The official Twitter account for Naoya Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 manga announced that the popular title is getting an anime adaptation. As a part of the announcement, TOHO animation also streamed an announcement video showing fans a key visual. The studio also shared information on the upcoming anime at this year’s Crunchyroll Expo.
Matsumoto launched the manga in July 2020 on Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ website. The first print volume of the Kaiju No. 8 manga shipped on December 4th, 2020. Since then, the first volume has had two more printings to keep up with the demand for manga. Now, Shueisha had published the manga’s seventh compiled book volume on July 4th.
Kaiju No. 8’s Upcoming Anime: A Short-Lived but Dedicated Fanbase
Currently, Viz Media licenses the manga outside of Japan. The company releases chapters digitally and physically, though the latter takes longer. Shueisha also publishes the manga on its MANGA Plus service under the title Monster #8. The story for Kaiju No. 8 is described as follows;
With the highest kaiju (translation: strange monster) emergence rate in the world, Japan iis no stranger to attacks by deadly monsters. Enter the Japan Defense Force, a military organization tasked with the neutralization of kaiju. Kafka Hibino, a kaiju-corpse cleanup man, has always dreamed of joining the force. But when he gets another shot at achieving his childhood dream, he undergoes an unexpected transformation. How can he fight kaiju now that he’s become one himself?!
Since its publication, Kaiju No. 8 has gained a large and loyal fanbase. In September 2021, the manga surpassed 4 million copies in circulation worldwide. With this, the title is now the fastest Shonen Jump+ manga to reach this milestone. Kaiju No. 8 was also nominated for the 14th Manga Taisho awards in January 2021, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize last February, and the Eisner awards in May. It also took first place in the seventh “Next Manga Awards” for the web manga category in August 2021.
