Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Kaiju No. 8
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AdditionalRamen
Posts: 8 |
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I 100% agree with the rest of your critique but you lost me here. I'm not caught up with the manga so I don't know where it goes in the future, but right now the point of Mina's character is not to be a romantic conquest for Kafka. She's the most skilled member of the defense force. His goal is to reach her level and fight kaiju alongside her. I'm happy to see women being taken seriously as combatants in this anime, so it feels frustrating that a viewer can see Mina's character and wonder primarily whether she might be Kafka's girlfriend in the future. I think at this point the better question is, "Is Kafka a compelling enough character that I want to root for him to reach Mina's level?" |
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baianojack
Posts: 9 |
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I am caught up on the manga and so far this goes more like World Trigger. Very shonen style setups but darker. Something like Blue Exorcist. This seems more concerned with Kafka and his standing fighting Kaiju. I personally like how Mina is portrayed |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3671 |
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Guess this other guy wasn't human before.
Probably good for keeping it a secret, but I was surprised that Kafka's transformation didn't heal his human side.
Ah, true, but then you could say that that reflects pretty poorly on Kafka on only going with the literal interpretation and not having any flexibility. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4382 Location: New York |
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I wasn’t expecting the first major arc to be the kaiju hunting equivalent of “Guy in his 30s tries the NFL combine one last time.” The parallels run way closer to aging athletes seeking one last shot at the big time than anything else.
But STOP cutting to that instructor laughing. I want him dead in the worst way, and that’s never a good sign. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1028 |
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Well, frankly, it's quite irrelevant if she becomes his girlfriend or not, if we change their relationship the the run of the mill shounen rivals, then it's necessary to present said rival as somebody worth to be chased. I know she is strong because... people say so, I saw her killing 1 kaiju in episode 1 and that's all... I don't know if that kaiju was strong nor if anybody else could have killed it better or not and her personality can be summarised as... not existent. At this point in the plot, Shinomiya is 1000% a better character and rival than her. I suppose the problem is that I simply cannot empatice with Kafka, his whole thing is being an ancient 30 years old mommy... it feels like that annoying thingy of shounen characters calling everybody older than 25 an old man morphed into a series. Thus, I must root for him to get in the level of Mina not because she is cool, but because Kafka's life is virtually over and he only has 60 years more to live... what was Mina's age again? |
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malvarez1
Posts: 1703 |
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Hopefully he grows on you, he’s one of the most popular characters in the series. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4382 Location: New York |
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That is…concerning. At least with the kid you knew she was going to pay for her hubris (and apparently she’s screwed up because of her family, which makes sense), and I was hoping for something similar here. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4441 |
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I'm not expecting answers anytime soon, but the introduction of this other humanoid kaiju has me wondering about some greater motivation behind them. The bug one says, "Found you," and then immediately infects Kafka. Now we have one that is the opposite of Kafka, where the kaiju is the dominant personality morphing into a human, and he is posing as a new employee with the cleanup crew. Is the cleanup crew being specifically targeted for some reason?
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MFrontier
Posts: 11399 |
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Kafka is really turning into One Punch Kaiju as Kaiju No. 8.
Kikoru looks like a show-off constantly stealing kills from everyone else just to flaunt how skilled she is, but it seems like part of that is also trying to prioritize killing Kaiju so no one gets hurt and that's part of why she strives so hard to be perfect and live up to her fathers' expectations. But trying so hard to be perfect when that isn't enough can be utterly crippling, even on-top of the obvious emotional scars of how little affection her father showed her since childhood. But that made Kafka being there for her and praising her all the more meaningful. Kafka and Mina talked! Kind of...also I guess Kafka doesn't have an active healing factor otherwise he wouldn't need to be in the hospital. Hiroyuki Yoshino and Tomokazu Sugita together as a baddie? Neat.
I'm not sure if they're consciously aware of it because this one didn't seem to really understand human conventions well but being part of the clean-up crew gives them access to Kaiju corpses (which this guy can revive and make stronger) and they're generally beneath everyone's notice. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1028 |
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Dunno... episode 5 and we still have "tell don't show issues", we even needed somebody to tell us Mina is in peak muscular condition because she looks like any other anime girl out there.
Mind you, peak woman condition is a character like Mirko or Mikasa. And, for this life of mine, I still don't have a baseline for these percentages... Is a good soldier 20%, 100%, 60%, 150%? Episode had various good jokes though. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 1703 |
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This is one of those episodes that actually improved a lot over the manga version. Small touches here and there went a long way.
That said, the pacing of this show (it’s one-cour I think) has been slightly slower than I expected. I’m not sure how far the plot is even going to move by the end. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11399 |
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On paper being the comedy relief hire as a cadet is actually good as a cover because no one would suspect that they're secretly a super-powered humanoid Kaiju. Well, other than the guy who approved him.
Mina was this close to saying Kafka's name like she used to. But I guess we'll settle for her smile. I get the sense that she's so caught up in being this absolute, unshakeable, pillar of the defense force that she takes no consideration for having someone to support her...which is where Kafka comes in. I can't believe it took me this long to realize Iharu is Takemichi. Nothing sells a tsundere like her immediately blushing the moment you walk in a room. Respect to the show for giving us so much naked men in the bath without doing the same for the women. I guess they thought post-bath Mina with her hair down was enough female fanservice. They really sold the squad bonding together with Kafka at the center. I imagine Hoshina is talking from experience from losing a lot of comrades in battle. Though he did get a little more vulnerable when he got flustered over Kafka basically being after his job. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3671 |
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~3 months seems a bit short to send them out to fight literal monsters, or at least to the frontlines as seems to be implied here, but they do seem to be short on man power... (and are probably about to be shorter).
Speaking of man power, it'd be nice to know just how big this organization is and how it's organized just to get a good perspective on things |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11384 |
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I dunno, they fought literal monsters just to get accepted, albeit under supposedly controlled conditions. Three months actual training on top of the skills they already possessed coming in seems not unreasonable?
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KaidoYuji8Shinji
Posts: 119 Location: Manchester, NH |
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I find this show HILARIOUS! I am liking it so far, mostly for the comedy and the characters. The character designs and animation are “eh” for me, which is disappointing considering this is IG. The story itself? It’s okay so far too. The comedy is what is selling me.
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