Review: All You Need Is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

Remember that Tom Cruise movie where he puts on a mech suit and fights aliens like it's a video game, respawning every time he dies? Well, Edge of Tomorrow/Live, Die, Repeat was based on ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, by Japanese sci-fi author Hiroshi Sakurazaka, and it's an awesome read. This review covers the manga adaption (links below on the left), but there is also the original novel version (links on the right.)

The story

In the near future, Earth gets invaded by aliens called "mimics" that start to terraform our planet to their specifications. Since humanity isn't physically compatible with them, this is bad! And it gets worse when we try to push back the tide with military force, because the mimics are basically unstoppable. No matter what tech or tactics we put into play, they always win when we face them in battle. The one thing that shows any promise is a new mecha technology ("jackets") that allows pilots to kill mimics up close.

Things escalate when the mimics set their sights on Japan, where key elements of the jackets are manufactured. A new human soldier named Keiji goes into his first battle with the mimics only to die, wake up the next day in the past, and return to battle yet again. Soon he realizes he is in a time loop that sends him back to a point 30 hours before the battle starts, and no matter what happens, he dies painfully every time. He can't end the loop, and he can't tell anyone what's going on or they'll think he's going crazy.

It all changes when he meets an American soldier named Rita, a legendary "jacket jockey" who has the exact same affliction he does...and she knows how to use it...

The characters

Keiji Keriya (pronounced "Kee-Jee Korea") is a new recruit with Japan's jacket force. As the story starts, he's an interesting mix of brave and nervous, living the soldier life because it's all he has, not reveling in it but not wallowing in misery, just accepting the reality of his life. If something sucks, he'll voice his agreement. If something good comes along, he'll enjoy it. He's an everyman. Yet as the story progresses, we see him become a hardened, jaded veteran who's determined to win, but hates the brutal suffering he has to endure every single day. He's the rare character who lives life in an incredibly debased situation, but does not become debased himself, despite plenty of chances to do so.

On the other hand, Rita Vritaski is a fascinating enigma. In the chapter where we get her backstory, we learn that she's not actually Rita Vritaski at all; she's a girl who lived in the American heartland before mimics swarmed her farm and killed her whole family. The moment she was able to pass for 18, she stole the real Rita's identity and joined the military to fight back. Then she got pulled into a mimic time loop in battle, fought through it for a year, and became the deadliest soldier on Earth.

Both of these characters are flawed and yet heroic, relatable and yet aspirational, the kind of person that you know yourself to be in addition to the one you hope you are when things get real. They're a delight to read.

The world

Sakurazaka put a great deal of thought into the world at war with an alien race, including a chapter that explained why the mimics were invading us to begin with. Rather than brainless monsters bent on conquest, we get to see the decision that sent them to Earth, and even realize that if humans had been in the mimics' position...we might have done the same thing. The setting on Earth feels military-accurate (coming from a guy who has only read military fiction, without actually serving.)

At the end of the day this is a book where soldiers in mechanized suits with giant axes are fighting violent aliens, and Sakurazaka takes the time to succinctly explain why that makes more sense than using guns. This is every insane piece of mecha anime art you've ever seen, with intelligent justification behind it. It's just so good.

The politics

Virtually nonexistent. There is the above-mentioned reasoning behind the alien invasion, summed up in a few paragraphs, but other than that politics take a back seat.

Content warning

The manga version is cleaner than the novel version as far as language goes (only one F-bomb in the comic, versus several in the print edition.) The manga and the novel have the same amount of visceral violence in them, it's just more brutal in the visual medium. And in both books, there is an implied bedroom scene, but you're not in-room for it. Only other warning I'd issue is that some of the female characters are drawn in a common modern manga style, so get ready for T&A in form-fitting clothes.

Who is it for?

Fans of military sci-fi, fans of mecha manga, or both. This is a quick-paced yet well-developed read; the manga is over 500 pages, yet I flew through it. The audiobook version of the novel is less than six hours.

Why read it?

It's not only fun, it's intelligent too. You get to see the process of developing weapons and tactics that work against the mimics, based on hundreds of try-fail cycles. And most of all, it's moving. Be warned dear reader, this book does NOT end the same way that the movie did. There's such an emotional gut punch in the finale that you won't see coming, one that gives this story a real cost, and gives its characters a real, incredibly hard lesson to learn. Check it out and get ready for a ride.