A Japanese take on superheroes? A henshin series? A kaiju/giant monsters manga? A workplace drama? The new-ish Shonen Jump series Kaiju No. 8 is all of these and more! But will the Mangasplainers dig this multifaceted action series? Or is it merely… Competent!!!? Come for Kaiju No. 8, but stick around for wide-ranging discussions of age, digital manga, Shonen Jump, and much more.

Read along with our show notes at Mangasplaining.com or get our show notes, manga, and so much more at MangasplainingExtra.com.

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IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 Kaiju No. 8 Volume 1, by Naoya Matsumoto
01:02:49 THE BREAK
01:03:30 SHOUT-OUTS: Manga, BD, Novels, movies… this is a hell of a bunch of recommendations.

Kaiju no. 8 vol. #1
by Naoya Matsumoto
Translated by: David Evelyn
Editor: Karla Clark
Lettering by: Brandon Bovia
Published by Shonen Jump / VIZ Media. Available in print / digital on Shonen Jump and MangaPlus by Shueisha

Audio editing by David Brothers. Show notes by Christopher Woodrow-Butcher and Deb Aoki
Recorded March 10th, 2024

BEFORE WE GET STARTED

Hi all, Christopher here. Nice to be back with a second episode in two weeks! We’re getting back on track and we have quite a backlog of episodes to get through, as even when we weren’t uploading, we were recording! This episode was recorded a little over a year before time of writing this, in March 2024. At that time, the Kaiju No. 8 anime had been announced but hadn’t aired, and so there might be a little cognitive dissonance for those of you listening here in May 2025.

Also, we talk about not just volume 1 but volume 2 as well, so spoilers for that. Also, weirdly, some random spoilers for One Piece volume 9 and Nami, if you’re just starting that series out. Fair warning!

Finally: Super happy to note that Deb wrote big pieces of this week’s notes too. Let’s start with Deb writing about today’s manga creator, Naoya Matsumoto:

ABOUT NAOYA MATSUMOTO (松本直也)

Born on May 2, 1982 in Hyogo Prefecture. He’s 43! So when he’s talkin’ about how a 30-year old protagonist might feel grey around the edges next to a bunch of young ‘uns, well, I think he’s got that covered.

There’s no photos of him online anywhere we could find, and there aren’t too many interviews with Matsumoto in English, but Shueisha’s Jump Plus/Manga Plus site Matsumoto’s editor and Shonen Jump+ Deputy Editor in Chief Sejiro Nakaji, along with a brief Q&A with Matsumoto fairly recently. Go check that out, it’s really interesting.

(Chris’s note: I thought that link was broken but Japan region-locks the MangaPlus website, and I’m in Japan right now. Totally works now that my computer thinks it’s in Canada. Never been more important as a manga fan to have a working VPN…)

Kaiju No. 8 is Matsumoto’s third manga series. Previously, he did a story called Neko Wappa! (ねこわっぱ!) , a 2-volume series about a girl raised by cat gods that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2009, and Pochi Kuro (ポチクロ), a 4-volume rom-com/action series from 2014 about a human girl in the demon realm. In between series, he was also an assistant on several manga series, including sci-fi action series PSYREN by Toshiaki Iwashiro (available digitally from VIZ Media) and gag manga Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo by Yoshio Sawai.

According to Nakaji, Matsumoto came up with the concept for Kaiju no. 8, because:

“I think he always wanted to draw a superhero story, but the biggest reason was that his emotions were well reflected in the main character, Kafka.”

He also mentions that the story was influenced by Matsumoto’s interest in tokusatsu shows, e.g. the kind of live-action superhero TV shows like Kamen Rider, a series we discussed back in Episode 47, as well as sci-fi movies like Tron.

When asked about how he designs the monsters in Kaiju No. 8, Matsumoto replied that he “… sometimes draw inspiration from the fantastic monsters and creatures created by predecessors. Additionally, I often use animals, insects, and plants as motifs. I also find inspiration in art and fashion.”

Naoya Matsumoto is on Twitter/X at @ringo_inus 

Kaiju No. 8 has already got a season of anime, AND they released a “compilation movie” of the first season that went to theatres, too. Here’s the trailer! It kind of explains what’s going on:

As for that anime you can watch Kaiju No. 8 on Crunchyroll and it was even nominated for the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards for Anime of the Year – not bad! They’ve already announced Season 2 of the anime too.

