Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome To The Defense Force”: After-Action Escape [Review]

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” ends the very first battle of our squad of newbies. However, it also begins a fight for life for our main character Kafka Hibino. With escape being the only realistic option for him, and all after the action should have already been over and done with.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”: Details

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” is the eighth episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, and Ep. 7 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.

Haruo Okuno is the director and storyboarder behind Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”, with Ichirō Ōkouchi as the writer. 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. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” features 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.

Other notable voice roles in this episode include Yūki Shin (Ben Stegmair in English dub) as Iharu Furuhashi, Keisuke Koumoto (Howard Wang in English dub) as Haruichi Izumo, Shunsuke Takeuchi (Jonah Scott in English dub) as Aoi Kaguragi, Nene Hieda (Monica Flately in English dub) as Akari Minase, Mayuko Kazama (Molly Searcy in English dub) as Hakua Igarashi, and Sayaka Senbongi (Celeste Perez in English dub) as Konomi Okonogi.

On the kaijus’ side, we have Hiroyuki Yoshino (Alejandro Saab in English dub) and Kaiju No. 9 and a surprise appearance from Kenta Miyake (Brent Mukai in English dub) as Kaiju No. 10.

When and Where to Watch

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 1, 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. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”: Synopsis

Alas, Kaiju No. 8 is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” only just made its debut 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:

After transforming into a Kaiju to rescue Reno and Iharu, Kafka is found by Hoshina, who immediately attacks him.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”: The Good

This time, I would say that the story is in fact the big draw of Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”. Not least of which because it marks a break in the action sequences that made up the last couple of episodes. It’s a brief break though, mostly in the form of an after-action party and the quiet moments before, during, and after that. However, as brief as it is, it does serve to allow for some character interactions and exploration without having the action grind all that characterization more or less to a halt.

Despite that though, the action of this episode is actually pretty good. The action is not only stylish-looking, but there’s a nice flow to it that’s reminiscent of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Solo Leveling. You can follow the action pretty well without getting lost or wondering how did they get there. It does show that at the very least, the animators know how to do a good action scene for a military sci-fi anime.

Speaking of those animators though, they also do a pretty good job with the animation overall. All those colors and glowing lines emphasizing each sword swing gives the anime a stylish look to it. Even the food is pretty well animated, even just a bit better than some food-focused anime like Astro Note. Animation quality isn’t the end all, be all of an anime, but it’s a nice touch to add.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force”: The Bad

Honestly, my one complaint about Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 8 “Welcome to the Defense Force” is the lack of any breathing space. Yes, this episode does have a breather moment, but it feels so weirdly short. Like, the main characters just fought a major battle, and get exactly one day to relax before they’re suddenly tossed into another battle? It makes it feel like the action is just clogging up the story and not really giving the characters a chance for interactions and exploration. Ah well, it is what it is.

Keep Reading:

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