I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day

Episodes 1-3

To quote Ace Ventura, “War is hell.” Anime has been producing shows that highlight the struggles of war and children's place in them arguably since the medium first began to flourish. It has led to some of the medium's saddest stories, especially when said stories focus on the lack of humanity in using children to fight those very battles. I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day seems to be another story that firmly falls into this genre, focusing on a vague magical war going on where young children at an orphanage are raised, seemingly with the sole purpose of going out into battle. Three episodes in, and I barely know anything about this war, like what it's about or who the enemy is. While I would love to know that information for the sake of world-building, it's clear that it is arguably not the point. The point is what this war is doing to the students at the school or, more specifically, how it impacts the relationship between Sheena and Mimi.

A lot of the show is a little bit typical, with Sheena being the more soft-spoken, quiet girl who may never be sent onto the front lines because of how weak she is. Therefore, she is forced to struggle with this identity crisis of wanting to be useful, but also acknowledging that dying sucks and thus partially feeling grateful that she is not going to be sent out there like her former roommate was. Then there's Mimi, who is a little chaotic gremlin who seems to have been manufactured for the purpose of being an ultimate weapon in this war. The first two episodes establish this relationship between the two, with episode three giving the show needed downtime, focusing on the two just spending a day off together to establish that friendship. I like the fact that episode three ignites the genuine friendship between the two, with Sheena coming to terms with the fact that she was rightfully originally put off by Mimi's presence. After all, no matter how you try to spin it, a young girl being unfazed by the fact that she is drenched in the blood of dozens of enemy soldiers that she went out there to kill shouldn't be normal. However, what should and shouldn't be normal is a constant thematic beat that resonates throughout these episodes, as a lot of the students seem to just take the circumstances that they're in as a natural way of life, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody is happy about it either.

I was waiting for the show to reveal what exactly Mimi was and was a little surprised that it starts getting into that around episode three. I like the implication that part of the reason why Mimi shows up covered in blood and mangled clothes is that she always seems to come back from the front lines in pieces. The first two episodes actually cleverly foreshadow that, as even amongst the magical capabilities of a lot of the girls in the show, she is distinctly unique in having enough magic to just regenerate lost limbs. It also explains why she's so carefree and reckless, being able to recover from whatever damage her body sustains. I'm sure future episodes will explain what she is, but if I were to hazard a guess, she might be a reanimated human. Maybe she can't die because she doesn't have a soul and therefore she can't necessarily pass on to the next world? That would explain why the show has a slight religious angle, such as the communal services that happened whenever students failed to make it back to the school after being deployed. I wonder if the show is going to take the angle of Mimi being a monster or if she is just another existence entirely.

Come to think of it, the reveal in episode three does potentially recontextualize the very title of the show itself. The idea of wanting to love someone until their dying day takes a whole new meaning when one of the characters involved in that love cannot die. The show has definitely teased a romantic development between Sheena and Mimi, or at the very least is open to the idea of having genuine lesbian romances. Whether or not she will take that angle or if it's going to go for more of a familial friendship love is yet to be seen. I also wonder if the show's title itself is foreshadowing something greater. Only time will tell, but so far, this has a lot of solid hooks to keep me engaged, even if this is technically a story I've seen a dozen times before.

Rating:

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