ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is a 2025 anime movie that just came to blu-ray. Do I know what the title means? I do not. But if it sounds familiar and you can’t place it, it might be because EDGE OF TOMORROW was based on the same 2004 novel by Hiroshi Sakurzaka. Director Ken’ichirô Akimoto is a first-timer, but he’s been a cgi and animation visual effects artist for about 15 years and art director for POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN (2020). That was from this same studio, Studio 4°C, who pushed boundaries with MIND GAME and TEKKONKINKREET, and you might’ve seen their work on THE ANIMATRIX and BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT.

The animation is definitely the first aspect of ALL YOU NEED IS KILL that jumped out at me. These days doing a whole animated movie with an unusual style is an act of rebellion. It has distinct character design, great camera movements, 3D effects within what appears to be drawings, nice use of film grain in flashbacks, some really cool POV shots, odd angles, the illusion of using particular lenses…

And if you remember EDGE OF TOMORROW you know this is a time loop movie, so I quickly realized how smart it was to make these early shots so interesting, because we’re going to see some of them repeated many times in different variations as she relives this day over and over.

This version of the story centers on Rita (Ai Mikami), a soldier in the United Defense Force sent to investigate a giant alien plant called Darol that has grown on Earth for the last year. She’s basically a kid, sleeps in a dorm, eats in a cafeteria, is still learning how to use the mech-suits they call jackets. But she’s the first to notice the dormant Doral opening and releasing monsters that kill her and her cohorts. Then she wakes up and re-experiences the same morning before it happened. Same things overheard in the hall, same reports on TV, same mission that gets her killed. Live die repeat, you could say.

She tries to warn the others what’s going to happen, but they all die again. She tries to explain the time loop, but nobody believes her. She tries different ways to escape and then tries over and over to kill the plant monsters herself, in hopes that’s what would break the loop. Every time she dies and wakes up again. Two times she doesn’t die, but still wakes up again.

She gets better with the jacket. She gets a battle ax. The combat sequences are even more dynamic than the rest. I love the weird neon flower creatures – if EDGE OF TOMORROW had known to make aliens look this cool it would have an even better reputation. I like how she chops them up and they splurt ube purple blood as if splashing paint, even though they draw this stuff without paint now a days.

Just when I started to wonder if this was too repetitive, she notices a kid somewhere there wasn’t a kid before. Keiji (Natsuki Hanae), it turns out, has been experiencing the same time loop, saw her ranting about it in the cafeteria and his been quietly observing her since. Now she caught him trying to improve her jacket. She’s shocked to learn that every time she’s died she’s brought him with her, and he’s only died twice. Ah, that explains those two times when she started over before dying.

I found something profound about this idea that two people who don’t know each other are so connected that they’ve been causing each other to die without knowing it. It could be a romantic soul mates type of thing, turns out to just be a friendship, but also it’s just a nice symbol for the inter-connectedness of humanity, the idea that we have to work together, our fates are intertwined even if we don’t know each other.

It’s kind of a funny revelation that she’s died so many times that him. It turns out not because he’s better at it than her, but because he’s a coward and runs away or hides in his room watching her through a drone while she takes the risks. But also he’s been secretly helping her improve her weaponry and stuff. I was a little concerned about what sort of wish fulfillment might be going on her since he’s a shy gamer that she accuses of being a voyeur, but it turns out not to be about him being attracted to her. He calls her his idol. He wants to be like her. I mean, you would too.

There are so many of these time loop movies now, many that I’ve enjoyed (HAPPY DEATH DAY, PALM SPRINGS, SOURCE CODE, BOSS LEVEL), none as good as GROUNDHOG DAY. But in part by using animation, and in part by infusing the gimmick with more meaning than some of them, this one feels pretty different. It might be the first one that I wouldn’t think to describe with a GROUNDHOG DAY comparison. “GROUNDHOG DAY but anime” doesn’t capture it.

I suppose this could be said of others in this format, but here the time loop works particularly well as a metaphor for the feeling that life is meaningless, and then for persistence in the face of that perceived meaninglessness. Trying over and over, failing over and over, coming up with new approaches, practicing, learning, improving. Rita learns how to use the jacket better, then Keiji learns how to use the jacket at all, then they learn how to fight together. Building on each little success or discovery. So much drudgery, and many moments of doubt that anything will ever change, but they keep trying. It’s inspiring.

Eventually they consult with a Doral researcher named Shasta (Kana Hanazawa) who determines that if they can’t kill the Doral in the next loop it will absorb whichever one of them is stronger. Either there’s going to be a tomorrow tomorrow or humanity will perish. And what really impressed me is that Rita and Keiji go into this final attempt not in pumped up one-shot, one-opportunity mode, but in nostalgic reflection. When Rita wakes up she looks at a care package she has in her bedroom, maybe thinking about the things that bring her comfort, things she appreciates. Then she’s riding in the back of a pickup truck and it really captures the feel of afternoon sun, appreciating the beauty, wondering if it will be her last time seeing it. Or maybe just the last time seeing this day? Is she going to miss it?

She also smiles at Keiji, has a real talk with him, apologizes for things. They discuss their pasts, their personality differences. Meaningful shit. I suspect if I knew I might be on a final day I wouldn’t figure out anything meaningful to do. I can’t even think of much to do on my birthdays.

I think it’s a well told story, kept pretty simple despite the potential for convolution. I like the scenes where they manage to change something and then we’re kept in suspense about how much things will be different on the restart. We don’t know if maybe one of them will forget. When they finally succeed in killing the Doral, Keiji’s loop starts again anyway, but he can’t find Rita anywhere. The thought of her not being here anymore is devastating! It turns out she’s just disillusioned and went to mope on the beach. And who’s to say she won’t do that every day for a million years? Who’s to say she shouldn’t?

I was assuming this would be a more faithful version of the book than EDGE OF TOMORROW was, but it seems like they’re both different in their own ways. Here they used the characters from the book, but the book was in Keiji’s point-of-view, not Rita’s. They certainly didn’t follow the look of the illustrations in the book, even though they’re anime or manga inspired. Please enjoy some more screengrabs I made to give you an idea of the style.

I think we’ll all agree that ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is a cool looking movie. I also believe it’s a poetic one. I like it on the literal level of cool battles with aliens, but I love it on the level of symbolism. The idea of wanting to get to tomorrow starts to feel like needing to get over something from the past, or being in a rut. Having to grow. Having to find a future. It’s a potent shot of style and substance compacted into an 82 minute capsule. Recommended.

Also please note that it conforms to my “if the title fills up the whole screen you know it’s gonna be a good movie” rule.