You can call me K or KJ| She/Her | 34 | Asexual | There is no organization to this blog | Kafka Hibino is the love of my life | sideblog @kafkahibinoalldayeveryday
Alright, I have given my best attempt at putting together a timeline of the events in Kaiju No. 8, from when the events in the first chapter happen to when the events of the final chapter happen
Not gonna lie, I felt a bit like this putting it all together:
This is just my best guess and if anyone has anything to add/events to point out/corrections to make, please feel free to do so! This got pretty long so sorry about that! Also, manga spoilers!
After the events of the first two chapters, we get a three month time-skip and then a ten day time-skip immediately after that. I am guessing that the second part of the entrance exam takes place in mid-late March based on what Hoshina says in the light novel:
The new recruits were inducted at the start of April. I'm not sure how much time passed between the second stage of the entrance exam and the induction ceremony but I'm guessing maybe a week, possibly two (depending on how long it takes them to go over candidates' exam results and decide which candidates they'll be choosing to join the division, plus time for the candidates to be notified).
This information would put the events of the first two chapters in mid-late December I believe.
Based on this statement from Hoshina, that puts us around the beginning of June. The events of the light novel take place after the Sagamihara operation (it starts with the new recruits' celebratory dinner and Kafka finding out he's being promoted) and the main plot of the novel is that a camera crew is following the new recruits around for five days (page 18 of the light novel). By the end of the novel, Kafka has been formally promoted and the new recruits are watching the TV special on themselves so I'm estimating about a week has passed which would put us potentially in mid-June.
(The light novel and the manga vary a little bit here; at the beginning of Chapter 11 of the manga, it says it's been two months since induction and the Sagamihara operation hasn't happened yet, though based on the chapter it seems safe to guess we're seeing the events of the day before the Sagamihara operation so there's not a huge discrepancy)
After Kafka gets taken into custody, one full day passes before he's transferred to HQ. After he's transferred, it's unclear how much time passes before his fight with Isao. In the anime, when we see the other new recruits talking about Kafka, it states it's several days later and this is before Kafka and Isao's fight. After their fight, there's no time given for how long Kafka is out before he and Isao have their conversation where Kafka finds out he's been spared. We do know that after that conversation, five days pass before Kafka is summoned to Isao's office and told he's joining the First. This is just a rough estimate on my part but I'm going to guess about two weeks have passed by the time Kafka is summoned to Isao's office which would mean it could be around the beginning of July.
In Chapter 67, when Kafka gets his phone back and is trying to work up the nerve to reach out to his friends, he states that it's been two months he left the Third so it would potentially be around the middle of August here.
In Chapter 68, we're shown a series of kaiju emergences and then at the start of Chapter 69, we get this news report:
This news report states it's been three months since those emergences, which would make it around mid-November by the time Kafka and Mina have their conversation on the roof.
There's no mention about how much more time passes after their conversation before No. 9 makes it move; it seems like the cataclysms start pretty soon after that. The entire fight against No. 9's creations/No. 9/Meireki takes place over the course of one day (from my understanding at least).
At the start of the final chapter, Kafka is informed he's been in a coma for four months, which would make it around mid-March by this point and the new recruits would just be finishing up their first year in the Defense Force.
More time passes between Kafka waking up and when we see him at the end of the chapter as a leader of his own platoon but I think it's only a few months, based on the age progression Matsumoto-sensei included in the final volume of the manga showing Kafka at 33:
To me, this implies that Kafka is 33 at the end of the manga so it's maybe sometime in late spring to the middle of summer, since his birthday hasn't passed again yet.
So there it is, my guess at a timeline for the events of the story. There were maybe a few more events I could've included but this was getting pretty long as it was lol
I think one of the gentlest things in the world is when a friend just gets your weird little brain. like you say half a sentence and they finish it. you reference something incredibly niche from seven years ago and they’re already nodding. they understand your strange vocabulary for emotions that don’t have real words yet. it’s being seen and known and still loved. maybe especially because you’re known. god. what a gift.
all the rights that come with marriage you should be able to have without marriage btw. you should be able to designate a person who can visit you in the hospital regardless of your relationship to that person.
It’s actually ridiculous how much time I spend just imagining myself running into Kafka’s arms and him enveloping me in the best hug I’ve ever gotten in my entire life
i love that discord doesn't tell you if someone's read your messages. like genuinely. normalize others not needing every second of your time right away. normalize taking time to formulate a proper answer. normalize this.
The members of the First and Third Divisions try to get a grasp on the situation that just unfolded in Onjai. The more information they glean, the worse the situation becomes.
Chapter Notes
God, I am so excited to be here! This battle is the core of Come Home Safe and where all the themes were built from, what everything is meant to build up to... I've spent so long mulling over these chapters, rewriting them, refining them, perfecting them.
I pulled every heart string I could, used every tool in my toolbox.
This is the heart and soul of my story bared in full.
i do think we should normalise being like. platonically enamoured with someone. perhaps i love and admire you dearly and there's nothing romantic about it
Caitlyn Siehl // Leonard Cohen, "Anthem" // Rumi, "Bitterweet" // trans. Anne Carson, "Euripides" // Sade Andria Zabala, "Coffee and Cigarettes" // tumblr acct @/gayassnatural // Anne Carson, "H of H Playbook" // William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116" // Clementine von Radics, "Mouthful of Forevers" // Toni Morrison, "Jazz"
