Why were fans not happy with Kaiju No. 8 character visuals?

Kaiju No. 8 made its debut on Shonen Jump in 2020, since then the manga has become a commercial success with over 11 million copies in circulation and an anime adaptation on the way. Fans were psyched about the anime up until the reveal of Kaiju No. 8 character visuals. The character visuals failed to appeal to the pre-existing fans of the manga.

From the face structure and features to the physique, there were a lot of apparent flaws with the anime character designs. To non-fans, the differences won’t make much sense, but for fans who have spent years with the characters these minor changes hamper their potential enjoyment of the series. 

Why do fans hate Kaiju’s No.8 character designs?

Dropping character visuals and promotional videos are some ways to kindle interest in fans about an upcoming anime. But with manga like Kaiju No. 8 with an existing fanbase, there is a set of expectations that comes along. The criticism or bashing directed towards the character designs is valid to an extent. 

• The proportions of the facial features don’t look similar to the manga designs. An example of this is the difference between the width of the eyes in the manga and the anime designs. This might seem trivial but it changes the character’s entire appearance. 

• This brings us to the next point, Kafka’s character visuals make him look like a different character entirely. In the manga, he can be perceived as a cool character based solely on his appearance. The anime designs have a goofy style to them.
• Except for the monster form, the characters have rounder faces as well. Their faces have lost their definition and look boring. 
• The character visuals failed to depict the muscular frame of the characters as well; making them look too tall or not buff enough. 

Slight changes or minor tweaks here and there would’ve been fine. As long as they didn’t affect the personality of the characters, specifically the main character. 

The reason behind the inaccurate Kaiju No. 8 character visuals…

Kafka, the main character of Kaiju No. 8 doesn’t look like himself in the character visuals. He looks more round and silly than his manga counterpart. The same can be said for the others, although in their case the difference is not as evident. They look like a mix of Haikyu and Boruto characters. The shift from the art style of Naruto Shippuden to Boruto makes the face structures more evident.

Coincidence or maybe not, but Tetsuya Nishio who is working on Kaijuu No. 8 characters has previously worked on Boruto as well. Usually when a manga gets adapted into an anime, sometimes the characters are simplified for the sake of convenience or budget. In the case of Kaiju No. 8, the original designs are already simplified. The simple yet distinct art style of the manga has attracted so many fans to it. 

Conclusion 

 

The readers of Kaiju No. 8 have been dissatisfied with the quality of the manga lately. Most of them believe that it has degraded and become boring over time. On top of that, the character visuals have made the fans skeptical about the future of the anime. The trailer broke this chain of negative reactions with exciting scenes, luring in some new fans as well. 

The characters didn’t appear odd in motion. After all, character visuals are just stills of characters from a 10-episode-long show at least. The harsh reception of the character designs was somewhat negated by the release of the trailer. Although there are some lingering doubts still.