Mimi is such a little cutie, she's adorable but don't underestimate her, she's quite powerful. This story has potential but I'm not 100% sure what's going on. The premise seems to be a school for orphans where they teach them magic to fight against monsters in some war and a lot of kissing since it's healing magic. Need to read more to truly understand the story but it's cute.

Yeah this is going to be a no for me. I have many many issues with this book. I think that the premise is promising but all of the execution is deeply problematic.

Essentially you have this magic school that it's an orphanage that trains these kids to go off to war and fight. Sounds cool but the sexualization of them is off the freaking charts and super super icky.

First off these characters are 10 years old. 10. There are scenes of them kissing, experiencing attraction, and nude. What the actual fuck.

Then we have the nurse who I don't know if she is trans, a crossdresser, or a scantily clad pedophile but any of those things in the depiction they are used in are deeply problematic within this book. There is a scene where the nurse is misgendered and someone uses he him for the nurse and everywhere else in this book it's she her. But she is depicted with large breasts, a very skimpy black dress on and a button-down shirt hanging off her shoulders. Then we get into the fact that there's some sort of healing magic that is dealt with by kissing. So you have this horrifically problematic portrayal of a maybe trans person who actively kisses minors. Why was this approved.

Will absolutely not be reading more and 100% do not recommend.

The cover was really nice, warm and caught my eye immediately, but sadly that was all it was. To my shock, the story is about an odd magic school where students are taught for some kind of war. There is a 10-year-old girl who’s apparently the school's legend and one of the strongest, but for some reason has an oddly strange attraction to her new roommate. In their world, kissing is the only way to treat wounded patients, thus the 10-year-old and the school's extremely hot nurse kiss almost everyone. I try to be as objective as possible, but it's too weird. The story is hard to follow and even harder to understand. Sadly, the first one-star of this year.

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0 STARS

Im excited to see where this story will go.

For a first volume, there was just enough of everything to keep me interested. I especially loved the internal monologue of the MC Sheena after the lose of her roommate and watching everything go on around her as if nothing happened.

Thank you to Nachi Aono, Konansha Comics and NetGalley for an ARC of 'I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day 1'.

Walk into the world of an orphanage with sinister intentions.

In this world, there is a boarding school that trains children to be weapons. Drivers of war—ruthless assassins—specialized in magic. Shiina’s roommate just fell at the hands of the enemy; all she has left is her memory and the plush toy she kept in her room. To add insult to injury, there are rumors in school of a new student. And this new student is to be her new roommate—Mimi, the jewel of the school.

Overall thoughts:

I had no idea what to expect from this manga when I picked it up because the cover looked cute. I wasn’t expecting this intense story with rich worldbuilding! I’m invested in the story and very curious to see where things go. What happened to bring forth this war that requires children to fight it? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

This is a story about finding friends and comfort even in the unlikeliest of places. Because at the end of the day, all you have are each other.

Who is this manga for?

This manga is for fans of action stories rooted in a more slice-of-life approach. Even if you don’t enjoy younger protagonists, the story is told in a way where you can’t notice it. This is a heavy one, but it has plenty of earnest moments. I’d recommend it to yuri fans looking for angst, but wholesome, and action-packed.

See you in the next one!

TRAGIC YURI?????? this was cute! I love plots like this! and the art is so nice! The managka wrote THEO too which I also enjoyed. I'm looking forward to the English publication of this yuri.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha for the eARC!

It was an underdeveloped though intriguing first volume of a series that I might read a second just to see where it's going to be steered.

There's a magical school that creates girl warriors for the war and Sheena is a bit of an anti-war activist who already lost one roommate. Cut to the middle of the night and a mysterious girl who turns out to me an immortal weapon of war, Mimi appears covered in blood and then becomes Sheena's new roommate.

The creepy side of manga edges in: there's a nurse at the school that is odd both for her oversexualized actions and what's so important about her to the school/story. Second, the queerness of Mimi is apparent from the start and the magic is helped for healing through kissing. In some contexts that might be just fine but coupled with the odd nurse it felt more wrong than my misjudging the situation. Maybe I am?

What I did enjoy was that idea of a school for girls in war training and the loss of girls who don't come back. The grieving process was intriguing to me and I would have liked to explore that a little more than where it seems to be going.

This dystopian yuri manga follows Mimi and Sheena in an orphanage that serves as a training ground for child soldiers, where children are turned into deadly weapons for a brutal war. The gorgeous cover immediately caught my eye, and the premise sounded like something I would absolutely love—an intense, high-stakes story about survival and war? Count me in. But unfortunately, I had some major issues with this book.

What Didn’t Sit Well With Me:

1. The age of the characters. The story features a relationship between a 10-year-old and an older preteen/teen (exact age unspecified). Even though Mimi is technically an immortal weapon, she is portrayed, drawn, and acts like a 10-year-old, which made this aspect extremely uncomfortable.

2. The magic system (mana shared via kissing). In theory, this could have been an interesting concept, but considering the age of the characters, it felt deeply inappropriate. The fact that the school nurse also kisses children to heal them only made it worse—especially when kissing is also depicted as a romantic act elsewhere in the story.

3. Sexualization of young girls. There are scenes featuring nudity of underage female characters, which is completely unacceptable.

While the storyline has potential, the execution—particularly the portrayal of underage characters in romantic and inappropriate contexts—made this an uncomfortable read. The dystopian setting and premise could have been compelling, but the way certain themes were handled overshadowed any positives. Unless the characters are aged up to full-grown adults, I cannot recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure if I misunderstood this, but are we to be reading about a developing relationship between a literal 10 year old child and a 16 year old? I understand there is some subtext that this is not an actual child, but just inhabiting the body of one. But we still see this character act like a child, dress like a child…. And actively pursue a romantic relationship with an older teen? Giving it 2 stars because something could have been lost in translation, and the art is cool. But I don’t think I enjoyed this despite a really, really cool premise, I just couldn’t get over the Lolita of it all

I am questioning why the characters had to be children. Had they been older, maybe this would have been okay. However, I can say that the themes in this manga just made me uncomfortable regarding specifically the characters ages.

Death lurks behind a mysterious orphanage where children train to become magical weapons of war. Among them is Sheena, who longs to stop the fighting and end the conflict. On one gruesome night, Sheena meets a strange girl covered in blood, with a smile on her face.

The girl is a great warrior but reckless on the battlefield and nieve in life. For all she's seen and done there are so many things she doesn't know. She seems unfamiliar with how the orphanage works or how they are tested. Her background is mysterious to Sheens and to the reader.

I enjoy Yuri manga very much and this is no exception. The budding relationship is both sweet and a little innocent. The art work is cute but I find most manga is drawn that way.
I'm looking forward to the next installment to see how Sheena and Mimi's relationship grows.

Highly recommended Published 2/18/2025

Thanks to @netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Immediately no. When the description said that love will blossom I was under the impression it would be as they got older! But to my surprise this graphic novel has little girls kissing each other as a healing mechanism and I am appalled. This is an instant dnf @ 49% for me because it’s absolutely sick sorry.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this story, and it was great introduction to characters.
Thank you to Kodansha Comics and NetGalley for providing the opportunity to read and review e-ARC.

I enjoyed the art style and concept of the story. I do think aging up the characters could positively benefit the story. If their ages had not been defined I would have assumed that they were older.

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.