At New York Comic Con on October 13, Crunchyroll announced Kaiju No. 8, a popular Shonen Jump sci-fi monster fighter series, will come to the anime streaming service exclusively next spring.
Kaiju No. 8’s elevator pitch is basically what would happen if an adult Peter Parker was smack-dab in the middle of a Godzilla story. The series follows Kafka Hibino, a 32-year-old who let his dream of fighting on the front lines alongside his childhood friend Mina Ashiro pass him by. Kafka works a thankless blue-collar job as a sanitation worker tasked with cleaning the aftermath of cataclysmic metropolitan kaiju battles. Meanwhile, Mina serves her country as the fearless leader of Japan’s Kaiju Defense Force.
Kafka’s life is one of missed opportunities. That is, until a freak encounter with a monster gives him the ability to transform into a humanoid kaiju. A Kaiju Man, if you will. Now, Kafka must keep his newfound alter ego under wraps while pursuing his childhood dream of becoming a kaiju fighting hero with Mina.
You can check out the new trailer below:
Read More: The Kaiju No. 8 Anime’s First Trailer Reveals a Team-Up of Epic Proportions
Animation powerhouse Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell) will produce the anime alongside Studio Khara. Studio Khara’s involvement in Kaiju No. 8 is kind of a big deal (pun intended) in light of its previous work on director Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion rebuild films and his tokusatsu films, Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider. Studio Khara will provide kaiju designs for the series as well. Safe to say Kaiju No. 8’s anime adaptation is in good hands with folk who are intimately familiar with the genre.
During Crunchyroll’s NYCC industry panel, Kaiju No. 8’s creator Naoya Matsumoto shared a special note to fans, saying:
[Kaiju No. 8 is] a story about someone struggling in a harsh world without ever giving up, in the hopes of leading people into an even slightly brighter future. To anyone dealing with the complexities of reality that reads this manga, I hope it can help make your future a little brighter, too.