All You Need Is Kill

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If you've read some of my other reviews, you know one concept that interests me is that of immortality. Time looping is another concept I find enthralling. It's almost like being immortal, except you live the same time period over and over again. In some ways, I feel this could be even worse than immortality, since usually the situation that is repeated is an unpleasant one.

Before we dive into the story, I'd like to mention the artwork. It's absolutely top notch. Every panel has a painstaking amount of detail, from the character designs, to the suits, to the environments. Obata Takeshi is responsible for ... the designs, whom some of you may recognize as the illustrator of Death Note and Bakuman. While I haven't read either of those manga, I can only assume his work is in top form here.

Aside from the time loop aspect, the story isn't that special. I won't spoil anything, but expect a typical sci-fi mecha setting. The time loop is what makes things interesting. The main character slowly learns the rules of the loop, and the reader along with him. If you have a scientific mind, the implications of each rule will leave you fantasizing for at least fifty loops.

An important aspect for a time loop story (especially one where the main character remembers the loop) is how the character(s) adapt. Do they resolve to find a way out? Do they learn to accept it and endure for... well, eternity? Or do they lose their minds? There are so many ways for a character to react. Yet, the one that makes the reader's blood boil the most is when a character strengthens their resolve and soldiers onward (literally).

The main character is many people's definition of "cool", and it works for this setting. Unfortunately, not all characters are created equal. The main character and main heroine get some pretty heavy development, but none of the side characters do. It's understandable considering the nature of the story. Not much can change after all. However, we never even learn much about these characters. They're just faces that pop up every once in awhile. This, for me, was probably the weakest aspect of the manga.

People who don't enjoy gore should avoid this, as the artwork is very... detailed. I'd recommend this for people who like sci-fi or heart pounding action sequences. I enjoyed this manga, and it wasn't that long of a read. If you find yourself with nothing to do, this manga won't leave you asking for your time back (unless you're just selfish, then shame on you).

The manga is now finished, so it's the time to make a review based on full read through and here is what I ended up with:

Story - as far as story and concept goes, I think that's the weakest aspect of this manga..
Concept of the story is pretty much a continued session of 'loops' of the exact same time period happening. Some people who maybe have just started with reading manga may find it innovating, but it really isn't, as such concept was used in numerous manga series already.
Story itself was a bit disappointing too - the story is based on the light novel, ... but the manga misses a few important details, which ruins the overall experience and may make the manga feel a bit rushed.

Story gets something between 7 and 8, I had much higher expectations.

Art - certainly one of the strongest aspects of the manga. I enjoyed both the style and how detailed everything was. Usually we only get detailed MC's, but in this case almost all the side characters are pretty detailed too.

Art is a strong 9.

Characters - characters sure do feel alive, the MC's personality realy changes a lot due to loop and the progress of that is well described. Side characters also get some personality, but they aren't realy developing, mostly because manga is stuck in 1 day probably.
Relations between character felt a bit rushed though and it felt like relations of side characters to the MC were improving with loops even though they don't know about it. We shouldn't forget that MC is supposed to be a green newbie in eyes of the army and higher ups probably wouldn't ever pay attention to him.

Characters get an 8.

Enjoyment - I personally found it very enjoyable and entangling, I loved the concept of looping and enjoyed the development of MC's personality. The plot also isn't complex at all for such concept, as it usually is, so it should be realy enjoyable for a casual reader.

Enjoyment is a 9

Overall I think the manga was very good (8) - it felt a bit rushed at times, but the art and some twists really kept you entangled enough to enjoy this short read.
It is interesting enough to read through, but don't expect anything complex, I judged it based on the fact it's an 17 chapter manga and for such length the plot was realised pretty well, but I originally hoped they would make it a bit longer, skipping less small details.

Japanese light novels (novels with illustrations that normally target the young-adult demographic) are widely popular, in Japan, that is. Sadly, most of these novels are never properly translated and fans have to use fan-translations. All You Need is Kill is an exception to this ruler, even receiving a manga adaptation and Hollywood movie adaptation.

