Review: I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day Volume 1

It's the cruel anonymity of prolonged warfare that hits you first in I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day. Sure, this is a yuri series with a questionable need for its young characters to kiss each other (more on that later), but our introduction to this world is via the brutal, unfeeling lens of death.

The opening pages of Nachi Aono's first English-published series introduce us to Sheena Totsuki, a middle-school-aged girl who just lost her roommate in a military conflict. We never learn that roommate's name. In fact, every student in this academy is referred to primarily by a numbering system; their names are afterthoughts, more nicknames than anything official.

In this first volume, we never even learn who our students are being trained to fight, nor the name of their own nation. In a distinctly 1984-esque approach, it's simply "us" and "them"—where the "us" is an orphanage of children trained in magical warfare. Deaths are almost daily, occurring with such routine that most of the students are seemingly numb to the concept.

The sorcery on display is reminiscent of I'm In Love With the Villainess, or perhaps Little Witch Academia (minus the brooms and cauldrons). Wands and books abound, but death is only a hairsbreadth away; there are no flashy incantations, but rather a loose, natural feel to the spell-casting.

Shortly after losing her roommate, the vacancy in Sheena's dorm is filled by Mimi Kagari—a tiny girl with a bubbly, air-headed personality, possessed of frighteningly powerful magic that has earned her a reputation as an "immortal secret weapon." She seemingly has no issue with murder or war; a stark contrast to Sheena's continued fear of combat, and her reluctance to take a life.

I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day weaves an interesting romantic dynamic between its characters, letting the audience determine whether the love we're being shown comes naturally, or is the byproduct of close proximity and a heightened sense of mortality. Early on, we're shown that a particularly potent brand of healing exists in this world—namely, kissing can transfer mana between people, and heal anything from a small scratch to a dismembered arm.

As Sheena becomes Mimi's new roommate—and something of a guardian figure—the pair are drawn closer together, and become swept up in something awkward and intimate when Mimi heals Sheena after a training incident goes awry. With her first kiss stolen, Sheena struggles to understand her own emotions—and to reconcile them with the attitude of the happy-go-lucky Mimi.

Final Thoughts

In summary, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day by Nachi Aono offers a unique approach to the yuri genre, skillfully combining the bleak narrative of a wartime dystopian with the awkward stumbling of youthful affections. Raising more questions than answers, the first volume is an excellent introduction to our characters and their world and is perfect for fans of Darling in the Franxx and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.

I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is available from February 18, 2025 through Kodansha Comics license.

Anime Atelier reviewed the NetGalley copy of the manga.
© Nachi Aono, Kodansha Ltd.