Kaiju No. 8

Episode 11

Episode 11 manages to ratchet up the tension, action, and visual fidelity to the highest levels in the season thus far.

I have to admit, I was skeptical of the timing of the reveal in the last episode. Kafka's secret identity being fully compromised seemed like a huge card to play this early on in the series. I knew it would have to come at some point— all secret identities are bound to be dramatically revealed; these are the laws of the storytelling universe—but I was not quite sure it had been in the over long enough to fully cook, so to speak. I find that the secret identity needs to remain secret long enough to build up enough potential energy to make the revelation hit extra hard and cause maximum chaos. I wasn't sure the series had given enough time for that to be the case. Similarly, the big revelation to everyone (whoever that may be) can only happen once without resorting to various literary tricks to try and put the cat bag in the bag, which often has diminishing returns on repeat reveals.

I am happy to say that my fears were proven wholly wrong, at least so far.

Kafka's revelation has brought out the cast's best. We get roughly a dozen poignant and interesting character moments rapid-fire in this episode, my favorite being the sub-text around the salute as Kafka was carted off. Additionally, we get the introduction of a truly menacing character in Isao Shinomiya. He's powerful, driven, and almost more monstrous than any of the beasties that have appeared thus far. I have to wonder if the date on his gauntlets is a reference to the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan, as Gigan is pretty notorious for having dangerous limbs (though his are more blade-like rather than the piston-punch action Isao's gauntlets give). Not to mention, the entire battle sequence was full of wonderfully varied choreography and big bombastic attacks.

This week was probably my favorite entry of the entire season.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Kaiju No. 8 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.