Five figures have been announced for December 2026, including a Chase and a glow-in-the-dark exclusive. But the real news lies elsewhere: two of these releases are firsts for the catalog, and one of them had been missing from the license since day one. For a series built on fights, the gap was starting to show.
Where does the series stand?
Naoya Matsumoto's manga ran on Shōnen Jump+ from July 2020 to July 2025: sixteen volumes and more than nineteen million copies in circulation. The story is over on paper.
The anime, on the other hand, keeps going. The first season aired from April to June 2024 across thirteen episodes, the second from July to September 2025, and a compilation movie, Mission Recon, rounded things off with a brand-new episode. In December 2025, at Jump Festa, a third season was announced and presented as the final chapter. Production I.G is on it, with no date announced.
In the meantime, something unusual is keeping the license busy. Since September 5, 2026, a four-episode spin-off has been airing every Saturday on the TOHO animation YouTube channel. Its subject is not a fight: it is Captain Gen Narumi's work week, away from the battlefield.
Remember that name, it comes back further down.
Kaiju No. 9, the one missing from the first wave – POP #2623
This is the release that justifies the article.
Kaiju No. 8 got its first wave of figures in July 2025, just before the second season aired. It included Kafka Hibino, Kaiju No. 8 himself, Reno Ichikawa, Kikoru Shinomiya, Mina Ashiro and Soshiro Hoshina. Six characters, all on the same side. Not a single opponent.
Yet the series rests on a very recognizable antagonist. Kaiju No. 9 is a humanoid kaiju capable of creating other kaiju and absorbing human beings, and he pursues a simple goal: a world where kaiju would thrive. He is the one who keeps coming back to face Kafka arc after arc, and the one who absorbed Isao Shinomiya, one of the most important figures in the Defense Force.
Releasing a fighting line without the enemy everyone is fighting meant a shelf with only one side. That has now been fixed.
Gen Narumi arrives during his own spin-off – POP #2622
The other first, and the timing is no coincidence.
Gen Narumi is the captain of the First Division and, officially, the most powerful active fighter in the Defense Force. His weapon is Number 1, fitted with retinal implants that let him anticipate his opponent's movements. In other words, he sees the blows coming before they are thrown.
He is also the character the license is putting forward right now, since the spin-off airing since early September is entirely devoted to him. Funko is therefore releasing his very first figure at the exact moment he has the screen to himself.
Kikoru, her Chase, and what the wave is really saying – POP #2624
Kikoru Shinomiya is the Third Division's prodigy recruit: an oversized axe, and the Number 4 suit inherited from her mother, which gives her speed and flight.
She is also Isao Shinomiya's daughter. And as mentioned above, Isao was absorbed by Kaiju No. 9. Putting these two figures in the same wave, two numbers apart, therefore means placing a daughter and the creature that swallowed her father on the same shelf. Funko does not say so, but anyone who has followed the series will make the connection.
One box in six also contains a Chase, whose details have not been revealed yet. Worth watching before you pre-order.
A glow-in-the-dark Hoshina, and one more Kaiju No. 8
The last two releases round out the set without carrying it.
- Soshiro Hoshina – POP #2625: the Third Division's vice-captain, a swordsman wearing the Number 10 suit, a living, tailed suit made from the kaiju he defeated. This version glows in the dark and is sold through Funko's online store. Note that his figure in the first wave was already an exclusive, at a specialty retailer: the character now has two releases and neither went through regular retail.
- Kaiju No. 8 – POP #2621: yet another version of the creature, which already has several variations in the catalog, between the standard figure, the transformation variants, a Super format and a Pop! Plus.
My take on this release
Kaiju No. 9 is the piece to get from this wave, and it is not up for debate.
It is the first figure of the antagonist in a series that really has only one memorable villain, in a license that has existed as POP figures for almost two years without him. Shōnen villains are always produced in smaller quantities than the heroes, resell better, and are the ones people go looking for three years later when they want to complete a set. If you only get one release, get this one.
Gen Narumi comes right behind, for a reason of context. It is the character's first figure, at the very moment he has his own show. These are the releases that date a period, and two years from now this one will remind anyone who followed along of fall 2026.
As for Kikoru, I would wait. The character already had a figure in the first wave, so the standard version is a repeat. The only argument is the Chase, and until Funko reveals what it is, pre-ordering blind means betting on a surprise when you do not even know what kind of surprise it is.
The Hoshina bothers me, and not because of the figure itself. It is probably very well made, the glow-in-the-dark effect works well on a character dressed in dark colors, and the Number 10 suit is one of the most interesting designs in the series. But this is his second release, and the second one locked behind an exclusive channel. For a main cast member who has never been available at regular retail, that is a decision that automatically penalizes every collector outside the United States.
As for Kaiju No. 8 #2621, skip it. The creature has already been released in every available format, and one more version adds nothing new.
That leaves the gap, and it is a curious one: Mina Ashiro still has no standard POP. The Third Division captain is the reason Kafka enlists, in other words the engine of the entire series, and she only exists in the catalog in a large format and as a retailer exclusive. Two waves without a Mina on store shelves, for the best-selling license of its studio, starts to look like a deliberate omission. Pre-orders are open, with release scheduled for December 2026.
#funko #funkopop #kaijuno8 #kaijuno9 #gennarumi #kikorushinomiya #soshirohoshina #kafkahibino #chase #glowinthedark #anime #manga
