It’s a simple but effective premise: Your hero dies. He awakens, only to relive his last day. He dies again. Over and over, this cycle happens until our hero has conquered the time-loop he’s stuck in, having become stronger, faster, and wiser in the thousands of times that he’s been resurrected. It’s the video game conceit, as a thrilling alien invasion story. That’s what turned Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need Is Kill, a sci-fi light novel published in 2004, into a wildly influential story that would go on to be loosely adapted by the Tom Cruise-led Edge of Tomorrow, a movie that has earned its own cult following.
But after getting the Hollywood treatment, is there anything more that one can do with the story of All You Need Is Kill? The eye-popping new anime movie adaptation, animated by Studio 4°C and directed by Kenichiro Akimoto, argues that there most definitely is. If you think the Cruise version of this story is the best, think again.
