Plot issues with this season (Spoilers for up to Episode 5)

You not understanding the plot is not the anime's fault. Most of your points were already explained, hinted or can be easily guessed why it happened like that.
If I wouldn't be so lazy, I would explain it, but I assume it's pointless to argue, because you already decided that it's bad.

Honestly, I remember reading the first volume of the manga and being really excited about what I was reading at which point I was excited for the anime. And then when the anime came out, i felt that I was being too negatively influenced by the amount of hype and media coverage (like with Chainsaw Man) to the point where I just wasn’t enjoying it. And honestly, I’m still not, a large part of it is I find a lot of the character dynamics grating.

let me be "that" guy and say,
" I'm not reading that."

@ajw215799 Honestly I think that might be part of it. I still like the show, don't get me wrong, but I think it just dropped the ball here on some notes. I'm not a manga reader, so for all I know this is somewhat an adaptation issue rather than a core plot issue.

@RomanRonin I’ve only read the manga for what the first season covers but I don’t remember the manga irritating me as much as the anime has

@ajw215799 Honestly I'm unsure because the first season was fantastic.

Hey man, no offense but I’m not reading allat. Still I read half of it:

NO SHIT, YES NO SHIT, GUESS WHAT? IT’S SO FUCKING OBVIOUS.

I’m not trying to insult, I perfectly agree with whatever you wrote. Kaiju no.8 is a mid show and it was from the start. I don’t even know why season 1 was that much hyped, we all could have saw miles away that this was going to be an ass show.
I’m reading the manga so I know there are some good develops later on, but they are not enough to repair the ass that this story is.
It’d be better for everyone’s sake to not have a 3rd season to waste our times anymore.

@RomanRonin honestly, I just can’t really get into anime that the whole of the anime fandom are praising as the greatest thing since sliced bread (like Chainsaw Man or Dandadan)

@RomanRonin yeah I get what you mean. Unfortunately I’ve given up on the “it has potential” part, it’s basically like saying “if this show wasn’t bad, it would have been good”, but unfortunately this show IS bad and from the point it is in it’s hard to recover.
As I said, in the manga gets better, but the story remains mid.
Mid is not “bad”, it just means it’s not special and people shouldn’t get excited.

Anyway, if you were wondering, I’d say that the adaptation is pretty similar to the manga, so yeah what you’re seeing in the anime is the same shit that there is in the manga. Actually in the manga is slightly worse in some aspects, so great job to the producers to actually making it better.

@ktg Then do so. I thought I was pretty clear in my outlining of my opinions and why I think them. Seems pretty lazy to dunk on them without offering your own.

@ktg Then do so. I thought I was pretty clear in my outlining of my opinions and why I think them. Seems pretty lazy to dunk on them without offering your own.

@RomanRonin ...
Fine, I explain some of it, I won't go through all of your points because it would take ages.


This is simply not a proof. You don't need to foreshadow events. You can do that if you want to, but it has nothing to with consistency.
It's much more likely to have some psychological damage after an event that you were not expected, so foreshadowing something like this would have been foolish.


Another proof that you don't know what inconsistency means. You don't need to foreshadow events.


This is also a stupid take.
What knowledge does Kaiju no.9 have of structure of the Defense Force? As far as he knows, it is possible that every city has its own defense force. From his POV, it is also possible that if he attacks another city, either the whole division 1, including Isao, leaves the city, so he cannot surprise attack him, or the other option that the attack is too far, so another division takes care of it.
And these are just the logical issue with your thought process.

It is also possible that you ignored, that Kaiju no.9's clones have a range and they should stay relatively close to its main body.


Lol, jsut say you didn't watch a single episode of the show...
Why would he retreat when based on their knowledge and information, kaijus cannot become stronger, Isao was stronger than kaiju no.8 and Kaiju no.8 is stronger than kaiju no.9? These are well-established information and Isao acts based on these.

So when his assumption that he is stronger, then the next decision is based on how to minimize the damage and death. The best option is to stay at the same place that already got damaged to some extent.


It was already hinted that he is able to become stronger and that's what happened, so it's not random, you just failed to interpret what you've read.