As for printed material, the spin-offs have already started. VIZ Media has published the light novel, Kaiju No. 8: Exclusive on the Third Division, and the manga side-story series, called Kaiju No. 8: B-Side, which focuses on Hoshina’s backstory, which is written by Matsumoto and Keiji Ando, but drawn by another artist, Kentaro Hidano. Japan has another manga side-story series, Kaiju No,. 8 RELAX, co-created by Matsumoto and Tsuki Watanabe, which is about what the characters get up to in their downtime, a comedy series that isn’t currently slated for publication in English but is up to 3 volumes in Japan.

Safe to say that after two prior attempts at a serialized series, Matsumoto has found something that works, and it works very well.

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0:01 Here’s what VIZ Media has to say about Kaiju No. 8:

Kafka hopes to one day keep his pact with his childhood friend Mina to join the Japan Defense Force and fight by her side. But while she’s out neutralizing kaiju as Third Division captain, Kafka is stuck cleaning up the aftermath of her battles. When a sudden rule change makes Kafka eligible for the Defense Force, he decides to try out for the squad once more. There’s just one problem—he’s made the Defense Force’s neutralization list under the code name Kaiju No. 8.

02:28 [DEB:] Godzilla is an interesting kaiju – over the course of 70-odd years since this over-sized reptile arose from the sea to terrorize Tokyo, this iconic movie monster has had many incarnations. Sometimes he’s just a monstrous menace to humanity and sometimes, he’s a friendly ally to humans.

And those twin giris who are pals of Mothra? Well, in case that reference left you puzzled, here you go:

02:55 David says he just saw Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire. The movie was released in the US on March 29, 2024. Whoof. It has been a year, hasn’t it?

03:50 [CHRIS:] David mentions World Trigger, a Shonen Jump sci-fi/action series by Daisuke Ashihara. I always thought the art on that one looked really good, but I haven’t read it myself. It’s available in print, and if you’ve got a digital Shonen Jump subscription, all of the chapters are up on there to read as well, first 3 are free.

Meanwhile, David also references the “qualifying tournament arc,” or the difficult test/training part of the story that’s often a part of some popular Shonen Jump stories. We’ve previously seen this in our discussions of Naruto and My Hero Academia which we’ve read on the podcast. Much like MHA, some of the newer Jump stories are moving those arcs closer and closer to the beginning of the series, as it’s a clear hook for readers and a great chance for the characters’ personalities and abilities to be shown off. But then, I’ll talk about that more a little later on the pod.

05:30 Damage Control is a Marvel Comic series about the company that cleans up after the big superhero battles (as Chip says!). It’s a favourite of Chip, David, and myself and we’ve weirdly mentioned it more than once on the podcast.

Apparently there was a Damage Control TV series planned for television, on ABC of all places, but it never got past the pilot stage. Seems like a no-brainer to do The Office but with little superhero cameos in the background. I can’t seem to find a leak of that pilot anywhere though. Ah well, what coulda been.

06:30 Worth noting that with its 30-year old protagonist (who is still younger than all of us on the podcast…) Kaiju No. 8 is part of the “older protagonist boom” in Japan, although 30 isn’t THAT old compared to the “Ojisan” or “uncle-type” characters we’ve seen in other anime/manga. I read an interesting article about this that, of course, I can’t seem to find right now. I still can’t believe they didn’t manage to find a way to make everyone working for this government agency teenagers, like every single other manga. Between this and the bad-ass dad in Sakamoto Days, Shonen Jump might finally be catering to the audience that’s still reading the magazine from decades’ past!

[DEB:] A current release from this “old guy is the hero” trend is From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman, a fantasy light novel series by Shigeru Sagazaki, illustrated by Tetsuhiro Nabeshima that’s published by J-Novel Club, and a manga version from Yen Press drawn by Kazuki Sato.

Heck, Yen Press even released a vertical scrolling version of this story on WEBTOON this month, that seems like a good indication of faith in the popularity of the series.

