Beware, spoilers ahead. For most people like me, their first exposure to Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s light novel All You Need Is Kill was through the movie, Edge of Tomorrow (or Live, Die, Repeat depending on who you ask), a 2014 American adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. This movie stands out not only for being a quality live-action adaptation of an anime/manga/light novel but also for thoroughly introducing the major core concepts and ideas that have become synonymous with this property. Those include the Groundhog Day -style story of a character or characters reliving the same day over and over again, the psychological ramifications that come from experiencing such a phenomenon, the setting taking place in a sci-fi future where humanity is at war with an alien race, and the use of powered exoskeleton suits equipped with advanced weaponry. There is a lot about this premise that is appealing to a wide audience, which is why, on top of Hollywood’s attempt to make a follow-up to the first Edge of Tomorrow , we eventually got an actual anime adaptation of All You Need Is Kill 12 years later from Studio 4°C. What’s fascinating about watching Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill back-to-back is seeing just how near-identical these films are both structurally and narratively. Both movies follow a scared protagonist who is initially ill-equipped and unprepared for combat and only acquires the Groundhog Day -style power after accidentally killing an alien monster. When the protagonists realize they return to the start of the same day every time they die, they try warning their fellow soldiers about the dangers that lie ahead, but no one believes them. Realizing that they’re on their own and must stop the threat themselves, the protagonists gradually transform into effective, efficient killing machines capable of taking on dozens of enemies at once by reliving the same day and learning from mistakes they made in previous attempts. They also meet a vital supporting character who not only experienced the same phenomenon the protagonists are going through but also uses their knowledge to train or prepare their respective partners to become the ideal soldiers capable of destroying the alien invaders and saving the world. The duos in each film undergo numerous trials and errors in an attempt to find the best outcome. They initially feel their efforts are in vain and that winning is impossible, but they eventually discover the aliens’ main weakness. However, before both movies’ climaxes, something occurs in the plot that forces them to destroy that vulnerability and win the war in a single try without the crutch of using their Groundhog Day -style power. Additionally, as the two lead characters from Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill spend time together and learn more about each other, they develop a friendly rapport that’s sprinkled with romantic tension. By the end of both films, the supporting characters sacrifice themselves to give the protagonists the boost they need to eliminate the alien threat once and for all. After achieving their heroic victory, the protagonist returns to the start of the day one last time to find that the world has been saved. While the supporting characters don’t recall any of the events from their respective movies, the protagonists nonetheless reach out to them to start a new tomorrow together. Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill follow more or less the same story beats, which I’m assuming is the result of the creative team behind both films wanting to remain faithful to the source material. Despite sharing the same premise and tackling much of the same plot points, these two adaptations do eventually diverge in numerous ways. Some of these differences are minor, such as All You Need Is Kill being set in Japan, while Edge of Tomorrow taking place in Europe. In fact, the European setting is such an important aspect of the latter that the movie often makes multiple references to World War II and the D-Day invasion (such as the invasion near the beginning takes place on the beaches of France). Other distinctions stem from different aesthetic choices and art direction made by the creative teams for each film. For example, the Mimics (alien monsters) in Edge of Tomorrow are four-legged, wolf/panther-like creatures made of a sort of black liquid metal, with only one color emitting from their eyes, mouth, and body (red for Drones and blue for Omegas). Meanwhile, the alien monsters in All You Need Is Kill (which are not given a name in the film) have a much more varied color scheme and creature design, boasting a rainbow-colored, flower-shaped head and a massive body with multiple legs, similar to that of an insect or spider. Additionally, the exoskeleton suits in both films, while functionally similar, each have their own unique style and features that affect how the characters can perform in combat. The armor in Edge of Tomorrow is essentially a crude, rudimentary version of an Iron Man suit, with dark grey metal covering parts of the user’s body to enhance their speed and strength, and equipped with weapons like a machine gun and a rocket launcher. The suits in All You Need Is Kill , on the other hand, have a much simpler yet arguably more stylized design with full-body armor painted blue and white and a fishbowl covering their head. They’re almost like astronaut suits with enhanced strength and speed, and while they don’t have any weapons equipped like the ones in Edge of Tomorrow , the person wearing the armor