Yesterday, Warner Bros. Japan announced an anime film adaptation for All You Need Is Kill, the sci-fi light novel that inspired the 2014 Hollywood film, Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
All You Need Is Kill, originally created by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, follows a soldier named Keiji Kiriya trapped in a time loop where he must improve his fighting prowess in order to stop an alien invasion. Keiji is later joined by Rita Vrataski, a legendary U.S. special forces soldier with the sick ass nickname, “Full Metal Bitch.” In contrast to the Hollywood film following Cage’s perspective (the romanized version of Keiji’s name), All You Need Is Kill‘s anime film adaptation aims to retell its story from Rita’s point of view. According to the film’s press release, All You Need Is Kill will explore Rita’s inner journey as a warrior and dive into her struggles with loneliness and personal growth.
All You Need Is Kill is animated by Studio4°C, the animation production house behind Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (and its Memorial Edition), The Animatrix, and Children of the Sea. The film will be directed by Kenichiro Akimoto, whose past works include being the CGI director behind Children of the Sea and Thirst.
All You Need Is Kill‘s pop culture trajectory is an interesting one. Sakurazaka’s story started as a light novel in 2004 under Shueisha, became a manga by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata in 2014, got the Hollywood live-action film treatment in 2014, and is now finally becoming an anime in the near future. Typically, the Hollywood film part of a book’s trajectory comes last–and is usually dismissed by its core fanbase for its creative license messing things up. That was never really the case for Edge of Tomorrow (now also known as Live Die Repeat), though.
The movie didn’t necessarily set the world on fire at the box office, grossing over $100 million in the U.S and $370 million worldwide, it is widely regarded as one of Cruise’s more inventive action films excursions from the Mission Impossible franchise. In fact, Cruise and director Doug Liman are still in talks about making a sequel 10 years after the film’s release. We will likely see Akimoto and Studio4°C’s All You Need Is Kill long before Hollywood commits to producing a sequel film. Based off the trippy kaleidoscopic visuals from its anime teaser, we are in for an awesome ride.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
English (US) ·