See, this was your first 3 paragraph and you can hardly find a single sentence that does not contain a stupid take. I don't have time to explain all of your bad takes, while it was EXPLAINED in the show.

@RomanRonin

There are always people who will say "I'm not reading that" or "It's pointless to argue" because they don't have the intelligence to actually form a cohesive argument. So they shove the blame off on you, while thinking that makes them look good. Newsflash: it doesn't.

Meanwhile, I agree with you 1,000 percent on everything you have said about Season 2. So much so, I dropped it last week, which even I can't believe as it was one of my Top 3 most anticipated anime of 2025, but Season 2 is literal shit and there are too many other anime to watch to waste one more second on this garbage.

And I'm a completionist, who almost always finishes every show I watch so that I don't feel like I've left something hanging, but even I can't finish this -- it's badly written, the new characters are bland and uninteresting, and the plot makes little sense. Kafka is also a wuss, so what's the point?

People who have read the manga say that's how it is in the manga, so... good to know. Won't be reading that either.

And I compare this with anime like The Apothecary Diaries, Season 2, which although it is a different genre, kept the same things that made Season 1 one of the best anime in the last decade and so, consequently, Season 2 was as high rated as Season 1. Kaiju No 8 didnt.

Instead, we got a completely different anime, with sub-standard art, a Kafka who is pathetic, and with all of the interesting characters except for Kikoru completely absent. It's sub-standard. It's not interesting. Life is too short.

That's alot of things to reply but its honestly a bit too much, just want to talk ablut the feint being too close part. nº9 had full conviction his doubles would be enough to take care of nº8 and Narumi.

Now, realistically, nº8 wouldve st least gone full kaiju mode as he went against isao out of rage and sentimentality, but that form cant appear so soon its likely stored for the revenge match.

other than that this was needed to progress the story and give it a new direction rather than just kaiju 8 teams up with defense association and beats stronger kaijus together

He miscalculated, what he said was that he grew much stronger than when he previously fough nº8 and that those versions of him could take him out, he miscalculated that number 8 also grew stronger or at least more used to his powers and that his lower forms didn't stand a chance.

About the anticlimatic, YES i get that, i get that alot, i honestly tought so too especially how the other ep ended, it had major "we're finishing this" "here and now" vibes and didn't live up to it, plus the whole "its not fair for her". But honestly they need ti chain villains, they can't just disappear with number 9 and keep summoning random ones to the battlefield indefinitely, our connection to n9 needs to rise and he needs to be a bridge for us to know what the kaiju are and what these new kaiju are plotting, hes also the key to know about nº8 existence since its implied nº9 might have been just like kafka but got completely evolved while nº8 is a "failure", the creature that got inside him was suposed to take him over completely. 9 is the only clue about that so far, they cant become ashes yet.

@ktg In response to your claims:

1. In most cases, you should foreshadow events if you want to effectively blend them into a narrative. It's literally how you write a plot. If you don't establish the reasoning for something happening, then you result in a jarring plot that seems like it was determined on the spot rather than by the chain of the events that is the narrative. There are times where you intentionally don't foreshadow in order to intensify a key moment, but let's be honest here and admit that's clearly not the intent they were getting at.

2. Kaiju No. 9 clearly has enough intelligence on the JAKDF that he knew who Isao was, knew where he was, and knew to target him for his weapons. One can pretty easily assume he has a working knowledge of what the JAKDF is based on this. Regardless, there are a million better ways to initiate a feint attack, and this one seemed narratively cliche and lazy with ripe opportunity for plot holes. I get that Kaiju No. 9 COULD have weaknesses to his power including the range of his clones, but that's the problem! The anime does NOTHING to establish these weaknesses in any way. He doesn't indicate he has a limit to his clones or their range, nor does anyone else deduce that from him.

3. Isao himself says he isn't retreating because, as he assumes it, Kaiju No. 9 can track him, so its useless. He literally says this verbatim. He doesn't say "I'm stronger than No. 9 so I'm not worried" nor do any of his actions assume that. Also, Isao has literally also commented on how No. 9 is different than the other Kaiju and that he shouldn't be underestimated: it makes zero sense to assume (because that is what you did, you assumed) that he didn't retreat in part because he could neutralize No. 9.

