Kaiju No. 8: A Monster-Sized Hit

Story and Art by Naoya Matsumoto

Who said you’re too old to be a hero? That’s the question mangaka Naoya Matsumoto decided to answer when he published his science fiction manga Kaiju No. 8 in 2020, starring 32-year-old protagonist, Kafka Hibino.

Thank Goodness He’s Not a Kid!

A tale (almost) as old as time, shonen protagonists have classically been 15-year-old boys with only a few exceptions here and there. The most common trope in shonen anime/manga is a teenaged boy awakens latent powers and has to save the world from enemies that get tougher the further along they get in their journey. Example: Ichigo Kurosaki. He began his journey at 15 and fought stronger and stronger enemies as Bleach went on. But not Kafka Hibino.

Kafka Hibino Crashes Onto the Scene

anime produced by Production I.G.

The story follows Kafka Hibino, a 32-year-old man who helped clean up the leftover bodies of defeated kaiju, giant monsters that cause disasters.

For years, Kafka dreamed of joining the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force, a highly esteemed and powerful organisation tasked with eliminating kaijus. However, after failing the entrance exam over and over again for years, he gave up on joining the Defense Force when he aged out. Then, one day, a young man named Reno Ichikawa gave him hope, telling him the Defense Force had raised the age limit.

After saving Reno from a kaiju and being hospitalised, Kafka came face to face with a mysterious little kaiju. The kaiju forced its way into Kafka’s body and transformed him into Kaiju no. 8. Despite the drastic transformation, he continued to try and join the Defense Force, all while hiding his new kaiju form from the people sworn to eliminate a creature like him.

It's Got Everything I Ever Wanted

Kafka hibino in chapter 7

For so long I was tired of seeing kids being thrown into situations where they shouldn’t be. I wanted something new. Something fresh. Well, I got my wish, and I cannot describe how happy I was when I first started reading Kaiju No. 8 and discovered Kafka wasn’t going to be your typical manga protagonist. He isn’t an inexperienced teenaged kid with latent powers being thrown into life-or-death situations. He’s an adult.

To my delight, Kafka wasn’t the only amazing character in the series. All the side characters are fun, unique, and special in their own way. There are a few teenagers in the Defense Force, but only a handful are younger than eighteen. To me, that’s a much more acceptable age than fifteen for side characters in a shonen.

However, there are also a lot of adults in the story. The captain of the Kaiju Defense Force division Kafka joins is a 27-year-old woman named Mina Ashiro. She’s Kafka’s childhood friend who inspired him to keep fighting for his dream even when things got hard.

It's not just the protagonist and his friends that make the story so amazing. Even though the animation is different from the art in the manga (as is to be expected), the action is nonetheless just as epic across both versions. I’ll be honest, I think the anime handles the action better than the manga, but that’s only because I can see the characters moving around and there’s music, colour, and sound effects. Nevertheless, both are definitely worth the experience.

On another note, the anime brought me my most listened to song of the year. The opening, Abyss by YUNGBLUD, has been on repeat for me since June, and it’s December! I’ve also watched the entire show twice in the past six months because I liked it so much.

It’s More Than Worth It

kafka hibino in episode 5

Naoya Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 was the most refreshing sci-fi shonen manga/anime I’ve encountered in a long time. I’ve seen too many anime to count and have read even more manga, and this one really stood out to me. It’s funny, action-packed, has excellent characters, a great story, and the anime has a killer soundtrack!

All in all, Kaiju No. 8 is an anime and manga well worth your time with an inspiring message to everyone. It’s never too late to chase your dreams. I think that no other protagonist in modern anime better embodies that idea than Kafka Hibino, who picked himself back up and continued to follow his dreams, even if it meant putting himself in danger to protect those he cares about.

So, head out there and see for yourself why Kaiju No. 8 is so amazing. Don’t just take my word for it.

