Recap of Kaiju No. 8, Episode 2:
The episode opens with a flashback showing a young Mina and Kafka talking about the Defense Force, setting the stage for their current dynamics.
In the present, Mina briefs her Third Division about a kaiju sighting at a hospital and the urgency to defeat it.
As alarms and news broadcasts spread the word across Yokohama, we see Kafka, Ichikawa, and an old man at the hospital, with Kafka attempting to prove he’s not a dangerous kaiju failing as the man collapses in shock.
That prompts him and Ichikawa to leave the hospital to prevent further chaos.
As they flee, one of Mina’s soldiers updates her on the kaiju’s movement towards an evacuation area, where Kafka and Ichikawa are also heading. While running, Ichikawa ponders Kafka’s transformation, questioning if Kafka is still himself amidst the bizarre changes to his body.
The episode then injects humor as we see Kafka go through some bizarre transformations, including peeing from his nipples, and then Kafka and Ichikawa discuss his Defense Force aspirations, which seem impossible now that he’s become a kaiju.
Reaching a cordon, Kafka then senses an enemy kaiju nearby. It’s the same yoju they fought in the first episode.
Ichikawa suggests hiding and letting the Defense Force handle it, but they witness the yoju attacking a little girl. Kafka intervenes, saving her and her mother, and after a heartfelt moment, the girl thanks him, triggering another flashback of Kafka and Mina’s past.
It is then that Kafka remembers he promised Mina he would fight the kaiju, and so tells Ichikawa “I’m not giving up” as he begins to transform back to being human.
Mina arrives later, promising to exterminate all kaiju, but the girl pleads for her “not to hurt the good kaiju.”
Flashforward to three months later, and the Defense Force is still looking for Kafka — a kaiju they are now calling “Kaiju No. 8”.
Both Kafka and Ichikawa get their pass results for the first round of the Defense Force exams, and Kafka informs Ichikawa while he always fails the second round he is not “giving up” this time.
10 days later, Kafka and Ichikawa are at the Defense Force Selection Test venue but, arriving in the parking lot, they get into it with an incredibly rude and spoiled girl who insists they move their van out of a particular parking space.
Even though the parking lot is almost empty.
Kafka, of course, refuses so the girl strips down to her special suit, picks up the van with one hand and throws it over to another parking spot.
She then introduces herself as “Examinee number 2016. Kikoru Shinomiya. My hobby is murdering kaiju”.
She then sniffs Kafka and asks “Do you know you smell like a kaiju?”, and the episode ends.
RELATED: Recap of Kaiju No. 8, Episode 1 — the episode where Kafka meets Ichickawa and then becomes a kaiju