About

Kaiju No. 8 (Japanese:怪獣8号) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoya Matsumoto. The manga has been serialized for free on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ application and website since July 2020, with an anime adaptation produced by _ Production I.G _ that is expected to premiere in April 2024.

Plot

Kaiju No. 8^[1] is set on an earth in which monsters named "kaiju" regularly cause disasters, with Japan being the country with the highest rate of kaiju attacks. To fight for the country's survival, the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force was created. The series follows Kafka Hibino, a man who, after ingesting a kaiju, gains the ability to turn into a monster and has to use his power while trying to become part of an organization that eliminates kaiju to fulfill a promise he made with a childhood friend.

History

Kaiju No. 8^[2] was first published on July 3rd, 2020, on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ application and website. As of October 16th, 2023, ten volumes have been released. (Vl.1 cover shown below)

2023 Anime Adaptation

On August 4th, 2022, an anime adaptation of Kaiju No. 8 was announced on Anime News Network^[3] website, with Production I.G animating and Studio Khara supervising the kaiju designs and artworks. As of October 16th, 2023, the voice cast of the anime has Masaya Fukunishi as Kafka Hibino/Kaiju No. 8, Wataru Katoh as Reno Ichikawa and Asami Seto as Mina Ashiro.

A teaser (shown below, left) was also uploaded on YouTube^[4] on the same day, garnering more than 711,000 plays in seven months. On October 13th, 2023, a trailer was released on YouTube^[5] by @CrunchyrollCollection (shown below, right), which amassed over 429,000 views and 21,000 likes in three days.

The series is expected to premiere in April 2024.

Reception

Kaiju No. 8 had over 11 million copies^[6] in circulation by March 2023. The manga took first place^[7] in the seventh "Next Manga Awards" (Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishō) web manga category on August 24th, 2021.

Fandom

On June 26th, 2020, the Kaiju No. 8 Wiki^[8] was created, garnering over 212 pages over the next three years. The r/KaijuNo8^[9] subreddit was launched on April 21st, 2020, enabling discussions about the manga and anime series.

Since the action manga premiered in July 2020, many fan art inspired by the series has been shared online. For example, on May 26th, 2021, DeviantArt^[10] user @yyhyasha uploaded a commission fan art of the series (shown below, left), garnering over 2,900 views and 38 favorites in two years. On November 7th, 2020, DeviantArt^[11] user @astralbarzz uploaded a fan art of the main character in the monster form, which received more than 2,300 views and 31 favorites.

Search Interest

External References