All You Need Is Kill

For the film adaptation, see Edge of Tomorrow (film).

All You Need Is Kill
オール ユー ニード イズ キル (Ōru Yū Nīdo Izu Kiru)
Genre	Military science fiction
Light novel
Written by	Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Illustrated by	Yoshitoshi ABe
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Imprint	Super Dash Bunko
Demographic	Male
Published	December 2004
Manga
Written by	Ryōsuke Takeuchi
Illustrated by	Takeshi Obata
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Imprint	Jump Comics
Magazine	Weekly Young Jump
English magazine	NA: Weekly Shonen Jump
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	January 9, 2014 – May 29, 2014
Volumes	2
Other media
Edge of Tomorrow (live-action film)

All You Need Is Kill (オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル, Ōru Yū Nīdo Izu Kiru) is a Japanese military science fiction light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe. The novel was Sakurazaka's breakthrough science-fiction novel, earning wide praise from fellow novelists including Yasutaka Tsutsui and Chōhei Kanbayashi and was entered in contention for the Seiun Awards, Japan's counterpart to the Nebula Award. The book was published in Japanese by Shueisha under their Super Dash Bunko imprint in December 2004, and was later released in English by Viz Media under their Haikasoru imprint. A manga adaptation, written by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine in January 2014 and is also published by Viz Media in its Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. A graphic novel adaptation was released in North America in May 2014. A film adaptation from director Doug Liman, starring Tom Cruise titled Edge of Tomorrow was released on May 30, 2014. The English-language movie tie-in edition of the novel is also titled "Edge of Tomorrow".

Plot synopsis

The story is told from the perspective of Keiji Kiriya, a new recruit in the United Defense Force which fights against the mysterious 'Mimics' which have laid siege to Earth. Keiji is killed on his first sortie, but through some inexplicable phenomenon wakes up having returned to the day before the battle. This continues and he finds himself caught in a time loop as his death and resurrection repeats time and time again. Keiji's skill as a soldier grows as he passes through each time loop in a desperate attempt to change his fate.

Plot summary

Chapter 1

The book opens from the first person perspective of Keiji Kiriya in the middle of his first battle against an army of mimics. Humans are fighting as a part of the United Defense Force (UDF), a worldwide army created to fight against the Mimics. Mimics are described to look like bloated frogs slightly smaller than humans with four legs and a tail. They are extremely heavy and strong, being silicon-based life forms; their insides are filled with a sand-like substance. A 50mm round is required to pierce their armor. In addition to all this they can fire projectiles called javelins from vents in their body that have the equivalent power of a 40mm round.

Keiji and the other soldiers have advanced power suits called Jackets that give them super human strength. Each soldier Jacket is equipped with a 20mm rifle (mostly useless, as it cannot pierce their armor), a rocket launcher with three rounds, and shoulder mounted melee weapon called a Pile Driver. Even with the Jackets, it takes an entire squad of average soldiers to bring down one Mimic.

The UDF is trying to hold Kotoiushi Island as it is the last line of defense before the Mimics overrun an industrial area of Japan that supplies most of the technology for the Jackets that the soldiers wear. The plan was for Keiji’s unit to be flown in behind the enemy to kill all retreating Mimics after the frontal assault does most of the work. Minutes into the battle he realizes everything has gone completely wrong. Most of his friends and unit is killed. Keiji is fatally wounded then found by the United States Special Forces super soldier Rita Vrataski, nicknamed Full Metal Bitch by the Americans and Mad Wargarita by the Japanese. Her team is there to support the Japanese army because they know how important holding the island is. She admits to Keiji she’s only with him to take his battery pack after he dies but will stay with him until he does. She tries to take his mind off of things with a random talk and asks about whether they serve green tea for free after every meal in Japan. After a moment though Rita has to go out to fight.

Keiji decides he won’t go down without a fight either. He sees a Mimic that for some reason stands out from the rest. It looks the same as all the others, but for some reason it seems different. Keiji charges and kills the Mimic with three shots from his Pile Driver. He blacks out after killing the Mimic.

Keiji wakes up and thinks the battle was just a dream. It’s the day before the real battle. Things seems eerily familiar to him and he proceeds through his day much the same way his dream, however things are slightly different. The morning starts by talking to some fellow soldiers in the barracks and an extra session of morning PT during which this time he attracts the attention of Rita. She joins them during morning PT. The rest of the day plays out very similar to his dream. The next day in battle the first javelin that killed his friend before comes straight for him. He dies in the first few moments of the battle.

Keiji again wakes up in the same place and begins to realize something is going on. He decides reliving death everyday is something he definitely doesn’t want to do. He flees the base, but runs into a Mimic on a deserted beach. Without his Jacket or any way to defend himself he is easily killed again.