All You Need is Kill is the manga adaptation of the science-fiction light novel of the same name. While the original novel was released in 2004, the manga adaptation was made one decade later, to coincide with the release of the movie adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow. While the original story was created ... and written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, the manga adaptation was penned by Ryōsuke Takeuchi (ST&RS) and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, who normally works with Tsugumi Ohba and did the art of Death Note and Bakuman.

All You Need is Kill takes one of my favorite ideas of science-fiction, the time-loop, and puts it in a militaristic setting. While it is not exactly a new idea, it is brilliantly approached and used. The effects of the loop are fairly evident to Keiji, who learns a bit more with each iteration, but also descends further in despair. The only "but" is that some more iterations could have been adapted to better get the impression of Keiji's slow evolution.Despite that, the pacing is fine as it is. The other protagonist, who understands the first protagonist's situation, is properly introduced and brings something new to the story. This protagonist's presence also makes this entertaining story into a more emotional one. This gives a fairly decent amount of depth to it, making it much more enjoyable than it first seems.

Because of the nature of the story and its small "size", the side characters are not really explored. The relationship of the two protagonists is predictable and a bit cheesy, but not boring. The final touch of it is hugely emotional and only happens because of a fairly interesting and logical twist.

The art by Takeshi Obata is pretty great and full of details, but perhaps a bit too full. It doesn't pack any punches in showing the dismembered bodies of soldiers and aliens and also captures pretty well the atmosphere of a chaotic battleground. People with weak stomachs may wish to avoid All You Need is Kill, as it is pretty visceral.

I enjoyed it greatly, because of my love for time-loops, but also because All You Need is Kill was much more than it first seemed.

Fans of science-fiction might want to give it a try, as well as fans of the military genre. Also, if you want an emotional story, but that also has great action, All You Need is Kill is a nice option. Now, if you dislike time-loops, you will probably hate it.

Some years ago, I found myself bored and searching for something good to read. While I was looking online for something similar to the "Forever War" and " The groundhog day," I came across this book, which story wonderfully mixes the time loops of "the groundhog day" with the war against some nonhuman beings of the "Forever war". I wasn't really expecting something that great, but I was proven wrong.

The story is really well written; I really enjoy reading it. The main concept of the manga is having a time loop during a battle that is taking place between the human race and some kind ... of extraterrestrial race. The main character finds himself trapped in this time loop, and starts looking for a way to change his fate. This manga has very little romance. There are some girls, and interactions between them and the main character on the manga, but this manga is centered more on the fight, and survival, so definetly wouldn't read it if I were looking for romance. The conclusion of the story in the book is quite satisfying since it answered every questions and plot holes that might have appeared. Reader is able to understand how the war started, why the time loop, how the main character got trapped in the time loop, and if there are other people experiencing the same thing.

The characters are well design, and they do not disappoint. The main character starts like the typical afraid and shy guy, but shows growth quite immediately. He becomes quite a badass after a couple chapters, and has some kind of darker side that makes him more interesting as the story progresses. The second most important character, who is a girl, is also quite interesting and well develop character. She starts as a role model, and an invincible soldier, "the full metal bitch," who has killed many enemies despite her small figure. As the story progresses these two become a bit close, and help each other to find a way out of the loop and win the battle.

Art is really good, the characters look really nice and the way they were drawn does live up to the description given to them. The exoskeletons and weapons, they use, look quite fantastic as well. Unfortunately , there is just one thing that is not good, and it is the way the extraterrestrial enemies were drawn. When I read the book, I imagine them a bit more humanoid, but the ones from the manga are just some giant spiky balls with teeth.

Overall this manga is quite a good read, the art is quite good, it sure won't disappoint for those who like war and fighting themed mangas.

AUNIK, All You Need is Kill - Manga vs Motion Picture

If you've read some of the personal information, you know that I usually like to complete some of the author's works to fully enjoy the experience of that certain mangaka. In this particular case, I will dive into one of the most famous works of Obata Takeshi: All You Need Is Kill.
This little unique story uses immortality and time loops to build the setting, which is something very interesting due to the fact that, in some cases, it is very rare to find stories like this.

Before I dive into the concrete story, I'd like to ... mention that this manga was sold in many languages and it was published very quickly, making it one of the most international mangas volumes ever made. That is something that I find unique and wonderful at the same time because proves that Japanese manga is not only sold within Japan.