4. It is effectively random because it's just literally stated that he grows in power through learning. We don't see any on-screen development of his strength, and again, this isn't even foreshadowed whatsoever until the exact plot point where it's important. When his clones (whom we think are his main body at the time) are fighting Narumi and Kafka, they seem as ordinary as ever in terms of their fighting ability. No one makes a single comment about them seeming off, and there's zero hint that it is off until the moment he reveals himself to Isao. I get you're, for some unexplicable reason, opposed to the concept of foreshadowing, but it would've made No. 9's plan reveal seem a whole lot better.


I get you're trying to be cool and all and act like others are idiots for having different opinions, but you're on an anime discussion forum, buddy. This is literally the whole point of this website. But sorry to have wasted all of your precious brain power with the chore that is a response. Looking forward to your inevitable exasperated response :)

I wouldn’t keep responding to this person. Clearly just angry at you for not liking the thing they like. They enjoy it, therefore it’s good, and you’re stupid for not “getting it.” Meanwhile everything you said was a valid dissection of the problems with this show. Sudden, out-of-nowhere “twists” designed to keep the plot going rather than expand on what’s come before. It’s the same level of creativity as a child changing the rules of a game just so they can win. The fact that the villain retroactively explains it doesn’t make it better. This show is proving to be way more “for kids” than it seemed to be in season 1.

Wow… (⚆_⚆) That’s quite a discussion over here, if that’s what you could call it… Be nice to each other, peeps. No need for such harsh language jeez.

So anyways, manga reader here! That is a giant ass message you wrote there, buddy. ^^’ I see you have a lot of questions and reservations about this season and yes, a lot of your complaints do actually sound stupid to me, the all-knowing manga reader xD So as someone who knows the manga front to back, I’ll try to explain the plot convenience. ^^ I’ll try to give you some insight in some of the things you mentioned here and freshen up your memory where needed. I tried to leave my personal opinion out of it as much as possible and only stick to facts and things I know from reading the manga (without spoilering stuff). I enjoy doing stuff like this but still, writing this took a lot of time so you better read through ALL OF IT , got that?! (⚈_⚈) Alright, let’s get to it!


KAFKA – KAIJU NO.8 REVEAL:
The reveal of him being no.8 happened pretty early in the story. I agree with you that it might’ve been a bit too soon for a reveal, although I think it did make for a nice season finale/big event at the end of the season. It’s not like we don’t have anything else to look forward to anymore. As has already been stated in the anime: there is still the question about if they will keep Kafka around or discard him and/or use him for testing. After all, something like this has never happened before in their universe.

NARUMI INTRODUCTION:
His introduction is completely canon with the manga. That’s the only fact I can spit here.

KAFKA MENTAL BLOCK:
In season 1 Kafka went toe to toe with the director general. He almost killed him because he lost control and has already stated there that he doesn’t want to let his kaiju side take over and cause hurt to those around him. Him having a mental block now is a logical next step in the story.

NO.9 FEINT ATTACK:
In season 1 we can see no.9 trying to “learn”. We see scenes where he uses the internet on his phone, on his pc and he even has a giant wall of screens through which he “learns”. The director general being weapons number 2’s wearer (= kaiju no.2 turned into a weapon and/or suit) is public knowledge. He has fought with no.2 for many years now and we also saw him fight with it during his battle/test with Kafka. Whoever Kaiju no.8 is however, is not known to the public. As far as we know, it is also not known to the public that captain Narumi is the wearer of weapons number 1 (not saying anything else about weapon no.1 because of spoilers). At the end of season 1 we see Kaiju no.9 say: “Time to bring the kaiju power that fell into human hands back to our side”. Therefore it is safe to assume that he is talking about weapons number 2, since no other known kaiju or weapons numbers are known to him and us (yet). In the last episode of season 1 we also see Kaiju no.9 talking to what appears to be another Kaiju no.9. At that point we don’t know what it means yet but in the first half of S02 it becomes clear that there appears to be more than one no.9 and we cannot assume how many there are exactly. However, since they are called Beta and Gamma when they “talk” to each other, we can at that point assume that there is still (at least) an Alpha lurking somewhere, which later appears to be the one who was looking for the general director. As you can see, there actually is a lot of foreshadowing, but I can totally understand why you would not immediately notice all of this. It also took me one or more re-reads to notice all the details.