The basic premise of this story is this older guy (maybe in his early 40s max!) lives in the countryside, running a sword fighting school with his elderly father. But after years of teaching, one of his former students who is now a high-ranking military officer in the big city enlists him to become a teacher for the kingdom’s defense forces. The anime version is streaming on Amazon Prime:

This fantasy adventure tale ends up being a bit of a harem story, where most of this guy’s former students are cute young women, who besides all being kick-ass, high-ranking, sword-wielding babes, they all kind of have a crush on him… which he seems to be unaware of. ANYWAY.

Another one is Uncle from Another World, which has an anime adaptation now streaming on Netflix. In this tale, a young man’s middle-aged uncle has been in a coma for the past 20 years. The older man awakens, and not only has to catch up with all the modern innovations/changes that have happened in the past two decades, he tells his nephew that he has spent this time in another dimensional fantasy world and now has magic powers to boot.

Of course, the manga is another Yen Press title, so pick it up if you’re intrigued by this premise.

[CHRIS:]  I went to the Yen Press website to grab the cover, and there’s not one cover image with an actual old man on it. Just cute anime girls sort of floating over the sepia-toned backgrounds. This is bullshit. I want my Oji-sans front in center, like in the hit new anime series Oji-san reincarnated as a Villainess. And no, I am not joking.

06:45 [DEB:] Chip bemoans that Kafka feels the need to keep his kaiju powers a secret in this first volume, but interestingly, this is similar to something that was mentioned in the interview with Kaiju No. 8 editor Nakaji referenced above. The way the current Kaiju No. 8 story goes was just one of many options considered. As Nakaji describes it, one option was:

“…where Kafka leads a normal life while hiding his true identity, and the other where he pursues his dream even after becoming a monster.”

Ah, the roads not traveled, and all that.

[CHRIS:]  The way the story was heading in volume 2, I was kind of hoping it meant that his secret identity, so to speak, would be revealed and he’d just be part of the team. You know, like, X-Men style. But I guess not?

07:45  [CHRIS:] So, in true “me” style, about a day before we were set to record this episode I did tell everyone to read past the end of volume 1, to about Chapter 8 or so, as I don’t think the first volume totally sells the premise. Volume 2 is a lot of fun and has some really good forward plot momentum, the resolution of the training/test arc, and some great character stuff. I think this also happened with Dandadan, which I read as chapters on the Shonen Jump app rather than printed/digital volumes… Just reading until there’s a more natural break in the story, instead of the break where they cut the volume off. Feels like a bit of a better way to read these manga, to me anywaym but I get that leaving Volume 1 ending on a cliffhanger does make some sales sense.

08:50 Chip doesn’t love the art! He references a mistake at the beginning of volume 2 which I honestly couldn’t find when I went to look, but he does talk about the monster designs being “fine” and lacking weight, and I see what he’s getting at in this spread from the first chapter:

10:35 The bonus chapters in the Shonen Jump app feature some gorgeous title pages, color pages too. Here’s a couple examples of some of his better art, including the illustration that would go on to be used on the cover. Click for larger versions:

12:21 “Shonen Jump is a battlefield!” It’s true, if you even manage to make it into Shonen Jump with your series, you’re not just competing with all of the other manga being made, you’re also competing with the other folks in your magazine. Even some huge series with strong recommendations from successful mangaka, or big tie-in properties, can get paid. Most recently, cancelled titles that have upset fans include Astro Royale, by Ken Wakui (creator of Tokyo Revengers), Samurai 8 by Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), MamaYuyu by (championed by the creators of Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen), and even the manga No|Name by Rafal Jaki, the showrunner and executive producer of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Just google “Shonen Jump Cancelled” to see the waves of annual articles bemoaning another (seemingly popular) series’ unfair cancellation. It’s… wild.

13:10 [DEB:] Bleach by Tite Kubo was, for a good chunk of its run in Shonen Jump, was considered one of the “Big Three,” or its most popular series. And Chris is right – the art in Bleach Vol. 1 and Vol. 55 are worlds apart. We discuss this a bunch in Episode 93.

15:15 Wow, I gave myself a lot of work with this to find an art reference.

