Name: All You Need is Kill
ISBN: 9781421576015

Hiroshi Sakurazaka

Ryosuke Takeuchi

Yoshitoshi Abe

When the alien Mimics invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor called a Jacket and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his fifth iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally—the female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?

2-in-1 Edition

All You Need is Kill

Gavin

Sometimes smooshing two* cliches together (time loop + cute boys n girls in mechs) produces something uncliched. Keiji’s deaths are often funny, not sure why. The use of videogame logic for emotional effect reminds me of Mogworld

“What if someone who had the potential to discover a formula to unlock the mysteries of the universe wanted to become a pulp fiction writer? What if someone who had the potential to create unparalleled gastronomic delicacies had his heart set on civil engineering? There is what we desire to do, and what we are able to do...”

It doesn’t show the spiritual death of repetition / mastery that Groundhog Day excels in. He gets headaches and mourns lost comrades, but that’s different.

(view spoiler)[The mimics rewind time whenever something goes badly for them, e.g. Rita kills them all. But then why do they rewind on the times that she dies? Keiji’s death rewinds make sense, since those are when Rita does too well. Maybe it’s a global thing. 
 (hide spoiler)]

The aliens are anti-terraformers, an underused trope.

Advanced skill of manga reading: by what features do the artists denote non-Japanese people?


* three, counting the ending.

All You Need is Kill 2-in-1 Edition

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