The ‘Kaiju No. 8’ Team Discuss Their Monster-Sized Hit

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Production I.G’s riveting Kaiju No. 8 was one of the most anticipated anime series of 2024 —and is now a hit on both sides of the Pacific. Crunchyroll, which streams the series, recently announced that a sequel is already in production.

Manga artist Naoya Matsumoto scored a big success when Kaiju No. 8 debuted in the manga anthology Shonen Jump in July 2020. In just four years, it’s sold more than 14 million books and been the subject of spinoff manga, a light novel and smartphone game. A “life-sized” statue of the title character was displayed in Tokyo’s Tachikawa Station earlier this year.

Producer Shunsuke Yanagisawa discussed the series with Animation Magazine in an email interview, sharing the challenges of adapting a manga that already had such a large following. “We felt significant pressure because the manga was already globally famous,” he said. “However, because the original work was so good and already had a strong fan base, we were able to make the anime something special. We wanted to ensure that fans of the original would enjoy it, but we also saw it as our mission to see how many new fans we could attract.”

A Strong Defense Team

In a world under attack by kaiju (monsters), the most admired figures are warriors of the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force, especially the redoubtable Mina Ashiro, captain of the Third Squadron. When she was a little girl, her calico cat was killed in a kaiju strike. She and her friend, Kafka Hibino, vowed to become the greatest fighters in the Defense Force. She succeeded; he didn’t.

Kafka has repeatedly taken the entrance exams — and failed. He works a grunt job, cleaning up the remains of kaiju slain by the Defense Force. (Somebody has to do it.) Kafka is 32. He knows he’s no longer as strong or as fast as he was 10 years ago. His experience and awareness of his limits give a very different perspective from the usual teenage anime hero.

“While protagonists in manga and anime are typically in their teens, it’s not uncommon to see protagonists in their 30s in Hollywood movies, where their age and life experience significantly impact the story,” says Yanagisawa. “Director Shigeyuki Miya and some of our staff members really saw themselves in Kafka, which I think had a positive influence on the anime’s direction.

“Kafka is a character who maintains his innocence and passion no matter what’s going on around him, which I believe appeals to younger audiences,” Yanagisawa continues. “Balancing the youthful aspects of his character with realism was challenging, but thanks to [voice actor] Masaya Fukunishi-san’s performance, it turned out fine.”

Although he’s a brave man who’ll risk his life to save others, Kafka is also a broadly comic figure, a contrast that adds layers to the character and interest to the story. “Director Tomomi Kamiya and the staff were keen on strongly emphasizing Kafka’s comic side,” Yanagisawa adds. “His comedic side is close to traditional Japanese shonen manga. Recent shonen manga [stories] have tended to be somewhat darker; we thought this approach would serve as a good counter to that trend. At the directors’ suggestion, we included small comedic exchanges, even in serious scenes, to create clear ups and downs. This not only clarified Kafka’s character but helped establish the overall tone of Kaiju No. 8 as a series.”

Early on, a kaiju strikes while Kafka and Reno Ichikawa, an 18-year-old co-worker, are shoveling gore from the last monster the Defense Force killed. While they recover from their injuries in the hospital, Reno persuades Kafka to apply for the Force one last time with him. Kafka ingests a tiny, parasitic kaiju that gives him the ability to transform into Kaiju No. 8, a powerful fusion of human and monster. Only Reno knows Kafka’s secret.

“At the beginning of the story, Reno’s presence serves to negatively emphasize Kafka’s age and what’s going on [in] his life,” explains Yanagisawa. “As the story progresses, Reno’s role shifts to reinforcing Kafka’s courageous and comic aspects. For Reno, Kafka becomes an ideal, giving him a firm foundation for the choices he makes, while also serving as a measure of his own dedication and growth.”

They both pass the exam (Kafka squeaks by). As cadets, they’re under the supervision of Mina — who must encourage the young troops while curbing Kafka’s overflowing enthusiasm.

“Mina’s presence is essential for making Kafka’s story work, so in the anime, we depicted their relationship in more detail,” says Yanagisawa. “I think the childhood flashbacks and the conversations with the Defense Force leadership are particularly noteworthy. Mina is a very challenging character to portray as she doesn’t speak much, but in these scenes, her bond with Kafka is expressed indirectly rather than by directly showing her emotions or thoughts. The adaptation by scriptwriter Ichirō Ōkouchi was brilliant in this regard.”

In his mutated form, Kafka can take down kaiju even the Defense Force teams can’t handle. But, like Clark Kent, he has to keep his powers secret. If anyone else in the Defense Force found out about his ability to transform, he would be killed. The threat of discovery deepens the bond between Kafka and Reno, and gives the characters greater complexity.

Matsumoto has said that he planned the manga to be read on smartphones, so the layouts had to be clear in that reduced format. Yanagisawa says, “I believe the dynamic layouts of the original had a positive influence on the animation. However, in terms of the changes Matsumoto-sensei made for smartphones, I think the storyline was more deeply affected. Smartphone readers prefer a faster pace than paper readers, so a lot of stories about the characters’ daily lives couldn’t be told. Matsumoto-sensei expressed a desire for us to put those stories back in, which aligned with the animation team’s approach.”

Kafka’s Monsters

Yanagisawa circles back to the challenges of adapting a popular series — and the changing demographics of anime fandom. “We were aware of the original work’s popularity overseas even before the anime adaptation was OK’d, but when we learned about the factors behind its success from Matsumoto-sensei and Shueisha [the publisher of the manga], there were some real surprises,” he recalls. “I think the protagonist’s age is one factor, but we also heard that Kafka’s profession as a cleanup guy was another. Hollywood superhero movies feature protagonists with various occupations; in manga, most protagonists are students. This was a refreshing change for global fans.”

“In terms of marketing, we wanted to attract an audience that hadn’t been very exposed to anime,” Yanagisawa concludes. “Within Japan, anime fans are primarily urban people in their 20s and 30s, so we set out to appeal to suburban residents, families and older age groups. Globally, we’re considering how to attract not just anime fans but viewers who might watch superhero movies but haven’t watched anime.”

 

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The first season of Kaiju No. 8 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll in 200 countries around the world.