So yeah, Humberto Ramos is a Mexican comic book illustrator working primarily in Marvel superheroes. I’m actually a fan of his from 30+ years back on titles like Impulse and Crimson, and that’s why he’s a go-to reference for me. 🙂 Here’s a page from X-Men #202 from a little while back (inked by Carlos Cuevas), and you can see he’s a really dynamic illustrator when his characters are in the foreground, but the characters in the background in that group shot tend to flatten out a bit, and rely on coloring/inking for depth and form. No shade by the way, just who I thought of when talking about that.

Humberto Ramos is an interesting guy! Along with creators who did work for Marvel and DC back in the 90s Like Joe Madeuria and J. Scott Campbell, he was one who was credited with having a “manga-style” of American superhero comics. actually did do a take on manga characters, by the way! Or maybe the anime versions? To celebrate the end of My Hero Academia, Marvel and Jump crossed over with Humberto Ramos providing this pin-up of the Black Cat stealing from the (many) ladies in the MHA universe.

To see the other half, with MHA author Horikoshi-sensei’s take on Spider-Man, head to the Marvel Website.

17:05 [DEB:] Giant Killing is a criminally underrated sports manga about soccer/football! It’s available on almost every digital manga platform/app around, including Kodansha’s K-Manga app, Azuki, Mangamo, AND on ebook stores like BookWalker, Apple iBooks, Kindle, and more. A lot of these digital manga apps offer several chapters of this series to read for free or included with their monthly subscription fee, so give it a go, especially if you too are into stories about characters who are way past their high school days.

18:30 [DEB:] – There really are some cool page turns in this book! Check out this sequence from chapter 1, which features two very good page turns in a row!

19:20 [DEB:] “Dirty Jobs” is the kind of TV show you should watch when you’re thinking, “my job is sh*tty.” It’s both fascinating and humbling to see people do jobs that other people can’t/won’t do, but are essential to keep things runnin’ in this world of ours. It originally aired on The Discovery Channel, but you can also watch it on Netflix. Here’s a clip of “filthiest jobs” from Season 9 of “Dirty Jobs”

20:29 Intestine Duty! No one ever thinks of just what cleaning up these sorts of terrifying events might look like! This is a great introduction to the character.

21:29 [DEB:] One thing I forgot to mention is that Kafka’s monster clean-up experiences also gives him a unique perspective on what the monsters are made of (so to speak) and their unique characteristics and weaknesses. This comes in handy during many battles, so it’s another way that Kafka has unique strengths that don’t just come from him being part kaiju.

22:00 [DEB:] Hanamichi Sakuragi is the red-haired protagonist of Slam Dunk, a seminal basketball manga series (also from Shonen Jump) by Takehiko Inoue. He’s a delinquent who joins the basketball team despite knowing almost nothing about the sport, but coming into it like he’s gonna be a slam-dunkin’ superstar… which he isn’t at first, but that’s what the 31 volumes of this series are for.

Incidentally, we read another basketball manga series by Inoue, Real a few episodes ago, but it was Vol. 13, which was mostly about wrestling. Go listen and you’ll hear what we mean!

22:00 [DEB:] There’s a lot of comedy in this series, particularly Kafka’s silly faces both in and out of monster form.

23:10 We read Space Brothers on Episode 80, in case you’d forgotten.

23:30  [DEB:]  There are some competent, kick-ass women in Kaiju No. 8. Childhood friend Mina is a hyper-competent and emotionally vacant commander, and Kikora is a prodigy of a monster-killer.

[CHRIS:]  It reminded me a little bit of the dichotomy between the portrayals of Rei and Asuka in Evangelion actually, but I’m not going to get into that here.

25:54 [DEB:] Here we reference the Shonen Jump trope of introducing a strong female character just for the boys reading to hate, which Kaiju No. 8 seems to mostly sidestep. Remember Erina Nakiri, the stuck-up rich girl character from Food Wars? No? Go listen to episode 75, our “first four chapters” episode. There’s also Power, from Chainsaw Man, who we talk about in Episode 85.

