It sure is strange when I say that the Kaiju No. 8 anime made me fall in love with the manga once again.

What is it that causes me to fall out of love with the manga?

Didn’t I recommend the manga on my blog way back then?

Is the manga not worth reading anymore or something?

If you read the manga on MANGA Plus, then you may already know how much people love the manga.

You see comments like it only took two minutes for them to finish reading the chapter. And now they have to wait for another week or two for the new chapter to come out.

Let’s not forget how each chapter often left us on a cliffhanger.

It’s no wonder why so many people are eager to read the new chapter as soon as it comes out.

You can’t help but wonder what will happen next.

Sad to say, that doesn’t seem to be the case for the recent arc, though.

The recent arc isn’t that bad, to say the least. But unlike the previous arcs that come before it, it feels like it’s losing its mojo because of this reason.

What happened in the recent arc

For those who have never read the manga before, what I’m about to say here is certainly a spoiler.

As always, feel free to ignore this post if you don’t want spoilers of any kind.

Even if it’s not, it can still be confusing considering how far ahead the story in the manga is.

But suffice it for me to say the situation in the recent arc is rather bleak.

For one, they have Kaiju who is as strong as No. 9 and they’re all over the place.

It doesn’t help that the whole troops in the Defense Force are already stretched way too thin because of Kaiju’s sudden appearance.

If you think that’s the worst thing that happened to them, wait till you find out about No. 9 getting a hold of Mina and about to swallow her just as he did to Isao.

That will make her No. 9’s next victim after him.

On the surface, the way the story is progressing isn’t that much different from the story that comes before it.

But for some reason, the story feels like it’s going downhill from there.

What seems wrong about this particular arc

If you’re into an action-packed story, you may find the action scenes in this arc tolerable considering how formidable their enemies are.

But with so many Kaiju they have to fight all at once, it can feel rather exhausting to see the same fight scene being repeated again but with a different character.

Sure, we get to see Hoshina leveling up in the process as he takes down the Kaiju.

And we get to see other characters that we don’t see much in the beginning taking center stage too during this arc.

As much as I love the idea of putting the spotlight on the not-so-known characters, it can feel like the story is going downhill when we have the characters’ backstories during the fight.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with fleshing out characters’ backstories even during the crucial moment.

You see them a lot in anime like Boku no Hero Academia and Yowamushi Pedal.

The backstory gives us a glimpse of the character’s motivation and the reason behind their actions.

But Kaiju No. 8 on one hand takes fleshing out the characters’ backstories the wrong way.

Yes, it’s important to see how the characters are progressing through their backstories.

But it can feel like the mangaka is trying to pad the story with the characters’ backstories when the backstories take place when Mina is about to be swallowed by No. 9.

It makes us feel that Kafka is taking way too long to save Mina from No. 9’s grip because of the backstory.

Talk about the wrong timing here.

There’s a running joke among those who read the manga that it took Kafka three months just to save Mina from No. 9’s grip.

Of course, it doesn’t take that long for him to save her, timeline-wise.

But it sure does feel like one when the new chapter only comes out once a month.

Kaiju No. 8 anime saves the day

Not going to lie that the recent arc does dampen my mood to watch the Kaiju No. 8 anime a little.

But guess what?

The anime somehow made me realize how fun the story is.

It’s strange how much I forgot how comical the first few chapters are as Kafka is doing his best not to get his Kaiju self to resurface.

And it doesn’t help that the next test will take place in the Defense Force base.

There’s no doubt that they will shoot him to death right off the bat if his Kaiju self resurfaces unbeknownst to him.

Sure, the same scenes in the anime are the same as the ones in the manga.

But the same scenes become ten times funnier when they get adapted into anime.

It reminds me of Hime-sama, Goumon no Jikan Desu anime where the same scenes in the manga ended up becoming even funnier in anime.

Will the same arc that feels like a slog to some of us get adapted into anime someday?

You can bet it does.

But if the early arcs are any indication, I can bet that it may not be as much of a slog as we thought.

An anime adaptation somehow makes everything better, even for scenes that feel like a total drag.

What the future holds for the manga

For those who are wondering if Kafka managed to save Mina in the nick of time, the answer is yes, he did.

We have Byakko to thank since he was the one who held the fort while waiting for Kafka to rescue Mina.

Whether we’re going to experience the same slog in the upcoming arc is something that I’m not sure of since we now have Kafka facing No. 9 for the second time.

If anything, I’m guessing the next few chapters will feature an intense fight between Kafka and No. 9.

And I bet the same comment where it only takes two minutes for them to finish reading the chapter will come back once more.

Oh, how I missed seeing such comments.

Believe me, I take this comment over complaints that this chapter sucks or whatever.

So, please keep this kind of comment coming back to the manga, y’all.

P.S. If you’re into a thriller story where we have spies coming after a murderer instead of the Defense Force fighting Kaiju, then you may enjoy reading my Trigger Locked series.

Curious about the series? You can take a look at the first book of the series on my Payhip store. Use the coupon code SEKINAMAYUBLOG to get 25% off on your purchase.

Trigger Locked Book 1: The Mind Control Assassins