The sci-fi light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka is set to receive an anime adaptation headed by STUDIO4℃.
The iconic sci-fi light novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka is getting an anime adaptation! The news was revealed on X (formerly Twitter), along with a teaser trailer and accompanying visual. The project's cast and staff, as well as its broadcast window, are yet to be announced.
All You Need is Kill plot and other details
The official cast and staff for All You Need is Kill have not been revealed as of yet, but according to Comic Natalie, Kenichiro Akamoto is slated to direct the series, with STUDIO4℃ credited as animation studio. Akamoto previously worked on Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent as a storyboard artist, Children of the Sea as CGI director, and Halo Legends as a compositor.
Meanwhile, STUDIO4℃ is known for its unconventional and groundbreaking animation style, and has revealed an original animated feature coming out in Summer 2025, titled ChaO.
All You Need is Kill is a sci-fi light novel written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, with illustrations by Yoshitoshi Abe – the same artist who created the anime series Serial Experiments Lain. The light novel was published by Shueisha under their Super Dash Bunko imprint in December 2004, and was distributed in English by Viz Media under their Haikasoru imprint in 2009. A re-release by Viz Media, which came out in 2014, retitled the novel to “Edge of Tomorrow”’.
Sakurazaka was inspired to write All You Need is Kill by an online account he encountered of a video game player, who mused on the idea of restarting a game after a playable character’s death allowed for trial and error improvement.
All You Need is Kill received a manga adaptation with illustrations by Takeshi Obata (of Death Note fame), storyboards by Ryosuke Takeuchi, and character designs by Yoshitoshi Abe. The adaptation was serialised in Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump, and simultaneously released in English in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2014. The manga was compiled into two tankobon volumes.
An American graphic novel adaptation, which was written by Nick Mamatas and illustrated by Lee Ferguson, was released on Viz Media’s Haikasoru imprint in 2014. A movie based on the light novel, entitled Edge of Tomorrow, also hit theaters in 2014 with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt starring.
The official blurb for the All You Need is Kill novel is as follows:
There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again…
When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?