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Jessica Eyre lives with her family and three cats in Ottawa. She spends her time writing, drawing, reading, watching anime and movies, playing video games, and generally avoiding people. She prefers to spend her time cuddling with her cats while writing her next story or getting lost in another book. With ten years of writing as a hobby under her belt and being on the Dean’s List two semesters in a row in Professional Writing from Algonquin College, she has plenty of experience in the writing world. She’s no stranger to words. They’re her first love and greatest passion – aside from cats of course.

Dorohedoro: Anime vs. Manga

Story and art by q hayashida

They say the book is better, but that’s not always the case. However, this time I think it might be true for Dorohedoro.

Subpar Adaptations

Fans of anime and manga have had to put up with terrible, bizarre, or dissimilar adaptations for years, such as the 2016 Berserk adaptation. We didn’t get a faithful, well- received adaptation until Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition in 2022, after Kentaro Miura passed away. It took the death of the beloved author to get a stellar adaptation!

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa was also victim of a different adaptation. The 2003 version is wildly different from the manga, but that’s because the story wasn’t finished yet. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in 2009 was much better and faithful to the manga.

Even One Punch Man by ONE is different. The way the characters look is unlike their manga counterparts. I love the show, but the style of the characters wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

What’s Up With the Colours?

anime produced by mappa

In the case of Dorohedoro, I watched the anime long before I read the manga. Normally I read the story first. Instead, I’d watched it at least three times before I started reading it. I enjoyed the anime! I thought it was awesome. I still do. But after reading the manga, I’ve started to look at it differently.

Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida is a dark, gritty, messed-up story about Caiman, a man disfigured by magic, trying to lift the curse placed on him. There’s a lot of themes and plot lines in the story, but in short, it’s brutal. Some of the panels in the manga were hard for me to read. But those same scenes in the anime almost made me laugh because of the animation style and lack of tone. The animation and use of bright colours honestly lessened the impact for me.

Don’t get me wrong, the anime can have pretty intense scenes, but I don’t feel like they have as much punch as they did in the manga. I think it was the decision to use a bright colour palette.

I would have been fine with a bright colour palette for the anime if they’d added more of the grittiness that the manga has. Keep the colours, but overlay them with texture, grime, and blood like in the manga. I’ve seen it done in other anime, such as Akira, Devilman Crybaby, and Bleach: TYBW. All three of those have brighter colours, but the texture and blood add a darker element to the scene.

That is Certainly an Interesting Face

en’s manga introduction

Another choice the anime made was the design of the characters. I know the art style changes across mediums and characters will look different, but I found they looked a bit too different.

For instance, the first time I really noticed the difference was in En, one of the main antagonists in the series. I love En’s character in both adaptations, but I found it a bit strange that the anime chose to make him look, shall we say, handsome? In the manga, the first time I saw him I recoiled. He looked like a creepy gremlin of a man that instantly put me on edge. In the anime, I thought “Wow, look at this goofy-looking mushroom farmer,” and went on with my day. There wasn’t as much bang to his introduction in the anime versus the manga.

It's Not All Bad, I Swear!

en’s anime introduction

One thing the anime did right is the humour. There are moments in the manga that made me chuckle and the anime made them even better, making me laugh aloud. The voice acting helped add to the emphasis of the moment.

A lot of the characters are goofy by nature across both mediums. Hearing them say the lines or jokes is a totally different experience from reading it. Audio helps with tone and inflection, which is lost when you read something.

Despite the differences and my critiques, both are incredibly good. They’re each worth the time, regardless of whether you think one is better. You lose something from each without the other.

But don’t take my word for it! Watch and/or read Dorohedoro and decide for yourself which one you like best!

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Jessica Eyre lives with her family and three cats in Ottawa. She spends her time writing, drawing, reading, watching anime and movies, playing video games, and generally avoiding people. She prefers to spend her time cuddling with her cats while writing her next story or getting lost in another book. With ten years of writing as a hobby under her belt and being on the Dean’s List two semesters in a row in Professional Writing from Algonquin College, she has plenty of experience in the writing world. She’s no stranger to words. They’re her first love and greatest passion – aside from cats of course.

