Film Review: ALL YOU NEED IS KILL: An Energetic Anime Spin on a Science Fiction Classic [NYCC 2025]

All You Need is Kill Review

All You Need is Kill (2025) Film Review from New York Comic Con 2025, a movie directed by Ken’ichirô Akimoto and Yukinori Nakamura, written by Yûichirô Kido and Hiroshi Sakurazaka and starring Ai Mikami, Natsuki Hanae, Mô Chûgakusei, Kana Hanazawa and Hiccorohee.

Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow both featured the theme of repeating a specific day over and over again, albeit in different situations with various levels of urgency. As such, it was a stroke of genius to make the source material for Edge of Tomorrow, All You Need is Kill, into an anime film. That’s because the material lends itself to animation more than any other form of visual medium. This is a story of finding a reality through a certain level of absurdity.

As with the aforementioned Tom Cruise starrer, Edge of Tomorrow, All You Need is Kill doesn’t let up once the days start repeating and the new picture, co-directed by Ken’ichirô Akimoto and Yukinori Nakamura, has plenty of emotional substance underneath all the action scenes which makes it anything but the same old story even though you probably know where the wild plot will ultimately lead.

Ai Mikami plays the voice of the rebellious Rita, a character who doesn’t let things get under her skin too much until, day after day, she wakes to an alarm clock and goes out trying to kill an alien that resembles Audrey II, the plant straight out of Little Shop of Horrors. As the plot kicks into gear, this alien being makes Rita’s life a living hell for a certain period of time until Rita wises up which takes a while to actually happen here.

People talk a little bit in this movie, and that makes for some engaging conversations, but there is a big plus here in terms of how the film sets the stage for the day-to-day reboots. Every day gets a specific task that needs to be carried out or else there will be sudden death for Rita and another character who may join her on her journey. This is all done in a compelling manner which will provoke interest and keep the viewer intrigued throughout.

Rita becomes in over her head until she realizes that someone she sees daily named, Keiji (voice of Natsuki Hanae), is seemingly well aware of what Rita is experiencing on a regular basis, and Keiji just may have a way to help Rita, both in her efforts to save the world and experience her own form of happiness as well. All You Need is Kill picks up ground after Rita comes to the realization that she’s living a hell life and suggests there may be something Rita can do to save the day and civilization as we know it. She may even fall in love along the way.

There is a connection between Keiji and Rita that doesn’t find its footing until about halfway through this picture. When this plot thread does take precedence, the movie succeeds the most. This film does solidify the premise it employs as an entertaining one in a perfectly conceived anime movie that never grows tired even if it’s easy to figure out that Keiji and Rita may find some trouble along the way in terms of trying to save the world from these aliens.

All You Need is Kill is anime at its most enjoyable. Rita is tough-as-nails, and this makes her the true standout character of the picture even when she spends screen time with Keiji who is also a solid character. Rita transforms the most over the course of the movie as she tries to deal with the unusually dire situation that she may be running out of extra lives and that her resurfacing in the world may be for a limited time only.

Keiji has a pleasant enough demeanor, but the time loop here causes all different types of unusual situations that occur and in the playing out of the plot, there could be a chance Keiji will forget some things and it’s up to Rita to save the day the best way she knows how–by giving everything she’s got and sacrificing it all to figure out the way to victory against the aliens.

As aliens go splat or people die and then the day repeats, everything doesn’t necessarily reset. Rita learns a lot about herself through the ordeal she suffers through, and the movie never loses its appeal thanks to the finely written Rita who makes up the core of the film with her would-be heroic character in the picture.

All You Need is Kill has plenty of fun with the ingenious story line it employs to tell its tried and true tale. There’s no shortage of action scenes that could bring Starship Troopers to memory as well. This all makes for Japanese anime at its most entertaining even though the story has been done and redone a million times before. There’s a point where it all seems like one big dream or a series of wasted opportunities and then…I’ll let you see for yourself.

Rita’s character is so relatable that the movie becomes her story more than anything else. This film isn’t so much about her saving the world as it is about her becoming the warrior she needs to be to survive against all odds. There are many revisits to the same point in the loop at the beginning, but these scenes never become boring at all. This is an enjoyable look into what could happen if the world all depended on one particular person (or maybe even two) to save us all. All you need is to see this movie ASAP.

Rating: 8/10

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