All You Need Is Kil (or simply AUNIK) kinda reminds me of American comics because the way the environments are expressed. The character designs and the detail are one of the best things that you will ever read and as some people will say, it is done by the same author that did Death Note, Bakuman and/or more recently Platinum End. But the story has nothing interesting beyond the loops and the immortality, in fact, this story is pretty basic, to begin with. The looping it's the main reason to read it, no spoilers for those who have not read yet but the main protagonist slowly learned how to used and the reader too, along with him. There are many ways to use it and the main protagonist chooses one of them.

As for the main character, he is the definition of a "military bored soldier" and that's basically how things work from there. There are other characters which personally should have appeared more often but that's a personal opinion like the mechanic girl named Shasta Raylle or the cantina girl named Rachel Kisaragi, for example (I personally think that both Rachel and Shasta are one of the most beautiful well-designed characters that Takeshi Obata ever made so far). In response to this, not all characters are equal and that's a shame, unfortunately. However, Keiji (the main protagonist) finds Rita (the main heroine) but we never find much about this characters anyway because this has a small plot with very limited characterization and development and that's the weakest aspect of this manga. The artwork is just very detailed and overall is amazing, as usual of Obata.

I'd recommend this manga for people who like very little stories, Obata works or even to try something new, just don't get your expectations too high because it will go to be not worth it.
Read this manga as something new or eventually buy it, like this you will love it for sure.

Story: 8 | Art: 10 | Character: 9 | Enjoyment: 8
Score: 8

Personal Note: This manga took two months to be complete in Portugal and this review is based on the Portuguese edition.

I bought the two volumes of All You Need is Kill as soon as they were for sale. The moment I heard the ST&RS author and Takeshi Obata were gonna be in charge of the manga adaptation, I knew this was a must buy.

I just wanna clarify that as of this moment, I have not read the original "All You Need Is Kill" novel, so I'm just gonna be talking about the manga and won't make any comparison with the original work.

I gave the story an 7/10. The story itself is pretty good, it hooks you up as soon as you start reading. The script ... was really well done, and it's not predictable at all. Explanations are very clear and allow you to understand the background of the story better, to the point were you start making your own theories. There's a great combination of action, drama and a bit of romance. I think you can even include a tragedy tag. The main problem I have with the story is the pacing. The first half of the story develops at a relatively slow pace, while the second half goes a lot faster. I would've preferred a normal pace, and maybe the authors would've been able to fit a few more details. Also, I'm sure once you finish reading the series, you're gonna want a sequel. To a certain extent, at the end you feel as if the story was only a prequel to what's really gonna come.

As for the art, there's not much to say. It's Takeshi Obata we're talking about. You can expect some high quality extremely detailed character drawings. The details are so good, that at times you don't even need dialogues to know how the characters are feeling. Action scenes were so well drawn, that they make you feel as if you were part of the battle. There's not a single complain I can make about the art. I gave it a 10/10.

Talking about the characters, the cast is small, which makes it easier to remember all character names. There's two main characters, one male and one female, and both of them are given proper development. You can see how both of them grow as the story moves on. As for the secondary characters, there's no need for them to have any character development. Their job is only to support the main characters and give them guidance or a reason to improve. I gave the characters an 8/10 just because I felt the story would've been more intense if we had known a bit about the past of the male MC.

I gave the enjoyment a 9/10. This should've been a 10/10, but I think there's always a space to improve. I enjoyed this manga so much that I read it completely in a few hours. As I said in the beginning of my review, this story hooks you up with the first few pages and keeps you interested until the end. While you're reading this, you'll feel excited, sad and even confused at moments. If a story is capable of doing this, it must be an enjoyable story.

My final grade is a 9/10. The series is really good and quick to read. It made me want to read the original novel, and I think I'll do it. The same goes for the movie, I'll probably watch it very soon. In conclusion, I totally recommend this series. Seriously, you should read it! Hope this review is helpful!

tl;dr: A manga carried by having a really interesting core concept, but that overall feels like a waste of potential.

