The latest episode of Kaiju No. 8 sees the Defense Force dealing with a towering mushroom kaiju, the Yoju that spawn from its body and just how powerful Captain Mina is. Read more in our Kaiju No. 8 episode 6 review.
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The Kaiju No. 8 episode 6 review
Episode 6 shows Kafka, Ichikawa, and the rest of the new recruits out on their first mission. Part of the episode is dedicated to planning and prepping for action, with the Japanese military and Anti-Kaiju Defense Force coordinating their troops to handle the massive mushroom Honju-type kaiju that woke everyone up last episode.
The rest is seeing nearly everyone shooting the hell out of the Yoju that spawn from the Honju’s body. Kafka makes himself useful by discovering where the Yoju core (i.e. their weak spot) is and that the Yoju can also replicate if their reproductive organs aren’t destroyed. Mina, meanwhile, manages to annihilate the mushroom monstrosity.
The episode ends with swarms of Yoju spawning from the Honju’s corpse and moving to attack the Defense Force soldiers, with Ichikawa and Iharu discovering that another character may be responsible for creating the Honju.
Mina the kaiju killer…
In the first episode, we got a glimpse of the Defense Force moving in to take out a kaiju. Here, we get a much better look at how operations are planned out. Luring the Honju to another location to minimize damage and Mina picking where the ideal location for her to snipe her target makes sense given. It’s a reminder that the Defense Force’s job is to protect people and reduce the damage kaiju can wreak upon a location. However, the setup for the operation takes a bit too long, with everyone beginning to kick ass around the nine-minute mark.
But the episode makes up for that with the amount of action that comes with the rest of the episode. Nearly every character with a gun shoots chunks off of the smaller mushroom Yoju the Honju produces. They aren’t putting small holes in them either; you can see that decent-sized pieces of them are shot off by the soldiers. The gunfire sounds punchy and, along with the bloody visuals, manages to sell just how resilient the kaiju are and that it takes a good amount of firepower, training, and skill to put them down.
The episode reaches its apex when Mina arrives on the scene with her giant sniper rifle and shows why she’s the Defense Force Captain. Invoking the power in her suit, she charges up to 96% before firing a bullet and blowing an enormous hole through the mushroom monster’s body, which is followed by her firing three more equally powerful bullets into its body (what’s left, that is) for good measure.
Both the visuals and the soundtrack do the heavy lifting for this scene. Electricity is sparking off of Mina as she charges up, with the drums in the background growing louder as she powers up her rifle. Once she’s ready, she fires what looks more like a ball of energy at the Honju, violins now accompanying the shot. It pierces the kaiju before an enormous blast of energy exits the back of its body, leaving it wounded.
Another equally powerful shot is fired at its head, causing it to be taken clean off of its body. Two more are fired at the corpse for good measure. All of this occurs as Ichikawa, Kikoru, and Kafka witness their superior at work, eyes wide with shock. We’ve heard of how adept Mina was in the kaiju killing department but didn’t get to see much of her in action aside from the first episode. This episode proves to us that she’s one tough customer and that Kafka has a long way to go if he wants to fight by her side one day.
…And the rest of the Defense Force
This week’s Kaiju No. 8 episode doesn’t have much when it comes to humor. It was amusing to see Kafka climb down a building while every other soldier was jumping off of it and when he was easily knocked aside by a Yoju when he tried to unleash his combat power. I also got a chuckle out of seeing the poor guy vomit while he and the team were on their way to fight the Yoju. Still, the episode’s jokes aren’t laugh-out-loud material and are decent.
Speaking of Kafka, he doesn’t remain static here. The hybrid using the knowledge he gained from his old job and from studying to discover the Yoju’s weak point and that they too can replicate is nice to see. It’s a reminder that there’s more to the guy than his kaiju form and just being another gunman in the fight wouldn’t be his style of helping out.
Besides him, most of the cast doesn’t stand out and mostly fire their guns. Kikoru, as always, makes it apparent that she’s good at taking down kaiju. Her embarrassment when Kafka compliments her and her disgust when the hybrid says he goes to vomit are also a little amusing.
Vice-Captain Hoshina manages to slice and dice a Yoju in the blink of an eye with his katana and mentions that his family has been slaying these monsters since Japan’s Muromachi period. It’s quick, but it’s also cool, both for displaying what Hoshina can do and for giving us a bit of interesting lore.
Ichikawa is also here and eliminating some Yoju, too. What makes him stand out here, however, is him motivating himself to get better so that Kafka won’t need to go into kaiju mode and reveal what he is to the world. It’s a short moment, but it’s pretty sweet of him to care about someone he hasn’t known that long. Hoshina also comments that Ichikawa may be able to output Kikoru’s level of power from his suit in the future, so his future potential is also something interesting and another reason to keep an eye on him besides being Kafka’s best bud.
The design of the mushroom kaiju looks great. It’s this colossal cluster of mushrooms on four legs, with the mushroom caps having bright red spots and the head having a maw of razor-sharp teeth. It’s an awesome and unique design for a monster and its ability to spawn scores of Yoju to harass the soldiers and overwhelm them (or try to, at least) with their sheer numbers is a great way to keep them busy, even after it’s been killed.
The WTF factor for this episode has been replaced with a cool factor and I’m not complaining. I hope more kaiju in the future have awesome and inventive forms accompanied by useful functions like this one to ensure things aren’t easy for the protagonists.
Kaiju No. 8 episode 6 is held back since it takes a while to get things going, but once things do get going, it’s a fun and bloody time. The tease at the end regarding who may be behind this latest attack is another good hook to reel viewers in for next week’s episode.
Final Score: 7/10
Kaiju No. 8 can be streamed through Crunchyroll.
