Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” shows us that the kaiju in this story can think. That’s the only way to explain how the kaiju are able to take advantage of the element of surprise. Tactics like that would definitely make them a lot more dangerous than usual, as our heroes learn in this episode.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base”: Details

Kaiju No. 8 NA key visual.
Alas, we only see a bit of this guy in this episode. I mean that very literally.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” is the ninth episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 here) of the very first season of this military science fantasy and kaiju 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.

Kōji Komurakata, Ryōta Furukawa, Claire Launay, and Hirotaka Mori all co-directed Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base”, with Ichirō Ōkouchi as the writer once more, and Ryōta Furukawa 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. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” features the voices of Masaya Fukunishi (Nazeeh Tarsha in English dub) as Kafka Hibino, 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 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, and Sayaka Senbongi (Celeste Perez in English dub) as Konomi Okonogi.

On the kaijus’ side, we have Kenta Miyake (Brent Mukai in English dub) as Kaiju No. 10.

When and Where to Watch

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 8, 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. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base”: Synopsis

Don’t worry though. We will likely see the full version of him in a bit.

Alas, Kaiju No. 8 is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” only premiered 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:

Tachikawa base comes under attack from the air, as a powerful Kaiju has its sights set on the Defense Force.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base”: The Good

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 "Raid on Tachikawa Base" screenshot showing Kikoru wielding her giant axe for the first time.
She’s definitely the star of this episode.

Amazingly, the story of Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base” manages to be as good as the action. Much of it is due to the kaiju themselves. This episode basically confirms the belief among the JSDF, sorry, Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force that all kaiju behave in an animalistic way, with no regard for tactics or strategy. This episode takes that belief and tosses it out the window at hypersonic speeds because these kaiju are most definitely behaving cooperatively. That should probably shake things up in the JAKDF’s overall strategy regarding the kaiju.

However, the action is still the main draw of the episode. Said action remains as stylish as ever, with action sequences that are easy to follow and mostly make sense. Oh, and with Kikoru getting to be the star of the show as you can see in the screenshot above. Most significantly because she has been depicted to be highly skilled and powerful, and is getting to demonstrate that.

Of course though, that action would not be possible without the animation. Fortunately, Production I.G continue to do a great job with that animation. You can see it in the action sequences when they do the closeups that they put a lot of effort into that animation as always. At the very least, we can expect more of such well-animated action sequences in the future.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 “Raid on Tachikawa Base”: The Bad

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 9 "Raid on Tachikawa Base" screenshot showing Kaiju No. 10 in all of its glory.
Of course, what’s a big good without a big bad?

Alas though, for all that I’ve been praising the story, it does have its flaws. Those flaws mostly consist with the depiction of the JAKDF’s response to the kaiju surprise attack. Consider this scenario: you are sound asleep in the dead of night, and then suddenly the sound of aerial bombardment wakes you up. The scene should’ve been utter chaos as people rush to suit up and arm themselves after just being asleep. Yes, we see little bits and pieces of that, but I feel like the scene would’ve been better if we’d seen more of it. This may be just my opinion though, so your mileage may vary here.

And of course, if you’re not the type to enjoy high-intensity action sequences, then perhaps something more slow-paced might be more your speed? If so, then may I suggest Astro Note, Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF, or DDDD?