Kaiju No. 8: A Sucker Punch of Originality

Bring something new to your space. Bring Kafka Hibino.

Preface

Horror mangas are my happy place. Not necessarily Junji Ito, though I do love his work as well, but monster fighter mangas. Demon Slayer was my introduction to the medium (I was a late bloomer, forgive me), followed by Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Black Torch, Dandadan and the list goes on.

When Kaiju No. 8 came around, I was all in. The cover of Volume 1 won me over.

I was ready for more of exactly what I expected. I got that. But I got more.

I got Kafka Hibino.

Preface over!

Not long ago, I was at a writing retreat, trying to find my groove again. I’m usually not one for pithy, catch-all insights that sound generic AF, but against all odds, one pithy, catch-all line really stuck with me. A literary agent asked something very simple: “What are you bringing to the genre?” Essentially, with all the books in the genre you’re writing in, what are you bringing that isn’t already there? To add more to the space that already exists does no one any favors, least of all yourself.

You need to bring something new, while still fitting in with what’s already there.

I also credit that singular sentence with breaking my streak of reading exclusively horror manga. I began to see more critically that a lot of these stories had the same essential idea. With Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man as ongoing pillars, it’s essentially a faction of reluctant-ish heroes fighting a faction of evil—cursed spirits, devils, demons, monsters, call them what you will. Many times, the protagonist had some element of the bad guys. In Chainsaw Man, Denji is a devil. In Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuji has a curse inside of him. In Tokyo Ghoul, Ken is half ghoul. In Dandadan, Okarun becomes Turbo Granny. You get the picture.

So maybe I wasn’t impressed with the general idea behind Kaiju No. 8 because I was reading it right around when my infatuation with the genre was breaking. The protagonist wants to be part of the Defense Force that fights against kaiju—monsters—but he becomes a kaiju himself. Sounds familiar. So why did I keep reading?

Enter the old adage, “the same, but different.” That’s what readers want and what creators aim to give. Give us the elements that we love, but a hook that’s new.

So I’ve beat around the bush enough. What did Kaiju No. 8 do that’s different?

Kafka Hibino, the protagonist. There’s something else that many of those other protagonists have in common—they’re young and/or prodigies and/or in some way super-powered or chosen.

Kafka Hibino is a 30-something who never achieved his dreams. He’s not on the Defense Force, he’s cleaning up the giant kaiju carcasses after the Defense Force eliminates them. But he’s never given up.

Essentially, Kafka Hibino is me, in a different universe.

So maybe Kafka is hitting more on a personal level, because I’m sure that he is not universally loved like I’m making him out to be. But that’s the thing, right? Different readers relate to different characters. I had yet to find a protagonist in this space that I connected with like I connected with Kafka Hibino.

Not that Denji or Yuji aren’t relatable—Denji is broke and alone, which is always relatable—but Kafka is relatively old (for manga heroes, anyway). And with no abilities. In fact, his abilities are so below par that he hasn’t even become a member of the good guy faction yet. Yuji and Denji and Ken and Tanjiro and X and Y and Z, their conflict comes after they join their respective faction. Kafka has that too, but he also has a huge conflict—a predated conflict that we don’t necessarily see—from not being in the good fighting faction at all. Essentially, by failing his whole life but never losing hope. All while his foil—Mina Ashiro—has succeeded and achieved everything Kafka wants to, reminding him (and us) that he is indeed actively failing.

Now, I recognize there are some perceived holes in this logic, so let me get to those really quick. Kafka becomes a kaiju, which grants him superpowers, and also gives him that hallmark of being half good guy and half bad guy. That’s perfectly fine. Remember that whole, “the same but different” concept? This is the ‘same’ part.

The thing about the “same but different” concept is that it’s a constant balancing act. You can do everything the same and have a character with—for the first time ever!—red shoes, but who really cares? That’s not different enough. It goes the other way too, being so different that there isn’t enough of the same for readers to really see it in the same vein as other favorites. Like a Venn diagram, you want enough overlap, but not complete overlap, and not no overlap at all.

Kaiju No. 8’s same but different is the perfect balance and it’s all thanks to Kafka Hibino. It doesn’t try too hard to be different, and, again, it’s also all thanks to Kafka Hibino. He’s a simple dude. And because it has such a clear-cut difference, that little hang-up of “why am I reading this, I could just wait for the next chapter of X or Y?” is easily dispatched of. And maybe you don’t actively look for that in stories, but you can bet your subconscious does. That’s why so many books try to mimic the heavy hitters, but never achieve the same. The ones that really stand out mimic, but bring their own sucker punch of originality.

From a creator standpoint, that is such an important mindset to be in. What stories are you mimicking, and what is the sucker punch of originality you’re bringing? You need to know this. Like, really need to. I’m not being dramatic here. If you don’t know, stop everything and figure it out.

As Kaiju No. 8 shows, it doesn’t have to be something complex. Kaiju No. 8 made their square one different. They made their protagonist unique in the simplest way. He’s older, talentless and unsuccessful. Denji is talentless and unsuccessful, but he’s young. Yuji is unsuccessful and alone, but he’s pretty talented. Atsushi from Bungo Stray Dogs is alone and unsuccessful, but he’s also superpowered. I mean, he’s a magical weretiger for God’s sake. And he’s young. Can I emphasize enough how unique it is that Kafka Hibino is older?

If you take nothing else away from this celebration of Kafka Hibino, take away that sometimes it really is as simple as bumping up your character’s age a bit. Why do you think books like The Thursday Morning Murder Club series work so well? We see murder mysteries all the time. But make the crime solvers octogenarians and Good Lord, you’ve got something there!

To creative writers: What is your something new? And how can you describe it in one sentence?

To manga lovers: Am I alone in loving Kafka Hibino? Prove me wrong.