"Kaiju No. 8" Talkback Thread *spoilers*

[PicardMan]

Episode 6
"Sagamihara Neutralization Operation at Daybreak" May 18, 2024

 

[Space Cadet]

Operation seems to be going smoothly until the final scene with that man/kaiju. Going to be a big fight in the next episode.

 

[Yojimbo]

Love the serious/comedy shifts on this show - everyone jumps down in hero mode, Kafka slowly climbs down the building. Shinomiya kills the kaiju, pan to Kafka under the trash cheering her on. But I won't comment on 'Cougar Mode' methinks..

Damn, that's why she's the captain. Even Hoshino with his quick draw swordsmanship. Nice tidbit that his family were kaiju hunters back to the Muromachi. So the kaiju problem wasn't something recent, they've been plaguing Japan for centuries.

Points to Kafka to analyze on the field and discover they need to take extra steps against those Yoju. Even Reno, too, using freeze rounds instead.

Uh oh, that Kaiju No. 7..9..whoever is there and the source of this swarm. Guess we'll find out if this show will kill characters off without warning at any point of the show...

 

[PicardMan]

Okay, a big major action episode where we get see the main character's gimmicks. Well, you can recognize who's important and who's just a generic soldier by if they have a gimmick or not. Mina has a BFG, Hoshino kills kaiju with swords, and the like. Lots of cool bombast in this battle scene. Looks like they are teasing a humanoid villain at the end, and I'm wondering if this show will follow the shonen cliché of monsters becoming completely irrelevant and being replaced by human/humanoid villains as Bleach famously did with making Hollows irrelevant. Considering how popular kaiju are, that would be a shame if they are replaced by Arrarncar knockoffs.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 7
"Kaiju No. 9" May 25, 2024

 

[Yojimbo]

Was second-guessing myself if they were really gonna off Reno or Iharu but sure Kafka with the last-minute save coupled with squandering a chance to kill a big bad.

So this one was No. 9 and came to be after Kafka? Huhn. And it's mission seems to be improving the kaiju and gathering tough humans for study. But begs the question of are No. 1 to 7 around? And would sort of make sense if the first ones were giants like Godzilla size and evolution kicks in, eventually they scale down to the humanoid type No. 9 is to deal with the defense force.

No limiter. 92% Hoshino. Hoo boy. Idk if Kafka can match that and maybe he'll be forced to reveal his secret again.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 8
"Welcome to the Defense Force" June 1, 2024

 

[Space Cadet]

Loved the animation between Hoshino and Kafka. I wonder if Kafka had actually punched him, would have killed him in one shot? Laughing at how during the celebration of completing their first mission, every one is still arguing and fighting with each other. Also, the Kaiju designs for this show are insane, the one at the very end was straight-up nightmare inducing.

 

[PicardMan]

This series looks like it can hold its own in a post Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man world with that epic fight. The humanoid kaiju pulled off some Parasyte esque body horror that was also very well drawn. I knew that with most shonen, humanoid villains are obligatory even if the show is originally about monster fighting, but looks like Kaiju No. 9's body horror at least makes him cool in his own right, even if not a traditional kaiju.

 

[Magmaster12]

I was very skeptical of this series at first but despite its cliches, it has done a terrific job at being satirical while keeping a consistent tone.

 

[Yojimbo]

Hoshino is def. someone you don't want to fight. But at least he realized No. 8 wasn't actually trying to kill him or even fight back though still wants to kill him.

Head chop! lmao. lol, narrowly avoided revealing his identity to Iharu. Funny scene.

Was expecting someone to question why two humanoid kaiju were fighting each other.

Izumo's family makes the suits and there's a rift between him and his father. What are the chances anyone has good parents on this show?

Ooooo, flying kaiju and what looks like the next major kaiju, No. 10? Gonna be another entertaining battle.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 10
"Raid on Tachikawa Base" June 8, 2024

 

[Space Cadet]

Just when it looks like Kaiju No. 10 is defeated, he turns into a monsterous blob of evil. Where's Godzilla when you need him.

 

[Yojimbo]

Once again Kafka's knowledge of Kaiju helps turn the tide.

Ah, so these super weapons the captains and vice-captains use are made from the stronger Kaiju they kill. Interesting.

Surprising No. 10 just came to fight the strongest person then eat them? Hoshino going all out but 10 regenerating and getting more monstrous... But it's happy fighting an equal?

Uh oh. Smaller kaiju is Hoshino's specialty, not big kaiju... Who's coming for the last minute save - Shinomiya? Kafka? Mina?

 

[PicardMan]

In this episode, Kikoru trades in a laser gun for a giant axe and cuts down skyscraper sized kaiju with it. The action is still large scale and it appears they will not phase out the giant kaiju in favor of humanoids just yet. I guess because of Kafka's low rank, he won't get a gimmick weapon and is stuck with the generic laser gun. Little do they know, he has a transformation, so he doesn't necessarily need gimmick weapons like every other important character. Hoshina had a great action scene of him slicing and dicing. Another metal episode.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 10
"Secret Revealed " June 15, 2024

 

[Space Cadet]

Wow, what a jam packed episode! We got a wonderful battle and it looks like the cat is out of the bag and people know Kafka's secret now. Will be interesting to see how this affects his standing in the core.

 

[PicardMan]

The first half of the episode basically gave us Hoshina's character arc of trying to prove that being a swordsman is totally useful in a world with skyscraper sized kaiju as swords seem pretty useless in theory against that. Of course, Attack on Titan had soldiers with swords successfully kill kaiju, so Hoshina would probably be a top tier fighter in the Attack on Titan verse. Hoshina is a cool enough character to survive fighting a skyscraper sized kaiju with swords, even if it's Mina and her BFG that saves the day. The second half is obviously the big twist as we'll see how the reactions to Kafka's reveal compares to Eren's. There's obviously a few Attack on Titan influences, but this show has quite a different tone and feel as it's paying tribute to the lighter kaiju tokusatsu films. It's done its job very well with mixing battle shonen with kaiju movies.

 

[Yojimbo]

Ah, everyone telling Hoshina to give up except Mina. Nice parallel with Kafka, failing his tests and not getting into the corps until now. A kinship even. But the trend of mean dads continues, lol.

Kaiju becoming living bombs and nukes is another layer of terror.

Surprising Shinomiya's axe wasn't enough but loved she and Hoshina working in tandem had an effect.

Mina's big gun saves them again but so far she's been making the kill shots before her suit maxes out. I think eventually we'll see what happens when she doesn't succeed.

Kafka knew he had to expose himself to save the team and the surrounding city knowing he would be arrested and/or executed. If that ain't a hero, I don't know what is.

Guess we're shifting to a short interrogation prison arc where Kafka has to tell them everything, they debate if he's telling the truth, debate if he's human or kaiju, debate if he can be trusted, etc BUT I'm guessing he will be spared otherwise it's a pretty short series. We just have to get through the steps and connect the dots that will probably take an episode or two. I'm sure they'll connect him to that little girl asking them not to hurt the good kaiju, him fighting Kaiju No. 9, saving the base and city by punching the Kaiju nuke far enough into the sky. Probably even see the upper echelon of the corps and more of Shinomiya's dad.