Naoya Matsumoto's smash hit manga, Kaiju No. 8, has been quick to develop a growing, yet steadfast following amongst Japanese and global audiences. With the release of its sixth sleekly illustrated volume on the horizon, fans of the series are beginning to question if and when Shōnen Jump+'s newest hit will be picked up for an anime adaptation.
Although there's yet to be any official confirmation, the adaptation of Matsumoto's young series seems imminent based on the anime industry's track record. Through an analysis of common motivating factors, various studio portfolios, and upcoming anime slates audiences can triangulate a reasonable timeline for the release of Kaiju No. 8's surefire anime sensation.
Motivating Factors
Adapting a manga into an anime is often a risky investment involving large amounts of money and hours of manpower among other things, therefore animation studios and publishers look for common motivating factors that foreshadow a successful series. Studios seek out a manga that has formed dedicated fanbases prior to any sort of adaptation, utilizing tools like online information aggregators to inform their decisions.
Kaiju No. 8, with its larger-than-life kaiju battles and a relatable cast of characters, has been able to do just that, garnering the attention of prominent anime news sources and content creators as well as earning its own Reddit and Wiki forums in multiple countries. Since the start of its publication in July 2020, fans of Matsumoto's series have been extremely vocal about the positive reception, even going so far as to install a 45-meter mural above the renowned Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The enormous vocal reception to the shonen franchise is echoed within its record-breaking performance, which will ultimately serve as the deciding factor for the ones who would invest time and money into a potential adaptation. Delivering quality that some fans compare to Attack on Titan, Shueisha's Kaiju No. 8 has released well over five million copies, print and digital, into circulation, making it the fastest-growing series ever published within Shōnen Jump+.
Studio Portfolios
As a manga with a rampant fanbase early in its publication, Kaiju No. 8 presents itself as a prime contender to be adapted into an anime, yet the process goes beyond impressive volume sales. Even when considering adapting a popular series, there are a number of difficulties during production, meaning that individual animation studios will always be particularly discerning of a series' length, genre and aesthetic before finally deciding to commit to a project. Each animation studio will choose projects that are compatible with their own strengths and experience.
That is to say that looking at a studio's previous work can indicate which projects would likely be taken on, e.g. houses with a large history of short-form, non-shonen productions like J.C.Staff and Kyoto Animation would be less likely than others to tackle Kaiju No. 8. Similarly, Madhouse, specializing in shorter, seinenesque series, and Studio Bones, with hands uncomfortably full with their series, My Hero Academia, would likely not be the first to claim Matsumoto's property. Conversely, the animation house behind the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, Wit Studio, should have enough experience to bring the massive scale and spectacle of Kaiju No. 8 to the screen, yet their recent issues bring into question whether the studio is in the position to tackle a premier Shonen Jump franchise.
Of the remaining major animation studios, a highly likely contender comes in the way of MAPPA, with a history of adapting darker shonen, experience with high-scale monster battles via the final season of Attack on Titan, and a relatively clear animation slate, save for Jujutsu Kaisen. On that token, as they near the end of Demon Slayer's limited source material, Ufotable, or another dark horse contender could easily step in, looking to capitalize on the up-and-coming shonen series.
Triangulating the Timeline
With two major contenders in mind, MAPPA and Ufotable, it seems inevitable that Kaiju No. 8 will be adapted by one of these major studios, yet only a look at the manga itself may tell us exactly when this will happen. Obviously, when creating an anime, the number of chapters within a given manga is a key factor in terms of timing, meaning that an analysis of a series' prior releases and future release schedule can be a glaring indicator of whether a series is likely to be adapted into an anime anytime soon or not.
For example, a look at Kaiju No. 8's spiritual predecessor, Attack on Titan, reveals that Wit Studio only felt confident in announcing its adaptation of the series following the release of Isayama's Chapter 40, the equivalent of around 85-90 chapters of a weekly series. This comparison between the two series of similar scope gives a good idea of how long studios will wait to approach a series providing challenges like massive animated models and a long-form storyline. This is only further supported when looking at Kaiju No. 8's shonen contemporaries, like MAPPA's popular dark fantasy animation, Jujutsu Kaisen, which received an announcement for an anime adaptation concurrent with the release of its Chapter 85. On the upper end, dark shonen, Chainsaw Man, received an announcement for its much-anticipated anime release alongside its Chapter 97, cementing the "adaptation sweet spot" as between 85-100 chapters.
With all this information in mind, it is safe to say that Matsumoto's series will be eligible for an adaptation announcement as soon as Spring 2023. Keeping in mind the availability of the two likely contenders of the major animation studios, MAPPA and Ufotable, it would be a sound assumption to expect to see the bombastic battles and futuristic settings of Kaiju No. 8 on television screens by the Fall 2023 anime season.
