Kaiju No.8

With all the composure I can muster, I believe this spring was one of the best anime seasons in history.

New titles, returns of old favorites, grand finales—we had it all.

However, what stood out with its overwhelming hype was Kaiju No. 8. It deserves every syllable of the praise it received.

Naoya Matsumoto's work is a beautiful, coherent, and careful amalgamation of beloved modern shonen tropes. Essentially, it's an Attack On Titan without the soul-crushing darkness. Not in a sense of copying, but in healthy inspiration and reasoning.

The premise is simple and understandable. In the modern world, there are monsters, the Kaiju, which are exterminated by an elite security force. With this base, the thread of excellent world-building unravels, highlighting the contemporary Japanese landscape with fantasy elements, featuring well-written characters you can not only relate to but understand their purpose beyond just filling the panels.

Beautiful artwork, humor, emotion, suspense. Kaiju No. 8 is deservedly one of the most popular manga in Japan right now, and its anime adaptation didn't make waves by accident.

Generally, after adopting the seasonal model, there has been a steep upgrade in animation, storytelling, pacing, and everything else. The old tropes of endless build-up are fading, and new approaches to storytelling are gaining ground. It might be safe to say that, if we aren't already, we're headed full steam ahead into a new golden age of anime.

Anime fans and non-fans alike, give it a chance. It won't disappoint you.

P.S. Unrelated to Kaiju, but I hope that when Boruto part 2 returns, it will also be in a seasonal format and not weekly.

P.S.2. I just binge read the manga in a day.

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