Kaiju No 8 is heading to theaters, but we have some bad news

Kaiju No 8 is coming back in 2025 for Season 2, and something else that’s being specially released in theaters – though it’s not a movie.

Announced in June 2024, Kaiju No 8 Season 2 solidified the anime show as a major underdog hit. Up against Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia, the monster-filled series managed to carve out a dedicated audience that guaranteed renewal.

Prodution IG is going big for the next phase of Naoya Matsumoto’s universe. Kafka Hibino is headed to the silver screen, but it’s not for a new movie – or his latest episodes either.

A special episode, entitled ‘Hoshina’s Day-Off’, will come to the big screen sometime in 2025. Right now, details are limited to just the title and release plan, and for now it’s a Japan-only release.

There are a lot of questions. For a start, is it something that was cut from the first season? An original spinoff of some sort? We don’t know.

Likewise, how long is this going to be? Anime episodes can be anywhere from 20 minutes to feature-length, so in theory ‘Hoshina’s Day-Off’ will be long enough to stand on its own. It’s expected to be rolled into a compilation of the first season.

Those have grown popular of late, thanks to Demon Slayer, Bocchi the Rock, and others. The latter set box office records for putting out two films that have zero new footage, just re-edited parts of previous seasons.

This inclusion at least makes Kaiju No 8 more in line with Tanjiro and the Demon Slayer Corps, teasing what’s to come rather than relying solely on glorified clip shows. In any case, this probably won’t garner the attention those two have, but at the same time pushing into cinemas is a sure sign of popularity.

We’ll keep you informed. Check out the best anime like Kaiju No 8 for what to watch in the meantime, and our upcoming anime list has more excellent recommendations.