This manga is an adaptation of a novel that was also adapted into a Hollywood film, though the film is quite a bit different from the novel and manga. The central premise is that humanity is in a war against a mysterious alien force dubbed Mimics, and in the midst of that a soldier named Keiji learns that he loops back 30 or so hours upon death. It’s a very interesting concept and the first volume uses it really well. It fleshes out Keiji’s panic and ... confusion at his circumstances, and then shows him ultimately accepting his situation and then exploiting it to grow from an amateur into an incredible soldier, both in terms of skill and mentality. It’s well written and pretty satisfying.

The second half doesn’t fare so well, largely in part because it feels so rushed. A core part of the second half is Rita, another soldier whom Keiji grows very close to romantically. However, neither Rita’s character nor her relationship with Keiji is developed all that well, and thus the emotional beats centered around her fall pretty flat. This is especially disappointing because the premise with one person remembering everything and the other person nothing could have resulted in a really interesting relationship arc. It’s similarly disappointing that none of the rest of the cast got much focus either. There aren’t a lot of supporting characters and the few that there are aren’t developed all that well. Still, in what little we see of them it felt like there was a lot of potential to showing how they react to Keiji as he grows and changes which was left unutilized. It should also be noted that the plot gets a bit complicated towards the end. Not extremely complicated to be clear, but enough so that the rushed writing results in things being more confusing than they needed to be. This combined with the aforementioned issues with Rita results in the ending overall being pretty unsatisfying.

The art is pretty great, with good designs, consistently high-quality art, and a style that fits well.

All You Need Is Kill – Spoiler Free – Recommended

TLDR
Story – 9/10 – 9 x 0.275 = 2,475
Art – 9/10 – 9 x 0.2 =1,8
Characters – 8/10 – 8 x 0.225 = 1,8
Enjoyment – 9/10 – 9 x 0.3 = 2,7
Total: 8,775 -> 9

Story – 9/10
It is hard to describe All You Need Is Kill in a few sentences. It is packed with action, although it isn’t the central point, and full of plot twists while still being engaging and interesting throughout the manga. It is also tough to talk about the story—and a very short story for that matter—without giving any spoilers. It explores ... the themes of death, resilience, immortality, and time with quite a proficiency, where the mecha aspect serves as a background for the action to happen. Don’t expect this to be a common mecha where action happens for its own sake alone.

Art – 9/10
The art style is impeccable, full of detail, and well-polished. Action scenes are technically superb, and character design—although the number of characters is quite low—is also well done.

Characters – 8/10
The story revolves around the two main characters – Keiji Kiriya and Rita Vrataski – who receive the entirety of the character development in the manga. My rating only applies to them, for other “characters” are more of placeholders or figurines other than actual characters that play any role whatsoever. This was a good play by the author, as it would have been quite challenging to develop more than two characters in a two-volume manga quite well. The characters are well development and fit perfectly into the atmosphere of the story.

Enjoyment – 9/10
Enjoyment is definitely one of this manga's biggest strengths. Its story is compelling and engaging from the very first chapter, the art style makes it very easy to read along, and although it is only two volumes long, its length just feels right. All You Need Is Kill is a statement on how to do a short story correctly, showing that long stories aren’t necessarily better just because they are big. For a brilliant execution of a good premise, it more than deserves a recommendation.

There is an adaptation of this story made by Hollywood, so finding out that the source material is actually a Japanese light novel, I became very interested. So, I read the manga, and before I say how great the story is, I'll start with what I liked the most: the BEAUTIFUL artwork.
The battles give incredible feelings when looking at those drawings, and even in the "quiet" moments, the characters are not drawn in a complex way, but still, the drawing style is beautiful. There's something magical about that drawing style that I can't explain. Maybe it's something normal, but when it's next to that ... story, it certainly gives me a feeling of affection for the manga.

Now, the story is not exactly long, and it does not have a single unnecessary or extraneous argument. Everything that happens is justified, and it is appreciated that it is present. The characters are very nice, even the most secondary ones.
The story isn't exactly the most original, but it's functional and highly entertaining, with a touching and sad plot twist. I enjoyed this manga from start to finish. Please, if you haven't read it, read it. It's short and can be read in one day.

