Clocking in for the Second Season of ‘Kaiju No. 8’

Last year, Production I.G introduced us to Kafka Habino, a thirty-two-year-old who had all the aspiration and intention to fight alongside his childhood friend Mina Ashiro but none of the physicality for the demanding job. Instead, he works cleaning up the aftermath of Kaiju fights. Now of course, with a name like Kafka, he was always kinda doomed to experience some sort of body horror transformation. Shortly after meeting 18-year-old Reno Ichikawa who resparked his dream to join the Defense Force, Kafka also met a little kaiju critter who proceeded to do kaiju shenanigans. Without a lick of explanation, Kafka discovered he could transform into a kaiju. But not just any kaiju. A kaiju so powerful that it gets a designated numeric designation: the titular Kaiju No. 8. The first season saw Kafka entering the Defense Force, training, fumbling, and ultimately making himself useful both as a human and as a kaiju, although not without consequences. The second season of Kaiju No. 8 picks up shortly in the aftermath of the Third Division base. Kafka is still under surveillance, while his compatriots have been temporarily reassigned to different divisions while their home base gets rebuilt.

What follows in the first two episodes of the second season is pretty stock for your shonen series. There is a new status quo being established. The good guys are attempting to rediscovering their bearings, and the bad guys are unrelenting in their endeavors. As someone who caught up on the man…