Kaiju No. 8 Chapter 32 Review

Things took an unexpected turn in the last chapter of Kaiju No. 8 as the Second Humanoid Kaiju unleashed a massive Yoju Bomb over the battlefield. This was an act by the Second Humanoid Kaiju to ensure that if he is going down he was going to take the entire Third Division of the Defense Force out with him. Seeing no other option Kafka Hibino rushed to the middle of where the Yoju Bomb was and transformed into his Humanoid Kaiju form in front of the entire Third Division to conclude the previous chapter. Will Kafka be able to save everyone from the Yoju Bomb? And if he does what will the reaction be to Kafka’s Humanoid Kaiju form? Let’s find out with chapter 32 of Kaiju No. 8.

Writer & Artist: Naoya Matsumoto

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: As Okonogi yells out that she is getting reading from Kaiju No. 8 (Kafka Hibino’s Kaiju designation by the Defense Force) Soshiro Hoshina realizes that he always felt that something was off about Kafka Hibino. He goes on to say that he ignored this because he was taken in by Kafka’s charm.

Meanwhile as Mina Ashiro and the others in the Third Division are in shock over Kafka’s Kaiju transformation Leno Ichikawa asks Kafka what he is planning on doing. Kafka says that after Soshiro put his life on the line against the Second Humanoid Kaiju he can’t just keep sitting on the sidelines to save his own skin.

Kafka then begins to power-up his Kaiju form to its max power. Once he is fully powered up Kafka leaps into the sky, with the force of his jump causing a massive shockwave, and punches the Yoju Bomb further into the Earth’s atmosphere. The impact of the punch ends up severely damaging Kafka.

As Kafka lands back on the ground Mina yells out to the entire Third Division to power their shields to the max. The Yoju Bomb then suddenly explodes. The size of the explosion ends up causing a shockwave that damages the surrounding buildings but was far enough in the Earth’s atmosphere so its radius does not kill anyone.

Kafka, still in his Humanoid Kaiju form, reflects on how he really screwed up as he severely injured his arms and legs after pushing his body to far in his one-shot attack. He then internally apologizes to Leno and Kikoru Shinomiya.

Mina then appears and at first calls Kafka by his name but changes to calling him “Kaiju No. 8.” Mina then points her gun at Kafka, as his Humanoid Kaiju breaks apart, and says she is taking him into custody. End of chapter.

The Good: Kaiju No. 8 Chapter 32 waste no time in delivering an impactful and memorable chapter in the early life of this series. We’ve had a lot of memorable character moments throughout Kaiju No. 8 but nothing like what chapter 32. Throughout this chapter you can feel how game changing what we witness Kafka Hibino does here is to this series.

Kicking off with Soshiro Hoshina’s inner monologue about how he always knew there was something more to Kafka was a perfect way to set the tone for this entire chapter. Through Soshiro, Naoya Matsumoto is able to remind the reader why no in the Third Division or Defense Force believed there was something more to Kafka was because of how the series’ lead protagonist had a unique charm to him. That charm made it so everyone let their guard down as they naturally became friendly with Kafka in their own way.

Soshiro’s inner monologue also made great use of how we did see everyone in the Third Division, including Mina Ashiro, in a state of shock over Kafka’s Humanoid Kaiju transformation. The constant look at everyone’s shocked expressions added to the gravity of Kafka’s decision to openly use his Humanoid Kaiju form to save everyone. It all played into how you felt that in the moment the entire Third Division saw this transformation by Kafka that Kaiju No. 8 has already reached a point of no return.

The shock that ran through the entire Third Division made the concern in both Leno Ichikawa and Kikoru Shinomiya work even better. With the way both Leno and Kikoru react to Kafka transformation in front of the rest of the Third Division Matsumoto reminds you that they were previously the only ones who knew this about Kafka. In their own ways Leno and Kikoru know exactly what this means for their friend. Which sets up what Leno and Kikoru will do in the aftermath of the entire Third Division knowing the truth about Kafka one of the intriguing parts of the upcoming Kaiju No. 8 chapters.

All of this also put over how epic of a showcase Kafka put on as we saw him unleash the full power of his Humanoid Kaiju form in order to punch the Yoju Bomb higher into the atmosphere. Matsumoto did such a fantastic job letting his artwork tell the story of how big of a moment this entire thing was. From Kafka powering up to the actual punch itself, you understood even before seeing how injured Kafka got in the aftermath that he went all out. It was a great way to establish how powerful Kafka’s Humanoid Kaiju is at without having someone tell us he has this massive power level.

The injuries that Kafka suffered added to how impactful of a character decision that was made in this act by our main protagonist. Seeing Kafka’s Humanoid Kaiju form break apart as Mina approached him and went from addressing him by his name to “Kaiju No. 8” was the best cliffhanger ending we’ve gotten in this series. Matsumoto absolutely nails how big this entire ending felt as you are left uncertain what will happen next in this series.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Naoya Matsumoto absolutely crushes it as his work on chapter 32 of Kaiju No. 8 is a grand slam home run. Matsumoto nails how chapter 32 will go down as one of the turning points for Kaiju No. 8 as Kafka Hibino used his Humanoid Kaiju form to save everyone in the Third Division from a massive Yoju Bomb. In making this decision Kafka must now deal with everyone knowing he is the Kaiju No. 8, including his childhood friend and Captain of the Third Division Mina Ashiro. I cannot wait to see what the fallout of what we saw take place in chapter 32 of Kaiju No. 8 is.

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