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Kaiju No. 8 will be ending its five year run with Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app later this Summer, so it’s time to get ready for what to expect from its grand finale. Naoya Matsumoto’s original manga series has been one of the most successful franchises to come out of the digital Shonen Jump releases. Now the franchise is set to reach even bigger heights thanks to the debut of its official anime adaptation last year, and a second season of the series gearing up for its premiere later this Summer as well. But the manga itself has been readying for its end for quite a while.
Kaiju No. 8 has been in the midst of its final arc since last year, and Matsumoto has been steadily wrapping up the battles against the Identified Kaiju forces that Kaiju No. 9 had been releasing over the last few months. Now that the final fight has seemingly reached its conclusion, it has also been officially announced that the long running manga is coming to an end very soon as a result. With Kaiju No. 8′s ending fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know to be ready for what’s to come.
When Does Kaiju No. 8 End?
Following the release of Chapter 127 this past week, Kaiju No. 8 announced it would be coming to an end with just two more chapters. This means that Naoya Matsumoto’s manga will be wrapping up with the release of Chapter 129, which has yet to confirm its release date as of the time of this publication. The penultimate chapter, Chapter 128, has been scheduled for a release on June 20th in Japan (and June 19th in other territories), and it’s likely that the final chapter will release at least two weeks after the second to final chapter hits. But either way, it’s time for the beginning of the end.
Kaiju No. 8 has been releasing at a steady pace for the last year with at least two or three weeks in between new chapters of the series. But this time frame for the finale seems to have taken fans by surprise as while it teased that this was the final battle for Kaiju No. 8 overall, fans also realize that the series is really only scratching the surface of the Kaiju’s place in the world’s lore. Especially with some of the bigger reveals that have come from the Kaiju within the final arc of the series that revealed that have existed in Japan for many, many generations.
What Happens in Kaiju No. 8’s Final Arc?
The final arc of Kaiju No. 8 officially began with the debut of Kaiju No. 9’s newly created Identified Kaiju. As the villainous monster kicked off a modern day Kaiju Cataclysm with the debuts of Kaijus 11 through 15, Kafka and the others had to show off the results of their respective training periods and started a series of one-on-one fights against the terrifying new foes. In the months since, each of these major fights have come to an end with Kaiju No. 9 then revealing it was the final foe that Kafka needed to defeat once and for all.
Teaming together with Mina Ashiro and the other members of the JAKDF, Kafka was able to hold back Kaiju No. 9 until he was pushed to his limits. Then seemingly killed at the monster’s hands, Kafka then discovers the origin of the insect Kaiju that possessed him and gave him power in the first place. The insect flashes Kafka back to ancient Japan where warriors of that era used primitive samurai like weapons to face Kaiju threats. But one battle saw the emergence of an ultra-powerful kaiju that completely wiped them out without much trouble.
Filled with regret and hatred over their loss, the pieces of the fallen soldiers and melded together with their Kaiju weaponry to form the insect Kaiju that eventually bonded with Kafka. It’s why not only has he been able to maintain a transformation, but why it seemed so focused on killing and countering Kaiju threats. This giant monster (known as the Meireki Kaiju) then rampaged for 100 days before retreating underground, and it fused with Kaiju No. 9 to then become the true final foe in the series.
With this knowledge at his disposal, Kafka then decides to fully bond with the Kaiju inside of him to leave his humanity behind and become a much more complete version of his Kaiju form. Taking on the Meireki Kaiju as the one of the most powerful monsters above even where the JAKDF can measure, Kafka has since delivered a final blow to the giant enemy with the end of Chapter 127 of the series. Which means the final battle is likely at its grand finale.
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How Will Kaiju No. 8 End?
As Mina, Reno and Kafka work to combine their efforts in a final push against the Meireki, Kafka is able to punch straight through its core as of the release of its third to final chapter. It’s likely that the penultimate chapter will officially bring this fight to an end as this ultimate source of Kaiju threats has now been eliminated, but it’s yet to be revealed what the epilogue chapter for its finale will then revealed about the future status of Japan and its soldiers moving forward.
With Kafka already defeating Kaiju No. 9 leading into this fight, this truly is the final opponent. But there’s still so little known about the nature of the Kaiju themselves. If the Meireki is the source of the Kaiju threat overall, it’s likely that there would be no Kaiju threats in the future either. Kafka might have left his humanity behind in order to make defeating the Meireki possible, but he might find someway of returning back to a standard life when this has all come to an end.
Kafka has finally been able to make all his dreams come true with this fight, and the rest of Japan will see him as the hero that he always thought he could be as a kid. He wanted to make up for how weak he felt helplessly watching the Kaiju destroy homes all those years ago, so hopefully there’s someway he could have a happy ending when this is all over. For someone like Kafka, however, everyone’s safety would lead to a happy ending for him either way.
What do you want to see from Kaiju No. 8‘s final chapters? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!
