Tones of naked children and an excuse to kiss others being sharing mana? Also the nurse is portrayed as creepy but also isn’t cis so that comes off very icky as they portrayed them in such a gross light. Very oversexualized.

1.5 ⭐

I am very against the sexualising of 10 year old girls, especially in a way where kissing is healing magic and the school nurse routinely does this to students.

I am not a fan of how this played out either, things seemed fairly disjointed too. The idea behind it seems like a good premise, but unfortunately it just wasn't executed well.

I think I wanted to give this more of a chance because of how I related to the conversation about pain and not being able to use parts of your body, but it seemed like that was just a passing conversation, rather than an actual conversation of depth.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Netgalley, and Nachi Aono for this e-ARC. I was provided this ARC for review only, I was not paid for this review. All opinions are my own.

Oh boy, okay.

So the premise of this is cool!

"An orphanage for girls is actually a boot camp, turning out magical child soldiers for a gruesome war. Yet love finds a way to blossom amid bloodshed, in this dramatic, much-anticipated yuri manga that is spiritrual kin to the likes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Otherside Picnic, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury." (From the NetGalley descriptor.)

It's dramatic and bloody for sure, but the love blossoming part is the biggest issue here! We meet Sheena, stuck in this same magic school all the orphans go to because apparently if you're an orphan, you get trained up to be a war child! Sheena's unsure about her place and not great at magic, AND her roommate just died in battle? Cool.

Then Sheena, who is of indeterminate age (probably early teens?) meets a child, shares her dinner, finds out said child is one of the more ultimate world machines, oh, and that 'blossoming love' spoilers, is between her and this literal 10 year old. They sort of get vague about it like "oh maybe she's not really 10 despite her body age" but she acts, speaks, and looks like a child (even down to the smock dress they have her wear unlike the other girls in this school who all look/seem older than her), and if you think it's subtext, no, there's several kisses. Sure, kissing is a convenient way to "share mana" and heal but boy howdy... they are kisses. Other girls are shown kissing romantically in the same manner. There is no difference besides them saying it's for healing.

But wait, there's more! The school nurse, who is both called "she" and "Ms" is also called a 'man in drag' and an "old man" (and also just has her cleavage out for no reason), so either the writers are being awful at transwomen or it's all a weird and gross bit where she actually is a man wearing female clothes because this character, a full adult, IS like, "huhuhu I'll get to kiss her to heal her~~" which is only perpetuating gross stereotypes either way.

It sucks that there's so many weird choices with the ages and the bad gender stuff because the setting is interesting, and these girls 10-17 being basically forced to go to magic war school IS interesting... or would be, if they told us literally anything about who they were fighting, why they were fighting, or any single thing about this war other than preteens/teens using magic for battle. But the rest of it... well, I won't go read volume 2 unless somehow these issues are worked out (doubt).

Thank you as always to Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review...!

The cover made this look like a sweet yuri manga while the title hinted at the darker setting. While the art style and some of the scenes were certainly cute, the fact that the main romantic characters are portrayed as 10 years old (or perhaps one as 14 years old and the other as 10 years old - it's not totally clear) was incredibly off-putting. The mana-sharing by kissing isn't terribly creative, but not outside of the norm for magic-based yuri manga. The mystery around exactly what kind of magical being Mimi truly is and Sheena's wrestling with the reality of death added depth and intrigue to the story. However, the age factor gives the whole story an icky veneer.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for an ARC of I Want to Love You TIll Your Dying Day by Nachi Aono.

This manga focuses on an orphanage of young girls who have the ability to do magic. The orphanage uses their magic and raises them as weapons of war. Of the girls in the orphanage, the story focuses on roommates Sheena and Mimi. Sheena is quiet, a little unsure with her magic, and genuinely terrified of the world around her, while Mimi is outgoing and powerhouse of magic, which allows her to be near fearless. The two are nearly opposites, but learn to get along.

The art style is gorgeous and there's a couple interesting plot points introduced in this first volume that I look forward to seeing play out.

Other reviews have made mention of how the healing magic exists in this universe. I understand people's concerns regarding the ages of the characters, but I quite enjoy the fact that it's something different. It's a magic system that sets this story apart from other magical girl stories.

Thankyou Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for this eARC.

The idea for this seemed right up my street, the stress of a magical school where we train orphans for warfare? my bag completely! I would have loved to keep reading and learn more about why they are fighting but unfortunetly the sexualisation of minors is not something I can support. I will not be continuing with this series.

I do think, that if the characters were older this would have worked a lot better. We dont need 10 year olds kissing adults/other kids and nude images of kids, but if it was reworked int an adult manga with adult characters it would make a lot more sense as a manga.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with this title.

The cover and the artwork is what initially grabbed my attention along with the concept of an orphanage training children at the school in magical warfare. Unfortunately, that is where my enjoyment stopped. While the artwork was beautifully done and there was potential for a really interesting story, I would not recommend anyone to read this. I understand that it was only the first volume but, the plot itself was very lacking aside from a few pages here and there. However, most importantly, my overarching issue is the problematic sexualisation of young underage girls. There is absolutely no need to add to the societal problem of sexualisation of children. The depiction of a nude underage girl towards the end shouldn’t even be legal in my opinion. Additionally, I don’t know what the intention was regarding the character of the nurse but, every single scene with that character was uncomfortable and harmful to the lgbtqia+ community if it was attempting what I assume.

