I’m going to start out with a PSA. If you’re watching Kaiju No. 8 on your computer or laptop, stop. Use the app on your tv or stream it from your phone because the Crunchyroll website is lower quality. The animation looks goddamn crisp, and that opening looks even better on television versus on a digital screen.
“Raid on Tachikawa Base” was a weird episode. It definitely wasn’t bad, but it definitely has a weird feel to it. It picked up right after the end of “Welcome to the Defense Force” with everyone getting deployed to the action and I’m assuming that this is because they’re now accomplished officers, but Squad 3 was able to get to the action, and figure out how to win the day. That’s awesome, except it doesn’t give anything with suspense when Kafka gets on the line quickly to tell everyone how to win.
I guess I expected a lot more since there was a lot of greatness from prior episodes. The pacing just felt off because while the team was handling business, the battle with Hoshina almost felt like it was going at a snail’s pace. While “Welcome to the Defense Force” felt like a transition, “Raid on Tachikawa Base” almost felt like filler. I know it isn’t, but this was on the weak side. This is the first time Kaiju No. 8 faltered especially when compared to the pacing in the manga felt so much better.
This was the first time where the episode felt like it lasted five minutes, and the content felt less. I wanted to enjoy this episode, because Kaiju No. 10 looked so awesome in the anime because the grey and blacks in the manga do not do No. 10 justice. That said, there is a lot of really well done sequences and the animation was still top notch, and the effects were amazing. I loved when the kaiju crashed through the building so that it could surprise Izumo and Kaguragi and of course we gotta give Kikoru her flowers for absolutely slaying with her new axe.
I wish “Raid on Tachikawa Base” was better because there was a lot of potential, but it just felt flat and too weird. The stuff that was great was amazing, but the stuff that was off was very off. It was a foul ball, but Kaiju No. 8 is still very much ahead of the count. Next week is a new attempt.