TIE UP THE FIRST UNIT:
We can safely assume that it was indeed no.9’s goal to keep captain Narumi, and if no.8 where to appear (because no.9 does not know who he is), away by using Beta and Gamma. Identified Kaiju (like no. 8, 9 and 10) can indeed sense the presence of other identified kaiju. We can already see this in season 1 where Kafka sensed the presence of no. 10. However, this part is a bit unclear because in the manga it appears to be so that when an identified kaiju exerts a lot of power, like Kafka transforming for example or no. 10 turning giant, another identified kaiju can sense their presence and even location (maybe not down to the exact spot but at the very least the direction and distance more or less). This means no.9 needs to use its own knowledge to find the general director because his suit is not activated OR we need to assume that his suit is activated but not to the max (which they never are cause it strains the body a lot) and that might be enough of an energy spark for no.9 to find the general director.

BEING IN THE SAME CITY:
The units are split up in 4 big parts: Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western division. Unit 1, 2, 3 and 4 belong to the Eastern division. They cannot operate outside of the Eastern division because it belongs to other units and even within their own division, each unit still has their own part. They need clearance to operate in each other’s territory. The general director is seated in the main branch which is at the first division’s base or at least in the same territory so he will always be next to the first division. It is only logical to try and split him and captain Narumi up instead of just attacking them when they are at the base. The general director is only on site because he wants to observe no.8. He normally doesn’t leave his office to oversee ‘regular’ operations so it’s kinda hard to completely separate him from Narumi (and Kafka) and even harder to get him in another division cause that’s just simple not part of his duties.

CHARACTERS APPEAR TO BE SLOW:
Temporary bases, as the one where the director general is sitting in, are actually not that close to the actual battlefront. When captains use a maximum power releasement of their suit, a perimeter up to multiple 100’s of meters or even multiple kilometers gets set up. Since it can not be predicted beforehand if this will be necessary during any operations, it would be totally unsafe to let non-fighting personal set up close to the battlefront because the damage to the surroundings can be too big to overcome for them. We don’t know the speed limit that a suit can exert and we also don’t know the exact distance between the temporary base and the battlefront (in this case) so we’ll just have to leave it at that and take it as it was probably meant by the author: building tension and making room for no.9 to fight with the director general. Also, Kafka can’t fly. It’s more like he has sonic boom-legs or something xD. We also don’t know how far they can thrust him into any direction.

THE DIRECTOR GENERAL NOT RETREATING:
The tracking part I already explained above. As for why he is not moving towards Narumi and Kafka: there is a lot of personal present at the temporary base. He can’t just leave them because we don’t know what no.9 might do to them. For all they know, director Shinomiya makes a run for it and no.9 kills everyone present. It’s far more logical for him to stay and restrain no.9 so that everyone else can evacuate. The general director in his prime is already gone by the time we see him fight with no. 8 in season 1. Don’t forget that Kafka almost killed the general director and this only got avoided cause Kafka stabbed his Kaiju form (and possibly his core cause that’s where his heart/core sits in his body) to near death. No. 9 did get stronger over the course of time and not just in a flash: between their last meet-up we had the no.10 cataclysm, Kafka being captured and restrained underground, the fight between Kafka and the general director, the neutralization at Tokyo Bay and the time building up to the current neutralization operation). As you can see, more time has passed than we might ‘ve realized. At the end of season 1 we can also see no.9 mention ‘shedding his skin’, which refers to his upgrade.

