Shounen animes are starting to become better lately. They are now free from the shadow of classical shounen like Naruto or One Piece, where the story of this masterpieces made a big influence to the next shounen generations. If you've noticed, almost new shounen anime have a huge similarity to Naruto. I mean it's not that bad to follow the Ideals of this classical hits. But for me, the potential and much wider world of shounen anime can't be showcased this way if they only make anime similar to the anime of the past.
And that's why I'm so happy that for this past few years, shounen anime started to take a different path and the new generation shounen started to emerge. We have Jujutsu Kaisen that focuses more of finding their true self than becoming something else. As well as Tokyo Revengers that took shounen to another level because of how unique their plot is. And of course the upcoming Chainsaw Man that introduced high level of violence into the genre meant for younger people. We can finally see an anime with different goals rather than becoming like this and like that when they grow up.
Kaiju No. 8 is the New Generation Shounen and It Will Shock the World Soon
I think the new figure of Shounen anime is now Attack on Titan. Sacrificing their self so that they can achieve their goals and protect someone they love is the new trend. Kaiju No. 8 is also like that. But don't get the wrong Idea. It is way different from what you think.
Plot
The world face the verge of destruction as the giant monsters called Kaiju wreak havoc and force humanities to create a special suite made from the same materials that can be found at the Kaijus. Fighting monsters with monsters is the only way to defeat the heinous beasts. Until one day it literally happened when a 32 year old man Kafka Hibino become a humanoid Kaiju after a small parasitic Kaiju force its way through his mouth and possess his body.
Along with his friend and coworker, Leno Ichikawa, they kept this secret hidden. And even with the threat of extermination they still want to join the Defence Force. (A military corps which has a goal to protect humanities with Kaijus). Kafka know the risk but because he promised to his childhood friend Mina Ashiro he keep on trying to join even though he failed many times. How can he keep this secret hidden as well as protect his new found comrade as other powerful humanoid Kaiju started to show up.
What Make Me Think That It Will Be The Next Big Shounen?
It basically have the qualities from the shounen that most people likes. It has a funny and weird main character like Dorohedoro, They gain powers from something they really hate like Attack on Titan and Overpowered protagonist but the society didn't know about it like One Punch Man. It looks like combination from other anime but these are the qualities I like about Kaiju No. 8 that I think it will be successful.
Comedy - this anime has a very good sense of comedy. It is funny but not to the point that it gets annoying. It is a good combination of humour and seriousness. Which is very rare on most shounen anime nowadays.
Very Cool Characters - not gonna lie but most of the supporting characters nowadays is more popular than the main characters. Take as example of this are Gojo Satoru, Levi Ackerman and Hatake Kakashi. And for this anime, I'm sure everyone will gonna love Soshiro Hoshina. Coolest character in this series. He fight unusually and he looks like the character that most people will love.
Interesting Fights - we all know that most of their enemies are giants so it is expected that they will fight with long range weapon. But with the appearance of smaller humanoid they are forced to fight in close combat. That's where Soshiro, Shinomiya and Kafka excell with their fighting scenes.
This is just manga but I can see it well in the anime. This is so good right now but unfortunately not all people know about this yet.
Possibility of Anime Adaptation
There is no announcement about anime adaptation yet but given how well the sell of its manga it will not be long until they announce it. Currently they have more than 30 chapters in manga and considered to be the fastest Shonen Jump Manga to reach 1 Million copies in circulation. Just give it atleast 100 chapters and the adaptation we are looking for will not be impossible.
I'm just worried about the animation because most monsters in anime right now are made using CGI. The only studio that can possibly pull enough quality in animating this series are probably; MAPPA, WIT or Bones and Madhouse. They are skilled enough to make non human characters without degrading the quality. But who knows. Maybe there will be a new studio formed just to make this anime. Lets just patiently wait for now.
I'm loving this Manga series that I can't wait till it gets adapted. But hopefully we can expect to get it by the year 2022 or 2023.
good