[CHRIS:] But perhaps one of the characters who got the biggest glow-up that’s in a “strong and competent woman that readers love to hate” category is Amanda Waller, from the DCU. Waller returned to prominence thanks to the success of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, where her actions were generally principled, if ideologically opposed to those of the heroes. It was in keeping with her previous comic book portrayals, willing to make tough, possibly morally dubious decisions for a greater good. Her appearances kinda got weird as she started appearing in other media though, unfortunately. But then I’ve been told no one came out of those two Suicide Squad movies particularly well.

28:55 I believe this gif speaks for itself.

29:20 There are a bunch of good female Shonen Jump manga protagonists our there these days. Akane Banashi is a current Shonen Jump series that features a young woman who is striving to become a top rakugo storyteller. And then there’s Momo Ayase from DanDaDan, too!

29:55 Kikoru’s dad’s facial hair is crazy. He’s like a Pokemon gym leader or something.

30:50 SPOILERS FOR ONE PIECE VOLUME 9 – You can skip ahead to 31:20 if you haven’t read One Piece yet and don’t want to hear it.

31:42 ALSO SPOILERS: We still didn’t read One Punch Man yet. We GOTTA read One Punch Man. That scene with Mumen Rider! That “leave the rest to me” moment! There’s so much that makes this great.

I wonder if none of us, David, Deb, or myself, have recommended it because we just couldn’t take the pain if Chip didn’t actually like it…?

34:20 As mentioned up top, the anime did come out and it was huge. Season 2 coming soon.

34:40 [DEB:] 70 years later, and there’s so much Godzilla! Shin Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla: Singular Point. Godzilla: Planet of Monsters… and even Chibi Godzilla!

The Toho Official Godzilla YouTube Channel has all this and much more.

If you count the other related kaiju stories like Gamera: Rebirth (which is on Netflix), there’s definitely some Godzilla renaissance going on – though you could argue Godzilla never really went away.

Also, this is too cute not to share here – “Giant Crush” is an animated short directed by Luke Lee, who is a 3rd year student in Animation at CalArts. It’s part Godzilla, part Pacific Rim with a rom-com twist. Go watch. I promise, it’s worth it!

36:26 Yeah, I think we’re all hoping for someone to come and save us at this point. Well observed, Chipper!

40:20 [DEB:] Akane Torikai’s Saturn Return isn’t yet licensed for English release, but (plug plug), we do have Wandering Cat’s Cage by Akane Torikai serialized on Mangasplaining Extra, months before the print edition will come out from MSX/Fantagraphics.

Look for the print edition in Spring 2026 from Fantagraphics.

Actually Saturn Return, the astrological event, happens around age 29… But anyway, here’s more on the significance of Saturn Return in astrology, from Vogue.

42:06 [CHRIS:]  The 27 Club is the idea that a lot of famous people died at 27. The people most often cited are Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain, but there’s many many more.

43:30 Yeah, young manga fans can definitely be assholes.

[DEB:] “Oldtaku” – it’s a thing, according to the Urban Dictionary.

[CHRIS:] To be fair, the anime fandom actually loves to shit on itself in a surprising variation of ways, each with their own dumb little term. It’s honestly a little weird.

44:45 There really ARE a lot of hits coming out of Shonen Jump+ instead of Jump, as the readership is aging and want more complex/mature/stories. In addition to Kaiju No. 8 (which at the time of writing this on May 9th was listed as the most popular title on the Jump Plus website), Jump Plus is where you’ll get hit series like Dandadan, Spy X Family, Chainsaw Man, etc., which are all just listed as “Shonen Jump” in North America.

[DEB:] Just to make things a little more confusing, there’s also Manga Plus by Shueisha, which is their online manga site for overseas (non-Japanese) readers, with official versions of these stories in English, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. Manga Plus has some of the series that are serialized on VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump app/website, but it also has many series that are exclusive to Manga Plus.

47:10 70% of manga sales in Japan are digital. ICv2 said in 2022, digital’s share of the market in America is 7%. Which was… accurate at time of recording. I actually just went to the ICv2 website and saw that they’re no longer tracking digital manga sales in North America, because of lack of reliable reporting and the extreme fragmentation of the market. It’s really… wild… to hear this actually, because while 7% always seemed very low to me, it also seemed… believably… low. From discussions with pubs AND licensees in Japan. So 7% seems like ICv2 now feels its inaccurate, but can’t offer a guess to what it is.

