Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” asks a very simple question for Kafka Hibino following his imprisonment after outing himself as a kaiju. The question is: is he to be or not to be a kaiju? Well, until he figures that out, it’s jail for him.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”: Details

Kaiju No. 8 NA key visual.
This guy is chained…for now.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” is the 11th episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 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.

Ayataka Tanemura is the director and storyboarder behind Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”. 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. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” 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.

The other notable voice role in this episode is Tesshō Genda (Christopher Wehkamp in English dub) as Isao Shinomiya.

When and Where to Watch

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 22, 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. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”: Synopsis

While he does look cool, Kafka is trying hard to now let him out.

Alas, while Kaiju No. 8 is no longer an ongoing anime as of this writing, it’s still a very recent anime. In fact, Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” only just made its debut nine days ago as of this writing as well. 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:

Kaiju No. 8 is captured, and Kafka is at the mercy of the Defense Force’s most important leaders.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”: The Good

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 "Kaiju No. 8 Captured" screenshot showing Kafka imprisoned in the kaiju jail chair.
This is definitely some serious jail time for Kafka.

There’s no question about it. In Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”, the story is the best part about it. All because the action isn’t the main part about it. Not that the action of this episode is bad, mind you. It’s more that the non-combat portions of the story are just so much better, all thanks to Naoya Matsumoto’s writing. There are so many thriller aspects to the story of this episode. So much so that you can practically cut the tension with a knife and serve it on toast. Especially since Kafka’s very life is on the line here as the JKDF is trying to determine whether it’s worth it to keep him alive or not.

Of course, though, the little bits of action that show up at the end of the episode is still quite good. Very high-intensity and stylish action scenes that brings the tension to a roiling boil. Action that’s made all the better by the story racheting up the tension beforehand.

Of course, though, the animation perfectly complements the story of this anime. As you can see in the screenshots, Production I.G. is doing a marvelous job with the animation quality of this episode. In particular, the use of Brutalist architecture for when Kafka is imprisoned really hammers home the direness of the situation he’s faced with.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured”: The Bad

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 "Kaiju No. 8 Captured" screenshot showing Kafka partially transformed into Kaiju No. 8.
It’s a really bad thing when Kafka is forced to transform like this.

Alas though, there may not be enough action in Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 11 “Kaiju No. 8 Captured” to satisfy an action junkie. Mostly because all of that action happens only in the final few minutes of the episode. Thus, it may not be enough to satisfy those action cravings. If you want more, then may I suggest that you check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba or Solo Leveling?