One of the most compelling thing about manga as a medium resides in its capacity to convey the story conjugating between what is shown and what is told to the lector. You can make the same argument about every other media really, but there is something in the black and white panels, the moderated exposition compared to western comic and how the drawing is different from how scenes are portrayed in anime or animated shows. It's always incredible when you feel like you're being told a story from the manga itself instead of the author talking directly to you... Right? Well, you see, that's one ... of the most heavy sins that I think literature can do as a whole; novels and manga being the ones that most fall under this, how things are told. "All you need is kill" is a manga adaptation from the light novel of the same name written by Sakurazaka Hiroshi, and I think every problem in this manga could be explained by this fact, and adaptation that didn't know how to make the transition from a light novel to a manga.

"All you need is kill" follows the story of Keiji, a soldier stuck in a war against alien monstrosities called "mimics" who destroy everything they come across as just how those creatures are just really, really hard to kill and ruthless in killing people. He goes in his day normally as Vrataski, the elite of the elite, comes to their base... So yeah shit happens and Keiji dies... A lot... But a whole lot, poor guy didn't catch a break in any chapter of the whole manga. I've heard the novel was well-received and praised, thus making it into a manga adaptation.
You see, when Ryousuke Takeuchi made the storyboard to this manga, it seems like it didn't sink in the idea of explaining things from a visual angle and with a more orthodox narrative of a novel in a medium that is not a novel: the exposition feels bad and rushed, I don't know what were we supposed to go from chapter 1: The mental downfall of the protagonist? An atmospheric manga about war? And action and frenetic work to gobble ourselves in its viscera? I don't know, and the manga don't know it either. In the first chapter everything feels so scripted to the point of being unnatural, we're being told about everything happening in the world because the narrator just fills us in with every word he can muster until we're exhausted... It's not that is dense or anything special because it comes as a simple war premise, but is just that it doesn't take advantage of the setting to make anything appealing, the setting and every character's main traits are told to us in the most straightforward way possible in that we don't even get to explore character's mentality: Keiji, Yonabaru and Shasta doesn't feel human at all, the only point of the first character was to show how our protagonist becomes a killing machine whose all he need is to kill (no fucking way...), but how the protagonist is going insane is just nos attractive for the lector, why? Because as the setting and characterization is poorly presented, as being too unnatural making it for us to feel the raw pain and desperation feels like out of nowhere, and it just doesn't concern us at all.

The characters are also kinda... Lacking? I don't know, it's not like I don't exactly know, is just that there is so little to say about them. Everyone here's just have dialogue concerning the battlefield and mimics, it just feels soulless that the narrator tell us everything, from every one of Keiji's loops and then having the character talking about more battle and more killing feels redundant, few moments are when character talk about themselves honestly without the use of such a straightforward dialogue and even those moments just feel so short compared to all the narration doing the work of over exposition in the world building, I just don't see a moment when characters are really themselves, I would understand if this were just a manga directed towards fighting and being almost like a gore fest, but even the action scenes have a weird paneling in which actions scenes don't feel frenetic neither interesting nor including anything charming neither crude about it. Just showing our protagonist dying and dying over and over isn't enough for me to make it frenetic or interesting, it just goes from start to finish without doing nothing in between.

And the main dynamic isn't that interesting neither, it isn't awful nor terrible, but it just feels shallow and made up in the last chapters, they build a relationship made from an understanding and interlinked pain no one has ever felt: the pain of coming back from death, to hours before you died. As it seems like an interesting dynamic, due to the little screen time we can't really grasp the feelings of neither of our main duo (letting aside that all the other character aren't relevant at all) but its the closer we are to get humanity from this adaptation.

The art is good, I like the drawing and expressions when the protagonist died, sadly it wasn't used as good as it could due to the try of iterative narration to not make us bored from those aspects, which is a weird choice, why would you skip some moments from your story while also keeping everything related to the worldbuilding and characterization to a narrator? Is just like a mess of dissonances between narratives that just makes no sense when we analyze the pacing of the series alongside the cohesion between chapters, its like if they are so far away because we never see the journey to reach them, we just see the story progressing so straightforward that it just cast everything aside to tell us a story in the most mundane way possible, it's not that it is awful but just feels incomplete, the ending of one chapter and the continuation of the next feels so anticlimactic that I just enjoyed some of the art with some actions scenes... The ending itself just felt like an excuse to make it more tragic, with such an asspull of explanation that I couldn't bring myself to feel bad for our main cast.

