Ey up guys. So gonna try to start doing this series as well as Black Clover. Took one of the dogs to the Vet earlier today. Diagnosis? She’s overweight. Facepalms. Anyway below you will find discussion & spoilers regarding Monster #8/Kaiju no.8 18 Raw and recap of the most recent chapter of Monster #8, Heavy spoilers. Enjoy!
So what is Kaiju no.8?
Before I start on the current chapter, I should probably explain what this series is. I’ll be short as I can with this but you may have seen how long my description can be of even smaller chapters on Black Clover. Initially when it came out it was being called Kaiju no.8 but when VIZ started publishing it they called it Monster #8. To be fair Kaiju and Monster mean similar things in their respective languages so this was probably why, but I’ll go between the two names as I feel like it. Just felt that needed clarifying first.
So in this universe (created/written by Naoya Matsumoto), Kaiju roam the Earth and as expected wreck all in their path. So they have to be dealt with, and that job falls to the Defence Force. Imagine a cyberpunk-ish take on the Attack on Titan Military units. When they’re finished killing the Kaiju, who cleans it up? Why the Professional Kaiju Cleaning Company of course. Here we meet our protagonist, Kafka Hibino of the Monster Sweeper Inc. He is a 33 year old who once dreamed of joining the Defence Force but never passed the test unlike his childhood friend/sweetheart Mina Ashiro who went on to become one of it’s highest ranking members. So he joined the clean-up crew and carried on with his life. One day new kid Reno Ichikawa joins the crew as an intern with intentions of heading to the Defence Force. But when both are attacked by a Kaiju they thought dead they end up in hospital. But then a mysterious little monster appears and enters Kafka’s body. This seems to transform Kafka into an unusual hybrid humanoid mini-Kaiju.
So now he has a super powerful transformation that gives him the ability to stand toe to toe with a lot of the Kaiju, but he has to keep it secret as otherwise he would be imprisoned and experimented on which obviously he doesn’t want. Only Reno knows initially, but when they apply for Defence Force he ends up revealing himself to Kikoru Shinomiya in order to save her. Luckily she agrees to keep quiet about it. So they all join DF full time and end up fighting a Kaiju. But then a human reveals himself to be another humanoid Kaiju who attacks Reno and his teammate Iharu Furuhashi. Alright that’s all up to speed, there’s more to it than that but I don’t have time or the memory to go through it all, just give it a run through if this managed to peak your interest. Alright then, onto the newest chapter we go.
Kaiju no.8 Chapter 17 Discussion:
So the chapter starts with the humanoid Kaiju having nearly mortally wounded Reno. This being admits he’s surprised Reno is still alive, that killing him is much harder than he anticipated. In desperation Iharu lets off a round of bullets but the Kaiju-Man flits them away. It then goes to finish off Reno but Iharu again refuses to give up and grabs a rifle but finds it broken. Now finally fully broken Iharu pleads with whatever Deity may exist that they save both of them. At which point Kafka arrives and after a threat clocks the other Kaiju-Man so hard he punches its head off.
The Kaiju-Man is initially confused when he can see his body before realising what has happened. Reno is frustrated that his weakness meant he had to be saved again by Kafka. At which point the Kaiju-Man regenerates its head (just to note, these things have Deadpool/Wolverine level healing abilities) and comments Ah so you’re the rumoured Monster #8.
There are several things this series does well, for starters the artwork is bloody great. It’s nice and clean, some series have that issue where you feel there’s so much in you can have difficulty telling what is what but Naoya’s style is clean and easy to read. Not to say it’s simplistic by any means, if anything the opposite as it’s very well done. The other main thing he does well is comedy, the scene after Kafka reveals himself to Kikoru is bloody hilarious had me actually chuckling out loud (I’m not a very vocal reader/watcher I tend to be pretty blank most of the time). It’s wacky enough to balance out the more serious moments without being annoying which can be a mix that’s very easy to turn out annoying. This chapter was more on the serious side of the series, and the arrival and decapitating punch were the highlights for me particularly Kafka’s death threat of The one who’s going to die is you, you piece of shit.
Monster #8 Chapter 18 Spoilers & Predictions:
So we’re obviously going to get Kafka facing off against the other Kaiju-Man. I don’t think we’ll get a full explanation as to what it is, or what it is plotting but we may find out a bit more, enough to hazard a guess what it’s intentions are. Kafka may reveal himself to Iharu and again ask him to keep it secret. I could see this becoming a reoccurring gag of Kafka telling people then asking them to stay quiet as Reno gets more and more exasperated as this escalates to ridiculous levels. Given their squad commander already suspects Kafka isn’t all he says he is I could see him either trying to figure him out from evidence or perhaps trying to get to the battle to discover more of the mystery surrounding all this (well it’s a mystery to him at least). Iharu is pretty beat up but I could see him trying to get himself and Reno out of there, or at least out of harms way as this battle will probably do what most shonen do and get big and bloody. Ah I can already picture the gallons of blood leaking everywhere……..
Monster #8 Chapter 18 Release date:
Usually the latest Kaiju no.8 Chapters are available once they are released on VIZ Media and Shueisha’s Manga plus official platforms. The next chapter arrives on the 19th of November and fans will start discussing the spoilers of Kaiju no.8 over our Reddit sub and other social media platforms. To support the Manga creators and publishers, we advise you to read the digital copies from their official websites and apps. You can read Chapter 17 here