Kaiju No. 8 Anime to Air Next April with Real-Time Streaming on X, Ai Fairouz and Kengo Kawanishi Announced for Lead Roles
"The television anime 'Kaiju No. 8' is set to broadcast on TV Tokyo starting April 2024 and will also be streamed in real-time worldwide on platform X. Alongside this announcement, a promotional video (PV) and additional casting information were released. The role of Kikoru Shinomiya will be voiced by Ai Fairouz, and the role of Soshiro Hoshina will be voiced by Kengo Kawanishi.
All episodes airing from April next year will be broadcast on terrestrial TV via the TV Tokyo network and simultaneously streamed worldwide in real-time on platform X (without archived streaming).
This allows people in areas without terrestrial broadcast access and those on the move to simultaneously engage in live viewing with fans worldwide.
In the newly released main PV, which includes the voices of the new cast, the protagonist Kafka Hibino, who had given up his dream of becoming a member of the Defense Force and currently works in monster-specialized cleaning, decides to pursue his dream again after meeting his junior, Reno Ichikawa, who aspires to join the Defense Force. Just as he makes this decision, Kafka transforms into a powerful monster. The PV powerfully depicts action scenes of them fighting monsters, raising expectations about the story unfolding between Kafka, now a monster, and the Defense Force.
'Kaiju No. 8' is set in a world where disasters (monsters) mercilessly invade everyday life, with Japan, a country with one of the highest monster emergence rates, as its backdrop. The 32-year-old protagonist, Kafka Hibino, works cleaning the carcasses of monsters killed by the Defense Force. In the midst of pursuing his dream of becoming a 'Defense Force member,' his body is transformed into a monster by a mysterious creature, leading him to be called 'Monster No. 8' by the Japan Defense Force.
The manga started serialization in 'Shonen Jump+' in July 2020 and quickly surpassed 30 million views, making it one of the app's fastest to reach this milestone. Its cumulative comic book sales have exceeded 11 million copies, becoming a flagship title. It also won the Grand Prize in the 'Web Manga Division' of the 'Next Manga Award 2021' announced on August 24, 2021, and has been highly anticipated among manga fans, achieving the top annual sales for its first volume in 2020.
■ Staff
Original Work: Naoya Matsumoto (Serialized in Shueisha's 'Shonen Jump+')
Director: Miya Shigeyuki, Kamiya Tomomi
Series Composition & Script: Ohkouchi Ichiro
Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Nishio Tetsuya
Monster Design: Maeda Masahiro
Art Director: Kimura Shinji
Color Design: Hirose Izumi
3D Director: Matsumoto Masaru
Director of Photography: Arai Eiji
Editor: Hida Fumi
Sound Director: Goh Fumiyuki
Music: Sakatou Yuudai
Animation Production: Production I.G
Monster Design & Works: Studio Color
■ Cast
Kafka Hibino/Monster No. 8: Katsuya Fukunishi
Reno Ichikawa: Wataru Kato
Mina Ashiro: Masami Seto
Kikoru Shinomiya: Ai Fairouz
Soshiro Hoshina: Kengo Kawanishi