All you need to know about Kaiju No. 8, the new manga phenomenon

All you need to know about Kaiju No. 8

Announced at Lucca Comics & Games 2021, Star Comics has also launched in Italy the new worldwide manga phenomenon: Kaiju No. 8. The manga is written and drawn by Naoya Matsumoto and debuted on the digital platform Shonen Jump + (counterpart of the historic Weekly Shonen magazine Jump by Shueisha) on July 3, 2020. The series currently boasts 43 chapters collected in 5 tankobons.

All you need to know about Kaiju No. 8

What is Kaiju No. 8 about? The characters Read the first chapter for free The Italian editions The numbers of the new manga phenomenon Kaiju No. 8: the anime

What is Kaiju No. 8 about?

What is Kaiju No. 8 about? Here is a brief synopsis:

Kaiju: gigantic monsters that suddenly appear bringing death and destruction along their way. Japan is the country in the world with the highest rate of occurrence of these calamities, to the point that the members of the Special Defense Teams set up specifically to fight them are considered authentic national heroes - such as the beautiful and icy MinaAshiro, acclaimed commander of the Third Unit. But there are also those who dreamed of fighting these monsters on the front line and did not make it, and after countless failed attempts he gave up and now makes his contribution by taking care of the removal and disposal of the massive carcasses of the killed kaiju . This is the case of Kafka Hibino, a disillusioned 32-year-old as commendably diligent in his work as he is neglected and addicted to vices such as alcoholism in his spare time. But just when the new colleague Leno prods him to the point of rekindling in him the ardor of the past, causing him to decide to try for the very last time the admission exam to the defense corps, in a strange circumstance a bizarre creature sneaks into his body transforming him into a man-Kaiju, whose level of power and danger is such that he ends up on the black list of the same Defense Forces with the code name "Kaiju No. 8". How will he now be able to keep that promise he made to Mina, his childhood friend many years earlier: “one day we will fight the kaiju side by side”…?

The characters

In addition to the protagonist, already mentioned in the synopsis, Kafka Hibino, we also discover the other main characters of Kaiju No. 8.




He is a member of the defensive forces and former Kaiju carcass disposal officer for Monster Sweeper Inc. After a kaiju has managed to join his body he has obtained the ability to evolve into an anthropomorphic version of it.

Mina Ashiro (fourth from left)


Leno Ichikawa (second from left)

He befriended Kafka Hibino during the period in who worked at Monster Sweeper Inc. After discovering his friend's secret, Leno helped him join the defense forces with him.

Kikoru Shinomiya (first from left)

Read the first chapter for free

Through its official website, Star Comics has made it available for free for reading the first chapter of Kaiju No. 8. To read it, and get an idea of ​​what awaits you, just click on the image.

The Italian editions

Let's start with the first volume of Kaiju No. 8, available for purchase from 23 March. It is available in a double version: regular "normal" and with free attachments that will also accompany the release of volumes 2 and 3. The edition with attachments will be available while stocks last in the comic store, bookstore and online store, while the one without attachments will also be available for purchase at newsstands. Volume 2 single will be available from April 20, 2022.



We will find these gadgets:

Volume 1: puzzle (1 of 3) and two illustration cards: one dedicated to Pochi & Kuro and the other in Neko Wappa! Volume 2: puzzle (2 of 3) Volume 3: puzzle (3 of 3) The three puzzles can be put together to form a single image.

The first volume is also available in Limited Edition, with a color dust jacket with special effects, an internal mini poster and extra color pages absent in the other editions. The Limited Edition will also be distributed with a set of bookmarks attached, which will have different finishes depending on the sales channel: metallic for comic shops and transparent PVC for bookstores and online stores. This edition was released at the same time as number 1 in the Regular version, on 23 March.

Buy Kaiju No. 8 Vol. 1 Limited Edition on Amazon Then we have the Variant Cover edition, available for purchase from 23 March in a limited edition in comics, bookstores and online stores, featuring a colored dust jacket with special effects, color pages at the beginning of the volume and a set of 4 illustration cards as a gift.



Finally, the Kaiju No. 8 - Monstrous Box collects a preview of volumes 1 and 2 in edition regular and is available from today on March 16, a week before the release of volume 1 and about a month before the release of number 2. Attached to it a pin, a keychain, a magnet and a Star Card collectible.



Buy the Monstrous Box on Amazon At the end of October, on the occasion of Lucca Comics and Games 2022, Kaiju No. 8 Volume 5 will be published in both the Regular and an exclusive version Variant Cover Edition, created by none other than Marco Checchetto, great Italian artist n as well as one of the leading Marvel designers (for which he worked on The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Venom and many others).

The numbers of the new manga phenomenon

The opera has received a lot of acclaim from specialized critics and the accumulated sales / views only prove these acclaim.

The manga received a nomination at the 14th Manga Taisho in 2021 and finished in 6th place with 58 votes; won the 2021 Next Manga Award contest in the web category; the School Library Journal considered the first volume of the work as one of the best of 2021; the series finished in 12th place in 2021 at the Book of the Year contest organized by Da Vinci magazine; the manga ranked 3rd in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi contest this year! Takarajimasha in the category of best manga for male readers; received the nomination this year at the 26th edition of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize; the series ranked 2nd in 2022 among booksellers' recommended readings.



Still without an anime to support sales, the manga, which we remember debuted in July 2020, reached 6.7 million copies in March 2022 and 100 million views on Shonen Jump + in April 2021. As of March 2021, the manga had over 1 million copies physically printed and 200,000 copies sold digitally, making it the fastest Shonen Jump + series to reach 1 million copies in circulation and 20 days after reaching 1.5 million copies in circulation. circulation. As of June 2021, the manga had 2.5 million copies in circulation, and by mid-month it hit 3 million copies. As of September 2021, the manga had over 4 million copies in circulation. In France, the series sold around 22,000 copies in its first week, making it the best-selling debut manga in France.

Kaiju No. 8: the anime

On August 4, 2022, TOHO Animation has announced the anime adaptation by opening a website and the diffusion of a short teaser:

For the moment no further details on the adaptation are known.