"Kafka" had tried to join the elite defence force but had realised his own limitations and instead taken up a job cleaning up after them as they police a Japan frequently assaulted by deadly "Kaiju". When team gets a newbie, "Ishikawa", this younger lad politely but pointedly stresses that he is aiming for more, but he understands why his new colleague "quit"! Subliminally provocative? Well as the pair start to work together, the former man starts to get a little of his mojo back and so when the Force extends it's age limits, he decides to have another go. Meantime, his would-be colleagues are facing their biggest challenge ever as the mysterious and powerful "Kaiju No. 8" continues to evade them. Now we know a little more about that that the soldiers do, and that helps tee this story up for quite a dramatic ending that tests loyalty, trust and friendships across the board as peril ebbs ever closer and the monsters starts to acquire some distinctly zombie traits. This is a solidly executed and quickly paced adventure that spends a little time building the characters, but for the most part just engages us in an action-packed squash the baddies festival with plenty of squelching and loads of gunge and goo covering the street as and "Kaiju" and buildings prove to be collateral damage during the battles. There's a bit of sarcasm hidden in the dialogue which I quite liked, and the messages of team playing, inter-reliance and of age not necessarily being a barrier to attaining your goals are here but not laboured. Stick around after the credits, there's another twenty minutes or so that serves to humanise some of these folks, and if you're looking for a colourfully vibrant series of shoot/slice/blow 'em ups, then this is for you. Not quite sure how menacing the "sunflower thrust" would be, though...?

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