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[series:4903#628] | ||||||
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(11 episodes watched): What we get for our first episode is an 'extra episode' entitled 'Hoshina's Day Off' (I noticed that Hoshina was listed as one of the four principal characters of this series at the ANN page). This episode re-familiarizes us with the staff of the Third Division in a whimsical manner. There's a typical misunderstanding which causes the troopers of the Division to jump to the conclusion that their leader, Hoshina, is engaging in fraud during his time off but of course the truth is the total opposite. Eh, I hope the regular episodes are more engaging than this special one, because it was pretty predictable and didn't make me LOL at all. A fight with a Kaiju seems the be brewing at the end of the episode. Of course the big problem is that Boss Kaiju we saw during the first season which is as intelligent and can take on the form of a human. But it's good to see that this fun show is back at last, and I'll certainly be watching it in its entirety. The story gets seriously started with 'episode 13' which, to my relief, felt much more like season one. The newly trained class of Kaiju fighters gets split up and sent to different units across Japan. Blond Kikoru Shinomiya gets sent to the elite 1st Division, which she finds has a leader, General Narumi, who is brilliant in combat (we see it in a fight with a Godzilla-like Kaiju called 'Diclonious') but laughable outside of it. I found it difficult to take this guy's personality seriously; it felt like a cheap rather than clever joke. Shinomiya finds that actually one of her classmates has also been assigned to the first division: Kafka Hibino, AKA Kaiju #8. Kafka is warned that he had better contribute mightily to the unit or else Narumi himself will kill him. And Kaiju #9 briefly appears. So, much more fun than that extra episode. In episode 14 a major attack of ant-like Kaiju occurs. The higher-ups watch closely to see what Kafka can do--but for some reason he can't transform into Kaiju #8. And it turns out that the attack was staged by Kaiju #9 to draw him out and kill him, which looks likely to happen. Shinomiya fights fiercely to compensate as Kafka tries to figure out what's wrong. The episode ends with a little omake segment hosted by Hoshina. In episode 15 we learn that Shinomiya's mother was once a popular hero of the anti-Kaijuu force herself until she was killed in action. Together she and Kafka figure out that #9 is somehow jamming his attempts to transform into #8, and they figure out how to get around this. But he's still one step ahead of them and though Kafka beats him in episode six it turns out he didn't actually beat him (don't ask me to explain exactly how this worked) and #9 is now taking on Shinomiya's father, Isao, the commander-in-chief of the anti-Kaiju forces. Isao fights heroically and sacrificially to save his staff. In episode seven Kafka and Narumi take on Kaiju #9, which is even stronger as a result of the fight with the general; the fight is a draw. ---- vows to do whatever she must to avenge her father, and Narumi agrees to train her. The old 'the answer to any problem is to get stronger' cliché. Kafka notices something disturbing after transforming back into human form. And we learn that a good sized chunk of Kaiju #10 exists, apparently in a government laboratory waiting to be put to use. #10 offers to make a deal with Hoshino: it will become his weapon purely because it enjoys fighting, it says. Another project is to make a weapon out of #6, another captured Kaiju, and it has been decided that the fighter best suited to it is Kafka's old friend, Reno. I had wondered why a major character like him (and a number of minor characters) had been set aside at the beginning of season two. In episode 19 Reno puts his new weapon to use for the first time in actual combat. I wasn't exactly thrilled by the way it uses ice offensively; that seemed more appropriate to some magic academy anime. The episode is largely told through the viewpoint of Furuhashi, the red haired (and saw-toothed) comrade from season one. In episode 20 Reno, with Furuhashi's help, takes down a major Kaiju and is confirmed as the user of the new weapon. Furuhashi catches the attention of the higher ups and may be given a super weapon himself at some point. Kafka concludes that in order to make the best use of #8 he needs to do more martial arts training, and Hoshino offers to be his instructor--more of an order than an offer, actually. Kafka is living on borrowed time as he is slowly consumed by #8, a little bit more each time he transforms. An interesting point was the claim that the war against Kaiju has been going on since at least the seventeenth century. In episode 21 we learn that Kafka had been avoiding contact with his old comrades in the Third Division, for fear of what they might think of him now that they know he's partly Kaiju, but he finally does so. Meanwhile, a number of new Kaiju appear, but rather than charging recklessly into battle as they used to, they are avoiding it for now. Then they vanish altogether for a month and a half, no doubt massing their forces for an intelligently planned large scale attack. Also, General Isao isn't quite dead. I can't help feeling that season two hasn't seemed as taut, well-timed and engaging as season one was. A crisis is approaching, but I'm not feeling the same excitement. The Kaiju finally launch a massive offensive with simultaneous attacks all over the country. Somehow the thinly-spread Anti-Kaiju force manages to handle things, thanks mainly to the handful of heroes with fantastic skill and special weapons. But it was hard to feel great excitement when for all the havoc the monsters wrought I don't think a single person got killed (at least someone almost gets killed at a wedding). And for now things seem to be more-or-less under control. Kafka is kept in reserve out of the belief that #9 is looking for him and will join the fight the moment he transforms. Last updated Saturday, October 04 2025. Created Sunday, July 06 2025. | ||||||||
