I wound up watching two series regularly this season, Kaiju No. 8 and Nyaight of the Living Cat.
First, Kaiju No. 8’s second season, while very good in terms of quality, was a mixed bag as far as consistency goes. The issue is that the first season showed the characters as a team training together to fight the kaiju. In the second season, the characters, having graduated from their training, were sent to different teams all over Japan.
For me, this gave S2 a disjointed feel. Kafka Hibino, the main character, disappeared for several episodes at a time while the story focused on other characters. Reno Ishikawa, Hibino’s roommate while they were in training, has now been infused with a kaiju’s strength and is shaping up to become a super-hero like Hibino. Similarly, both Vice-Captain Hoshina and Shinomiya are joined with kaiju material and become hybrid human-kaiju fighters.
They’re souped-up fighters, not entirely human anymore, and they’ve made these sacrifices because kaiju no. 9 is the biggest monster they’ve ever faced. No. 9 is a super-intelligent kaiju with superior reasoning abilities, making him extremely dangerous.
Maybe I’m just used to the shonen team sticking together for multiple seasons, but Kaiju No. 8’s second season lost a bit of focus, in my view. I mean, the show is still very good and I will absolutely watch Season 3 whenever it airs. (We know there’ll be a third season because Season 2 ends on a massive cliffhanger, lol.)
... As does Nyaight of the Living Cat, my other must-watch of the season. It too ends on a cliffhanger, though hardly on the same dramatic level as Kaiju No. 8, so we know it will be getting a second season.
Though kind of a one-joke story (a mysterious virus infects all the cats in the world, and humans turn into cats if touched by one), the cast plays it absolutely dead-serious for the duration, which keeps it funny. They use water guns to scatter attacking cats, and distract the cats with cat toys while they run away.
The story follows the typical horror story plot of humans attacked by fill-in-the-blank (zombies, evil spirits, etc.). First they have to escape the city - which is crawling with cats - and then they must establish a secure compound out in the countryside with high walls and a castle-like gated entrance.
There’s even the crossover character, an infected cat with human-like intelligence, who is adopted by the surviving humans and brought to the compound. They name him Jones.
At the end of season two, I expect the cat virus will somehow be reversed and all the humans who’ve been turned into cats will revert to their human selves again. It’s a predictable ending, but until then, I’ll just enjoy the ride. :-)