That said, the ICv2 site has a lot of great info locked behind a paywall, a paywall I happily pay to pass. Go support an important industry resource if you’ve got the means. Info here: https://icv2.com/articles/icv2-pro/view/58114/icv2-white-paper-comic-store-sales-up-2024-audio-deck#

We also get WAY off topic here, talking about the Apple App Store taking an onerous percentage of e-book sales. That’s why you come to the podcast, right? For the long asides?

49:30 Shout out to BookWalker’s global store, it’s good! The app is honestly terrible, I’ve never been able to use it without it crashing my iPad, but the web interface is pretty good.

International: https://global.bookwalker.jp/
Japan: https://bookwalker.jp/

54:17 David liked it! He loves the old man reacting to kaiju-form Kafka as one of his fave bits of comedy:

He also mentions really loving the sequence where Kafka saves Reno from getting eaten, which I used up top as an example of really good page-turns in this book. But he also specifically liked the power of this jaw-snapping second bite on the other half of the spread that I didn’t show you! Which you can find here:

56:53 On Page 105, we get a hilarious reaction-shot gag, full page, of monster-form Kafka eating a piece of sushi that was again, a great example of a page-turn making a gag really land.

57:59 This manga also had some great, unexpected use of color with the blood rain, but we’re getting into the territory of showing a LOT of images here, so maybe go check out this one for yourself, as the first three chapters are free on the Shonen Jump app/website.

58:37 That said, we gotta make space for Little Brothers, with David mentioning the excellent detail of Kiroko shrugging off the top sleeve of her dress in order not to damage it, being a really good example of character acting in manga.

1:01:20 Shout-out to HOME ROOM in Oakland. All mac n’ cheese, all the time.

1:01:45 Hating on shirtless Doc Ock is ridiculous. Total sex symbol.

1:02:10 COMPETENT!!!! That about sums up Kaiju No. 8, and this episode of Mangasplaining! Haha no I kid, a fun time was had. 🙂 Stay tuned after the break as we make a bunch of good shout-outs.

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01:02:49 THE BREAK!!!

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01:03:02 TIME FOR SHOUT OUTS

David Shouts out MM9 by Hiroshi Yamamoto, translated by Nathan Collins, published by VIZ/Haikasoru.

Chris (me!) shouts out Florent Chavouet, creator of Tokyo on Foot. He also did a follow-up called Manabeshima about what it’s like to live on one of the many small islands off the coast of Japan, which is a carnet de voyage and I love it. His Louvre book is L’ile Louvre, and unfortunately it was never translated into English. We will release the interview with him soon, still editing it (I know, I know). But for now you can view a preview of the book on its page on Amazon.

Deb shouts-out the new Kodansha manga Versus, by ONE (One Punch Man), and drawn by Azuma Kyoutarou. I’ve also read this since the podcast and the first volume is really good. Double-recommendation. Deb mentions that she read it on KManga but as of May 2025, there’s now 3 volumes of Versus out in print/digital from Kodansha USA!

In talking about this title, Chip mentioned that it sounded like the 1990s Marvel crossover “Acts of Vengeance,” where all the Marvel villains decide to switch good guys to fight. It was a pretty wild crossover, but my fav story was in Captain America where Magneto just decides to take out the Red Skull. Chip loved the incredible cover where Daredevil has to fight Ultron. Both worth tracking down on whatever digital apps they might be on.

David mentions the excellent Japanese gangster horror movie VERSUS. Highly recommended, and completely insane.

I kind of love that this trailer is incredibly cool, and yet also doesn’t spoil the movie or even tell you what the hell is going on. Treat yourself.

Chip shouts-out the movie Problemista by Julio Torres, which is probably a very different vibe to Versus. To either of the Versus’s.

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And that’s this week in Mangasplaining! This episode is also available wherever you get your podcasts, so please subscribe and leave a review, so others can discover our show.

Next week on Mangasplaining:
Get ready for our [the next book we’re talking bout]

Thanks so much for listening! Please support your local comic and manga specialty shop when purchasing these books, and you can find one near you at comicshoplocator.com. You can also check your local library for print and digital lending options, they have TONS of manga! Finally, thanks to D.A.D.S. for their musical accompaniment for this episode.

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