Well, it seems everything about this manga was bad in my eyes, that's not true. The art is great, some expressions are well-defined, the actions scenes aren't that bad either and at least the manga try to make a meaningful interaction between our main cast (although it mostly falls apart). But I won't say this is good because I feel like the core and essence of what this could have been got lost some place between the narrative; bad character, a downright awful narrative with just one dimensional characters with boring dialogue and a weird progression is what comes to mind when remembering this work... I love media about war, because it shows tragedy in such a realist yet with also an excuse to make everything to dense and heavy to the lector, even better if you add dark fantasy or sci-fi elements as the fear to the unknown and body horror are my main dish when it comes to uncomfortable and horrid moments... But this one just doesn't get it, this one just glorifies and rejoices in its own little world of dying again and again and again with too little relevant in my mind to keep it near my memories, a missed attempt and a forgettable work at this caliber it is sad to see yet make us appreciate literature and story telling as a whole.

Honestly, I haven't enjoyed a manga this much since... well... Doubt. This series had so much dark and gritty enjoyment to be had out of it's premise that I actually fully read the entire thing in the space of just a few hours. Each dark moment that occurred in the series was legitimately intense for each of the characters involved. The primary conflict of the series was captivating and extremely captivating.

The art style of the series was beautiful, which is to be expected from such a veteran as Takeshi Obata. Each of the character designs represented in the series were unique in their own way, ... and were honest to the character they represented. The backgrounds used in the series were quite pretty, and they complimented the foreground artistry just as well. And finally, the action scenes throughout the series were dark, yet intensely surreal and vivid. I could honestly not take my eyes off the pages during these sequences.

Each of the characters in the series aside from a few were each interesting in their own light, and every single one of them were likable to some extent. I wished that would've enveloped into some of the side characters in the story just a tad more, but that's alright since they decided to focus more on the primary objective. Our main protagonists, Kiriya Keiji and Rita Vrataski were both very captivating based on their development and story arcs. Our male protagonist, Keiji, is a likable person with genuine emotions. The development of a scared, worried soldier who is unaware of the future to a badass hero was quite a beautiful thing to see. Not only this, but his main contemporary, Rita, was just as developed as he was. Her backstory was (while conventional) heartbreaking to see, and it gave you a bit of insight on the character and her motivations. Not only were these characters great on their own, but the brief bond that they shared in the series was genuine and real. I wish it had more time to be polished, but hey, I'll take what we got.

Finally, the story of this series was incredibly serious, but oddly motivational. This tone of serious trauma that occurred in each of the characters represented was legitimately hard to see, but it was so incredibly real. It made me feel genuine emotions toward each of the characters that were explored upon in the story, and it made me wish to read it again to feel what I felt the first time around. This story was captivating enough to get me to read it in one night, so does that say anything?

However, what bogs this otherwise brilliant manga down a huge peg for me is... unfortunately... the incredibly rushed ending. It broke me in half to see the story wrapped up in such an unprofessional matter, that I almost considered stopping just to sulk in how poorly it was executed. Yes, it was one issue. However, this one problem knocks this series that was on it's own fantastic down a whole grade point. I'm sorry, but it just had to be said.

Overall, though this series' ending sucked ass, the rest of the manga was absolutely fantastic. If you like kickass series' in the shounen genre, then this is definitely up your alley. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

take a long time reading & enjoying each page !
story :
it's kind of a known story about the humanity fighting against aliens , but the aliens here are Mimics and the humanity are a good training army .
but what make it special is the way things going , and the END was satisfied as much as I expect it to be , even though you can't tell what the next action is .
.
art :
every page is an amazing piece of art , it took me a few minutes to turn the page , the ability of drawing war scenes and the fighting moves makes ... the pages speak .
.
characters :
even there is tow main characters , but many sided characters took my eye , Rita was unexpected girl , even though she was powerful out side , she's soft inside . Kaiji , the guy made such a great things even that he was powerless , but hard work never let you down.
.
Generally !
I really liked it , and surely will re-read it .

