Originally Reviewed on Serializd After being bombarded with clips from this show stapled onto YouTube as ads primarily to promote Crunchyroll a streaming service that I have never used and will continue to never use for the rest of my life I decided to finally check out the first season of Kaiju No. 8 a good couple of months back and as a whole I thought it was good for what it was. It definitely was a little disappointing for sure what with a lot of it being pretty standard and generic for the kind of show that this is along with the fact that Kaiju No. 8 himself the main thing that got my attention of the show more then anything else was barely mentioned in the series at all but it still managed to make up for all of this mostly with a pretty decent plot a set of alright characters paired with some good voice acting animation that wasnt too spectacular but definitely put all of its budget in the right places to make for some incredible action scenes and shots which ended up making it good overall and speaking of which the action was also really good too. And hey if anything else despite the fact that the first season essentially did blue ball me with the lack of proper Kaiju No. 8 moments I wouldnt lie and say that I wasnt invested with what the show was giving me at that point so needless to say regardless of how much I liked or disliked the first season I was still hooked and ready to see what was going to happen next with this series. Thankfully they did manage to deliver on that front too as not only did we get a separate special episode for the series Hoshinas Day Off which was more or less a more sliceoflife episode then anything else that was actually pretty good but we also managed to get ourselves a proper Season 2 that just wrapped things up and boy do I got some thoughts about it. In terms of changes that were made to this season compared to the first one there werent really too many major things that were added into the show with the only real exception being with this new character named Gen Narumi a captain of the Defense Force who while initially being somewhat pathetic only caring about the video games and action figures that he has ends up being one of the strongest members of the force who can take out kaiju with a single blow while also changing his attitude to fit the situation at hand as well. I already liked him before as a selfish lazy asshole but then that went ahead and solidified him as one of my favorite characters for the rest of season from then on having plenty of badass and funny moments that definitely made him way more likable despite how he is mostly a pretty simple character that doesnt have that much going on compared to others. And speaking of the others the other big thing that this season has going for it compared to the first is that the situation has now changed slightly. The entire world now knows that Kafka is now Kaiju No. 8 and yet despite this they still allow him to be part of the Defense Force moving him to a completely new division while also using his Kaiju powers primarily as a weapon for whenever the situation demands it which leads to more of the same stuff that you would expect from the series until Kaiju No. 9 then makes his move. He ends up killing Isao and absorbing him into his own being making him more powerful then ever before and in the shadows allows him to create even more numbered kaiju that serve the sole purpose of eliminating the entirety of the Defense Force which results in a good chunk of the season dedicated to not only repelling this huge attacks whenever they do occur but also in preparing for this inevitable wave of destruction that Kaiju No. 9 will eventually cause. All of this comes together to make for a season that is definitely much more ambitious and serious then that of Season 1 and it definitely works out in its favor for the most part... making for a season that I would say is definitely better then the first even if not by much. It doesnt do quite that good of a job in fixing the problems that I did have with Season 1 sometimes even doubling down on some of those problems which I wasnt a fan of but the escalation of things compared to Season 1 and the general level of quality has definitely increased here making it so that I did end up liking this season a good amount more then the first one despite how there is still definitely room for improvement here. For the most part what we have here is more less the same when compared to where the show was at during its first season: if you have seen any other kind of similar anime to this whether it be focused on kaiju or otherwise then you are gonna see a lot of the same kind of stuff that you are gonna see here with there being no real differences to make it stand out. It isnt focused on the typical becoming the best at this thing and training to reach that level anymore but it does feel a lot like the kind of continuation a lot of these shows would tend to have and this makes it so that the season doesnt have anything too unique or interesting that makes it stand out compared to other series out there. However that doesnt mean that they didnt at least try with what they had here as there is a lot to like about how this season does feel like a natural followup to the first. A lot more pressure and heat is put on Kafka naturally now that his true identity has been revealed and this ends up becoming a conflict of interest for the characters to where the Defense Force wants to use him as a weapon for whenever things get serious but at the same time in the background of everything that is happening Kafka also wants to become stronger himself not wanting to rely solely on his kaiju form anytime shit gets serious and he does put in some good effort into reaching that level. He doesnt quite accomplish this by the end of the season unfortunately but the effort is definitely shown here thats for sure and I imagine if we do end up getting a third season of some sort that effort will further be shown off even more as it keeps going until Kafka can eventually reach the point where he no longer needs to rely on Kaiju No. 8 in order to get the job done and can instead just fight alongside everyone else. In addition to this there are also several episodes that give a lot of focus to this advanced type of weaponry that specific soldiers of the Defense Force are given which combine parts of dead kaiju together with regular equipment that ends up making them way stronger then ever before. This was something that was briefly shown off in Season 1 with Isao having that weapon and armor set that was made from Kaiju No. 2 if I am remembering that correctly but now we have full episodes dedicated to characters fully utilizing and testing out these powers on actual kaiju such as the case with Reno who ends up getting suited up with a weapon from the remains of Kaiju No. 6 and tests it out over the span of an episode or two which was pretty neat to see not only for the obvious action and drama played out here that is cool to see but also for the fact that it actually gives Reno some actual purpose