Forum - View topicKaiju No. 8 (TV).
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ACｘS
 Posts: 885 |
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2:
This show is a winner. Is it the production values? Maybe. It's off the charts, and that OP clearly shows. Production I.G is definitely pulling no punches with this one. Is it the characters? Maybe. I like shows that doesn't take itself very seriously. Unlike other manga titles, this show is taking the Western superhero route: a derpy hero, a secret identity that he has to protect, and a trusty sidekick. So how do I tell that this show's a winner? spoiler[When Kafka pissed through his nipples. God that was spectacular.] |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1953 |
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Hmmm, I have mixed feelings on the third episode. The tests were exciting to see and getting to know more of the cast and the tech they use is interesting. My complaint is concerning the mc. It is a common trope to have the mc be weaker than his competitors and struggle with limitations and weaknesses of some sort.
In the case of Kafka it feels like the show might be a bit too good at making him seem utterly pathetic. I am part of a group of friends who go to the gym a couple times a week together and despite everyone being 35 or so we could do a hell of a lot better than whatever Kafka showed. Yeah, I know, 35 might seem old to a teenager but if you excercise regularly you do not end up performing like a senior citizen. I usually like to encourage the underdog yet in this case I wonder what the hell the mc has been doing to make his dream come true, I know a 42 year old guy with asthma and diabetes who could do better. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2856 |
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#3
Now this is interesting. It turns out Kafka and Reno are outliers in the candidate pool for this round. The arrogant brat who damaged the company car turns out to be a prodigal genius at killing monsters, what with the superhuman abilities granted from having superior compatibility with the powered suits. Not just her, many of the candidates are younger than our main pair, have the benefit of superior educational backgrounds in monster killing and are physically stronger than our main pair to boot. When Kafka said he'd hit a wall he couldn't surpass when doing the exams in his younger days, he meant it very literally as his childhood friend must have been one of the super talented ones despite having the same background as him. What natural talent and the benefit of family background gifts the top candidates, Kafka and Reno have but one ace up their sleeve to compensate. The other candidates like Shinomiya are completely reliant on the raw power of their enhanced abilities to get the job done, Kafka and Reno (especially the former as he's been doing this for years) fall back on their intimate knowledge of Kaiju anatomy acquired from their day jobs. The powered suits have other tools besides guns for hunting monsters, and Kafka knows what to use once he's recognised the peculiar characteristics of the prey. A shame the surprise attack has broken his leg and damaged his internal organs, unless he recovers somehow he won't be able to pass the examination. That leaves Kafka with only one option, and he has no choice but to use it if he doesn't want to give up his dream forever. Reno warned him already not to use his Kaiju powers, and to be fair to Kafka he's kept his word to date. Since he's already a monster, that might explain why the powered suit has no effect on him. For Reno, he could feel the powered suit enhancing his physical capabilities. Kafka on the other hand is already a monster and that's most likely the reason why he's had the ignominy of a 0% compatibility rating (his insides aren't human any longer so the suit can't really interface with him). With his window of opportunity about to be closed forever, how is Kafka going to fulfil the ED animation prediction of him and Reno somehow passing the candidate test? |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1143 |
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I don't mind Kafka having a hard go of it...it's more the pacing that left me grousing a tad. More specifically, if I'd known I was going to spend thirty minutes watching the MC get crapped on by life, peers, and his own general lack of aptitude, with the issue still unresolved at the end of the episode, I would have waited until next week so I could watch episodes 3 and 4 back to back. I too enjoyed seeing how the organization works and getting to meet some of the new players. But I would have rather just spent most of the episode having the place and the test introduced, and then having Kafka sucking at the very end to provide a cliffhanger, or else had them skip one of the many of the same kind of scenes of Kafka stinking up the joint over and over and over and shown him turning things around a little sooner. But that might just be me personally. Not doubting the quality of the show and definitely buckled in for episode 4.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1953 |
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I suppose what bothered me most was that Kafka has said that standing together with Mina is his dream, one that he will never give up on and give everything for. Hearing that and then seeing him whiff the tests way harder than a fit hard training 32 year old should makes it feel almost like a fake promise. The suit I understand though, it is probably not syncing well since he is a monster physically.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23797 |
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Episode 3