All You Need is Kill tries to experiment with the idea of time loop, which is already a pretty overdone idea in the si-fi genre, and sadly not even this manga succeeds in using it in a fresh and original way. The story doesn't focus on the concept of time loop itself but rather the psychological burden that the victims of the time loop have to bear, and its mental consequences. It is a captivating idea on paper, but in practice that is an internal turmoil that we only hear about from the narrator in a very cold and plain way, rather than seeing it ... reflected on the character's actions. Plenty of dramatic monologues to express their tattered mental state, but never does that mental state play a part in their decision-making or lead to any sort of emotional climax: the whole experience feels rather dull, also due to a pretty rash pace. As if to crown this general flatness, the two main characters are alright, but the supporting ones are so forgettable and underutilized that it begs the question of why were they created in the first place. A couple of cool situations and a fascinating poignant moral drama in the finale make this read appreciable, but somewhat vapid.

All you need is kill is a manga from 2014 based on a novel from 2004. The story of the original novel was also made into a film called "Edge of tomorrow" in 2014 as well. The story is about Keiji who once he dies, is brought back to life 30 hours before his death at the hands of an alien monster called a mimic. It is his duty to try and discover why he keeps getting resurrected and to stop the war.

The art is by Takeshi Obata, responsible for the character art of Death Note. While overall it looks fantastic, there are time's I ... thought the anatomy of Ritas head looked a bit odd but that Is just me being pretentious. The artwork works, and is mostly really good throughout the manga.

The main character of this story are Keiji, a young recruit of the united defense force and Rita. a Veteran who has survived many battles with the mimics. There is quite a bit of depth to the characters, we slowly see why Rita is the way she is and Keiji slowly starts to become like Rita throughout the manga. Rita has a tragic backstory I won't get in to, but you do feel for her character.


The manga was great, the mimics were my favourite part because each time they appeared I knew it meant we would be treated to some form of gore. The manga isn't overly gorey in my opinion, but it is something to think about if you aren't into that sort of thing

I enjoyed the manga for the interesting and original story, I thought the character development was great. I do wish it was longer than just two volumes and I would love if we eventually got another story based in this mangas universe.

I've made a video to go along with this review,in the video however I talk about the film adaption and how it does justice to the manga
check it out : https://youtu.be/XiH-3dyF9iQ

Making a review on a 17 chapters manga is kind of a challenge, for with the slightest spoil, you end up revealing a significant part of the show. And to me, this manga is best appreciated when knowing nothing of it and discovering its content page by page. A point of view not shared by other reviewers of “All you need is kill” at the moment. As such, if you are satisfied what you will have read in this review, I would like to advise you not to read the other reviews before reading the manga. This may sound terribly arrogant, but ... I believe I made myself clear enough on why I’m saying this. In fact, you shouldn’t even read this review. Go read the first chapters, it will take the same amount of time as reading this review.

But if you still need more motivation, what can I tell about it? Well, I think that just by stating that this manga shouldn’t be spoiled, it already tells you something. Combine that with the genre tags, and I believe you already have a gist of what’s going on. An action sci-fi military, depicted in a real seinen way, and that cannot suffer from being spoiled. I say real seinen, because it is fairly loose term, is often to describe a shounen content with boobs (more or less). This is not what you will get here.

The other thing you also know is the manga length and its inherent constraints. You know it cannot stray too far from its objectives, and also that with 17 chapters, you won’t have the same depth as a 100 chapters manga. And that’s a fact. You can’t blame the manga for that, the same way you can’t blame a pony for not winning a race against a horse. It’s a bloody pony, what do you expect? That said, I don’t think that “all you need is kill”, which is a pretty terrible title I must say, has much in common with a pony. The annoying thing is that you’re left with the “I want more” feeling, and that’s amplified by the pace choice. But it has its weaknesses too. The story setup and the characters are pretty generic. Could the author have done a better job in that aspect in such a shot amount of time? Maybe.

I believe you now have all the elements to make an informed decision. I’m giving it a 9, which is fairly high, but I find that this manga deserves it, for it does what its design for very well.

I haven't seen the movie first, or at all, so I had no expectations going into this story. I felt interested in what was happening the entire time, and despite it being short I felt like I was given a lot. Unlike in many of these sort of stories, his feelings for Rita didn't feel misplaced or forced, and the twists didn't feel obvious. Though there was an open ending, I wasn't unsatisfied or upset, I felt fulfilled and okay with it. I don't NEED a continuation, but if there was one I'd happily read it. I highly recommend this, it doesn't take much ... time whatsoever and is fantastic. It's now one of my favorites.