Waking up the fourth time, Keiji asks to borrow his bunk mate’s pistol and kills himself.

Beginning his fifth “loop” Keiji decides that if he’s going to relive the next two days over and over he will learn as much as he can and become a better soldier each time. He begins writing the loop number on his hand and writes a number 5.

Chapter 2

After the extra PT, Keiji starts extra training with Sgt. Ferrell. During battle he studies Rita and how she fights. While his body is the same each time he awakes, his knowledge and fighting ability grow dramatically.

After quite a few loops Keiji realizes his Pile Driver shoulder mounted weapon isn’t very useful as it only has 20 rounds. The giant battle-axe that Rita uses is a much better option as it can be used over and over. He works out a way to sneak into the US Special Forces area of the base and acquire one from Rita’s personal engineer. He begins training with the axe in his times with Sgt. Ferrell the day before the battle and uses it during battle the next day. He continues this loop after loop improving each time.

Chapter 2 ends during the battle of Keiji’s 158th loop where he finds the Mimic that he killed during his first battle that trapped him the loop. While the Mimic looks the same as all the others, again he is just able to tell that it’s different. Just as he charges to kill the Mimic, Rita comes over his headphones and asks him, “How many loops is this for you?” Keiji now knows he’s not the only to have experienced these loops.

Chapter 3

The story then shifts to the third person perspective of Rita. We learn Rita’s past story of growing up in a small Mid-West American town on a pig farm. She never wanted to be a soldier, but three Mimics infiltrated and killed a third of the people in their town including her father and mother. She steals a passport at age 16 and joins the UDF four years before she’s supposed to.

Here we also learn that an alien race far more intelligent and advanced than humans overpopulated their planet and began looking to colonize other planets. The closest livable planet was Earth at 40 light years away. They built a lightweight spaceship that could fly at the speed of light and loaded it with an ecoforming (terraforming) bomb filled with nanobots to fly ahead and prepare Earth for their arrival. While the aliens debated the ethics of terraforming a planet that may or may not have intelligent life, they eventually decided that because they haven’t had any regard for preserving other life on their own planet, why should they worry about another?

Arriving at Earth the ship broke into multiple pieces, several of which are found and destroyed by humans, but a few plunged into the depths of the ocean. The nanobots take over the first organisms they find, starfish. By causing rapid macroevolution, the nanobots turned the starfish into terraforming creatures that humans called Mimics. The Mimics eat the earth’s soil and excrete toxins that turn the land to desert seas to a shade of green. When the Mimics first encountered humans they were sluggish and easily killed. However they quickly evolved into combat ready creatures.

Jumping back to Rita, she turned out to be a great soldier earning the medal of Thor, which had only been given to a handful of people that had killed over 10 Mimics in a single battle. She was then placed in a Special Forces unit. After six months in the unit they were sent to a crucial battle to retake the state of Florida. It’s in this battle she killed a Mimic that gave her the ability to loop. After over 200 loops she discovered the Mimics have different roles and also have the ability to loop. In every Mimic force there is a central Mimic that is a Server. There is also an Antenna Mimic and Backup Antennae Mimics. If the Server dies, the Antenna Mimic or a Backup sends a pulse with all the battle information the Server learned back in time to the Server. The time loop is about 30 hours.

To end the loop Rita learns she must kill the Antenna Mimic, then the Backups, and finally the server so that no pulse can be sent back to cause the loop. During her 212th loop she broke out and continues on earning the Order of the Valkyrie medal; A medal created only for her killing more than 100 Mimics in one battle.

Once she understood the sequence needed she goes from battle to battle only looping one time. The first battle she studies and learns the appropriate battle plan to take and the second loop she wins the battle killing the Mimics in the order needed to break out of the loop. After several years at the age of 19 she is deployed to Japan to help hold the northern end of Kotoiushi Island.

The day before battle on Kotoiushi Island Rita meets a soldier named Keiji with 157 written on his hand (although it should have been a 159 because of how Chapter 2 ended and Chapter 4 begins so this may by a typo or translation error). From his first repeat loop, Keiji has learned how to draw the attention of Rita but she still doesn’t know him at all. She isn’t looping with Keiji. After joining them for morning PT the day before battle he answers her question about green tea without her even asking. She breaks down into tears because it was a code she invented to see if anyone else is looping. She never thought she’d hear the answer to that question.

Chapter 4

The perspective is back with Keiji during the battle of his 159th loop. After their day together the previous day, they meet up in battle and are an unstoppable killing team together. It’s inferred that Rita has since explained to Keiji the process for exiting the loop. They take out the Antenna Mimic and move on to the Backups as planned when Keiji suddenly awakes for his 160th loop.

