© 3rd Unit of the Defense Force Matsumoto Naoya/ShueiShi
Episode 14 Kaiju No. 8 Begins to be strong, but not fully rooted.
I like the premise of entering face value this week. Kaiju attacks are composed of many giant ants that act as universal bad guys, high in number but weak alone. This means there is a lot to do with the least risk of our heroes – a classic superhero setting for everyone to showcase their strength, attitude, method, and more. Each character becomes glitz, cool, putting down heroic lines or irony, and we quickly spin the entire cast.
This has two main purposes. First, it’s an opportunity to reintroduce audiences to return actors. It’s been a minute since Season 1, which helps us remember everyone’s abilities, their heroic motivations and more. It can also help attract new audiences who haven’t seen the pace of last season yet. Second, it acts as a test case in the universe, with the hero proving himself to the First Division and the commanders. They demonstrated their abilities and were tested to see if they had the ability to keep pace with the older boys.
In this battle, I also like the general design of Kaiju No 9. It clearly mentions the ophiocordyceps universalis from the way it sprouts on the head (I don’t remember on the dome, I googled “zombie ant fungi” like a normal person). It’s so cool to see the ants refactor and change their colors, mimicking the popular concept of zombie fungi.
I think the part about this episode losing me is the whole scene of Kafka. I’m glad the little scenes of the real opening player and civilians, but Kafka’s inability to power up didn’t do much for me. The scene seemed to last much longer than I expected and I couldn’t feel the bet. If some of the civilians we saw earlier in the episodes were in direct danger, and Kafka suffered “if I don’t change now, those people will die!” Then, it would raise the ante significantly. Instead, no one else on the scene was dangerous, as it was all well trained Kaiju Defence Force agents, and his Kaiju-Henshin dysfunction would only hurt his chances in the new department. A little disappointed with the originally solid plot.
grade:
Kaiju No. 8 Currently flowing
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