Fortunately, I have my Ph.D. in Delayed Gratification so even though it's possible that my left eyelid twitched a bit at the constant and unrelenting suckage that Krapka displayed, I KNOW a big ole redemption scene is coming... no doubt in the last five minutes of the final episode. I can wait. But seriously... yeah, it's a bit tough not to get something other than, "oh gosh, I stood up and my Combat Whatever Rating soared up to a whopping 0.01%!" but patience, peeps, patience. Again, my infallible measure of how much I'm enjoying a show was in full effect: the episode just whipped by and I'm jonesing for the next. (Actually a bit unfair to say he constantly and unrelentingly sucked... he did shine in that support role... up until he started sucking, again...) |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2856 |
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1. He'd given up on his dream for some time after he crossed what he initially thought was the age limit for the candidate test. It was Reno who convinced him to give it one last try after being informed of the raised age limit. 2. He's much older than everyone else in the test. He's not a lazy couch potato as evidenced by episode one, but he's definitely not fit, hard and training regularly given the state of his flat. His abnormally low rating is also a consequence of the vast majority of candidates being at their physical peak and more in the expected age range (there's a reason why the average age of Olympics medallists is in its early 20s for the vast majority of sports contested in the summer edition) |
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ACｘS
Posts: 885 |
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3:
Now this show is giving me My Hero Academia vibes. The narrative of Kafka having no talent and having to make it up with pure grit is exactly what Midoriya would say. 
I took this personally. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 34 |
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I don't mind a character starting out weak, but this is a little much. It makes me think "wouldn't they just eject him for 0% sync".
It also just doesn't make for a great to watch sequence; the episode sticks to him hard, and while "run around and offer advice" is a logical response its not the most scintillating action sequence, and the test nature and predictable final outcome kind of saps the tension. The new characters and worldbuilding are all good though. Still enjoyed the episode and feels like its going somewhere, but just a little too much time communicating that he sucks. Rest assured, you can convince me of that with a lot less time. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2856 |
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#4
If Kafka and Rino are going to join the Corps, it won't be through the normal route. Because Shinomiya is so ridiculously strong compared to all the other candidates combined, she is a one-woman army and clears the challenge prepared by the Corps captains easily. We viewers also find out why she's walking around with her own powered suit; her father is the commander of the corps (i.e. all captains answer to him and he's probably the strongest fighting unit there is to get to his position). Unfortunately for her, the perfectionist father puts everything on the line into creating the ultimate Kaiju killing machine so she's never known failure. And because she's never known failure, she doesn't know when it's better to run than take on a foe which vastly outmatches her for the first time in her life. For this week's Deux Ex Machina, it is the introduction of another Kaiju masquerading as a human. Unlike Kafka, whose powers appear to focused on combat the new mysterious Kaiju is more of a puppeteer who can resurrect fallen Kaiju and restore their combat abilities through regeneration. Because it was so confident the resurrected beasts could slaughter the candidates unassisted, it left the field prematurely and we viewers are robbed of the opportunity to see the two face off. Kafka does indeed save the day, but he leaves one witness behind and his secret stays safe as the kill is credited to Shinomiya. If she had told the truth, he wouldn't have been hospitalised as a human. What surprised me about the hospitalization was Kafka not recovering from his injuries before he transformed. He clearly had no mobility issues as No. 8, but as soon as he changed back to being human his injuries were genuine enough to warrant hospitalization. He's given everything he's had together with Rino, but with their lack of combat ability there's nothing to warrant granting them a place in the corps when so many of the other candidates were fighting on the frontlines. They might be the best supporting backup they could be, but does the Corps need such soldiers when their military structure focuses so much on creating superhuman warriors in the top brass with the subordinates making up the numbers (having reached a certain calibre to follow and execute orders no matter how ridiculous they would be for ordinary mortals of standard physical attributes?) How much interaction will we see between Kaiju No. 9 and No. 8 now that their human selves work in the same company? That's going to be an interesting watch, since the first one to discover the other's secret is going to have a massive first-mover advantage if the time comes for their Kaiju selves to have a throwdown. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1953 |
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There being multiple beings that do not follow the rules as to being either purely human or Kaiju is a welcome bit of news. Sure, killing big monsters is fun and seeing Kafka stumble about in the corps should be fun (given the cover he has to enter somehow) but you need more to keep things fresh and interesting long term. Kaiju turning into humans somehow and probably having some kind of dastardly plan fits that role well.
