opinions. Also if you are on the fence with reading this just start because it will only take around an hour.

Story:8/10
(self explanatory) It starts off at a 6.5 but as you keep going it gets much better.

Art:7/10
Compared to some Manhua and other manga it isn't the best but it certainly is quite good

Characters:8/10
The characters are cool and look good.
...
Overall:9/10
This Manga definitely deserves a 9/10 rating it's very good with a decently high score in every category. I also read all of it in 40 mins because it drew my attention the entire time.

I will continue to update this review as the manga continues.

Written as of Chapter 62.

Kaiju No. 8 is a fair, if unspectacular, action manga with still some potential I'd hope to see get delivered on, but thus far into its run has yet to really wow me.

Its concept is certainly intriguing, an early-30's guy stuck doing the hard labor trying to fulfill a childhood dream of being a special combatant against the giant monsters destroying everything before his prime is over, but that's largely where that intrigue ends. At the end of the day, Kafka fits the trope of the "protagonist with dreams but not a lot of talent getting granted a somewhat-cursed power that ... lets him try to fulfill that" which is all too ubiquitous throughout shounen, just with a bit of a different coat of paint. He has some amount of guile with his history as a cleaner, but a lot of that gets thrown out the window in terms of his combat ability as soon as the "transform to win" option becomes his M.O. in combat. There's some cool interactions with the cast here and there, but most of them are relatively stock characters who have yet to really do much to stand out. It's also a bit disappointing that they set Mina up to be a potential deuteragonist who could have played more into the active motivations of the protagonist, but considering how important she is to his motivation, she's really not very present in the story, which feels like missed opportunity up to this point. Overall the main cast has some generally stock characters that really don't do enough to separate themselves from the genre's staple archetypes or even get explored much at all, especially after the first volume.

It also lacks any compelling antagonistic force. The kaiju themselves feel just threatening enough to feel like a serious problem, but they don't really do much to facilitate growth in the cast of characters. Only one antagonist in the story thus far has even spoken, and his abilities aren't particularly well defined or utilized, nor do they really play off the protagonist much at all in any meaningful way.

The action is definitely the strongest part of the manga, there's some really cool and intense action panels all throughout, some of which go pretty hard. I can definitely dig some intense action here and there, but I've yet to feel like it truly plays to the story in any big way. Its sense of power and scale is somewhat inconsistent, and very few of the fights feel like anything personal, or that anything is really at stake or drives/plays to the characters motivations even when it really should. Not every action series needs to be deep, and it's fun just to watch a dude punch a hole in a giant monster or cleave it in half, but for a serialized manga that alone can't carry it by itself the whole way through.

Kaiju No. 8 feels to me like a mangaka's first action series. There's elements of gag/comedy manga in some of the early chapters, which might suggest that the author was finding his footing on how to actually do an action series. The artwork is definitely there, but the story is lagging behind in telling anything that uses the artwork to facilitate anything meaningful or compelling yet. It feels like a manga being forced towards the action, with "arcs" being battles a few seconds rather than employing it to tell the story of its characters. There isn't a lot else to really set Kaiju No 8 apart otherwise, such as interesting worldbuilding, standout characters, or an especially strong sense of tension or horror (despite being full of big nasty kaiju that could potentially have given it something there). It's just...lacking at this point. The series isn't unsalvageable, there's potential there, but nearly 2 years into its run I feel like it hasn't really delivered. It has improved in some and regressed in others, and outside of some cool battles, it lacks anything to really stick to.

I've only read 30 chapters so far but every chapter leaves me unfulfilled. This manga doesn't try to do anything new or push the boundaries on what the genre standards already are or try and move things forward. The characters are really boring. Right when you think something is going to happen it ends up being a big ol' nothing burger. Sure, there's action, but that's literally it. The plot is non-existent. Think of the action like Chainsawman with guns except Chainsaman never does anything and instead the Japanese Self-Defense Force comes in and saves the day. Also where Chainsawman is a 9, this a ... 6 at best.

The word that describes this manga without a doubt is: Cool! Because it is really cool.
Despite the idea and the basis of the story being somewhat generic, it does an excellent job in his category. Because, in addition to meeting all the requirements that make an manga of this type to be good, it still has its own rhythm and humor.
The characters are very funny and the pictures (Oh, the pictures) are very beautiful, the art in general is very beautiful - even though there is nothing that makes it so different from the others or that shows a style of its own, it is ... beautiful and very above most manga.
For sure they are going to release an anime of this work very soon and I'm anxious to watch it.
So I really recommend that you read this piece, as it is very good and I am sure you will have a lot of fun reading.

Nothing you haven't seen before but its fine for what it is. I try to keep my expectations low when picking up new stories because I tend to enjoy even mediocre ones more. What I wanted was simple action packed underdog story with monsters fighting. That's what I got.

All said, everything about this was about average. The art was disappointing but the monsters had really good designs and I think that's where the artist excelled. I liked the fight scenes but its weird seeing characters get pumped full of holes, continue to fight and being completely fine a few pages later. I know its ... "advanced tech and medicine" but it takes a lot out of the drama when you know as long as they're breathing, they will walk away unscathed. Also I could have sworn there was a scene where the protagonist got his arm cut off, it was back in the next panel, then disappeared again. There's a few inconsistencies like this.

A minor gripe but why is in stories like these, humans seem ok building things where giant monsters are known to attack? It's early in the story but I'll still say the world building is a bit shallow. And the pacing feels a bit too fast, even for an action story. The "big reveal" could have been delayed a few chapters, but I guess the author didn't want to keep the secret going for too long.

Despite all that I'm still curious to see if where this goes. Maybe the writer has a few tricks up their sleeve.

I think I was initially pulled into this manga when the first chapter came out because of the main character. I liked that it was about a much older guy than you typically see in this kind of manga who gets a second chance at his dream. That's about all that I remember liking about it because I'm writing this review retroactively. But I do remember why I ended up dropping this manga months ago. It's just the most average of average shounen battle series there is. If you're just into fights then it will probably scratch that itch for you but the plot is ... pretty run-of-the-mill, characterization isn't too interesting, and the antagonists are completely generic at best. And personally the art just isn't doing it for me. If you want to see crazy ass fights, masterful art, heartfelt moments, and something with a genuinely unique vibe go read Dandadan. This just wasn't it.

Also really wish there were more giant kaiju battles... a kaiju manga but all the battles are like at a humanoid scale, wth is up with that???