Not all anime is good. Some anime is great: Solo Leveling, Frieren. Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan. The genre fuels obsession and commitment that outsiders often find inaccessible–or just weird. Between cosplay and 1,000+ episode series, it can be easier to say, “Fuck this.” Don’t. Let the Kaiju No. 8 anime series be your gateway drug. It is the perfect infusion of humor, nuclear bombast, and emotional pull.
The adaptation of illustrator and writer Naoya Matsumoto‘s Kaiju No. 8 is five episodes into it’s second season, and it is proving to be some of the best storytelling among a crowded field. The protagonist, Kafka Hibino, is an every-man thrust into reluctant power (i.e. Peter Parker, Light Yagami, Ellen Ripley). It’s a fun turn on the Godzilla trope but with no shortage of surprises.
Anime, as an umbrella term for a vast category of storytelling approaches, isn’t much help for expected results. As American film, even in 2025, relegates commercial animation to younger audiences (with some crossover), Japan produces content that runs the gambit with few, if any, creative restrictions. It’s a literal wild west that draws from a generous history of print publication (i.e. manga). Without any guidance, you could find yourself watching something you hadn’t signed up for. Even a Google search won’t help much. This is a safe choice. If you don’t like Kaiju No. 8, you might not be ready. Or, you may be looking for another catagory : slice of life, romance…they’ve got it convered.
Kaiju No. 8 won’t ring everyone’s bell. But, alongside other titles, it has broad appeal. It expertly straddles the line between shonen (action/adventure) and seinen (more mature/complex) anime. The battles are a torso splitting, gore spilling, femur crunching splatterfest, but the slaughter is mostly reserved for the monsters. Aside from the action, you get family drama, meta-level satire, and some truly catharsis inducing third acts. It’s easy to get buried in subplot within subplot in many anime series, which is half the fun for the initiated, but Kaiju No. 8 keeps it fast and tight…until it doesn’t. It’ll ease you in, start you with just a taste…until you need more.
Many classic anime series are better. Some new productions are destined to become classics. But, if you want a quality sample that will get to you buy the bag of chips, you could do worse than Kaiju No. 8.
Kaiju No. 8 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
Tiny Table 3 
Leave a comment