Kaijuu 8-gou

Grotesque, Godzilla-like monsters called "kaijuu" have been appearing around Japan for many years. To combat these beasts, an elite military unit known as the Defense Corps risks their lives daily to protect civilians. Once a creature is killed, "sweepers"—working under the Professional Kaijuu Cleaner Corporation—are left to dispose of its remains.

Kafka Hibino, a 32-year-old man, is unsatisfied with his job as a sweeper. From a young age, he has aspired to join the Defense Corps and kill kaijuus for a living. After a few failed attempts, however, he gave up on his dreams and resigned himself to the mediocrity that provided a decent paycheck. Nevertheless, when an ambitious, 18-year-old recruit named Reno Ichikawa joins his cleaning team, Kafka is once again reminded of his desire to join the military.

Following a chain of unfortunate events and an interaction with the junior sweeper, Kafka encounters a parasite-type kaijuu that forces its way in through his mouth—turning him into a humanoid monster. With his newfound powers, Kafka aims to give his lifelong dream a final try.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kaijuu 8-gou has been published digitally in English as Monster #8 through MANGA Plus. The volumes have been published in English as Kaiju No. 8 by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint since December 7, 2021.

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Related Manga

Character:	Captain Velvet Meteor: Jump+ Isekai no "Shou" Bouken - Dounyuu-hen
Spin-off:	Kaijuu 8-gou: Micchaku! Dai-3 Butai
Adaptation:	Kaijuu 8-gou

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Characters

Hibino, Kafka

Main

Shinomiya, Kikoru

Main

Ichikawa, Reno

Main

Ashiro, Mina

Supporting

Hoshina, Soushirou

Supporting

Narumi, Gen

Supporting

Furuhashi, Iharu

Supporting

Shinomiya, Isao

Supporting

Okonogi, Konomi

Supporting

Kaijuu No. 9

Supporting

Reviews

Apr 20, 2024

shutcardboard

Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (105/? eps)

A 5/10 but recommended? Hell yeah! If you like the SHOUNEN part of Shounen series, this is your holy grail. Everything that is not SHOUNEN is of exceedingly terrible to annoying-but-bearable quality. Most of the characters are one-dimensional, lame and poorly written. Mina the fraud and her being allowed to exist the way she does is a crime and platinum medal contender in mental gymnastics.
Finger deep worldbuilding and glaring issues whenever taking a deeper look into 80% of characters, backstories, the world around them, relationships and other stuff? No problem. I PROMISE!
The "story" is mid and loses steam the further in you get and ... Mina and her dynamic with the series itself still sucks major balls after 100 chapters?
WHATEVER. HEAR ME OUT.

This isn't "shut off brain while reading" level. This is "deny the existence of certain characters and plot points inside the verse and enjoy the rest" level. !!!This series is what you make it. It is more of a DIY project or a puzzle that can end up being quite enjoyable!!!

The story might be weaker than average but certain events and moments that get enabled and allowed when not having to look at Mina not say a singular proper important word, being unnecessarily toxic and oneshotting another enemy because muh plot are just sooo incredibly fun. The best time is to be had when these cringe "I am Sasuke 2.0 edge strong uwu pitty me but no repercussion" characters are nowhere to be found.
It is a delight just watching Kafka exist, struggle, grow, fight and even just breathe. Some of the support characters like Kikoru and Ichikawa are some of the best support characters in any manga ever and their dynamic with Kafka and the rest of the cast/the series as a whole is just *chef's kiss*. They also get a huge amount of individual development and story.

But even with all these weak spots and so much going wrong it objectively still is a good Shounen. The fights are great so long as Mina isn't involved, powerups are not too asspull and characters actually work towards them in some ways and the shallow story is shallow enough to be able to jump right in and not feel lost/overwhelmed and still understand what is going on.
If the series wasn't as greedy, shoehorning in all these fake depth characters and plots that just are straight up poorly written dogshit I would've loved to review it as a pure Shounen and rate it 8-9/10. No joke.

As for Mina and me ripping into her this harshly- she is a poorly thought out character that has no proper place in the series as a whole, solely functioning as a tool that is Sasuke on crack x10 that just doesn't work when thought about more deeply and that is a detriment to all characters and events around her. She is the godfather example of the formulaic Shounen deuteragonist having infinite agency over too many characters for no real reason to showcase the most vile and demonic behaviour/acting to get away for free.
Characters act unreasonably whenever she is forced into a scenario. Events play out in the most unfun way. Actual character regression and retardation happens when she NEEDS to be a part of a bigger plot, which thankfully does not happen too often. The reader has to endure her only a handful of times across ~100 chapters.
The author wanted her to have this immense impact on everything around her whenever she appears but it does not work. It always feels artificial when paired with the fact that she herself, her power and her relationships with 90% of the cast factually are fraudulent.

Read it. Honestly. See it for what it is and only for what it is. Everything it tries to be is not worth jack.
I will keep reading the series until it ends and I will most probably enjoy it as long as it stays on track.

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Nov 25, 2023

p00p00king

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (66/? eps)

This manga is incredibly mid, so why am I still reading it? Everything about this show is unoriginal and the only original aspect it has (Kafka being in his 30's) is never utilized to its fullest potential, in fact, everything about this story isn't used to it's fullest potential. Nothing is original, but it actually has some redeeming qualities. The action is very fluid, intense, and gripping. The action scenes flow very well and it's very nice to look at. And there are some HYPE moments, I won't spoil, but the Director General Shinomiya plot point actually had me shook lmao.

This series isn't bad, but ...

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Apr 23, 2024

VAD_S

Not Recommended

Preliminary (105/? eps)

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.

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I am getting more and more the vibes of Parasyte and Jagaaan from this manga... aLotQuestion_ - May 11	4 replies	by ReXiRa »» Yesterday, 5:19 AM
Poll: Kaijuu 8-gou Chapter 100 Discussion MegamiRem - Jan 4	11 replies	by KaijuGojo »» May 11, 8:30 PM
Poll: Kaijuu 8-gou Chapter 106 Discussion MegamiRem - Apr 25	15 replies	by Shanto9910 »» May 1, 9:31 PM
Poll: Kaijuu 8-gou Chapter 96 Discussion MegamiRem - Oct 26, 2023	12 replies	by AhriTheS3xyFox »» Apr 28, 12:04 AM
Poll: Kaijuu 8-gou Chapter 83 Discussion MegamiRem - Mar 30, 2023	15 replies	by AhriTheS3xyFox »» Apr 27, 11:14 PM

Kaijuu 8-gou
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