English Dub Review: Kaiju No. 8 “I Want to Be Strong”

Overview:

Narumi and Kikoru’s resolve is renewed. Kafka is forced to face the price that comes with his power.

Our Take:

This show does a good job of making me feel something. I don’t like crying a whole lot, but with some of these episodes, I haven’t had a choice. I don’t know if Isao is dead or if he can be separated from No. 9, but either way, I couldn’t help but feel bad for Kikoru. I don’t think I would want to go to the funeral if my father were still enslaved by a monster. I hope that he isn’t dead, but we haven’t had to deal with death in this series very much, so I’m not sure what the stakes will be.

I also can’t help but feel bad for Kafka. The only way he can do what he loves and serve the defense force is by using his kaiju powers. But now it looks like those powers are a poison to him. There is a small patch of his skin that won’t change back into his human form. The defense force doesn’t know if he will change permanently, and if he does, will his mind remain? For those reasons, I can understand why they wouldn’t want to put him out in the field anymore. Luckily, it seems Narumi doesn’t give a shit about that and wants to see Kafka’s resolve to avenge Isao.