Shueisha Unleashes New ‘Kaiju No. 8’ Trailer, Reveals Anime Will Be First To Be Streamed On Twitter
In coming at just the right time to benefit from the world’s reignited love affair with the genre thanks to Godzilla Minus One, Shueisha and Production I.G. have announced that their upcoming adaptation of Naoya Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 will seek to bring fans into the world of giant monster battles by allowing it to be the first series to stream worldwide via Twitter.
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This news was first revealed on December 17th as part of a deluge of Kaiju No. 8 news unveiled during Shueisha’s annual Jump Festa preview event.
Things kicked off with the reveal of the series’ third and latest trailer, wherein audiences are once again introduced to 32-year old Kafka Hibino (CV: Masaya Fukunishi – Ken Ryuuguuji in Tokyo Revengers), a former member of the elite Defense Corps who has since resigned from his dream job in favor of making a mediocre living cleaning up their carcasses.
But after his 18-year old colleague and aspiring Defense Force member Leno Ichikawa (CV: Wataru Katou – Rentarou Aijou in The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You) encourages him to return to his dream, Kafka finds his kaiju-hunting passions reignited – and it is at that exact moment that a parasitic kaiju forces its way into his mouth and transforms the unsatisfied sweeper into the series’ titular hero.
The new footage featured in Kaiju No 8′s Jump Festa trailer showcased the Defense Force’s Third Division hunting prodigy Kikoru Shinomiya (CV: Fairouz Ai – Power in Chainsaw Man) as well as their dual-blade wielding Vice Captain Soshiro Hoshina (CV: Kengo Kawanishi – Gen Asagirl in Dr. Stone).
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Following the trailer’s reveal, Shueisha confirmed that courtesy of Twitter, Kaiju No. 8 will be the first anime made freely and legally available to simulcast worldwide alongside its Japanese broadcast.
However, though each episode will premiere on the series’ official Twitter page, these streams will not be archived, thus leaving audiences to find paid avenues through which to watch a given replay.
Alongside this distribution announcement, Shueisha also revealed that Matsumoto and Ando Keiji’s light-novel spin-off, Kaiju No. 8 Close-Up! 3rd Division, featuring four original stories relating to the Third Division, will be receiving a short manga adaptation, titled Kaiju No. 8 side B, featuring art from Super Smartphone mangaka Kentaro Hidano.
Finally, the Kaiju No. 8 Super Stage panel concluded with the series’ cast reading a special letter from Matsumoto regarding his thoughts on the anime’s development.
“Hello,” read the letter, as shared by the anime’s official English language Twitter account. “This is Matsumoto, the original author. Thank you very much to everyone who came to see Kaiju No. 8‘s stage and to all the featured voice actors.”
“Animation has been a dream of mine ever since I was a child,” the mangaka acknowledged. “I am always amazed and moved by the materials, design drawings, storyboards, etc. that come up as production progresses. The same thing happened when I received the recordings of the cast members’ voices for the first time.”
“Mr. Fukunishi perfectly portrays the sadness and coolness of Kafka being an older man who is not getting any younger,” he then praised of the series’ cast. “Ms. [Asami] Seto embodies Mina as a dignified female captain with her beautiful voice. Mr. [Wataru] Kato captures the warmth and kindness that lies within Reno’s coolness in his voice. Ms. Fairouz perfectly expresses the strength that shines through in Kikoru’s cuteness.”
“Actually, I was most worried about finding the right person to play Hoshina, but Mr. Kawanishi played the role extremely coolly with his perfect voice and Kansai dialect,” Matsumoto recalled. “Even though we only received audio, each character already had a sense of presence. I remember being reminded of the talent and greatness of the voice actors.”
“From that day on, when I drew the characters, the characters began to speak in their voices in my head,” he added. “The voices, which were only vague images, have been given substance, and I feel that the characters have come to life even more strongly.”
Winding down his letter, Matsumoto graciously told the cast, “Thank you to the actors for their work. As the original author, I’m also looking forward to seeing how Kaiju No. 8 will be made into an anime by combining everyone’s voices and images. I’m the type of person who supervises a lot of dubbing, so I think we’ll see each other often in the future. Thank you, again!”
“Finally, I would like to once again thank everyone who attended,” he ultimately concluded. “Thank you for your continued support of Kaiju No. 8!”
Beginning April 2024, all episodes of Kaiju No. 8 will be livestreamed worldwide on Twitter/X with same day simulcasts available on Crunchyroll. Kaiju No. 8 side B will begin its serialization in Shueisha’s Jump+ on January 5th.
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