"All You Need Is Kill" has been one of my favorite manga for a few years now and I've only recently decided to re-visit it. I can still confidently say that it's an absolutely fantastic manga and that I love everything about it; the story, setting, characters, art, it all just works so well together and honestly I'd just recommend going in completely blind and coming back to this review afterwards.
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Now, I think most people are already aware of this but for those who aren't; this manga and the Hollywood movie "Edge of Tomorrow" are based on the same light novel. Both the manga and movie were released at around the same time so they really only had the original source material as a basis which means there are quite a few differences. As someone who has seen / read and really likes both adaptations, it's clear that there have been taken a lot more artistic liberties with the movie than with the manga, which does stick a lot closer to the novel, however both manage to tell essentially the same story really well and most of the changes do make sense due to the difference in mediums. I do slightly prefer the manga though, which I think is mostly due to the characters in the manga being a bit more appealing to me (even though Tom Cruise is a great actor).
When it comes to the story there really isn't a lot to say as it's pretty self explanatory, the protagonist is in the military, about to fight against aliens called "Mimics" who have invaded the earth, but in his first battle he gets killed. By some unexplained miracle however, he wakes up in his bed the day prior to the battle and from there the story really gets going. Saying anything more than that would just ruin the experience, as the manga itself only has 17 chapters and takes maybe an hour to read through, it's quite short. However the length of the story is one of the reasons why I love this manga so much. It really doesn't mess around, at all. And by that I mean that not one panel is wasted and every single piece of dialogue or drawing drives the story forward in some way. I've heard people complain about this very thing and claim that it is simply poor pacing, but I completely disagree. This fast pacing is precisely what keeps you on your toes and constantly invested in the story and characters from start to finish and it really makes you as the reader feel the same sense of urgency as the protagonist. When it comes to the characters, there is once again not much one can say without spoiling the entire manga, but I think that as far as action manga go, they're quite good and have notable development throughout the story, especially considering how short it is.
Lastly, the art. The art is just amazing, in particular during the fight scenes. You can really feel the weight of the characters' movements, there is just the right amount of detail in every panel and it's perfectly readable at all times which is exactly what a lot of manga can't get quite right. Even Berserk, which is my favorite manga of all time and is known for its absolutely breath taking art, has issues with readability at times. The usage of contrasts with some really heavy blacks is also something that I find is oftentimes missing in a lot of action manga, but it really makes the drawings pop, despite being black & white.
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#TL;DR
All You Need Is Kill is incredibly fast paced, has a great but simple story, good characters, fantastic fight scenes and overall action. For a manga that only takes roughly an hour to finish, it left quite an impression on me and stayed in my mind for a long time, definitely worth a read.
#9/10 