Golden Kamuy: Why it Should be Your Next Read (or Watch)

story and art by satoru noda

As an anime fan you probably grew up watching or reading Dragon Ball (Akira Toriyama) and the ‘big three’. Maybe you started with one of the greatest of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist (Hiromu Arakawa). Whatever the case, now you’re looking to move from the shonen genre for young teens to seinen, the genre for young and mature adults, and you don’t know where to start. Lucky for you, I know a great one to get you started.

Action. Mystery. Revenge. Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda is an underrated gem of a historical seinen manga with an anime that’s just as exceptional. It may not be as popular as other titans such as Berserk (Kentaro Miura), Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue), or Vinland Saga (Makoto Yukimura), it’s nevertheless an incredible story with unforgettable characters.

Golden Kamuy follows Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran soldier from the Russo-Japanese war, and young Asirpa, an Ainu girl (the indigenous people of Japan), as they traverse the wild landscape of Meiji era Hokkaido to unravel the mystery of stolen Ainu gold.

From the first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime, Golden Kamuy lets you know that you’re in for an unforgettable ride. Both begin on the battlefield of 203 metre hill, a brutal battle fought during the siege of Port Arthur between Japan and Russia in 1904. The manga and anime showcase the violence of war and the human will to survive through the eyes of Sugimoto.

After the war, Sugimoto heads to Hokkaido in hopes of finding gold and striking it rich quick. He’s unsuccessful, not even finding a single flake. All hope seemed lost until a drunk old man tells him an interesting story about Ainu gold and the man who stole it from them after he murdered the men guarding it.

The thief managed to hide the 20 kan of gold (an old Japanese unit of measurement equal to 75 kilograms that was worth 80,000 yen in 1904, but 800 million yen in modern terms, or 7.3 million Canadian dollars) before he was caught and thrown in Abashiri prison, a real prison that still stands today.

While there, the thief tattooed the location of the gold on other prisoners’ bodies. He he told them to break out and he’d split the gold with anyone who escaped. Later, all the prisoners were transported by the government to another location as they hoped to find the gold for themselves, but all of the convicts escaped along the way.

Intrigued, Sugimoto pressed the old man for more details, only for him to fall asleep. At first Sugimoto doubted the legitimacy of the story, but when the old man tried to kill him, he knew the story was true. Sugimoto soon discovered the old man was one of the tattooed prisoners after a bear attacked and killed him. Shortly after that, he met Asirpa, a native Ainu girl, and told her the story of the gold.

anime produced by geno studio

To his surprise, she’s the daughter of one of the men murdered by the gold thief. From that moment on, they both agreed to work together to find the gold and get revenge for her father.

Golden Kamuy is one of the most historically intriguing manga I’ve read to date. The attention to detail in the culture and way of life of the Ainu people isn’t something I’ve seen before in a historical manga.

The history isn’t the only thing I love about it; unlike Berserk, it isn’t as gruesome or violent. Yes it has its moments of blood and gore, but it isn’t excessive. It uses those moments to drive home a point or showcase the brutality of some of the characters. Every drop of blood is shed with a purpose.

Another aspect of Golden Kamuy I enjoyed is its comedy. Though the story can become dark and depressing, with moments where some of the characters experience post traumatic stress, it never fails to make me laugh. The humour can be goofy and over-the-top, but it adds to the charm! It doesn’t take itself as seriously as Vinland Saga and that unseriousness makes it fun.

If you’re looking for something exciting, with real historical events and culture, action, adventure, mystery, revenge, a cast of unforgettable characters, beautiful art or superb voice-acting, then Golden Kamuy is the manga or anime for you. I won’t tell you whether the anime or manga is better; that’s best left up for you to decide, dear reader.

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Jessica Eyre lives with her family and three cats in Ottawa. She spends her time writing, drawing, reading, watching anime and movies, playing video games, and generally avoiding people. She prefers to spend her time cuddling with her cats while writing her next story or getting lost in another book. With ten years of writing as a hobby under her belt and being on the Dean’s List two semesters in a row in Professional Writing from Algonquin College, she has plenty of experience in the writing world. She’s no stranger to words. They’re her first love and greatest passion – aside from cats of course.