Kaiju No 8: B-Side Manga Begins in Shonen Jump

The Kaiju No 8: B-Side spin-off manga series is now running in Shonen Jump. Both MangaPlus and Viz Media have the first chapter available online in English for people to read for free.

The original Kaiju No 8 series follows Kafka Hibino, a man who gains the ability to turn into the kaiju he formerly would clean up after for the government. As a result, he gains the ability to transform into one and ends up the official Defense Force alongside a coworker named Reno Ichikawa that he met cleaning up after monsters. In that storyline, Soshiro Hoshina is a supporting cast member who is also a part of the government division fighting kaiju. This new B-Side manga focuses on his swordsmanship and work with the Third Division. 

This story begins with Hoshina training with swords. After that, we see him take part in an interview about the new rookies in his division, during which he discusses Hibino. Later in the chapter, we also get to seeIchikawa, Hibino, and Hakua Igarashi in a training session with Hoshina. But once that segment is done, the first chapter seems to suggest that the rest of the series will focus on him when he first joined Third Division and started working under Mina Ashiro.

This is one of two major updates for the series Kaiju no 8 in 2024. In addition to this new spin-off manga, there’s also a Production IG anime adaptation about to begin airing. It will appear on Crunchyroll in April 2024. In the series, Masaya Fukunishi will play Hibino and Kengo Kawanishi will be Soshiro Hoshina.

The first chapter of the Kaiju no 8: B-Side manga is available now, with chapter two set to appear on January 11, 2024. The original manga series is handled by Viz Media outside Japan. The anime will stream on Crunchyroll in April 2024.