Scotland Loves Anime 2025 is in full swing and is a personal highlight of the festival season. Featuring a plethora of UK premieres, one of which is the latest adaptation of the light novel of the same name, All You Need Is Kill. This had an American adaptation with Edge of Tomorrow. As part of the festival’s coverage, I was able to secure an interview with Director Kenichiro Akimoto about his directorial debut.
synopisis | Set in the year 20XX, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL follows the story of Rita, a resourceful but isolated young woman volunteering to help rebuild Japan after the mysterious appearance of a massive alien flower known as “Darol.” When Darol unexpectedly erupts in a deadly event, unleashing monstrous creatures that decimate the population, Rita is caught in the destruction—and killed. But then she wakes up again. And again. Caught in an endless time loop, Rita must navigate the trauma and repetition of death until she crosses paths with Keiji, a shy young man trapped in the same cycle. Together, they fight to break free from the loop and find meaning in the chaos around them.
In this exclusive interview, I asked Kenichiro Akimoto questions before the All You Need Is Kill screening during the London leg of Scotland Loves Anime 2025. We discussed the important elements of an adaptation, directing the voice actors and working with Studio 4°C.
So I just want to start off by saying congratulations on All You Need Is Kill, it’s a fantastic movie, probably one of the best anime films of the year so far.
Kenichiro Akimoto: Thank you so much. I am honoured
You probably have been asked this question a million times; I kind of want to ask it myself. This is the third visual adaptation of the light novel. All You Need Is Kill, so I wanted to know, how early on the project did you know that you wanted to be visually distinctive compared to the manga and the American movie Edge of Tomorrow?
Kenichiro Akimoto: Thank you for that. Well, when we first started working after being approached by the Warner Brothers, I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with the original book or the other works of it, so I explored that after this project really came to me. And I have to admit all the works, the visualisation, and the original that you have mentioned are of extremely high quality. So they are fully completed, and versions that exist by themselves. So, while I appreciate them, I started thinking about what we could do that is original to this animation styles. What kind of approach would we take that’s different to the pre-existing versions. So that’s where we began.
And to kind of bounce off on that. Do you think that because you weren’t familiar with the other adaptations, that kind of helped, what became this version of the film?
Kenichiro Akimoto: Yes and no, but it definitely helped for me to have a look at the previous versions as well, in the sense that I had that understanding, and then came up with our original style. So they would probably be intertwined with each other.
To continue on, because it is quite an original story, I know you didn’t write the film, but the story is drastically different from the light novel. So, I wanted to know, as a director, what do you think is more important for an adaptation, being 100% faithful to the text, or 100% faithful to the themes and the ideas that the novel is going for?
Kenichiro Akimoto: Exactly, there are two major ways to go about adapting the original stories into films. One is to become extremely one is to remain extremely faithful to the original text. The other is to really interpret and adapt in different styles. My motivation in creating this animated feature was to really come up with a more original story based on the original book. So and how that became possible is really due to the generosity of the original writer, Hiroshi Sakurazaka. He’s extremely understanding in adaptation processes, and he allows for the scope for it to really develop into something that is slightly different, and so really, we definitely needed to honour and retain certain core elements, such as the time looping and as well as the fact that these two characters needed to face each other to kill at the end of it. But while we were honouring that, we did come up with our original interpretations due to his generosity.
Rita, in the light novel, is like this decorated soldier, and she has the moniker of being, like the full metal b*tch. That’s kind of like her persona. But in the film, she’s the complete opposite, a lot more reserved and affected by the trauma of her past. So, I want to know, while these are drastically different characters on the surface, do you think that they are kind of the same under the skin, and there’s a lot more in common than what meets the eye?
Kenichiro Akimoto: There are some overlapping elements from the original version as well as our versions. But the reasons why we made that shift from her being a very strict army officer to more of their real life character, is because we wanted the viewers, general public, to be able to empathize with what she is going through, including myself in you know, from my perspective, because I found it a little bit harder to really go into the emotions of an army officer, that sense of pride and honour in what they go through in terms of the killing each other and the battling scenes. I wanted that to be a little bit more digestible to the general viewers as well. So that’s why we made it a little bit closer, a little bit more human, like for that personality to be,
I think that Rita and her relationship with Keiji is the strongest aspects of the film. And what was that like, especially with the voice actors making sure that that chemistry came across so we fall in love with them as much as they kind of bond with each other over the course of the film?
