I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day

Episode 4

This episode is all about establishing that foreboding atmosphere that comes with the weight of last episode's reveal. The idea that Mimi isn't really alive or may not even be human isn't directly answered, but there are certainly a lot of things being set up regarding how Mimi might've come to be. The fact that there is a forbidden spell that can be used to bring somebody back to life and that doing so seems to make them immortal by default feels like too easy an answer to just casually get revealed in a class the next day. I feel like that's a red herring, or at the very least, if a resurrection spell does end up being the main explanation, I'm sure the circumstances wind up being a lot more complicated than that. Mimi doesn't seem to have any memories about being resurrected, so there is a chance that either she doesn't remember her life before or there might be another explanation. The show is still keeping its cards very close to the chest regarding the larger world-building. It is still unsettling, and it feels like I'm just waiting for something terrible to happen. I was fully expecting an explosion to go off in that field of flowers before the episode ended and breathed a sigh of relief when that didn't happen.

I like that the first half of this episode leaned more into establishing the dynamic of the teachers. I was originally a little scared that the main professor would be a double agent or something, but it turns out that she is genuinely doing everything she can to make sure the girls are prepared for the unfortunate fate that they have to deal with. You could tell that the stoicism she puts on is a façade. She seems one second away from breaking, but she has to do her best to keep everything together because if she breaks down, the students would have nobody to look up to. At least she was able to have a moment to let her guard down a little bit in front of the nurse.

There's a lot of contrast being played with in this episode. The idea of bringing somebody back to life at the cost of your own, the idea of sacrificing yourself as a form of romance, and the contrast between Mimi being sweet while also being a weapon of war. The show feels like it is wholesome, like a typical school life show, but then it'll quickly remind me that there is a serious violent threat seemingly just over the mountain tops. I like it because the show is always keeping me on my toes and thus it is always keeping me engaged, even if it's not revealing all of the answers that I want to know right away.

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I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.