About Kaiju No. 8
Kaiju No. 8 is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Naoya Matsumoto. It ran on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website from July 2020 to July 2025, 129 chapters collected in 16 volumes, and VIZ Media publishes it in English. Production I.G adapted it as a TV anime, with Studio Khara supervising the kaiju designs and Shigeyuki Miya directing (alongside Tomomi Kamiya on season 1). Season 1 aired from April to June 2024 and season 2 from July to September 2025, 23 episodes in all, and Crunchyroll streams it outside Japan. The story is due to conclude in a film, Kaiju No. 8: The Final Mission, in 2027.
Japan has the highest rate of kaiju attacks in the world, and the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force fights them in powered suits made from the remains of dead kaiju. As children, Kafka Hibino and Mina Ashiro saw their hometown destroyed by a kaiju and promised to join the Defense Force together. Mina is now captain of its Third Division. Kafka failed the entrance exam again and again, and at 32 he works for a company that clears away the corpses she leaves behind. Then the Defense Force raises its age limit, his new coworker Reno Ichikawa pushes him to try once more, and a tiny parasitic kaiju flies into his mouth. Kafka can now turn into a kaiju, which the Defense Force codenames Kaiju No. 8 and wants to destroy, and he has to hide it while he enlists.
From there the series widens out. Season 1 follows the entrance exam, where Kafka meets the prodigy Kikoru Shinomiya, the first missions of the Third Division, a talking humanoid kaiju later named Kaiju No. 9, and a raid on the Third Division's base that forces Kafka to reveal himself. Season 2 moves Kafka and Kikoru to the First Division under Gen Narumi, sees the Director General killed, and shows the Defense Force turning defeated kaiju into weapons called Numbers, before ending with No. 9's invasion under way. According to his editor, the series grew out of Matsumoto's love of tokusatsu, especially Ultraman, and Kafka's position, an older man chasing a dream everyone says he has left too late, drew partly on Matsumoto's own struggles in the manga industry.
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What the Kaiju No. 8 Quiz Tests
Our Kaiju No. 8 quiz covers the two TV seasons and the special "Hoshina's Day Off". It does not ask about the manga's final arc, the spin-offs or the game. Easy levels cover the premise and the cast: Kafka's job and how he became a kaiju, who leads which division, the signature weapons of Mina, Soshiro and Kikoru, what the combat suits are made of, and who made the series. The middle levels follow the story in order, from the entrance exam and the Sagamihara operation to the raid on Tachikawa Base, Kafka's fight with Isao Shinomiya, the move to the First Division and the Numbers weapons handed out in season 2. The hard levels go to the details: exam combat-power readings, which numbered kaiju did what, Kaiju No. 9's first disguise, the studio behind the kaiju designs and what Kaiju No. 8 was modelled on.
Key Characters
Kafka Hibino is an unusual hero for a battle series: 32, a little out of shape and long resigned to cleaning up after other people's victories, until a parasite gives him a kaiju body that registers a fortitude of 9.8 and he has to hide it from the army he is trying to join. Mina Ashiro, the childhood friend he promised to fight beside, is now the Third Division's captain, a marksman whose shots hit harder than any other captain's, and she still has a soft spot for him. Reno Ichikawa, his 18-year-old coworker, is the one who keeps his secret and pushes him forward. Kikoru Shinomiya, daughter of the Director General, is a prodigy driven by a father who demands perfection and a mother she lost to Kaiju No. 6. Soshiro Hoshina, the sword-wielding vice-captain, smiles constantly and suspects early on that Kafka is hiding something. Around them stand Gen Narumi, the lazy, brilliant captain of the First Division, and Kaiju No. 9, a humanoid kaiju that creates new kaiju and absorbs people to take their form and memories. Take the 'Which Kaiju No. 8 Character Are You?' personality quiz to find your match.
Available Quizzes
Kaiju No. 8 Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which Kaiju No. 8 Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover which Kaiju No. 8 character matches your personality!
Random Mix
Questions from all 51 anime including Kaiju No. 8. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
Kafka Hibino
Kikoru Shinomiya
Mina Ashiro
Reno Ichikawa
Soshiro Hoshina
Kaiju No. 8 Fun Facts
- Matsumoto drew on tokusatsu for the series, particularly Ultraseven, as well as Shin Godzilla and Pacific Rim. Kafka's predicament, still chasing his dream when everyone thinks he has left it too late, was partly inspired by Matsumoto's own career struggles in the manga industry.
- A coworker suggested that the kaiju codenames be based on the way typhoons are categorised, so that the monsters would read as natural disasters. The kaiju designs draw on mythological creatures, animals and plants.
- Kaiju No. 8's design was modelled on oni, the demons of Japanese folklore, and its colour scheme was inspired by the 1982 film Tron.
- In December 2020 Kaiju No. 8 became the fastest Shōnen Jump+ series to pass 30 million views. By September 2026 the manga had more than 20 million copies in circulation.
- The season 1 opening, "Abyss", is by Yungblud. OneRepublic performs every ending: "Nobody" for season 1, "Invincible" for Hoshina's Day Off and "Beautiful Colors" for season 2. "Nobody" won Song of the Year by Download (Western) at the 39th Japan Gold Disc Awards.
- From 26 to 29 April 2024, a life-size statue of Kafka's kaiju form stood at Tachikawa Station, in the city where the Third Division is based. His Japanese voice actor, Masaya Fukunishi, was made one-day manager of the Kaiju No. 8 shop in the station.
Kaiju No. 8 Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Kaiju No. 8 are there?
Twenty-three TV episodes across two seasons. Season 1 has 12 episodes and aired from 13 April to 29 June 2024; season 2 has 11, numbered 13 to 23, and aired from 19 July to 27 September 2025. There is also a special episode, "Hoshina's Day Off", shown in Japanese cinemas from March 2025 and on TV on 5 July 2025. The short series released on YouTube are extras and not part of the main story.
Is Kaiju No. 8 finished?
The manga is: its 129th and final chapter was published on 18 July 2025, and the 16th and last volume came out in Japan on 4 September 2025. The anime is not. Season 2 ends in the middle of Kaiju No. 9's invasion, and the conclusion will be a film, Kaiju No. 8: The Final Mission, scheduled for 2027.
What order should I watch Kaiju No. 8 in?
Season 1 (episodes 1–12), then the special "Hoshina's Day Off", which is numbered 12.5 and was released before season 2, then season 2 (episodes 13–23), and finally the film The Final Mission when it arrives. Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon, shown in cinemas in 2025, is a season 1 compilation screened with the special, so you can skip it if you have seen season 1.
Where can I watch Kaiju No. 8?
Crunchyroll streamed season 1 as it aired in Japan, with dubbed versions an hour after each broadcast, and also streams season 2. In Southeast Asia the series is licensed by Medialink for its Ani-One Asia YouTube channel, and Crunchyroll released season 1 on Blu-ray in North America in December 2025. Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services.
What is Kaiju No. 8 about?
It follows Kafka Hibino, a 32-year-old who cleans up dead kaiju for a living and has all but given up on the promise he made as a boy to join the Defense Force with his childhood friend Mina Ashiro. Just as he gets one last chance at the entrance exam, a parasite gives him the power to turn into a kaiju, and he has to fight his way into the Defense Force while hiding that he is the monster it has been ordered to destroy.
