Kaiju No. 8 Season 2

Episode 16

Episode 16 of Kaiju No. 8 was the biggest letdown of the season yet.

The premise of this week's episode lost me from the start and never regained my interest. Maybe that's too harsh, and I'm being overly critical. Maybe it worked for you, dear reader, to which I express my joy. But for me, the entire setup of this episode deflated my interest in its happenings and made me reconsider how positive I was regarding the past few weeks' events.

The core issue for me is the setup of the fight between Kaiju No. 9 and Isao. The way Kaiju No. 9 teleports to his location to fight Isao feels contrived (okay, I know he doesn't exactly teleport, but you get what I mean). He jumps across town in an instant and has a big one-on-one fight with Isao the moment the latter says to himself that the next generation has things handled, more or less. I audibly groaned when it happened because it's like a cop saying they're two days from retirement – you KNOW what's coming next. Isao said that, so of course Kaiju No. 9 immediately finds him and solos him in a big dramatic battle, only the contrivance makes it feel not that dramatic at all.

Not to mention it cheapens a lot of what we just watched before this. We spent three weeks building up to Kafka being back in the game, only to have Kaiju No. 9 immediately peace out, and so far, the entire first division can't chase him before he's killed their commander? This might have worked a bit better for me if there had been more of a running chase or battle across town with Kaiju No. 9 pushing past them to get to the command tent, rather than doing kaiju instant transmission.

The fight itself is not much to write home about either. There are a few nice cuts of Isao, particularly when he is supercharged with lightning/power, but for the most part, it's rather flat, rapid punches and death fake outs. Combined with the fact that the fight happens in what is essentially a ruined parking lot with a bunch of onlookers commenting on human limits, etc., it just feels like any run-of-the-mill action-adventure stuff because it lacks the sense of scale that gives kaiju fights their unique texture.

Let's hope next week brings a bit more of the juice and creativity.

Rating:

Kaiju No. 8 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.