Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”: Kaiju War Crimes [Review]

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” is quite a simple episode, even with just a cursory glance at the plot. It’s basically all about a kaiju committing war crimes left and right. Exactly what kaiju is doing is something you can find in the title.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”: Details

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” is the seventh episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, and Ep. 6 here) of the very first season of this anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the military science fantasy adventure manga of the same name by Naoya Matsumoto. Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass, Haikyu!!) is the studio behind this anime, with Studio Khara (Rebuild of Evangelion) supervising the kaiju designs. Crunchyroll is licensing this anime for its NA debut.

Yoshihide Ibata is the director behind Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”, with Ichirō Ōkouchi as the writer, and the team of Takayuki Sano and Shigeyuki Miya doing the storyboard.  As for the Kaiju No. 8 anime as a whole, Shigeyuki Miya and Tomomi Kamiya are co-directing this anime. Ichirō Ōkouchi is the overall writer of the anime. Tetsuya Nishio is the character designer and chief animation director. Shinji Kimura is the art director, with Mahiro Maeda as the monster/kaiju designer. Yuta Bando composed the music for the same.

Speaking of music, this anime’s opening theme music is “Abyss” by Yungblud (AKA Dominic Richard Harrison). Meanwhile, “Nobody” by OneRepublic is the ending theme music.

Voice Cast

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” stars the voices of Masaya Fukunishi (Nazeeh Tarsha in English dub) as Kafka Hibino, Asami Seto (Katelyn Barr in English dub) as Mina Ashiro, Wataru Kato (Adam McArthur in English dub) as Reno Ichikawa, Fairouz Ai (Abigail Blythe in English dub) as Kikoru Shinomiya, and Kengo Kawanishi (Landon McDonald in English dub) as Soshiro Hoshina. The only other notable voice role in this episode is Yūki Shin (Ben Stegmair in English dub) as Iharu Furuhashi.

Oh, and on the kaiju side, we have Hiroyuki Yoshino (Alejandro Saab in English dub) as the titular Kaiju No. 9.

When and Where to Watch

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 25, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this anime as a whole only on Crunchyroll at the moment.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”: Synopsis

Alas, Kaiju No. 8 is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” made its debut only five days ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis for this episode from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can check out that synopsis below:

Reno and Iharu encounter a powerful humanoid Kaiju that quickly overwhelms them. Can help arrive in time?

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”: The Good

Funnily enough, it’s both the action and the story of Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9” that are both the best parts about it. Here’s why: it’s all in how they synergize with each other. You have each individual action scene giving us quick action-packed snippets, with individual scenes using an audience-focused time dilation to extend a scene that should by all accounts be measured in fractions of a second. Then you have the story by Naoya Matsumoto. He delivers quite a bit of horror to the action in the form of Kaiju No. 9’s brutal torturing, both on the giving and receiving end. Matsumoto has never shied away from depicting high levels of blood, violence, and gore in his scenes. All of which further enhances the horror elements, and puts this episode firmly in the action-horror category. That is why the story is so good.

All with the animation enhancing that action-horror story. Both Production I.G and Studio Khara did a wonderful job here with the animation of the attacks and of the kaiju themself/itself. A large part about why Kaiju No. 9 is so freaky is because of that high quality animation emphasizing every bit of freakiness it performs. Every jerky movement, bulging finger, and gory hole in people is a result of that animation quality. It’s really no surprise that Production I.G has been responsible for high-quality classics such as Ghost in the Shell.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”: The Bad

Admittedly, the action, blood, gore, violence, and horror is definitely on the intense side in Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 7 “Kaiju No. 9”. You might want a bit of lighter fare afterward in order to cool down after that intensity. If you want that, then may I recommend Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF, Astro Note, or even the more light-hearted scenes of Black Butler -Public School Arc-? Those might help you cool down just a bit after all that.