Dissecting the Kaiju No. 8 OP (Non-Spoiler for Past Ep 2)

Apr 21

Written by Rei Caldombra 4/21/2024 Video version: https://youtu.be/qu0IzWAutQk

I absolutely love this opening! Its gorgeous 3D visuals are super rad along with the awesome song. I’m enjoying the show so far and because of how infatuated I am with this OP, I wanted to do some proper analysis and theorizing based on the opening. I’ll be laying out my flow of thoughts as I go through the opening. Note that I am not a manga reader and I do not have any spoilers for what's ahead. So for any manga readers who may be reading this, I hope it’ll be entertaining to see how I interpret things with no idea about what’s coming. For any other non manga readers I’m curious to see your interpretations and predictions. I will not be using any other screenshots from the OP, you can watch it yourself on the official TOHO channel here for reference. “Kaiju No. 8” Opening Theme Animation｜'ABYSS' by YUNGBLUD (youtube.com)

These are early thoughts, and I really wanted to put pretty much everything down. so don’t take every single one like I’d bet money on it being true. And some may contradict each other. Please do not spoil things in the comments, both for me and anyone else reading. I did not do any research on this as I do not want to be spoiled. If you want to say I’m right or wrong, be cryptic and indirect about it. I will be using creature, organism, and organism as nouns to refer to the various living things we see here. I do not know the exact specifics of what defines something as a kaiju versus a normal creature yet in this world.

It starts with rocky spires pointing up toward the camera with a red mist. I think this represents Hell, fitting with the later lines “I’ve seen Hell rise! Out of your Eyes”. The Hell imagery could be literal or metaphorical. We see a cloud of dust bubble up from the red stony area which turns into what I assume are early development lifeforms. I think this implies the origin of the Kaiju is from that area, as the creatures bubble up from there. This also matches how (so far) Kaiju have always popped up from underground. Perhaps the Kaiju start in Hell, develop underground, and then rise to the surface when they mature. The eyes part could represent someone else looking at Kafka and seeing the Kaiju inside him. Or the hell in your eyes could be him seeing the gaze of Mina wanting to kill Kaiju, aka him. Hell for him could be seeing the flames of hatred towards what he has become (a Kaiju) in the eyes of the most important person to him.

This or these organism(s) multiply while staying together in a larger growing sphere, developing what looks like eyes right before a fish eats them. We then pan out to what looks like a lab with everything we have seen being in a large containment tube. There is a school of smaller fish, including what looks to be the one we saw eat the organism(s). There is also a larger fish that we see eat the smaller fish. This part looks to be portraying the cycle of life, with smaller creatures being eaten by bigger creatures, which are eaten by bigger creatures. The growth of the creature could also represent evolution. Survival of the fittest is a big idea of evolution, and in this case, the stronger predators are the ones eating and surviving. The Kaiju could be an advanced lifeform that has evolved to prey on humans. And/or it could be a creature that can rapidly evolve.

Or what this represents is specifically the Kaiju/creature that went into Kafka. All the Kaiju we have seen so far are giant freakish versions of some other kind of life form. Such as the spider-like ones with human features we see in the first episode and in the OP. This creature may be parasitic and/or symbiotic, burrowing themselves in creatures and causing them to be able to change their form like we see Kafka do, becoming an amalgamation of the original creature and others.

Early in the red rocky area, there is an electrical current-looking visual going through. Perhaps this combined with the lab testing-looking area that we see next implies that the Kaiju are man-made in origin.

The creature that burrows into Kafka has the look of being partially based on technology, with the circular red lines in its eyes and the glowing blue cracks. It also communicates in Japanese, a human language. Perhaps the creature in the tube that gets eaten by the fish is this creature. It places itself in creatures and feeds on them. Through the food chain, it could travel to reach the ideal lifeform.

Around the tube with the creatures in it is what looks like test equipment connected to the tube. Surrounding that is a human-sized walkway for observation. Around that are many yellow canisters that have faucets at the end. Perhaps what happens here is that the water from the container that the original creature is in gets put inside the canisters to be distributed somewhere, perhaps on the surface to spread Kaiju. My first thought is that they are shaped like gas canisters but that would not make sense to have liquid faucets.

Next, we get the beautiful sequence of helix-shaped visuals molding into various objects. We’ve got what I think is blood, signifying life. Then it changes to guns that are carried by the Defense Corp. We then see these guns covered in red, likely the blood from before. Which represents how they are used to spill the blood of living creatures. This is also shown over the line “To your demise”. Then we see combat axes along with the words “You’ve gotta fight” and “I’ve gotta fight”. If we take most of the lines to represent Kafka’s thoughts, these are the weapons he will use to fight while hiding his Kaiju powers. The use of both You and I could be reference himself and Mina, who he acknowledges has to fight Kaiju, even though he is now one. Next is a helix of hands reaching forward along with the line “Been thinkin’ I need isolation”. This could represent how Kafka now feels alone, being an abomination that has to hide what he now is. Being in contact with people puts himself and them at risk. So he may feel that the responsible thing to do is isolate. “All this devastation” could be what he is capable of doing as a Kaiju. Perhaps he loses control of his powers at one point and does serious damage. “Head needs renovation” is about how he is losing his sense of self and likely becoming mentally unwell as a whole as a result of his Kaiju side. This line comes along with the changing of the hands into what I think are buildings, representing the system he is in and the buildings full of people that he wants to protect.

