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Kaiju No. 8 Gets Spinoff Manga by Super Smartphone's Kentarō Hidano

The Jump Festa '24 event on Sunday revealed that Naoya Matsumoto's Kaiju No. 8 manga is getting a spinoff. The Kaiju No. 8 side B manga will debut on Shonen Jump+ on January 5. The manga will tell the story of various Defense Force members on the frontline. Kentarō Hidano (Ziga, Super Smartphone) is drawing the manga and Naoya Matsumoto and Keiji Andō are credited with the original work.

The main manga is inspiring an anime that will premiere in April 2024 and will air on TV Tokyo and its affiliates. Crunchyroll will stream the anime as it airs, and it will also stream an English dub.

The anime will also stream on X/Twitter worldwide in real time as it airs on TV in Japan, at the exact time the anime airs.

Matsumoto launched the manga in July 2020 on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ website. The first print volume shipped in December 2020, and the volume has since had several more printings due to demand. Shueisha published the manga's 11th compiled book volume on December 4.

Viz Media licensed the manga. The company releases chapters digitally and physically. Shueisha publishes the manga on its MANGA Plus service under the title Monster #8, and it describes the story:

A man working a job far removed from his childhood dreams gets wrapped up in an unexpected situation…! Becoming a monster, he aims once again to fulfill his lifelong dream…!

In September 2021, the manga surpassed 4 million copies in circulation, making it the fastest Shonen Jump+ manga (as opposed to manga running in Shueisha's print magazines) to reach the milestone.

The series was nominated for the 14th Manga Taisho Awards in January 2021, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in February 2022, and the Eisner awards in May 2022. It took first place in the seventh "Next Manga Awards" (Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taishō) in the web manga category in August 2021.

Sources: Jump Festa '24 livestream, Kaiju No. 8 franchise's Twitter account