I agree with you on that ideally the arc would have ended here. I expected nothing else and was surprised as well when the fight was over so quickly. When reading the manga, it felt like the first part of the neutralization operation took a lot more time and in the anime this fight was over in a flash. Still, when you look at the adaption of the original source material, everything got done exactly as it is portrayed in the manga. Even more so, they added some extra scenes, camera angles, stuff like that, to make it better as a whole. Maybe it’s because I had to wait multiple weeks for the first course to be over in the manga, dunno. But when you put a time stamp on this event, it does not take that long actually. They could’ve dragged out this fight but we would’ve only ended up with more shooting, kicking, slashing- , I don’t think it would’ve made things better tbh.

NO.2’S POWER:
The full potential of weapons no.2 is the big ass beam that comes from doing a crazy big ass punch with the fists. Kaiju no.2 however blasted it out of its mouth, if I’m not mistaken. They literally say it in the anime that a human is not able to do this power move for more than once, unlike the kaiju when its was still an actual kaiju, which makes a lot of sense cause it is only a part of the original kaiju that gets converted into a suit and a human does not have the build of a kaiju so a human is literally not made to be able to do things like that. Remember that the strain on the body is immense when connecting kaiju tissue with human flesh or the neural network. The suits are designed to give the wearer the power of a kaiju but pushing it to its limits, has its risks. An identified weapon is even more risky because it holds more power than a regular suit. Think of it as smacking someone with a bag of feathers or a bag of rocks. The rocks will have more effect but you’ll also feel it more in your own arms because of its weight. ¯\\(ツ)/¯ If your body is already worn down (like Isao’s because he is past his prime) the toll will be even greater. The neural damage is immense and if overused, they lose several years of their lives or even die.

NO.9 BEING UNBEATABLE:
I get where you are coming from. No. 9 pulls one trick after another out of his kaiju ass, I can’t tell you why that is though cause that means spoilering future events. You’ll just have to hang in there and assume that he can do this. ¯\\(ツ)/¯ Aside from that, no. 9 is a kaiju that relies on his intelligence. It would only make sense that he thought of a way to work around the best attack of weapons number 2. Although I do find him surviving the second blast questionable as well, since no.9 himself said that he was only made to survive one blast. Then again, as long as the core is intact, an identified kaiju can regenerate his body so if he avoided getting hit in his core, he could actually pull this off but it’s still a very (≖_≖ ) -move imo.

NO.9 MAKING IT OUT OF THERE:
He used more than one big ass blast to fend of Narumi and Kafka and eventually used Kikoru and Kurusu (the lab coat guy) as a distraction to get the hell out of there. I don’t see what’s wrong with this part. Seems perfectly plausible to me. ¯\\(ツ)/¯

WHERE IS EVERYONE ELSE?:
I already explained above why it is not custom for other units to operate within another units territory. Even when a honju and multiple yoju were to emerge on the boarder of 2 zones, the units will still only handle that which is in their own territory and they need clearance to operate outside of it, even when there are two units operational at the same time. If you’d put a time stamp on the event of no.9 fighting with the director general, it would only take up minutes. It’s not even enough time for Kafka and Narumi to get there before the general director gets taken down so it would be impossible to mobilize a captain from another division within that short amount of time.

Power output is also not the only thing that decides your combat abilities. It also depends on your compatibility with kaiju materials. For example: Captain Narumi is the strongest captain, with a maximum power release of 98% BUT Captain Ashiro is the only one in the entire defense force who can handle weapons with a large scale output. So even though Narumi is ‘stronger’, Ashiro Mina can blow up a building like it’s nothing and Narumi can’t. It is for the same reason that captain Hoshina fights with his swords, cause even though he has a max. release of 92%, his gun output is actually very low. You get what I’m saying?

So why did Hasegawa, the vice-captain of the first division, not come to their aid? Speed is not his strength. Hasegawa’s personal weapon is the little mecha suit we see in the Tokyo Bay operation (and maybe in the Ant operation too, not sure if they showed it). And aside from that, the confusion probably also played its part.