Moving on from the hex portion, I think the line “If you had to choose would you ever let me go” may refer to a choice Mina has to make once she finds out Kafka is a Kaiju hybrid. “Let me go” may mean killing him or letting him be killed. Then we see the building-looking things that also have an electrical/computerized visual over them bubble over into a red, yellow and orange biomass. As we pan out we see this is in a test tube that bursts. This is the Kaiju side of Kafka exploding out, which fits with the line “I can’t stop the monster, I’m losing my control” We then see this mass grow outward and upward. We see some explosions that I can only think represent him fighting, before we see the same colored mass transform into the spider kaiju with human features. This Kaiju moves toward the camera along what looks the most to me like the inside of a machine that also has aspects of buildings and streets. The mass then reforms into a dinosaur-looking Kaiju in the same environment. Perhaps what these 2 kaiju specifically being shown in the context of Kafka’s Kaiju power exploding means is that these are his main 2 creature transformations. These transformations are shown along with the repeated line of “Could someone please save my life”. This may be Kafka agonizing over seeing himself in the form of the creatures that he has wanted to stop. He has become the monster he swore to destroy. “Save his life” could refer to the direct wave of saving him, which would be fixing him so he could be normal. Or a darker angle is that it could refer to him being killed to save him from the agony of what he has become and the life he must now live, hiding who he is and living in fear of what his own people would do to him. The mass then transforms into many single eyes that attach to the walls and continually get closer to the pov. This could represent his fear of being seen for what he is. If he eventually properly understands that he has a kaiju inside him, perhaps he will feel like he always has a Kaiju’s eyes on him from the inside. Which would fit with a lot of the visuals in this OP seemingly representing Kafka’s internal state. But this can be contradicted by what we see next. From the eyes we see that the path the mass has been going through gets closed off, panning out to look like we were inside a newly shown creature. Before we saw what seemed to be representation of being inside Kafka mental and physical state, but now we have to think from the perspective of how this could represent the creature. Perhaps it is as simple as a cool transition to the big moment. But it could be representative of the idea that humans and kaiju are not that different. Or that Kafka’s new biology makes him not different from the Kaiju or at least being similar. This new creature also looks biomechanical, moving organically but having structure and eyes that look machinelike. While all this is being shown, “Could someone please save my life” continues to be repeated outside of “because I’ve gone cold”. Perhaps what would “save his life” is him being able to live out the Defense Corp dream he shares with Kafka. In this case saving his life being more figurative, representing how he was unsatisfied with the life he was living. If someone is unhappy in life, just going through the motions, some people say that you may as well be dead metaphorically or like a zombie (the walking dead). Him “going cold” could represent a bunch of things. If he is becoming like a kaiju, then going cold could be him losing touch with his humanity. Going cold can also represent death, as the body becomes cold upon dying. This could lend itself to the theme of death, as he is growing cold and inhuman, slowly dying a metaphorical and/or literal death.

Then we get to the big shot of the OP that goes ridiculously hard. Kafka and Mina are staring down an army of creatures side by side like in their dream. We see these creatures with many red eyes that look to me the most alien-inspired out of everything we’ve seen. Aliens are commonplace in Kaiju stories so I would not be surprised if that is part of the origin of the Kaiju in this story. We also see what look like pterodactyl kinda things and a giant wormlike creature in the middle. I’m gonna assume these are simply the creatures we may see later. Hard to make predictions on that.

Then the camera pans to the ground being broken, which transitions into what seems to be Kafka’s main Kaiju power form. The ground being broken before we see him could reference how we see the kaiju come from the ground. We go from human Kafka, to the ground being torn up, to Kaiju Kafka. Kafka is a Kaiju, not just a human. The pan away from the dream-like shot could be representative of how he has been moved away from that dream. He is still pursuing it, but that exact future may not be possible anymore. The opening ends with Kafka closing his fist at the camera in a cool and dramatic way before turning so he fits the Kaiju no. 8 silhouette. The last lines we hear are “cause i’ve gone cold” and “And I’m stuck in the abyss all alone. This sets the tone of what we can expect going forward in the story. We are not left to sit on that idyllic dream of those two proudly standing together against the Kaiju. We are left with his misery, feeling inhuman and alone. Maybe that goal could still be possible, but it will be tough for Kafka on the road to it.

I hope that was enjoyable and made sense! I’ve always loved anime openings for how they can convey so much emotion, tone, theming, perspective, etc. in such a small amount of time. I love openings that make you think and can be recontextualized as you see the OP again and again as you proceed in the story. The best openings are like this one, doing all that without obviously spoiling the series and being awesome on its own. I’m looking forward to more of this show! Let me know if you like this kind of analysis! Thanks for reading!