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James Marsh

2/5 stars
Anime compilation films are far from a new phenomenon. Since the 1970s, feature-length re-edits of animated television series have been a mainstay in Japanese cinemas.
Offering diehard fans the opportunity of a big-screen refresher, while giving franchise newcomers a crash course that is all killer no filler, every self-respecting series from Space Battleship Yamato to Mobile Suit Gundam has swung for a splashy theatrical cash grab.
Recently, Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan both scored notable box office hits with compilation films made up of almost entirely of previously-seen footage.


Now comes Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon, 80 minutes of distilled footage from the first season of the science-fiction coming-of-age series adapted from Naoya Matsumoto’s digital manga of 2020.
In addition to seeing the best moments cherry-picked from its 12 episodes, audiences are rewarded with the bonus episode “Hoshina’s Day Off”, a frivolous digression of little substance.
Kaiju No. 8 takes place in a near-future Japan where giant monsters run amok, destroying property and terrorising the human population.
The Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force (JAKDF) is established to combat these creatures, and is equipped with special armour and weaponry fashioned from kaiju remains, imbuing them with enhanced powers and advanced capabilities that aid their struggle.

The series follows the fortunes of the JAKDF recruits, particularly Kafka Hibino (voiced by Masaya Fukunishi), a hapless yet somewhat endearing student who inadvertently acquires the ability to transform into a humanoid kaiju after being infected by a parasitic creature.
Kafka escapes the JAKDF, who are now in pursuit of “Kaiju No. 8” unaware that it is their former teammate.
Over the course of the show, Kafka rejoins the military while struggling to keep his condition secret – to fulfil a childhood promise made to Mina (Asami Seto), the beautiful yet feisty captain of the Defense Force’s Third Division.
Blending romance and humour with bombastic action, Kaiju No. 8 cannot avoid feeling woefully derivative of superior shows from Attack on Titan to My Hero Academia.

In this format, character development and emotional nuance is mostly stripped away in favour of a breathless series of kaiju showdowns which are given almost no narrative context.
This tonal imbalance is exacerbated further by the bonus episode, tacked on after the closing credits, which is made up of almost entirely of lighthearted character work, without a glimmer of sci-fi-infused action.
The result is a theatrical experience likely to baffle the uninitiated, while providing only superficial thrills to those already under the show’s questionable spell.
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Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon offers a big-screen compilation of the anime, but character development and emotional nuance are stripped away


Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon offers a big-screen compilation of the anime, but character development and emotional nuance are stripped away.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon offers a big-screen compilation of the anime, but character development and emotional nuance are stripped away

Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon offers a big-screen compilation of the anime, but character development and emotional nuance are stripped away