Kaiju No. 8 manga reaches record heights on MANGA Plus rankings

Modified Jun 20, 2024 22:46 GMT

Kaiju No. 8 manga reaches record heights on MANGA Plus rankings (Image via Production I.G)

Thursday, June 20, 2024 saw author and illustrator Naoya Matsumoto’s original Kaiju No. 8 manga series release its 109th chapter, helping it end the day with a number 6 ranking on MANGA Plus. Having rarely, if ever, cracked the top ten prior to this week, the series is now only outranked by household names My Hero Academia, One Piece, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man.

All five of these series range from 240 thousand to just over 570 thousand reads on MANGA Plus, with the Kaiju No. 8 manga bringing up their rear with 167,452 reads as of this writing. Coincidentally, or more accurately not so, this momentous feat for the series comes at pivotal points both in the manga and in the currently airing television anime adaptation.

Kaiju No. 8 manga capitalizes on anime’s popularity and its reaching the climax of the Last Wave arc

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As for the Kaiju No. 8 manga’s role in this record high on MANGA Plus, the series is currently progressing through the climax of its Last Wave arc, which began in late 2023 with chapter 95’s release. Following the conclusion of the Second Wave arc, fans saw the Last Wave arc begin with No. 9 making moves to capture Mina Ashiro and use her to both cripple humanity’s defenses and make a new breed of powerful Kaiju.

Episode 10, meanwhile, saw the anime’s conclusion of the Raid on Tachikawa Base arc play out, which ended with Kafka revealing his powers to his peers in the Third Division. With episode 10 ending on this reveal and not offering any resolution, many anime-only fans have since switched to the manga. Likewise, with MANGA Plus offering the first three chapters free always, many anime-only fans likely began the series on the platform, helping to boost its rank.

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While it is difficult to say which is “more responsible” for the manga’s success in this context, what is clear is that both are combining to push the franchise to new heights. The anime’s role here is especially exciting to see, as Shuieisha and Crunchyroll both went out of their way to promote the series ahead of the start of the Spring 2024 anime season. This included livestreams on X/Twitter, same-day dubs for the series on Crunchyroll, and more.

Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 manga series first began serialization on Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ digital publishing platform in July 2020. The series is still ongoing and regularly serialized on this platform today. As of this article’s writing, 97 of the manga’s 109 currently released chapters have been collected into 12 compilation volumes, with 10 of these having been released in English. A 13th volume is set to be released in Japan on Thursday, July 4, 2024.