Right on schedule, the mainstream theatrical new releases turn to shit immediately after the Oscar nominations are announced. But what’s this? A new anime adaptation of the manga that loosely inspired Edge of Tomorrow, one of my favorite movies? Yeah, I’ve got to check this out.

All You Need Is Kill lays its scene –where else? — in Japan, where an alien organism crash-landed. The alien — code-named Darol — is basically an enormous tree that’s set down roots on Planet Earth, contaminating everything it touches with a strange discoloration. The good news is that Darol hasn’t done much of anything else… until the plot picks up a year after its arrival.

Our protagonist is Rita (voiced by Ai Mikami), a standoffish vagrant with some crippling PTSD for reasons I won’t get into here. She signed on for a menial job with a government agency responsible for trying to cut down and clear out Darol at the roots. To do this, Rita and her coworkers are equipped with heavy-duty woodcutting equipment (oversized axes, blades, explosives, etc.), in addition to mech-suit “jackets” for protection and enhanced strength.

Basically put, these are not soldiers and they’re not equipped for war. Which makes it all the more unfortunate when Darol’s fruits ripen and release a swarm of terrifying monsters. Pretty much the only advantage the humans have is Rita, who somehow entangled herself with one of the aliens in such a way that she’s stuck in a time loop.

The upshot is that Rita gets to die over and over again, learning and leveling up after every death. And hopefully, mastering her tools and learning about the alien threat will mean defeating Darol and escaping the time loop permanently.

An intriguing difference here is that unlike the live-action movie, this one begins shortly before the actual war starts. Which means that through the first half or so of the looping day, nobody knows anything about the aliens and nobody has any reason to take the imminent threat seriously. Thus Rita is far more isolated and she has to work that much harder at figuring everything out on her own.

…Up until the halfway point or so. Enter Keiji (Natsuki Hanae), a hapless and cowardly engineer who got himself stuck in the same time loop. And because Keiji doesn’t make himself known until Rita’s already gone through all the effort of teaching herself how to be a soldier, we get to watch her mentor another character through the process. It’s a lot more satisfying and endearing to watch than it sounds. More importantly, because Keiji is an engineer with skills and equipment that Rita doesn’t have, he can help the both of them grow stronger in new and neato ways.

Otherwise, this is a solid and straightforward time loop story. It examines the nature of death and time, ruminates about what matters when nothing ever seems to change, and so on. Of course, all those themes take on added weight with the knowledge that a war is coming, everyone in the cast is going to die, and nobody (except our two time loopers) is living like they’ve only got a few hours left.

I might add that the film is extremely short. At only 82 minutes, it barely even qualifies as feature length. Which means that aside from the themes and the stylish animation, there isn’t really a lot to talk about here. Though frankly, that’s still more than enough to make for a good movie.

The only real problem here is the third act. As happens so often in anime, the plot quickly spirals into opaque world-building and convoluted bullshit toward the end. To put this as simply and spoiler-free as I can, the filmmakers had to 1) contrive a reason for our main characters to run out of resets, 2) contrive a reason for the film to end in a deathmatch between the two lead characters, and 3) contrive a reason for the alien threat to permanently end.

For those first two points, the solution we get kinda works. For that third point, the filmmakers didn’t even try. The ending is every bit as rushed and deliberately vague as saying “The runtime’s up, so now the climax is over and the day is saved, YAY!” as fast as you can.

All You Need is Kill is certainly not a bad movie. It’s a solid and stylish time-loop story powered by two compelling development arcs. Even so, I have a painfully hard time recommending this one when it’s so short and a far superior film adaptation already exists. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer how the animated take centers the female lead and I love how the war doesn’t start until halfway through the day. Even so, I found Edge of Tomorrow to be the more balanced and creative film in terms of tone, theme, and genre. Also, let’s be real, the live-action/CGI fight scenes are way more exciting.

Edge of Tomorrow was pathetically mishandled by its studio and woefully underappreciated by audiences. I’d strongly recommend seeing that movie (or rewatching it) as quickly as possible. But for those who’ve already seen and enjoyed that movie, the new animated take will be a fascinating compare/contrast.