Title: All you need is kill
Author:
Takeshi Obata
Literary
level: Intermediate
Rating: 4/5
Written by
the author of several known manga like Bakuman and Death Note, Takeshi Obata
tells a short story of war and time travel. Have you ever had a dream where it
becomes so real even death is a stab away from a flying javelin? Well that is
the reality of Keiji Kiriya and he must repeat his previous thirty hours, dying
from the invasion of foreign invaders from another world. Aliens called mimics
poison the ecosystem, kill every human in their path. Keiji needs to find why
he keeps going back in time holding his haunting memories of war, death, and
destruction, as well as understand why the mimics keep up with his tactics as
he grows more strategic every loop. Only him and the American Valkyrie, Rita
Vrataski, are able to end this never-ending loop.
I don’t have much to say about it
since it is a short and straight with its story. A man in search of purpose as
he tries to save the world by pure happenstance, an evil he must purge but
dares not to for he must abandon what he truly desires. The author shows range
considering that his other works are a young man trying to become something in
life through drawing and a psychopathic student with a god complex. Maybe it’s
an exploration of war against alien life but there’s no clear conclusion to the
actual war because we do get to see Keiji leave the loop, not what happens
after the leave. To an extent we need the consequences of escaping a “Groundhog
Day” scenario, where would the story go as the main protagonist reaches their
goal, what will the mimics do now that their plan has been foiled.