Kaiju no. 8 vol 3 by naoya matsumoto

Kafka in his Kaiju form battles the powerful Kaiju from volume two and gives him a run for his money, but the bad guy ultimately escapes. Kafka also goes toe-to-toe with Vice-Captain Hoshina. He barely escapes with his life, and Hoshina vows to take down Kaiju No. 8 the next time. The bad Kaiju Kafka fought is given the code name Kaiju No. 9 and becomes a top target for the Japanese Defense Force. Kafka is finally promoted to Officer from Cadet, but there’s hardly any time to celebrate before a new group of Kaiju attack the base itself - tons of wyvern are working together, which they never do, and there's a main humanoid, high-level Kaiju pulling the strings.

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This series has so much action packed into it that I hardly have a chance to breathe! There is a little bit of down-time in between the two major fights, and we get to see the soldiers out enjoying themselves without threat of Kaiju. The only problem is, all they talk about is work, and they want to get mad at each other for not being better. At first, this seems like a bad thing, but one character astutely points out that all the soldiers are passionate and this is their way of motivating each other to do better. I also appreciated the build on skill level we saw between Kaiju No. 9, Kafka in Kaiju form, and Vice-Captain Hoshina. If the Vice-Captain is that skilled, it really puts into perspective how skilled Captain Mina is, and how far Kafka has to go to catch up to her.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1 (requires Booklist subscription), vol 2

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 9781974728992 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Action Adventure, Humor, Friendship, Paranormal, VIZ Media