Kaiju No. 8 vols. 5 & 6

Why yes, it has been a while since we’ve checked in with this series.  Consider this the start of a digital manga catch-up week around here.

You’d think that I’d have wanted to follow-up on the adventures of Kafka Hibino sooner, what with vol. 4 leaving off with him having to prove that he’s still human enough for the Defense Force.  While at the mercy of one of its strongest members, Isao Shinomiya – Kikoru’s father!  Assuming that he does live through their efforts to see if he’s still human, Kafka is still going to have to deal with the menace presented by Kaiju No. 9 who is currently doing what all proper shonen antagonists do between battles:  Getting stronger.  Fortunately the Defense Force still has their ace in the hole with Gen Narumi.  He may come off as a hopeless gaming nerd, but he’s got the skills and focus where it counts.  It’s all in the eyes, baby!

I imagine there are a lot of people who rolled their eyes at my attempt to pretend that Kafka won’t survive his interrogation at Isao’s hands.  “Kaiju No. 8” has shown itself to be faithful to a fault when it comes to observing the conventions of shonen manga.  These two volumes continue to show zero deviation from them, which does take some of the fun out of the proceedings.  This is even with mangaka Naoya Matsumoto’s top-tier execution as he’s determined to showcase all of the tropes with a level of flash that they arguably don’t deserve.  

While this doesn’t get me jazzed for the future of the manga itself, it does leave the door open for the forthcoming anime to be the best version of this story.  With heavy-hitters Production I.G. and Studio Khara involved, it’s entirely possible that the “Kaiju No. 8” anime could be visually dazzling enough to forgive the story its near-total lack of originality.  Much in the same way that the “Attack on Titan” anime did.  Until then, we’re at least left with a solid execution of a lot of familiar shonen manga tropes.