Kaiju No. 8 Season 2

Episode 19

Episode 19 of Kaiju No. 8 is successful in setting up the next wave of heroic kaiju hunters despite its rather transparent methods.

The central piece of this week's outing is Ichikawa trying to master the Kaiju No. 6 power. I'm a bit mixed on how this plays out. On the one hand, the setup is classic kaiju stuff, and the monster has a few key touches that I really like. The fact that the creature has been active since 1967 is an obvious homage to Ultraman, which I appreciate. I doubly appreciate that the area the kaiju is in is a place with rolling green hills that could have come right out of a Tsuburaya Productions back lot.

It makes a lot of sense for the battle to happen out in the middle of nowhere like this. Military or military-adjacent organizations in kaiju works often relocate the big monsters out of urban centers to minimize collateral damage. It keeps the kaiju from having lots of easy targets, and it lets the heroes cut loose with all the heavy firepower they want without much fear of harming civilians. Ichikawa's test scenario here is exactly this, letting him try his new ice-based powers with as few lives on the line as possible, not to mention the rest of the defense force waiting in the wings to deploy if he is in over his head.

My issue with the setup is that this, by definition, limits the stakes of the battle. There's an attempt to make this feel like Ichikawa is doing this for others, and sure, if he had been stronger in the past, he might have mitigated some issues his teammates had. But to be blunt, he hasn't been a character with much agency up until now, and it's hard to take this as seriously as he does. We just haven't spent as much time with Ichikawa in the past, and in the present, there is no one in much immediate danger either. It's meant to be melodramatic, but it doesn't feel that sincere or effective.

That said, Furuhashi's moment of glory is very effective. We've seen enough of him to feel his presence in the narrative, and it means something that he gets a chance to shine. Perhaps most important is that he is trying to save Ichikawa and convince the commander to give him a chance, giving his moment higher stakes than Ichikawa's almost by default. It all comes together to make for a very strong finish to the episode.

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Kaiju No. 8 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.