So I only just finished this manga and i binge read it in 2 hours. My friend said I should read it and so he gave me the book. As you can see the artist is Takeshi Obata who i'm a big fan of and i love his work especially in death note. The characters are well plotted and the artwork is truly amazing. The story line is well thought out and if anyone knows that there is an anime of this please tell me! i really enjoyed the book as it was so creative. The book is a sc-fi kind of book and ... is rated for 16+ in my country for strong language and adult themes and violence. Of course i didn't stick to these rules as i'm only 13 but i knew what all the adult stuff was about so it didn't bother me at all. I defiantly would recommend this if you like alien kind mangas, violent mangas or adult mangas. Plus if your a big death note fan like me then this definitely follows Takeshi's style of art. The book in my country UK is £9.99, America it is about $12.99 and in Canada it is about $13.99.

hope this advice was helpful x

In the battle for Tokyo, Keiji Kiriya - a young Japanese soldier from the exoskeleton squad - is brutally murdered by the Mimics - alien fleas bigger than a horse ... In the battle for Tokyo, Keiji Kiriya- a young Japanese soldier from the exoskeleton squad - is brutally murdered by the Mimics - alien fleas bigger than a horse ... In the battle for Tokyo ... WAIT! Hasn't this happened before?
This is exactly the plot for ALL YOU NEED IS KILL!

The hero lives in a constant loop from the day before his death and must do everything to change his fatal future. In just ... 17 chapters, we follow through the magnificent arts of Obata Takeshi - designer of the acclaimed Death Note - the result of the protagonist's effort to study, train and adapt for tomorrow's battle by living the same day hundreds of times.

The constant repetition of exactly same events of that day, makes food lose its taste, jokes humor, people charisma and life meaning. Kiriya Keiji is used to death just like someone is used to play videogames. With the evolution of his training and learning from his mistakes, becomes a cold and listless warrior.

The Full Metal Bitch - Rita Vrataski, an American considered to be the triumph of humanity in the fight against the Mimics, due to her skills with a giant ax - is Keiji's main inspiration to keep her spirit and mind alive.
Obata's gigantic drawings, with facial "zooms" in the protagonists' expressive features, details in the exoskeletons, explosions and blows filling the top of the page to the bottom, transforming the manga into a "portfolio of drawings" for those reading . As if it were a Light Novel with illustrations in every corner.

The short, straightforward plot does not give space to work relationships between members of the army, or even care about their deaths. But , you do have some LITTLE light background shots of characters goals, ideals, and personalities, that could lead for some bigger and deeper development if the workd had more chapters.

As a video game player, dying several times before defeating the big boss, AYNIK is a work of insistence and self-teaching with a lot of action, gore and a message about how valuable life is and the little moments to be enjoyed.

This is the first manga I have read so I thought I'd leave a review for other beginners like myself.

Story (7/10): The story is good but not great, regardless of if you have any form of spoilers it remains predictable throughout the majority of the chapters. However, just because it's predictable doesn't mean it's not enjoyable.

Art (8/10): The art is superb but won't leave you starstruck. Some panels feel illegible at times, mainly the large battle scenes due to the level of detail. Part of me wishes we had more scenery shown to us, but it's also nice that we can form our own individual ... idea of the battles scenery from personal imagination.

Value (9/10): Not something mentioned often but is important to note. As a new manga reader I do not wish to spend a fortune right off the boat. Therefore this manga in particular is perfect for new readers due to it's low price in conjunction to the amount of pages you receive of such solid quality.

Overall (8/10): Overall a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend!

It is a very engaging and well-developed science fiction story with an ending that left me satisfied, I liked it, although they could have put some more things that I will not say by spoiler, but they are only details, and it contains a good dose of action with the excellent Obate-sensei drawing.They will not regret reading it, or at least giving it a chance. One of the things I would like to see in the future, and that is very unlikely, is to see an animated film of the work (Since an anime would be to extend the work), but I doubt that will ... happen xD.