Another reason for why Hasegawa -but even more so- none of the platoon leaders came to their aid, is because they can’t just do that for a reason I already explained above: when a captain goes full release, a perimeter is set. Other officers cannot enter the perimeter cause at that moment they are a liability: they are in the way of the fighting captain and the captain will have to restrain himself cause his combat skills also have effect on the surroundings and the other officers could therefore also get hurt. It is mentioned that the current platoon leaders have the capability of becoming a captain… one day. They are currently not on par with a captains level…yet. There is still a big gap between a platoon leader and a captain. I’m not sure if I remember correctly but someone is considered a candidate for becoming a captain when their full release goes over 80%, I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere… *scratching my brain*. So it might be true that the platoon leaders are capable of handling kaiju better than regular officers BUT that means REGULAR kaiju. When a kaiju has a fortitude over 6 or 7, they already get assigned to the captains. Identified kaiju are all over fortitude 8 and have always needed more than 1 captain to take it down actually. It is highly unlikely for a captain to take out an identified kaiju all by himself, so it is not surprising that kaiju no.9 has been able to haul his ass out of every fight he’s been into, although we could argue that Narumi and Kafka are technically a team of captain-strength people.



Phew… I FINALLY arrived at your last paragraph xD That was quite a rant indeed xD But it’s okay. Your frustration only shows your disappointment which means at one point you really did love the show or at least looked forward to it. I hope I was able to clear some things up and stuff makes more sense now and you can find some joy in this show again. And if not, well then I just wasted my entire afternoon for nothing. xD

Eppelie out!

So you are saying the Japanese defense forces are still using the tactics from their most recent war when Kamikaze played a majot role in the lack of experienced pilots and aircrafts to protect their aeriel territoriy against the Americans. Their death might be seen as some kinds of heroic acts, but it's just the result of pure stupidity from petty proud. So it means they haven't learned anything since then. Naruhodo!

And it's not that Isao Shinomiya didn't know the No. 9 was after his Kaijuu power. He should have known the consequence of him losing it to the enemy, as a leader standing in front of an enemy who then already had a significant change in appearance and power while his own reinforcement was rapidly coming. The third Hokage had no other retreating route, but Isao did, and a much wiser one.

needless damage? have you seen how they thrown those self-propelled howitzers away earlier? how the city were already severely destroyed? or how the citizens still live a rich and fulfilled life despite the continuous offensives from the monsters? one or two more areas of damage seems like nothing to them, since their money is endless, and now you talk about worries for needless damage? Bruh.



alternate history? so how the fuck did so much english words got blended into their daily laguage =))



the monster with mystery new appearance infiltrated into his headquarter, loudly and clearly stated to having found No. 2 and its compatible user, then blew the place to smithereen with unreported strength? He had more than enough time to make a better decision, but the author asked him to death for a cheap drama.



Even that was the case, Isao Shinomiya would also have a general idea of where his reinforcement would come from. He could just attract the monster into that direction.



that only happened after he consumed Isao Shinomiya. you are messing things up for your own convenience.



what the fuck are you talking about?

@SgtBateMan They have to go through approval and such, like Okonogi said at the end of the episode, it's not just willy nilly. If nothing else, there's protocol he is expected to follow

And I can be mistaken and it not be intentional deception, lies require intent, being mistaken is human fallibility, which we all suffer from on occasion.

We have to take the totality of circumstances into account here, we can't just say we could do something better with hindsight, that's far more lazy and expedient

Is it only me or the sound effects as well went to shit? Like you barely even hear anything at all, as if it's muffled or surpressed, whatever the word is? The whole thing is kinda whack tbh.

I wouldn’t keep responding to this person. Clearly just angry at you for not liking the thing they like. They enjoy it, therefore it’s good, and you’re stupid for not “getting it.” Meanwhile everything you said was a valid dissection of the problems with this show. Sudden, out-of-nowhere “twists” designed to keep the plot going rather than expand on what’s come before. It’s the same level of creativity as a child changing the rules of a game just so they can win. The fact that the villain retroactively explains it doesn’t make it better. This show is proving to be way more “for kids” than it seemed to be in season 1.

@holdingnothing hindsight? All things were laid bare right in front of Isao Shinomiya's very own eyes to make a decision. A feign combat so as to attract the monster to his reinforcement and draw out more information about his already transformed opponent was completely executable.