Kaiju No. 8 has been in the middle of its biggest arc yet, titled “The Last Wave Arc,” with Mina Ashiro at the center of the story. This story arc has been the culmination of everything that Kaiju No. 9 has been doing since the start of the series. With that we have seen Kaiju No. 9 immediately targeting Mina Ashiro to take out and absorb the strongest fighter in the Defense Force. This has led to Mina going through deep experience as Naoya Matsumoto explores more of her backstory and motivation.
THE LAST WAVE ARC DEVELOPMENTS
During “The Second Wave Arc” we saw all of the Number Weapon users step up big to defeat the elite force created by Kaiju No. 9. It was a payoff to all of the development time Matsumoto put into Kikoru Shinomiya, Leno Ichikawa, Soshiro Hoshina, and Gen Narumi among others. The story arc ended with Mina Ashiro defeating Kaiju No. 14.
The sense of relief of stopping the second wave was immediately squashed when Kaiju No. 9 appeared on the battlefield to attack the Defense Force’s most destructive power: Mina Ashiro. After doing her best to defend herself, including destroying Kaiju No. 9’s Kaiju No. 2 powered Force Shield, Mina was eventually captured. Broadcasting the entire battle throughout Japan, Kaiju No. 9 began the process of absorbing Mina Ashiro to give her power to his creations.
Throughout this time Kafka Hibino and the rest of the Defense Force were doing their best to help Mina. While Kafka broke through some of Kaiju No. 9’s forces the waves of Daikaiju-class Kaiju were never ending. In Kafka’s most desperate moment Leno Ichikawa appeared to help his best friend. Showing his own growth, Leno was able to create an opening for Kafka so he could reach Mina.
MINA ASHIRO BATTLE INSIDE KAIJU NO. 9
During Kaiju No. 8 Chapter 103 and Chapter 104 Matsumoto explored the haunting experience that Mina goes through as she battles against being absorbed by Kaiju No. 9. Kaiju No. 9 has done everything to break Mina down. By doing this we see Kaiju No. 9 speak on how heroes of various generations have tried to stop him but have all failed.
The presentation of how Kaiju No. 9 trying to break Mina is what has taken these last two chapters to another level. The entire setting within Kaiju No. 9 has been straight out of a horror movie. We see a young child Mina standing in a wasteland filled with skulls and bones of everyone Kaiju No. 9 has absorbed. This enhanced the previously mentioned utilization of the appearance of Isao Shinomiya and others he’s absorbed to speak directly to Mina.
To the credit of the strength of Mina’s character she doesn’t break quickly. No matter what Kaiju No. 9 threw at her in order to break her mentally Mina was able to fight back. Mina fighting back was enhanced by the fact that she was doing all of this while turned into a child. She showed a fortitude to fight off Kaiju No. 9 fully absorbing her like he has done to so many in past in much easier fashion. It wasn’t until Kaiju No. 9 went all out with his physical attacks in his inner world along with using Mina’s memories with Kafka that he final got the chance to start to absorb Mina.
This all builds towards the moment when Kafka was finally able to reach where Kaiju No. 9 was and save Mina. Though if Kafka fully save Mina is up to question as she is still cover in some of Kaiju No. 9’s parts. Given how multi-layered Kaiju No. 9’s plot has been thus far it wouldn’t be surprising if the fight to save Mina is far from over.
All of that raises the stakes even more for Kafka to really have a final battle with Kaiju No. 9. The biggest bad of Kaiju No. 8 has proven that the longer they are around the more dangerous they get. There is no more time to simply fend off Kaiju No. 9. Matsumoto has truly built this story arc to be the endgame of the Kaiju No. 9 Saga for the series. Which sets up Kafka to show the payoff of how far he has come up to this point in the series.
