After a good first season, Kaiju No. 8 returns not with an all-out roar, but one that ends with a slight whimper. It certainly does not help that the second season comes at the backend of a blitzkrieg of other high-quality anime films and TV shows, making comparisons inevitable.
Following the explosive season one’s finale, Kafka Hibino (Masaya Fukunishi) has been inducted by the Japanese Anti-Kaiju Defence Force (JAKDF) beyond being a standard officer and is now recognised as one of the organisation’s biggest assets due to his ability to turn into a kaiju.
Due to the growing threat of kaijus becoming more powerful with each invasive wave, the JAKDF begins to train Kafka and its other new officers such as Reno Ichikawa (Wataru Katoh) and Kikoru Shinomiya (Fairouz Ai).
As the JAKDF goes about preparing its soldiers, the show’s primary villain Kaiju No. 9 (Hiroyuki Yoshino) kicks its plan of conquering Japan and then creating a world for monsters into action, beginning with striking at Kafka and the strongest members of the JAKDF by creating kaijus that counter the strengths of each officer.
Though the animation and action remains stellar, especially with the introduction of new main characters and kaiju-killing equipment, Kaiju No. 8’s second season does not quite have the steam that its predecessor had.
While this season addresses a complaint from the first season involving the core side characters not receiving development or screen time, this time around, they get their moments to shine but everything flies by quickly with very little breathing room in 11 episodes.
The breakneck pacing even deprives Kafka – the show’s lead character – of significant screen presence, as the second season has to shuffle between introducing new characters such as Gen Narumi, new Numbers weapons, new JAKDF divisions and so on. From a plot perspective, having Kafka hold back from transforming after early in the season adds further salt to the wound.
Once Kaiju No. 8 is fully primed to deliver what made the first season very good by the last episode as Kafka steps into the fray, the season abruptly ends on a cliffhanger.
Ultimately, the season either needed more episodes or an extra season as proper breathing room to build up to Kafka entering the final series of fights against Kaiju No. 9 and its forces. Going into the third season, which is likely its last as there are only 50 chapters from Naoya Matsumoto’s manga left to adapt, Kaiju No. 8 will benefit from having more episodes to space out the character, story and action beats.