The day before battle of loop 160 he again draws the attention of Rita and tells her of the previous loops and what happened at the end of 159. They end up romantically involved by that night. The next morning he wakes up in the officer’s lounge which she has turned into her own rooming quarters. The Mimics attack the base in a surprise attack. They go for the officer’s lounge first and the barracks that Keiji usually sleeps in. The officer’s lounge is heavily shielded though so Keiji and Rita are safe and are able to join the battle. It’s apparent the Mimics have also been learning a little about Keiji and Rita each loop and have decided the only way to win the battle is to attack first at their base and try to take them out. In every other battle loop except for loops 1 and 159, Rita kills the Server Mimic yet the signal is still sent back to Keiji and the Server Mimic. Rita has no memory of this though because of her lost connection to the Server.

After 8 hours of rallying troops and battling the Mimics Rita suddenly turns on Keiji. She has realized why she is no longer looping and the loop still occurred for Keiji the previous time. Because Keiji killed the Server in the first battle he replaced Rita as the link to the Server and became the one to loop. However, because of her developed connection to the Mimics, Rita is now an Antenna. To end the loop Keiji must kill Rita as well before killing the Server Mimic. She forces him to do this by fighting him to the death. Keiji realizes the only way to escape the loop is to kill her. Rita is a super soldier, but she learned all of her skills alone. Keiji learned his by studying Rita and knows her every move. He’s able to kill her and win the battle against the Mimics breaking the loop.

Keiji is eventually exonerated from killing Rita, awarded the Order of Valkyrie medal for having killed half of Rita and her unit's kill record and recruited to take her place with the US Special Forces unit. They give him the nickname Killer Cage because the Americans pronounce his name “Cage”. Keiji returns to the wrecked officer's lounge and drinks the coffee that Rita prepared beforehand and vows to paint his armor sky-blue and continue the fight until the last Mimic is killed.

Characters

Keiji Kiriya (キリヤ・ケイジ, Kiriya Keiji)

A new recruit in the United Defense Force. He finds himself caught in a time loop where he wakes up one day in the past after having been killed on the battlefield. Through the training and battles he experiences in these loops he comes into his own as a soldier.

• In the Edge of Tomorrow film, his counterpart is an American named William Cage, played by Tom Cruise.

Rita Vrataski (リタ・ヴラタスキ, Rita Vuratasuki)

A U.S. special forces soldier. Highly decorated and peerless in battle, she is seen as a hero by the entire world and known as the "Full Metal Bitch" to other soldiers. Her name is a false identity she used to join the UDF at a young age after her parents were killed by Mimics. Like Keiji, she has also been through a loop of her own, from which she gained her experience and reputation, and comes to assist Keiji after learning of his loops.

• In Edge of Tomorrow, she is played by Emily Blunt.

Shasta Raylle (シャスタ・レイル, Shasuta Reiru)

Rita's mechanic, a bespectacled American Indian woman who collects Gashapon. She is a developer of a large battleaxe used by Rita, and later by Keiji.

Ferrell Bartolomé (ファレル・バートロメ, Fareru Baatorome)

Keiji's platoon sergeant. An overly fitness-conscious man of Brazilian-Japanese descent who takes care of his subordinates.

• In Edge of Tomorrow, he is played by Bill Paxton.

Rachel Kisaragi (レイチェル・キサラギ, Reicheru Kisaragi)

A well-endowed canteen lady, known to have good rapport among the soldiers for her good cooking and looks.

Media

Novel

The original novel, written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and illustrated by Yoshitoshi ABe, was first published by Shueisha under its Super Dash Bunko imprint in December 2004. Haikasoru released an English-language translation trade paperback of the novel as "All You Need Is Kill". Viz Media re-released the novel in North America under the title Edge of Tomorrow on April 29, 2014.

Manga and graphic novel

A manga adaptation of All You Need Is Kill with illustrations by Takeshi Obata, storyboards by Ryōsuke Takeuchi, and character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe began serialization in Japanese in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump and English in Weekly Shonen Jump in January 2014.

An American graphic novel adaptation of the novel, written by Nick Mamatas and illustrated by Lee Ferguson, was released on Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint on May 5, 2014.

Film

Main article: Edge of Tomorrow (film)

Edge of Tomorrow is a 2014 American science fiction film based on the novel. The film, directed by Doug Liman and produced by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, stars Tom Cruise as William Cage (the film's counterpart to Keiji Kiriya) and Emily Blunt as Rita Vrataski. The film was released in theaters on May 30, 2014 in the United Kingdom, June 6, 2014 in North America, and July 4, 2014 in Japan.

External links

• Official site on Shueisha Template:Jp icon
• English website
• All You Need Is Kill (novel) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia