Nene Hieda and Mayuko Kazama will join the cast of the Kaiju No. 8 is currently on air as the Additional Third Division Defense Officer. The film premiered in Japan on April 13, 2024.
Hieda voices Akari Minase, while Kazama voices Jura Igarashi's younger sister, Hakua. They are just two of the latest additions to the anime's supporting cast announced last week, with Tessho Genda and Mutsumi Tamura joining as Isao Shinomiya and Tae Nakanoshima, and Hiroyuki Yoshino and Tomokazu Sugita as Kaiju No. 9 and Takamichi Hodaka.
They join the main voice cast including:
• 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 SuitGundam: 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 et al.) are the kaiju designers 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 colorist designer, and Shinji Kimura (Children of the Sea, Blood Blockade Battlefront) as art director. Production IG is handling the animation production for the series.
Kaiju No. 8 is streamed weekly on Crunchyroll, X (formerly known as Twitter), and iQIYI outside Japan in select territories. Crunchyroll is streaming new episodes of the anime weekly in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, concurrent with Japanese broadcasts.
© J3D © NM/S
The original action manga by Naoya Matsumoto has been serialized in Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ online since July 3, 2020. Twelve tankobon volumes have been released as of April 2024. VIZ Media publishes the manga series in English.
A spin-off manga by Kentaro Hidano titled Kaiju No.8: B-Side launched on Shonen Jump+ on January 5, 2024 and is published in English by Shueisha and VIZ. It tells the side stories of some 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 main 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.