Kenichiro Akimoto: Thank you for that comment. It’s wonderful to hear. So the actor who voiced Rita, Ai Mikami, it was her first voice acting role. Actually, while it was her first project as a voice actor, she really, really read into the original story as well as the script. So she had a deep understanding even before she began recording. And Natsuki Hanae, who voiced Keiji, is a well-known voice actor in Japan, and he’s extremely famous, and so his characterisation was already ready when he appeared for the recording, but there was something interesting when both these actors started recording in the same studio, whereas before that, they were recording individually. But when they got together in the same room, there was some kind of symbiosis. They mutually really fed off each other to do better performances, and more fully developed characters came about. So that was really, it created this chemistry that you are describing. Definitely,
yeah, because I think the voice acting is really strong in the film, and especially because, while other voice actors are in the film, for a majority of the film, it is mainly just them. So, were there any struggles about directing them?
Kenichiro Akimoto: There weren’t any obvious challenges in terms of performances so much, but if I were to mention something. So we had three days of recordings booked with Mikami san. And the first day was just her solo work as Rita. The second day was with her as well as Hanae San, the Keiji actor and the third day was again with just my Rita, because I mentioned that, you know, this synergy effect really happened on the second day. It just became obvious that the quality between the first day and the third day became quite different. Because Her Performance changed after really working with Hanae San so we retook some of the scenes that she did on the first day, on day three as well. So those could be described as a challenge, as it’s not that major.
No, that makes yeah sense. When the chemistry flows, you know, the creativity blossoms, sort of thing, and in a way, with the creativity, it’s interesting that we’re doing these interviews with Chao, because Chao feels like a love letter to Studio 4 °C’s past work, where I feel that all you just kill as a statement for the future of the studio. So I wanted to know, how was it developing the art style for the film, and in particular, applying that to the 3d animation that’s present throughout
Kenichiro Akimoto: It’s interesting you say that, as I love the style of Studio 4°C. That’s why I joined the studio. And there is definitely this style that’s unique to 4°C, which I love; it is something I would like to carry on. But also, there is my drive that I would like to create something new as well. We want to, just as human nature, we would like to see something new, just constantly, don’t we? So I hope that we would take in different influences, different elements, going forward with our future works as well.
Yeah, because especially, you know, Studio 4°C., they’ve been on the cutting edge for a very long time, ever since, like, Tekkonkinkreet and the Mind Game and especially with those films, they kind of launched careers like Masaaki Yuasa, with Mind Game and with Tekkonkinkreet. It was a huge project, and there are many other films, Fortune Favours Lady Nikuko, that you also worked on. So, I want to ask, like, from your perspective, what was so appealing about Studio 4°C, what were the things that really gravitated you about the studio, or were there any projects that you really liked, and I want to work with those people?
Kenichiro Akimoto: I would say the most influential work by Studio 4°C for me is one of those that you have mentioned. Tekkonkinkreet. When I saw that, I was just so impacted thinking, wow, what kind of world did they create. And I need to mention one name, Shinji Kimura. He worked as the background artist within that film, and he was involved in Children of the Sea as well, in that simple role. And it was an honour to work with him, but it was just really, yes, I have been heavily influenced by Tekkonkinkreet.
Yeah, I’ve bullied many friends into watching Tekkonkinkreet. It’s an incredible movie.
So, going kind of forward, Darol, the plant in the film, is quite visually striking throughout. There are many beautiful shots of the plant. So I want to know what was the process like for developing this alien life form, and does Darol’s design affect how the creatures look, to kind of spawn from Darol?
Kenichiro Akimoto: Yes, so the initial design of Darol really goes back to the initiation of this project. Really, the origin. I was speaking with Miss Tanaka, the CEO of the studio, about how we could really represent this character visually. And we were saying maybe Darol could take on the form of a huge flower, really the plant. And I made a rough image, a rough sketch, and that really sparked the whole visual concept inspirations. And just by doing that, as soon as I did that, everything, the wild visual was set, and the creatures as well were really set from that point onwards.
Okay, and kind of like to wrap it up, All You Need Is Kill, the main kind of idea of the film is about self-improvement and kind of like longing for tomorrow. So just to kind of wrap up this interview, I want to know what is something that makes you want to keep moving forward and want to experience tomorrow.
Kenichiro Akimoto: I think the motivation changed while I was making the film and after the film was completed as well, so before the completion I was actually not fully sure whether I could complete the process of directing the film, there are moments when I really doubted myself but throughout the process what drove me was what each team member of the production team has brought to me, whether, it was their drawing, cuts, image storyboards or the backgrounds they have created they really came up with something that was excellent and they had put their life and sole into and so it really reminded me how much fun the craft of filmmaking was for me and so to be able to take part. And after the film was completed I would say, just this really, I would say I am so so grateful and honoured to have this kind of opportunities for me to be able to talk about this film to really deliver the works that we have all created for as many people to watch this film and so to encompass and encapsulate what each member of the production team has brought, their skills and crafts that they brought to this film.
Thank you, this is really a special film.
Kenichiro Akimoto: Thank you for saying this
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