So this was japanese Pacific Rim all along?
Does this count as jumping the shark? Jumping the Kaiju?
To be fair this bullshit was being slowly foreshadowed for a long time starting with some humans having psychic power connected to the Kaiju
The reality is that in retrospect there was a lot of signs it was going in this direction instead of really treating Kaiju as just animals, go and reread the entire series and you'll realize it's true, we simply hoped it wouldn't go in this direction even though it slowly dipped more and more into it
Yeah, this doesn't really surprise me. It's been foreshadowed a lot.
We knew humans had a connection with kaiju given the psychic powers, so the idea that there's a secret conspiracy connected with them makes plenty of sense. And the idea that there's more to the kaiju than just mindless animals makes sense too. Even early on, the kaiju were oddly emotive in ways that many sea creatures aren't, and their response to novel threats has always been incredibly aggressive in ways that felt odd for a predator shaped by evolution. Usually predators in the wild are extremely risk averse because any injury makes it that much harder to survive. That murderous whale monster before just kept going even after getting injured when a real predator would probably retreat to seek easier meals.
Personally, I don't really mind the whole "Kaiju aren't just animals" thing because it explains kaiju behavior better. I'm not sure I buy the conspiracy's theory that the aliens made humanity to make more crystal though, because it seems like a really silly and inefficient system and humans have been around for longer than the 100k years they say... But if the kaiju are the alien equivalent of combine harvesters, it suddenly makes sense how kaiju could be known on the surface as legends that then vanish instead of becoming an omnipresent threat that changes society forever, since there's no reason for mindless animals to not vacuum up all those tasty humans like krill. If the aliens called their biological machinery back after the last harvest to let the fields grow again, though, it makes sense.
Hopefully this is the prelude towards the story just embracing the Pacific Rimness in the final act and turning that power armor they had into giant kaiju fighting robots, because that would be a cool way to end the series.
What surprises me is that Konoe remained human instead of turning into some kaiju monster. I figured it was a coverup on the part of the US and they faked her death because she grew tentacles or something, instead it looks like she was read in on the conspiracy herself.
...Of course, now that I think about it, perhaps the reason why she was read in on the conspiracy was that she turned into a kaiju monster. She looks awfully healthy compared to the damage she took with Nue. Not even a scar, and we do know some kaiju can regenerate like crazy...