The best anime like Kaiju No 8

Kaiju No 8 has arrived, bringing a horde of huge monsters to Crunchyroll. If you just can’t get enough mega-sized monstrosities, we have some prime picks for you to check out.

Kaiju No 8 has scored a sweet spot in the Spring 2024 anime slate, sliding in to grab everyone’s attention before Demon Slayer Season 4 and My Hero Academia Season 7.

It’s a relief, because the anime show deserves the time, with a fascinating setup that’s well worth a look.

The hero, a wannabe kaiju-killer, becomes the thing he most despises after one of the Kaiju No 8 monsters infects him. Hilarity, and much carnage, ensue. If you’ve been watching and want to keep the kaiju train rolling, we’ve got some perfect viewing options for you.

5. Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hideaki Anno’s genre-bending, timeline-mashing franchise is a benchmark for intricate, complex science fiction. You go in thinking it’ll be a straightforward mecha anime, which then involves kaiju, and then stuff starts getting weird and gradually nothing really makes sense any more.

Top to bottom, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a masterpiece. Watching from Episode 1 through to Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is truly a singular experience, giving you several great movies and more than a few top class episodes of television. Hideaki has since moved onto films, making Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider. He’s rewriting the book on kaiju, much like he’s rewritten Evangelion.

4. Gamera Rebirth

Conceived as a rival to Godzilla, Gamera wound up more of a cult icon compared to the King of the Monsters. Nonetheless, the giant turtle has endured through the decades, and his 2023 reboot on Netflix, Gamera Rebirth, proves he’s still relevant.

The eponymous creature becomes our last line of defense against waves of demonic invaders in Tokyo in 1989. Stunningly, the fights aren’t the only reason to watch, as the human storyline actually holds some emotional weight. With ENGI at the helm, Gamera’s best years might still be ahead.

3. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters

Alongside the MonsterVerse and Toho’s continued live-action Godzilla movies, Netflix put out a trilogy of dystopian sci-fi anime movies focusing on the big G. Millenia after monster wars ruined Earth, a group of humans try to take the planet back from Godzilla, who completely dominates the food chain.

This then becomes more complicated by the return of King Ghidorah, and the wants and needs of other people who have learned to live with the kaiju. Combined, the films are slow and melancholic, a far cry from what many want out of monster movies, but they offer a worthwhile counterweight to the constant destruction.

2. SSSS.Gridman

Flight of the Navigator with kaiju, SSSS.Gridman has a young boy find out he’s crucial to protecting mankind from an alien invasion. He merges with an AI to become a mecha pilot, but his efforts have a time limit as some form of amnesia spreads after every attack.

Spritely at 12 episodes, the anime was drowned out by more popular franchises like Jujutsu Kaisen. Don’t let that remain the case if Kaiju No 8 has you hankering for more gigantic monsters.

1. The King Kong Show

Here’s some anime history: the first Japanese-made animated series produced specifically for the US wasn’t Godzilla — it was this piece of ‘60s cheese. Cinema’s top gorilla takes center stage as a defender of planet Earth against all sorts of invaders, with some genre-inspired one-off episodes along the way.

It’s a silly curio that’s worth checking out for the importance within kaiju mythology more than anything else. The King Kong Show is one of Toei Animation’s earliest projects, and in light of the MonsterVerse, it’s a chapter more people should know about!

If that’s not enough for you, check out the best anime on Crunchyroll and our guides to Tower of God Season 2 and Solo Leveling Season 2.