has a melee weapon (in this instance, an axe) that they wield to fight the alien monsters. Yet the two most significant divergences pertain to the characters themselves and their relationship with the Groundhog Day -style time loop. For starters, both Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill feature a character named Rita Vrataski, but not only do they serve different roles, they are also fundamentally different people. The Rita Vrataski in Edge of Tomorrow is a highly trained, brave, and decorated war hero who, before the events of the film, used her time-loop abilities to win a battle for humanity in Verdun, hence why she’s referred to as the “Angel of Verdun.” By the time she encounters William Cage (Tom Cruise) and trains him to be the ideal soldier, she has already become the most skilled soldier in the film. The Rita Vrataski in All You Need Is Kill , on the other hand, is the lead character rather than a supporting one, and is more similar to William Cage than to the other version of herself in Edge of Tomorrow . Like William Cage, Rita in the anime is a scared, ill-equipped soldier who initially lacked the training or experience to stop the alien invasion, but gradually uses the time loops to improve herself and learn from her mistakes, eventually becoming the hero who saves the world. However, while Cage and Rita may undergo similar journeys, they are fundamentally distinct characters with their own fears and motivations. In Edge of Tomorrow , Cage is not an actual soldier himself but a public affairs officer who primarily oversees marketing and PR for the military and is forced to be on the frontlines. When he was ordered to fight, he attempted to blackmail his commanding officer, and when that failed, he did everything he could to squirm his way out, only to be put in an exoskeleton suit and thrown into the battlefield. Cage is a coward, but what makes him a compelling character is seeing how reliving the same day over and over again forces him to change and realize that there are things greater than him that he needs to fight for. He learns to become a better fighter, but more importantly, he becomes a better person who prioritizes humanity’s needs over his own. Rita (the one from All You Need Is Kill ) is scared not because she doesn’t want to fight, but because she’s traumatized by a horrific past event in which her mother attempted to drown her. This caused her to become reserved and develop self-esteem issues, refusing to get close to anyone while also believing that she’s never good enough. It’s why her first instinct after gaining the time loop powers and failing to convince her colleagues about the danger that’s to come is to run away, and then later commit suicide when she realizes that escape is not an option. Eventually, when Rita realizes she’s the only one who can save her peers and the world, she picks herself back up and pushes herself to improve as much as possible. She learns to move faster in her suit, use melee weapons to fight the alien monsters, and become the ultimate soldier akin to her live-action counterpart in Edge of Tomorrow . Both Cage and Rita undergo these transformative character arcs thanks to their relationships with their partners, and this is where another divergence between Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill appears. In Edge of Tomorrow , Cage is the only person with the Groundhog Day ability, as Rita lost it shortly before the start of the movie after being wounded and receiving a blood transfusion that wiped away her power. In All You Need Is Kill , Rita and Keiji, the other main character in the anime, can relive the same day, and if one of them dies, both return to the start of the day. This difference is significant because it creates two distinct relationships with their own dynamics, which affect each protagonist in separate ways. Since Cage is the only person who repeats the same day, he is always the one who must go up to Rita and initiate their partnership. Rita does all she can to mentor Cage in every new timeline, but at the end of the day, it’s Cage who must take an active role in moving the story forward, which is what makes his growth from coward to hero especially satisfying. In All You Need Is Kill , because Rita and Keiji are experiencing the time loop together, they are forced to rely on each other to improve, always making sure to have each other’s backs. Every time Rita dies and learns what went wrong, Keiji is there to give her the upgrade, weapons, and boosts she needs to fight faster and stronger. Similarly, because Keiji is initially clumsy and inexperienced with the armor, Rita uses her experience to teach Keiji, who eventually becomes just as skilled as her. The anime creates a symbiotic relationship between these characters in which each person mutually benefits from the other’s success. While there are several other minor differences between these adaptations, ultimately, Edge of Tomorrow and All You Need Is Kill succeed at staying true to the original light novel while also featuring elements that make them unique. These movies complement each other, offering two experiences that share several parallels because they tackle the same premise, but never so much that watching both feels redundant. Both feel like genuine pieces of art made by separate teams with their own interpretations of the source material, and whichever one an individual audience member finds more appealing really comes down to their own tastes. Whether Edge of Tomorrow or All You Need Is Kill is better, there’s something to gain from watching both movies.
