Kaiju No. 8 Fans Cheer for its Epic Five Million Milestone Animation

An explosive animated video showing the characters of Kaiju No. 8 in motion celebrates a huge sales milestone for the manga Kaiju No. 8 is a treat that fans must see to believe.

Fans of Naoya Matsumoto’s manga Kaiju No. 8 were treated to a surprise recently with the release of a special promotional video from Weekly Shonen Jump celebrating a major sales milestone. Kaiju No. 8 tells the story of the thirtysomething Kafka Hibino, who lives in a Japan filled with Kaiju, or oversized, dinosaur-like monsters that prey on humans. To protect the people from these monsters, the Japanese government established the Defense Corps, a special operations military command with the specific task of finding and eliminating all Kaiju.

As a child, Hibino and his friend Mina Ashiro aspired to become members of the Defense Corps. However, while Ahsiro eventually joins the Corps, after numerous attempts, Hibino fails to gain admission. Ultimately, as his friend steadily rises in the Defense Corps ranks, Hibino has to settle on the next best opportunity, namely serving as a sweeper or a person called on to remove and dispose of the bodies of killed Kaiju. While the job provides Kafka with stability and security, it never overcomes his desire to be a Kaiju hunter. One day, while on the job, Kafka is infected with a parasitic Kaiju. Rather than harm him, the Kaiju transforms Kafka into a humanoid monster. With his newfound powers, Kafka sets out to finally be the hero he always dreamed he would be, even though this will bring him into conflict with this childhood friend Ashiro.

Since its debut in July 2020, Kaiju No. 8 has been one of the most popular manga in the already impressive Weekly Shonen Jump‘s stable. To celebrate the publication of the manga’s fifth anthology volume in Japan, as well as the milestone of selling over five million in combined print and digital copies, the special promotional video was posted to Weekly Shonen Jump‘s YouTube channel Jump Comic Channel.

The footage uses projection mapping to show animated panels from the Kaiju No. 8 manga, and a number of key characters are highlighted, from Kafka’s Third Division colleagues Leno Ichikawa and Kikoru Shinomiya to the mysterious Kaiju No. 9, a calculating humanoid kaiju who thus far has proven to be a consistent thorn in the side of the Japanese Defense Force. Since an anime adaptation of the series has yet to be officially announced, the video — along with other similar promotional clips offers the fans an intriguing first look at what these character might look like in motion.

All of Kaiju No. 8’s currently 51 chapters are available to read in English on Viz’s Shonen Jump+ platform. The first translated collected volume, containing chapters 1 to 7, goes on sale Dec. 7. The second volume, containing chapters 8-17, is set to release on April 5, 2022.