All You Need Is Kill is a new manga by Obata Takeshi (Art), Takeuchi Ryousuke (Story) and based on the light novel of the same name written by Sakurazaka Hiroshi. The light novel was published in Japan at the end of 2004 and has since been released in English. The manga is currently being published in Young Jump in Japan and in Viz Media’s Weekly Shonen Jump via its digital services*.
This Japanese Military Science Fiction story follows Keiji Kiriya, a new recruit for the United Defence Force who’re at war with a mysterious race of beings called ‘Mimics’. Before Keiji’s first deployment he feels a weird sense of Déjà vu that he can’t quite explain brushing it off as just a dream until he dies during his first mission and then wakes up the day before it all happened. Freaked out Keiji tries to desert the UDF only to be killed by a Mimic after thinking he was safe and so wakes up only doomed to repeat it again. Keiji soon resolves not to be killed any more knowing his only salvation is staying alive.
Everyone should already be very familiar with Obata Takeshi’s work in Death Note and Bakuman to know that the artwork is amazing we would expect no less, Takeuchi Ryousuke may be less known to most people having only worked on one manga before called ST&RS that was published a few years ago in Shonen Jump but I have all the faith in him as ST&RS had great story telling. I have not read the original light novel so I can’t say how they compare but the first chapter of this manga was very promising and I look forward to how it progresses.
A movie adaptation is already in the works from Warner Bros starring Tom Cruise, under the name of ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ which is out on June 6th this year.
*Viz Media’s Weekly Shonen Jump app and Viz Manga app are available for a range of devices, see here.