Kaiju No. 8

Kaiju No. 8 is a monster-hunting action anime from Production I.G, first broadcast in April 2024 and adapted from Naoya Matsumoto's manga, which ran on Shonen Jump+ from 2020 to 2025 and is complete at 129 chapters. Its lead is an underdog by age: Kafka Hibino is 32, scrapes dead kaiju off the streets for a clean-up firm, and gave up on the Defense Force after years of failing the exam his childhood friend Mina Ashiro passed on her way to captain. When his 18-year-old co-worker Reno Ichikawa mentions the age limit has been raised, Kafka gets one last try, and soon after a tiny kaiju forces its way into his mouth. He sits the exam beside the axe-wielding prodigy Kikoru Shinomiya, hiding the monster form that gives the show its title.

Mahiro Maeda, a designer on Shin Godzilla, shares the kaiju design credit with Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara, and Western acts supply the themes: Yungblud's "Abyss" opens Season 1, and OneRepublic sings both seasons' endings. Both seasons streamed free on X worldwide as they aired on TV Tokyo, billed as a first for anime. Judge it by episode 9, where vice-captain Soshiro Hoshina, the most favourited of the Kaiju No. 8 characters on AniList, takes on Kaiju No. 10. The weak spots: Kafka's slapstick sometimes undercuts the danger, and several critics felt Season 2 sidelined Kafka for long stretches and staged its emotional scenes far more flatly than its fights.

As of October 2026 the anime runs to 23 episodes: 12 in spring 2024 and 11 more (episodes 13-23) from July to September 2025. The cinema recut Mission Recon carried a bonus episode, Hoshina's Day Off, and a four-part comedy short, Narumi's Week at Work, ran on YouTube in September 2026. Season 2 ends around chapter 83 of 129. A conclusion arc was announced on 20 December 2025, but as of October 2026 it has no format, episode count or date. Our Kaiju No. 8 explainer unpacks the combat suits and fortitude scale, and our best anime of 2025 list ranks Season 2 eleventh for its compact run.

It suits viewers who want a monster corps that mostly works, broad comedy between fights, and a hero past 30 who is kinder than he is fit. That warmth is why our list of anime like Demon Slayer ranks it seventh.