One of the most-anticipated anime of Spring 2024, Kaiju No. 8 premiered today with much fanfare. The debut episode introduced us to Japan and its Kaiju infestation, which is taken care of by the Defence Force. We also got to meet the quirky and passionate protagonist Kafka Hibino, who transforms into a humanoid Kaiju by the end of the episode. So yes, the first episode was a banger and set the stage for what to expect next.
Watching Kaiju No. 8 episode 1 on X was effortless
But, there’s another important thing that’s hard to miss with this debut. It’s the fact that I watched the first episode of the Kaiju No. 8 anime on X, the social media platform owned by eccentric tech billionaire Elon Musk. Though I was skeptical about streaming an anime of X, the experience today left me pleasantly surprised.
Kaiju No. 8 just became the first anime to stream on X (formerly Twitter), and I watched it at the same time as it was broadcast in Japan. That’s great, right? Now, I went into it with low expectations; for obvious reasons. As you all know, the video compression on Twitter is just bad. It dilutes the quality and sometimes you can barely watch the video.
The Kaiju No. 8 anime premiere on X surprised me, though. First of all, the episode wasn’t actually uploaded to the platform, which is a good thing. Instead, it was a live stream. You simply had to be there on the event page and the episode live stream just kicked off; well, abruptly at that. I would’ve appreciated a countdown similar to the one that viewers saw on Crunchyroll.
But, how did it compare to streaming on Crunchyroll?
Otherwise, the experience of streaming the Kaiju No. 8 anime on X was pretty similar to Crunchyroll. Twitter let me control the streaming quality with a click. It was set to “Auto” by default, but I had the option to go from 224p to 1080p.
Of course, I watched the episode at the highest quality, at 1080p, on a WiFi connection and the video quality didn’t deteriorate even once. The stream did have a minor loading hiccup in between, but it didn’t spoil my experience. It was a smooth-sailing experience for me, but not so much for Kafka who went from washing poop off monster intestines to transforming into a monster himself.
As I mentioned above, I had gone into the stream with low expectations from X, not from Production I.G, but my skepticism was quickly washed away with an effortless viewing experience. Still, if you don’t mind me being a little nitpicky, I would have appreciated an option to enable or disable captions. Also, if there was an option to change the subtitles language, similar to Crunchyroll, then Twitter would have knocked it out of the park with its first-ever anime premiere.
I know, these are small features but several fans will appreciate these being available in X live streams, making it a viable platform to stream anime for some.
Furthermore, a good thing is that X allows you to watch the episode in full-screen and in a tiny floating window as you scroll through posts with the anime’s dedicated hashtag.
The best part, there is no catch! And it’s free!
Moreover, I initially expected that X would want users to get a Premium subscription to be able to stream the anime on its platform. I am happy to report, that is not the case. I simply opened the scheduled event link and the episode stream commenced on time, giving me access to Kaiju No. 8’s origin story in no time — for free.
So, there is basically no catch to streaming Kaiju No. 8 on X/ Twitter, and you will likely be able to watch all episodes for free. However, there is one tiny thing that I wish to point out. Unlike anime streaming platforms like Crunchyroll, X does not let you rewatch the episode or stream it at a later date.
At the time of writing, it seems like you will have to join the live stream to watch the Kaiju No. 8 anime for free on X. Even if that’s the case, it’s not a bad deal, especially when it’s not costing you a penny. Crunchyroll and Netflix, on the other hand, will need you to get $7.99/ month and $15.49/ month (without ads) subscriptions, respectively.
So yeah, if you wish to save some bucks, I recommend doing that and watching this new Shonen anime every Saturday on X for free! You won’t be disappointed!
