I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day Volume 1 Review
Despite being serialised since 2018, Kodansha has only just brought us Volume 1 of Nachi Aono’s I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day. And the timing certainly isn’t surprising as not two weeks after release, an anime adaptation was announced by studio ROLL2. But does it live up to all the hype currently surrounding it? Let’s take a look.
The story follows Sheena, who lives at an orphanage for children between the ages of 10 and 17. The facility also acts as a school, dividing the orphans into classes by age, teaching them magic and raising them as weapons to be used in war. The students who are capable of fighting are often sent on missions to the battlefield and many don’t return.
It’s on one ordinary morning when Sheena is attending classes that news arrives that her roommate has been killed on the battlefield. A classmate suddenly being gone isn’t anything new here, but while the other students carry on with their day Sheena is left to grieve and wonder when exactly this war will be over. When will ordinary days not include hearing that a friend isn’t coming home?
On the same evening that Sheena’s roommate is announced dead, our protagonist meets Mimi. She comes out of nowhere, covered in blood (not her own, thankfully) and smiles while asking Sheena to share her rice balls. She later transfers into the same class and becomes Sheena’s new roommate, but our heroine remains confused about how Mimi can smile despite the situation they find themselves in. There are rumours that Mimi is a ruthless killer on the battlefield, unmatched by anyone and that, too, concerns Sheena who has no wish to take the life of another human.
Volume 1 of I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day left me with far more questions than answers. It’s not particularly clear who or what the girls are fighting on the battlefield, nor if there is ever going to be an end to it. We’re shown that Mimi isn’t entirely human (she can heal from injuries that would kill any ordinary human), but we’re not shown a great deal of her origins or why she wasn’t attending classes before meeting Sheena.
But what this first volume lacks in origins or world-building, it manages to make up for through its characters. Sheena is a likeable protagonist who is easy to relate to, especially when it comes to her feelings on the war and wishing they could reach peace. It also makes sense that she has mixed feelings about Mimi, a girl who is oblivious to a lot of ordinary things and talented in all the wrong ways (such as her ability to massacre). Still, this mismatched duo form a bond of sorts, and it seems there may even be a romantic spark between them. Although I do worry as it goes on that Sheena will hope to change Mimi, which is not a good foundation for a relationship of any kind…
This isn’t mangaka Nachi Aono’s first work, but it is the first to make it to the West. Aono is also no newcomer to LGBT relationships, having also drawn Boys’ Love before. So it comes as no surprise that Sheena and Mimi might become a couple down the road, nor that two of Sheena’s female classmates are also (secretly) in a relationship. What did surprise me is that despite Aono going to the effort of not making this an all-girl school, there’s no real sign of any male classmates. Perhaps they’re simply in other grades and will be introduced later, but I was surprised by the discrepancy there.
Given the looming shadow of death and destruction from the war, this is not a happy-go-lucky series. Within this volume, there are quite a few violent and heartwrenching moments, which are important to be aware of going in, I feel, given the rather cutesy front cover. Aono depicts all of this well through the mixture of character expressions and arranging panels skilfully for the most important scenes. The atmosphere is also quite well balanced, drifting between tense and more carefree school-life moments which offer readers (and the cast) some respite.
As mentioned earlier, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha. The release has been translated by Irene Nakano (piyo), with lettering by Dietrich Premier. The release reads well, although there are some scenes with the school nurse early on where I would have appreciated some translation notes. Mimi’s dialogue seems to imply that the nurse (who presents as female), is male, which led me to wonder if they’re supposed to be transgender. In the original Japanese, Mimi is using slang that can refer to an effeminate male, but since the rest of the book never touches on it, I’m not sure what’s accurate. Besides that, this is a nice release coming in as one of Kodansha’s larger print sizes and includes colour pages at the beginning.
The series is ongoing in Japan with seven volumes currently available. Kodansha has this on quite a fast schedule for the English releases, with #2 coming out in April, #3 in June and #4 in August. The anime adaptation is currently unscheduled, but a pilot film (above) was released in celebration of the announcement. It was also revealed that Rie Takahashi will be playing Sheena, while Rina Hidaka will step into the role of Mimi.
Overall, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is interesting but I feel lacks a real hook if you aren’t interested in the cast because the mangaka leaves a bit too much up in the air. I want to know more about Mimi and given what we’ve seen so far, I have faith in Nachi Aono to deliver something interesting, so I shall carry on for now.
A free preview can be read on the Kodansha website here.
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
©Kodansha / Nachi Aono
