I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day ‒ Episode 11
What is the show trying to say at this point? If I reach the emotional climax of this season and my final takeaway is “war sucks, and there's not much you can do about it,” then it's hard for me to feel like this show wasn't wasting my time. There are a few nuances with telling a story about hopeless situations that characters can do nothing about. However, the dynamics between the characters and the different perspectives on that hopeless situation stop a story like this from feeling bland or monotonous. While Dying Day has moments that struck an emotional cord with me, it's episodes like this that really make me worry about how little the show ultimately has to say.
The episode starts well enough with an interesting inversion of Mimi and Sheena's dynamic. I like that the episode drops that romantic tension I picked up in the last episode and instead focuses more on who exactly is protecting whom. Mimi is beginning to hyper-focus on Sheena being so weak, worrying about the day when Sheena is potentially moved out onto the front lines because she knows that Sheena would barely last a minute. What better way to stop that than by literally and figuratively taking on the brunt of the war herself. Not only is Mimi fighting more, but she is taking a lot more damage as a result. Even if Mimi is an immortal with seemingly limitless magical power, there do seem to be lingering effects. While the show doesn't dwell on it too much, I imagine Mimi still feels pain.
Mimi's goal is ultimately fruitless because it doesn't solve the root problem of how this war seems to be never-ending; she'll shoulder as much of it as she can so that as few people die as possible. But I'm not sure what Sheena's ultimate goal is. She's developing her healing magic and is helping out in the nurses' office, but is the idea that she wants to be a medic on the front lines to heal people so that there's a higher possibility for them to make it home OK? Does she just want to be able to patch Mimi up better? The show has given Sheena a potential means of being more useful in this war, but the show isn't doing such a good job of tying those new skills she's developing to her previous concerns about this war ruining everybody's lives. Sheena made the declaration that she was going to do her best five episodes ago, but I still don't know exactly what that looks like, and if the idea is that she doesn't know. That makes the climax of this episode all the more frustrating.
Both characters are taking it upon themselves to do what they think is best for the other. While their viewpoint is understandable, as it showcases how much the two care about each other, it means the two are also looking down on each other. Mimi can't stop seeing Sheena for how weak she is, and Sheena can't stop looking at Mimi for how naïve she is. The problem is that the show did too good a job of getting me on Mimi's side. Mimi is right when she says that all she can do is take on more battles to save as many lives as possible, and all Sheena can do is wait for her to come back home. That's all Sheena has ever done throughout this entire show, to the point where it's getting borderline exhausting to have characters beat me over the head with how weak Sheena is. All Sheena can really respond with is that Mimi lied to her and that it's not right that Mimi feels the need to do all of this, but Sheena doesn't have an alternate solution, which is the problem when the nurse says that she just needs to convince Mimi. Convince Mimi of what? She is weak, and she doesn't know how to stop this war, so while Mimi's answer isn't a solution, it's definitely better than nothing.
I know that there is a tragedy in Mimi's mindset. The idea is that Mimi shouldn't need to think like this or feel the need to bear the weight of all of this on her shoulders, which is tearing up Sheena. Sheena knows she can't fix the larger problem of what this mysterious war is, but maybe she can at least make life a bit easier for Mimi. But the problem is, that's exactly what Sheena is doing already! Sheena is giving Mimi something to fight for, and Sheena has helped Mimi appreciate the value of a life, which is what Sheena wanted to do when she first met Mimi at the beginning of the show. Weirdly, Sheena is getting frustrated with a mentality that she helped foster in Mimi. I like Sheena as a character well enough, but this episode does such a bad job of getting me on her side or getting me to really feel that much sympathy for her. It's almost like the show accidentally put me in the same mindset as Sheena's old roommate at the beginning of the show, where she told Sheena how weak she is and that she shouldn't need to think about anything because Sheena isn't helping the situation.
Maybe that was the show's intent? It's hard to say because this is also clearly set up for the final emotional confrontation. But this is the most worried I have been after finishing an episode of the series because this is such a poor foundation to leave things on. It doesn't feel gripping, the conflict feels forced, and I'm not sure which of these elements will matter in the end. Maybe I will be convinced next week, but a lot of this show's quality feels like it hinges on how convincing Sheena is going to be.
Rating:
Bolts also streams regularly on Twitch as the indie VtuberBolts The Mechanic where they talk about and play retro media!I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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