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. (read the rest of this shit…)
