In a Kaiju-filled Japan, Kafka Hibino works in monster disposal. After reuniting with his childhood friend Mina Ashiro, a rising star in the anti-Kaiju Defense Force, he decides to pursue his abandoned dream of joining the Force… when he suddenly transforms into the powerful “Kaiju No. 8.” With help from his junior colleague Reno Ichikawa, Kafka hides his identity while striving towards his life-long dream of passing the Defense Force exam and standing at Mina’s side. But when a mysterious intelligent Kaiju attacks a Defense Force base, Kafka faces a crucial decision in a desperate situation… 

Review

The omnibus film Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon features an action-packed recap of season one and a new original episode, Hoshina’s Day Off.

(Hoshina’s Day Off) A day off… a rare day of peace for the Defense Force. After spending so long training, Reno has forgotten what he’s supposed to do with free time. He sees that Hoshina is up to something with his own day off, and decides to go on a mission to tail him with Iharu! But then things go in an unexpected direction…

The omnibus portion of the film takes 90 minutes to recap the entire first season of Kaiju No. 8. Overall, it gives a decent overview to remind viewers of what happened leading into the upcoming second season. Season 2 hits Crunchyroll in July. The issue is that several important, nuanced moments are missing in the recap. While you would expect them to cut out the fluff, these missing moments hurt the context of the first season.

The first missing moment is between Kafka and Reno as the former comes to grips with becoming a Kaiju. The others are when it skips everything that occurred post-Kafka’s arrest. Still, for all the moments trimmed out, the rest comes through as a fit, concise story that recaps the events of season 1. It removes many of the pitfall tropes of shonen anime and focuses mostly on overall character growth and advancing the story to prepare viewers for season 2.

For the OVA episode Hoshina’s Day Off, we get a fun side story where the newest members of the defense force, minus Kafka, follow the vice captain around to see what he does on his day off. The 26-minute episode was a fun side quest that doesn’t advance the narrative much. Though the potential implications of Hoshina’s activities might come up in season 2.

Kaiju No. 8 is adapted from the original manga created by Naoya Matsumoto. It is animated by Production I.G (GHOST IN THE SHELL), with kaiju artwork and design supervision by Studio Khara (Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition, Shin Godzilla Pre-Visualization Development). This is where the theatrical approach plays well for the series. Production I.G. and Studio Khara pull out all the stops to provide a visually stunning release for theaters, both in animation style and fight scenes. The same duo who produced season 1’s stunning visuals returned. 

The opening and closing music from the omnibus film and OVA were nice additions to an already stacked musical soundtrack for the series. The new ending theme song is by returning band OneRepublic, titled “Invincible”. They also did the ending song for season 1.

Kaiju No. 8: Misson Recon is in theaters in the US starting today April 13th-April 16th.