All You Need Is Kill Review

Scotland Loves Anime premieres in the UK All You Need Is Kill, the latest movie by director Kenichiro Akimoto based on the novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

In a not-so-distant future, a tree-like creature plants its root into Earth. It gets named Darol, and a team of volunteers set up a base around it to research it. Rita is one of the volunteers, but she’s bored of the same day-to-day monotony and wishes for a change. But be careful of what you wish for… One year exactly after Darol appears on Earth, its fruits bloom and monstrous human-eating plants start killing all humans on sight. Rita tries to escape unsuccessfully, but it’s not over. As soon as the carnivorous  plant kills her, Rita finds herself repeating the same day over and over again. No matter how much she tries to escape, the plants always seem to find and kill her. After much despair, she decides to fight back, and here the story picks up the pace.

Day after day, Rita learns how the plants move and how she can avoid their attacks to fight back. She’s making improvements but it’s still not enough, especially when the day starts resetting even before she dies. It’s not too long after that she learns that someone is repeating the same loop as her: Keiji. The two start cooperating to take down the plants and eventually Darol, as that might be the only way for them to survive and protect humanity.

When I was given the chance to review this anime, I took it as I was captivated by the story idea and by the alien plants, even if science fiction is not in my usual wheelhouse. The art as well is quite different from what I usually go for and prefer. However, the mix of all these novelties for me, added a little bit more to the movie.

Rita is a young woman who built a wall around herself to keep others away after having a difficult childhood. She thinks she’s alone and even when she asks for help, nobody believes her. It’s no wonder that she takes on the task of destroying Darol by herself. She starts to come out of her shell only when she meets Keiji. He has a completely different personality, and compared to Rita, he’s weak. He hides and watches from a distance and it’s only by spending time with Rita that he finds the courage to fight back. The two help each other grow and push themselves to their limits. Director Akimoto said he wanted to show through Rita how people can still grow and discover new things in the monotony of life and how by having someone else one can do such a thing, and I’m pleased to say that this message comes across loud and clear through Rita and Keiji as each one of their interactions makes them grow and widen their worldview.

The suspenseful music by Yasuhiro Maeda (The Boy and the Heron, Ponyo) playing from the beginning of the movie captures the viewers’ attention straight away and it keeps the viewers on the edge of their seat through the whole movie. When will Rita leave the time loop? What will she have to do to come out victorious? Those seem to be the repetitive questions that came to mind while watching it. The mystery behind everything— Darol, the time loop— and the characters’ development is compelling.

For this movie, we need to separate the art of the characters from the art of the backgrounds. The backgrounds are detailed with a variety of colours and shades with rainbow colours making appearances quite frequently in various elements. In contrast, the character art is more simplistic with sharp lines and vivid colours with almost no shading, which creates quite the contrast against the backdrop. However the two art styles work well together and the vibrant and deep colours help to emphasise the characters.

The story flows quite easily and although the same day is repeated over and over again, the animation gives the viewers snippets of it to understand how Rita is adapting and developing in the time loop, allowing the story to not become repetitive for the viewers. Although some questions are answered throughout the 85 minutes of the movie, some others are left unexplained, including where Darol comes from and how to destroy it, and how the final fighting scenes between Keiji and Rita brings the needed closure, which I would have preferred if it was made clearer as I still don’t have a clue as to  why Keiji thought that was the only way to end the war against Darol.

The movie is available in Japanese with English subtitles, and there’s no news yet as to whether an English dub will be available. Mikami Ai is the voice for Rita, and Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro in Demon Slayer) for Keiji. While Natsuki is well-known already in the industry, Mikami has more experience as an actress than voice actor, but this didn’t stop her from bringing the character of Rita to life, giving her the 3D personality that the character art lacks.

All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka was originally released as a novel in 2004 by Shueisha. It has been adapted into a manga released by VIZ in the English language (by Ryosuke Takeuchi with art by Takeshi Obata) and it even got adapted into a Hollywood movie: Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise. The anime is the latest adaptation and will be released in theatres in January 2026 and is distributed in multiple English-speaking territories, including the UK, by GKIDS.

Thanks to GKIDS and Fetch Publicity for an early screener of the movie.