Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon Theatrical Review

The popular manga series Kaiju No. 8 received its anticipated anime adaptation by Production I.G early last year and there’s a sequel in the works for this summer. However, in the meantime, a recap film of the first season titled Mission Recon is being released theatrically. Is it worth a watch? Let’s find out!

The story is set in an alternate Japan, where Kaiju frequently appear and cause mass destruction. To combat this threat, Japan has set up the Anti-Kaiju Defence Force which our protagonist, Kafka Hibino, has always dreamed of joining alongside his childhood sweetheart, Mina Ashiro. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for our protagonist and having failed the entrance exam several times, he’s now in his early 30s and working for the clean-up crew instead.

However, one day a newbie (Reno Ichikawa) joins the team and inspires Kafka to try the exam one last time before completely giving up on his dream. Unfortunately, before they get to the day of the exam, the two are attacked by smaller Kaiju and while in hospital Kafka gets infected by a parasitic Kaiju, which turns him into a human-Kaiju hybrid.

Although he’s held on to his sanity, Kafka can now transform into the form of a Kaiju. As you might expect, this gives him incredible strength, but at the same time our protagonist can’t reveal his new identity to anyone or he’s sure to find himself hunted down! Reno promises to keep his identity a secret, but with the exam approaching perhaps this newfound power will come in handy…

What I have always appreciated about Kaiju No. 8 is the fact that Kafka is an older protagonist, with struggles that differ from your usual shonen protagonist. Generally speaking, the manga and anime both took time to develop him and his co-workers relatively well to show these challenges. But that’s where the problems begin for this recap film.

Mission Recon is trying to fit 12 episodes in about an hour and 10’s worth of runtime (there’s an original episode at the end of the screening, so the 1 hour 50 minutes isn’t all the film). And trying to trim down 12 episodes to what amounts to about 4 and a bit is never going to be possible without notable sacrifices. In this case, we have lost significant amounts of character development, but also key plot points.

If you’re brand new to the world of Kaiju No .8, then this is not the way you should experience this series. It’s very hard to engage with when there’s so much lost, and what is here feels rushed. Even as someone who reads the manga and has watched the anime series, I really can’t recommend this even as a way to refamiliarize yourself with the story ahead of Season 2.

The other problem is less the recap’s fault and more the original anime. I have long felt that Production I.G missed the mark with this one, or perhaps just wasn’t the best studio to tackle it. The fight scenes (with a couple of exceptions) don’t feel as impressive as the original manga and the comedic moments feel forced as opposed to as natural as they do in the original. I was hoping the animation quality might have been improved in places for the film, but it’s the same as the TV series which just means one less reason to spend time watching this.

The main draw for these showings really is the Hoshina’s Day Off anime-original episode attached to the end. This is written by Food Wars’ mangaka Yuto Tsukuda and follows Hoshina on one of his days off from the Anti-Kaiju Defence Force. His colleagues are curious about how he spends his time and end up secretly following him, only to be surprised by what they discover.

This special episode showcases the carefully crafted character moments that won over Kaiju No. 8 fans in the first place. It does make for a very drastic change compared to what we’ve seen in the recap film and given it’s effectively a filler episode, it can’t do anything meaningful for the main story, but it is far more enjoyable than the recap. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s worth going to see the recap for, but it’s well worth seeking out later should it become available on a streaming platform.

Since this is a recap film, of course it shares all the same staff as the original TV series. Production as mentioned earlier is handled by studio Production I.G (Haikyu!!), with Tomomi Kamiya and Shinji Kimura at the helm. Studio Khara was also involved in the Kaiju designs and artwork. The music meanwhile was handled by Yuta Bandoh (Yuri on Ice) and while this was good for the TV version, I feel it isn’t given the room to leave a significant impact here with the rushed pacing.

In terms of audio languages, this is being released in the UK and Ireland with both the original Japanese audio and the English dub. I didn’t sample the English dub, but as far as the Japanese cast goes, we’re in safe hands with Masaya Fukunishi (Ken Ryuguji in Tokyo Revengers) playing Kafka and Wataru Katoh (Rentaro Aijo in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You) as Reno Ichikawa.

Overall, Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon is a difficult sell. As a recap film, you’d expect it to be rushed, but this just doesn’t work or make sense for newcomers or existing fans. And while the addition of Hoshina’s Day Off does offer something fun for those more familiar with the cast, it will be lost on newcomers and ultimately isn’t worth the wasted time watching the subpar recap beforehand. At least Season 2 isn’t too far off which will presumably be a far better watch…

Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon is in cinemas across the UK & Ireland from April 16th.