Hiroyuki Yoshino and Tomokazu Sugita have joined the voice cast for the animated television series Kaiju No. 8 is currently airing. The anime premiered in Japan on April 13, 2024.
Yoshino will voice the villain Kaiju No. 9, while Sugita will voice cleaning worker Takamichi Hodaka. Both characters appeared in the fourth episode of the anime “Fortitude 9.8” on May 4, 2024.
Voice actors Tessho Genda and Mutsumi Tamura were also announced to join the series earlier this week and will also debut in the anime's fourth episode five.
Meanwhile, the anime's main voice cast includes:
• Masaya Fukunishi as Kafka Hibino • Asami Seto as Mina Ashiro • Wataru Kato as Reno Ichikawa • Fairouz Ai as Kikoru Shinomiya • Kengo Kawanishi as Soshiro Hoshina
Shigeyuki Miya (Afterlost, The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior) and Tomomi Kamiya (A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepherd, Hikari: Kariya wo Tsunagu Monogatari) are directing the anime along with Ichiro Ohkouchi (Mobile Suit GTA: The Witch of Mercury, Code Geass) as series writer, Tetsuya Nishio (Naruto, Vampire in the Garden) as character designer, Mahiro Maeda (SSSS.GRIDMAN, co-directed Evangelion 3.0+1.0 and concept art director and others.) is the kaiju designer and Yuuta Bandoh (co-composer of Belle) is the composer.
Other staff members include Studio Khara as kaiju supervisor (design and artwork), Izumi Hirose (Tengoku-Daimakyo) as color designer, and Shinji Kimura (Children of the Sea, Blood Blockade Battlefront) as director. art director. Production IG is responsible for animation production for the anime adaptation.
© J3D © NM/S
Kaiju No. 8 is streaming weekly on Crunchyroll, X (formerly known as Twitter), and iQIYI outside Japan. Crunchyroll is streaming new episodes of the anime weekly in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, concurrent with Japanese broadcasts.
The original manga by Naoya Matsumoto has been serialized on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ online website since July 3, 2020. Twelve tankobon volumes have been released as of April 2024. VIZ Media publishes the manga in English.
A spin-off manga by Kentaro Hidano titled Kaiju No.8: B-Side began serialization on Shonen Jump+ on January 5, 2024 and has been published in English by Shueisha and VIZ. It tells the side stories of many Self-Defense Force members from the main series. Another spin-off titled Kaiju No. 8 Relax will be published in Saikyo Jump on June 4, 2024.
A four-chapter side story light novel written by Keiji Ando and illustrated by Matsumoto was released on November 4, 2022. VIZ will release a print version of the novel in late 2024.
VIZ describes the premise of Kaiju No. 8 as:
Kafka hopes to one day keep his pact with his childhood friend Mina to join the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and fight alongside her. But while she's neutralizing kaiju as Third Division captain, Kafka is stuck cleaning up the aftermath of her battles. When a sudden rule change makes Kafka eligible to join the Self-Defense Forces, he decides to try out for the team again. There's just one problem—he's landed on the Self-Defense Forces' disabled list under the codename Kaiju No. 8.