Kaiju No. 8 episode 2 review

The fight is on for Kaiju No. 8. Not the fight between the kaiju and the defense force (or whatever they’re called), but the fight to avoid the cliches of the shounen genre. And boy, is it an uphill battle. I’m not sure it’s going to make it. But at least for now, there is some entertainment.

So the main character, whose name escapes me, has turned into a kaiju (which I assume means “monster”) and now has super strength. He uses that strength to save a girl and her mother from another kaiju. All is well until he just suddenly turns back to being human. Now we have a problem.

You see, the ability to change back and forth between human and kaiju is way too convenient. What I was hoping for was a showdown between the main character and his sister as she didn’t know who or what he was, and it would require an epic battle to solve the conflict. Nope! Instead, he goes back to being human on a complete whim. There’s some humor involved, too, which is probably the saving grace of this easy transformation. But now, since it’s so easy to turn back and forth between human and kaiju, we have the formula for the usual cliches of a shounen series. Can this series avoid them?

Best girl of the episode: the main character’s sister

Episode rating: 6/10