Kaiju no8 is not breaking new grounds or anything cause once you boil it down, it's pretty much a generic shonen manga. A loser MC who accidentally gains immense power and is now tasked with dealing with the responsibilities that comes with this ability, recruited by a secret/powerful organization, and gaining dangerous enemies along the way? That's literally by the book shonen.
But I think most readers, including me, noticed Kaiju no8 had some unique aspects built into its story. First, the MC was a middle-aged janitor. In a way this was refreshing cause most manga MCs are essentially teenagers, so perhaps a person with middle-aged wisdom could put a spin on the old shonen format. Also Kaiju no8 had giant monster battles, who doesn't love that?
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I think the story started off good. We are shown the MC being really good at his work as a janitor and that even if he can't do what his childhood friend does, he still gives his work all he's got. Some things happen and the MC obtains the ability to transform into Monster #8, a extremely powerful monster. MC is hesitant at first, but with the encouragement of his friend, he tries out for the exam to get into the Japanese Defense Force and gets in!
As the story goes on, it seemed like there was some good potential plotlines along the horizon. The childhood friend seems to still remember MC so there was potential for drama there. The MC's new friend was, at first an annoying stereotype, but was warming up to be a really fun new character.
As of this review, I have read up to chapter 54. Characters have died here and there and... and I gotta say, it has gotten stale in terms of storytelling. I'm not sure where things really went wrong. Actually I don't think there was a specific point where things went wrong. It was like a slow decline into a pit of tropey nonsense. I'm going to try to be spoiler free here so the rest of this review is gonna be really vague.
Things will happen in this manga where I as a reader knows its supposed to be emotionally impactful. Like a big 'WOW' moment, when things get shaken up or like a turn-the-tables situation, except the story doesn't have any build up. In fact the story kind of doesn't even try to show the impact when these types of events happen. Things just get revealed and it's like "Ok, but nothing has changed in terms of status quo". Nothing really feels like its earned or even worth caring over. A character can reveal some kind of secret to another character and literally nothing has changed.
There's also a big issue with the usage of tropes. It feels like the author is running out of steam and is just throwing whatever trope they can find to see if anything sticks. In recent chapters, there was a big fight and the story kept doing the generic ace-card-up-my-sleeve trick so much that surprise factor was lost long before the fight ended.
Also this is something that I am not sure is just a personal issue or something that every reader noticed, but as Kaiju no8 kept going, the chapters felt empty. Almost like there was no substance at all except for large panels and fight scenes. Personally this really hurt the pacing of the mange and made the most recent arc feel like a complete slog to get through.
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Kaiju no8's art is serviceable. I can't say it's great, but it isn't unpleasant by any means. Basically middle of the road stuff. I actually feel like the early chapters had some really good art but as of lately, the art seems to just look generic.
The monster designs though, are a different story. It's probably just my opinion but Kaiju no8's actual Kaiju designs don't do Kaijus justice. What I mean is, when I hear 'Kaiju', I think big hulking beasts that stomp through cities and dwarf the average human. I think of stuff like Godzilla, Mothra, King Kong, Daggerhead, etc etc. In my opinion, Kaijus are a balancing act between the schlocky Mutant Creature Flicks and Eldritch horrors. They shouldn't be just a dragon or a giant bug, but like Gigan, a giant laser buzzsaw space chicken.
Kaiju no8 doesn't really have these designs. Instead it seems like they lean into the shlocky Mutant Creature Flick designs for inspiration. They also aren't really all that big either for me to think of 'Kaiju' sized. The monster designs just give off the feeling of being pulled from a generic Monster flick. Giant ants, a fungus guy, wyverns. They just don't scream 'Kaiju' to me.
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Character-wise Kaiju no8 is pretty generic as well. We have loser MC who suddenly gets great powers, cool best friend who excels technically, blonde twin-tailed loud mouth girl, cold yet successful childhood friend, etc etc. Nothing's really wrong with generic character designs, but there's nothing really good about them either to be honest.
But what about the middle-aged MC though? In the beginning there seemed to be something unique. Perhaps his age has brought wisdom thus bringing a new MC perspective to a shonen story.
Except the MC basically devolved into a generic shonen MC. His age literally does nothing to change the perspective of the story and he could have been written as an 18 year old and not much would have changed along with it.
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Overall, Kaiju no8 had potential. It started off strong and put its best foot forward, but as time went, it revealed that was the only foot it could stand on. The story devolved into generic shonen storytelling, full of tropes and unimaginative ideas. It's characters promised something new to the shonen landscape but just seemed to fall into place just like the rest of the shonen lineup. Overall, 4/10.
