Every manga these days seems practically guaranteed to receive an anime adaptation before it hits 100 chapters, and it’s especially true for the shonen genre. From Jujutsu Kaisen to Spy x Family earlier this year and the upcoming Chainsaw Man, the popularity of the medium means it won’t be long before the series you’re reading soon becomes the series you’re watching every weekend. And if you’re a fan of the superhero manga Kaiju No. 8, congrats: it too is receiving an anime adaptation.
The news broke on Friday courtesy of Toho Animation with a video that’s heavy on black-and-white photos of Japan, but little else. The manga, released in 2020 and created by Naoya Matsumoto, tells the story of ordinary guy Kafka Hibino. As the janitor of Japan’s kaiju-fighting Defence Force, a tiny kaiju gets into his body, granting him the ability to transform at will into a kaiju while maintaining his sentience. So naturally, he joins the Defence Force and must keep his kaiju side a secret while also using his newfound powers to protect Japan alongside his childhood friend Mina.
We wrote about Kaiju No. 8 back in 2021 and found it to be a pretty great kaiju story at a time when kaiju were having themselves a pretty good resurgence in pop culture. The series has been a big hit on Shonen Jump, and in late 2021 became the platform’s fastest manga to reach 4 million copies circulated. If there were any manga that seemed primed for an anime, it would certainly be this one.
Sure, we’ll have to wait a year or two before we see the Kaiju No. 8 anime, but that gives you plenty of time to catch up on the manga and figure out if it’s for you.
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