in this season which is pretty cool. Although with that being said my favorite instance of this plot point occurring without a doubt would have to be with Hoshina who ends up getting a weapon that is fused with Kaiju No. 10 who ends up still being alive during all this and in the instances that we see Hoshina use this armor in action it metaphorically butts heads with him on what the best way to deal with all of these enemies are. Honestly I really wish we got to see more of this kind of stuff from Hoshina and Kaiju No. 10 because it is undeniably one of the best moments of the entire season coupled with the incredible action that is on display right beside all of that it is some great stuff. Aside from those few things I mentioned though everything else that we get here is more or less the same as before for the most part: Kikoru loses her dad which causes her to want to get revenge and get even stronger then ever before the evergrowing conflict of the kaiju uprising is ondisplay here and theres also all of the little stuff that goes on inbetween all of that to make for an overall pretty good season. Regardless of how good it all is though again it does still suffer from a lot of those same issues that I brought up before whenever I reviewed Season 1. Once again a lot of this show is very typical when it comes to this type of anime with them not really doing anything too creative new or interesting here so if you are one who isnt too big of a fan of these kinds of shows then you probably arent gonna like this one all that much and also just like Season 1 they STILL dont give us nearly enough action from Kaiju No. 8 as I was hoping for to the point where I would say we get to see even less of him throughout the whole season Although I am able to forgive that a little more this time around due to the fact that they do give a genuinely good reason for Kafka to not want to turn into this guy all the time that being that the more he ends up using him the more that Kaiju No. 8s DNA ends up fusing with his meaning that if he ends up using the form too much he will be stuck in that form for good which makes the lack of Kaiju No. 8 throughout the season perfectly understandable. But again though the series is literally called Kaiju No. 8 so Im sure they couldve found a way to potentially fit him in there surely. Not to mention on top of that a lot of the characters that we got to see and know from Season 1 such as Reno and Iharu dont really get that much to do here where they do appear periodically throughout the season and even get an episode or two dedicated to them but beyond that they dont do much else which does kind of suck. It makes sense why they arent in the season that often considering that the main characters have been located to a completely different location but still wish we got to see them a little more often. And finally as one final complaint for me to bring up before I wrap this whole thing up this season ends things off on a cliffhanger which as you could probably imagine FUCKING BLOWS. Dont get me wrong I am still invested in this series and want to see where it ends up going from here and the way that they do this is effective enough especially for longtime viewers and fans but it doesnt make it any less infuriating. To show you what I mean let me lay out the situation for you here: Season 2 ends off with some of the best episodes that the show has ever had with the secondtolast episode Cataclysms having this gigantic wave of Kaiju monsters sprouting up throughout the city which leads to the Defense Force going in and taking care of them in the most BADASS way possible with there being plenty of action to be seen great kills incredible looking attacks all the way throughout it is an absolute joy for the eyes especially for someone like me who cant get enough of this kind of action when it comes to these shows. Then after that we then get to the final episode of the season Second Wave which if you couldnt tell by the title means that OH SHIT... they got backup All of the kaiju that Kaiju No. 9 had been making in secret as a means of eliminating the Defense Force have now been fully deployed onto the masses destroying everything in sight and going after the officers that they are meant to counteract and needless to say they get fucking destroyed. Yeah nobody ends up dying yet but they get knocked around all over the place they cant land a single hit on them they destroy more shit people are evacuating all the while it is all some insane stuff. But then just as one of the commanding officers is about to get killed by the kaiju that goes after her Kafka then steps in saving her from being punched into oblivion and turning into Kaiju No. 8 ready to unleash this builtup power onto every single one of these Kaiju that stands in the Defense Force and the worlds way And then just when it is about to get good... the credits roll.......... WHAT THE FUCK. You cant just end off the entire season on a note like that that is just being mean especially compared to other cliffhangers that I have seen from other similar shows in the past Again I guess I cant be too mad at something like this especially since it did work in getting me hooked and wanting to see what happens next but at the same time it is still incredibly frustrating especially when there is no guarantee that this will even be followed up in the first place whether it be with some kind of third season or a movie. Of course they must have something planned to follow this up on so I guess we will just have to wait and see what comes of this but either way I am very salty right now and its all this shows fault. Overall despite still being more or less what you would expect even less Kaiju No. 8 then before less screentime for certain characters and that BULLSHIT cliffhanger Season 2 of Kaiju No. 8 is definitely an improvement over the first one in just about every way feeling like a proper natural continuation of everything that did happen in Season 1 while continuing to expand this world raising the stakes and providing us with all of the stuff that we did end up loving about that first season in the first place which made it so that I ended up really enjoying my time with it all around. I would recommend it for those that did love the first season as well as for those that loved the original manga that its based on and other shows like this in general as while it is still a good ways away from reaching its full potential there is still just enough to really like here and get invested in to where you will still end up really enjoying what you get from it at the end of the day which is all I could really ask from it all in all. Lets just hope that we do end up getting that third season or a movie sometime soon in the future because otherwise again I would be REALLY upset if this thing just ends off here on this cliffhanger. Although if I really wanted to I could just theoretically just go and read the manga to find out what ends up happening and potentially where the serious could end up going from here............... but wheres the fun in that?