Kaiju No. 8 vol. 3

Vol. 2 ended with Ichikawa and Iharu at the mercy of the (named in this volume) Kaiju No. 9.  Fortunately, Kafka showed up in time to take on this new threat and things go shockingly well for him.  So well that you wonder what the catch is going to be in this situation.  That turns out to be Capt. Hoshina showing up and demonstrating to our protagonist why he’s second in power after Mina.  I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Kafka gets away, and while this does cause Hoshina to reconsider a few things, this leads into a big party a little while later at the base for everyone who survived.  Our protagonist even gets a promotion out of this event, just in time for the base to come under attack from some even more powerful kaiju.  The enemy is stepping up their game but the defense force is more than ready to throw down on their home turf.

I expressed some concern last time that “Kaiju No. 8” felt like it was going to turn into a straightforward battle manga while coasting off the appeal of its core concept.  Vol. 3 doesn’t offer any indication that’s going to change, but it does show that mangaka Naoya Matsumoto’s execution is only getting better,  All of the fights in this volume are quite satisfying in that they not only deliver some flashy action, but also show the characters demonstrating a reasonable amount of strategy as well.  Sure there’s the expected nonsense about how the character’s suit power is noted to indicate their true strength (there’s even a “limiter release” bit too), but Matsumoto does a good job of selling the threats that the characters face.  Especially at the end when the fight gets taken to the defense force.

Vol. 3 isn’t the game-changer that I was hoping this series would deliver, as the storytelling doesn’t deliver anything outside of the shonen action norms.  It does, however, deliver on making that action bigger and better than what’s come before, and I can certainly see myself continuing to read this series until that’s no longer the case.  As well as checking out the recently announced anime adaptation when it drops next year.