I will not be continuing this series or reading anything else by this author.

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.

Thank you so much for letting me read this manga. I very much enjoyed this story. It is a little crazy but still very entertaining.

So, I've never dived into mangas before but I did enjoy this. I'm not sure how to go about rating mangas specifically, so I'll talk about what I usually look for in books - characters, originality, enjoyment and plot. I'll also talk about the graphics in this.

Characters: i loved Mimi the most, I loved her cheerful personality and I do plan on continuing this series to follow her story if it continues! Sheena, I enjoyed her as well; I loved the differences between her and Mimi.

Originality/plot: I can't speak about if this is original or not, as I haven't read any mangas before this - however I did enjoy the plot and found it interesting.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed this, I found it quite quick to read and I really liked having the graphics to understand what was going on. I'll always love a sapphic book, the representation is needed. There were parts I was slightly confused about, although I think that's just because of my lack of manga experience.

Graphics: I loved the graphics! Sometimes I find it difficult to imagine what a character would look like, so I found having those graphics really helped. It was a beautiful manga and I did really enjoy it.

I loved this! What a great introduction to characters, magic and future love story. Also what an ending. I can't wait to get the next volume.

I loved this! What a great introduction to characters, magic and future love story. Also what an ending. I can't wait to get the next volume.

This was beautiful, and I want more. A plot where students are trained up for a magical war doesn’t sound like it lends itself to the gentleness of these characters, but this authors done an amazing job

The artistic style was great, and the soft coming together of both characters was a fun read. Big plot twist (IMO) at the end, so now I can’t wait to read more and to see how the characters evolve.

4 stars because at points the speech felt slightly lacking, but the graphics carried it through.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. The above is a true and honest review.

First I want to say that I wasn’t expecting this to be a futuristic dystopian story! The cover made me believe it would be a cute little romance so that caught me off guard but that in now way impacted how I enjoyed that story. I still enjoyed the plot and I think it’s a cool concept! HOWEVER what definitely threw me off and put me off continuing the series were that the characters are 10 killing in a war AND they use kissing healing magic. That’s a big no for me and that’ll be the reason I do not continue this series.

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this - it was an easyish, fun read. I don’t often read graphic novels, so when I saw this one I was like !!!! Thank you for the chance to read this.

If you are missing Promise Neverland read this.
Is the yuri version but with baby soldier instead of baby dishes.
Can't wait for volume 2

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Welp, this one is on me for not reading enough about the book before requesting it on Netgalley. Unfortunately it falls into the shitty manga/anime thing of sexualizing underage girls, so that's a no from me.

This one is definitely intriguing, and much darker than this cover leads you to believe. We are dealing with grief over the death of a loved one, new love, paranormal creatures, and a very dark and political world. Will their young love survive? Who knows! Either way, I think I will continue this series for sure.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this story! I am looking forward to reading more from Nachi Aono, especially this series! I've always loved dark academia and that's exactly what this is. Take a chance and check it out.

At first glance, this manga presents an intriguing premise—magical girls trained for war, blending the contrast of school life with the horrors of combat. The story introduces compelling character dynamics, particularly between Sheena, a reluctant fighter with little interest in magic, and Mimi, a seemingly cheerful but deadly prodigy with secrets lurking beneath her smile. Their evolving relationship, alongside well-written side characters like Seiran and Ari, adds emotional depth to the narrative.

However, while the character drama is engaging, the series makes several troubling choices that overshadow its strengths. The biggest issue lies in its use of a "mana-sharing" mechanic, which manifests through kissing—an element that feels more like an excuse for forced intimacy than a meaningful plot device. This is particularly problematic given Mimi’s apparent age (ten), making certain interactions uncomfortable at best. Additionally, the inclusion of a school nurse, possibly a transgender or gender-nonconforming character, who also engages in this practice, plays into harmful stereotypes, further complicating the narrative’s ethical implications.

Beyond these concerns, the manga also features non-consensual kisses between young characters, an aspect that is neither critically examined nor treated as problematic within the story. Combined with its darker themes of war, grief, and loss, the series had potential for a compelling exploration of trauma and survival but instead falls into problematic territory.

The art is appealing, and the pacing keeps the reader engaged, but these positives don’t outweigh the troubling aspects of its execution. While some may find the premise and character dynamics worth following, the heavy-handed use of questionable tropes makes this a difficult recommendation. Proceed with caution.

"I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day" by Nachi Aono is a yuri manga that delves into the lives of girls in an orphanage that serves as a boot camp, training them as magical child soldiers for a brutal war. Amidst the pervasive violence, the story explores themes of love and resilience.

The narrative centers on Sheena Totsuki, a 14-year-old who grapples with the loss of her roommate. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Mimi Kagari, a mysterious girl who, despite being drenched in blood, exudes a cheerful demeanor. Mimi, rumored to be an immortal secret weapon, becomes Sheena's new roommate, and their bond deepens as they navigate the harrowing realities of their environment.

In summary, "I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day" offers a visually captivating and emotionally charged narrative that explores love and survival in a war-torn setting. Potential readers should be aware of the mature themes and the ongoing debates surrounding its content.