Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino” is a simple story for a finale episode, but a fascinating one nonetheless. It is simply the story of a someone struggling over whether they’re a man or a monster. Guess which one the titular Kafka Hibino chooses?

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino”: Details

Kaiju No. 8 NA key visual 2.
The finale comes with a new key visual.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino” is the 12th and final episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, and Ep. 11 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.

Katsuya Kikuchi is the director behind Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino”, with Kikuchi also doing the storyboard alongside Shigeyuki Miya. 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. 12 “Kafka Hibino” 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, Sayaka Senbongi (Celeste Perez in English dub) as Konomi Okonogi, and Tesshō Genda (Christopher Wehkamp in English dub) as Isao Shinomiya.

On the kaijus’ side, we have Hiroyuki Yoshino (Alejandro Saab in English dub) and Kaiju No. 9.

When and Where to Watch

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 29, 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. 12 “Kafka Hibino”: Synopsis

The story here is best teased with this little official clip.

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. 12 “Kafka Hibino” only just made its debut as the finale of this first season four 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:

Kafka’s final fate is determined as the monster within him tries to take control.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino”: The Good

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The big good is watching over him.

Okay, seriously here: looking away from the action for a moment, no matter how good it is, it’s definitely the story of Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino” that deserves a great deal of mention for making this episode great. Almost in spite of its simplicity, I might add. Naoya Matsumoto knows how to write a good story here in making this part be about Kafka trying to hold on to his humanity as the kaiju tries to take over. It may be a timeless classic of a struggle, but damn, it’s a good one. All the more because of what (or rather, who) Kafka uses in his mind to hold onto his humanity. Without spoilers: Kafka easily demonstrates that no man is an island.

However, the action does look great. It has that kind of stylish effects characteristic of Production I.G’s animation style, combined with a fluidity to the action that makes it easy to follow. At least part of it is because neither Kafka nor his opponent really do anything particularly complex, especially Kafka. Or rather, Kaiju No. 8, since it’s too animalistic to think of anything complex to attack with at the moment.

Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino”: The Bad

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This is the point where most people would run.

There’s actually plenty of action in Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 12 “Kafka Hibino”, as well as drama in the midst of it, and a sense of palpable relief afterwards. However, that relief might not be enough considering how short it is, and the stinger at the end. If you want a nice, relaxing anime to wind down with, then perhaps you might want to check out Astro Note, Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF, Black Butler -Public School Arc-, and/or DDDD.

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