All You Need Is Kill review

McDaddyValidD6
Apr 03, 2021
[Lots of Spoilers] TL;DR It is definitely worth the read despite being non colored.
EST. read time: 1hr 5m

Story: 9/10
Stories featuring a Predestination paradox concept are not fun to experience, some might even consider them to be worse than experiencing death. In the Manga "All you need is Kill", we follow a Soldier of the "United Defense Force" - a Intercontinental Warfare Alliance comprised of several nations fighting against a common enemy, Mimic. Mimic are a sea urchin-like life form that consume the richness of any environment and leaving behind deserts or swamp like fluids; it isn't revealed in the beginning but as the story progresses it is revealed that the cause of the Predestination paradox is due to the configuration of the intelligent life form. Keiji, who experiences trauma while enduring the effects of the Mimics powers uses the ability to manipulate time to train, learn and adapt among the different iterations or 'loops' in order to find an outcome that determines the shifting force of the battle.

Naturally, humanity's most feared enemy is an enemy that possesses an adaptive cognitive disposition. That being said, in this universe a life form that has the ability to overpower humanity and indiscriminately consume life is frightening. All You Need to Kill explains this concept in only 17 Chapters, although not enough to develop deeper than the surface level, it does end with a BANG. The story line is not complex or utilizes narrative components to enhance the perspective of the story teller but it does an amazing job of revealing detail by detail provoking the reader with new information that wouldn't have been hinted to prior. My main squabble with the story is the ending, the ending is bitter sweet and ends in the style of "There is a lot of work to be done, I'll have to replace Rita in order to relive the horrifying loops" In this case, there is no true ending which leaves many provoking questions unanswered. Overall, such a great execution of the Predestination paradox and butterfly effect.

Art: 6/10
I'm not a fan of Manga primarily because of the outdated anti-mobile layout and especially considering it was made for the intention of being printed. However, besides that the art is consistent and very detailed - Every scene has been planned out and drawn with heavy consideration for light-source. The mobile suits also have great attention to detail even during actions scenes where spikes piercing through the battlefield impale the personnel. The environmental design where the battle occurs looks like a beach frontal assault which is a bad-ass premise for an apocalyptic-dystopian setting. Major Flaw, Manga panel layouts are outdated ~ Manhwa/Webtoon mobile layouts are in-dated.

Character: 8/10
Although the main attention of character development is on Keiji, there is a chapter + half dedicated to re-telling Rita's childhood against the flow of the Mimics and also her previous battle (I assume the blonde guy was also stuck in the loop, and Rita was able to leave the loop because he died - Because of the method he used by talking about random topics and the fact that he had become a powerhouse force against the mimics
which is a VERY rare occurrence) The details of the development in both main characters is surface level but considering the development only occurred in the latter half of the Manga showed how ambitious the premise-setting was.

This is a more satisfying and rewarding style of character development instead of those overused reincarnated characters remembering an entire Martial Arts Nascent Grade Skill Manual and selling pill refining formulas. It also had great pace, not too rushed and not too slow.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Definitely would like this to be adapted into an anime or even extended into a full series of Mobile-supported webmanga. There is a lot of drive for ambition but since this is an older and probably discontinued piece of ancient Manga history it probably won't be getting a reboot.
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All You Need Is Kill
All You Need Is Kill
Auteur Abe, Yoshitoshi
Artiste