As for Kafka and his struggles of last week, I do hope that he gets to show off that he is more than just the human form of Kaiju 8 and that he will achieve something of note due to his humanly efforts some time in the future. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3892 |
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I don't think we know yet if Kafka even still works for his old company, he may be sent back to the Defense Force after his recovery. It will certainly be interesting to see where things go next episode. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 885 |
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4:
Things just went south quick, and I LOVE IT. You know it's strange: this show reminds me of not one, but two shows. First, My Hero Academia, and not really in a good way. Kafka is going the Midoriya route and simply has to grind out to become an officer. His powers will have to remain a secret for now, except for a few who learned about it (yeah, sounds like My Hero Academia, all right). Shinomiya having daddy issues, with her hard-ass dad giving her trauma? Oh, this show has its own Todoroki too! The other show? Parasyte. Trust me, I'm surprised too. Just when you thought this show is pulling out one big surprise, it pulled out another. If the Kaiju that went into Kafka was able to communicate with him, then you could assume that there will be another too (and you would be right). So now, there is at least one more Kaiju who can communicate with humans and assimilate with them. This raises a few questions: - How far has the Kaiju evolved? - Why would they assimilate with humans? - Are there good and bad Kaijus? These questions may not be hard to answer, but importantly, they are the kind I asked when I watched the parasitic aliens in Parasyte. Of course, that show was way deeper with the classic "if aliens were to visit Earth, what would they think about human beings?" mental exercise, but now the show has opened a big can of worms. Now this is exciting. Side note: I know how the show loves its comedic bits but I feel it's getting a bit too much. They are generally okay, but Kafka's antics sometimes break the tension. Some scenes would have been more impactful if only Kafka didn't say something silly. Just calm down a bit, please. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1143 |
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Responding to some stuff in no particular order.
Actually, there's a show that nobody's mentioned for obvious parallels - SSS.Dynazenon, a surprisingly good mecha show from trigger that came out a few years ago. It had kaiju attacks as well, and a support character who was a hybridization of human and kaiju. There were overt and covert forces at play, and a strangely effective combo of humor and grimness. Anyway, I think I tried Parasyte when I first started watching anime and was going through Hulu and Netflix catalogs for more - this was before I even found out that Crunchyroll and Funimation existed. My impression of the show was that it was like Cronenburg's The Fly. Good, but reveling in the grossout factor too much for me to want to watch all of it. But alright, I'll try it again. Geez, I don't know what's up with this season and making me go back to watch old series. I'm currently watching 3 retroseason shows one episode a week already. I agree the comedy can go a bit too Looney Tunes sometimes, but I like it. If this show was totally like Attack on Titan (another show I'd pick for obvious parallels) in tone, I'd be getting a bit burned out on despair. And I also find the idea of a "player on the other side" (<--see Thomas Huxley for original quote and context) great fuel for plot fodder. If I'm getting it right, he's a human who's been subsumed by a kaijo instead of a kaijo that's been subsumed by a human - presumably the route our MC was supposed to go if not for his innate buttheadedness. Total foil character territory. I like the way the show is using the enigmatic silence of the captain. Instead of making her seem like a brick, it makes her seem like a deep well. I also like the way the show used flashbacks to reveal more of Shinomiya, who was coming across as a cartoonish byatch. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23797 |
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Oh good lord Parasyte is amazing, yes, you have to go back and give it another shot. And just to counter what AC x S said, the humour of this show is absolutely working for me. In fact, if it was dialled back I wouldn't be enjoying it as much. One teeny point: after the Kaiju started reviving, the order was given to initiate the candidates remote emergency shields, yet I didn't seem to see any evidence of them. Shinomiya certainly didn't seem to have the benefit of one. Pity about her a-hole father whom I hope gets repeatedly violated by a Kaiju.
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