With You, Our Love Will Make It Through Volume 1
Writer and Artist: Chihiro Yuzuki
Publisher: Yen Press (print & digital)
Translation: Alethea & Athena Nibley
Lettering: Greg Deng
Publication Date: Dec 10, 2024
Rating: Teen
Genre: Manga (JPN), Romance, Drama, Slice-of-Life
With You, Our Love Will Make It Through from Chihiro Yuzuki is one of the brand new romance manga released by Yen Press in December. If the story’s setting feels familiar to you as well, it’s because the prequel to the series, Hana and the Beast Man, is already available in English! With You, Our Love Will Make It Through is currently ongoing in Japan with 7 volumes, but readers who are anticipating the next volume in English will have to wait until April.
Contrasting the serene cherry blossoms and the beautiful weather in May, Mari is frantically running because she’s late for school. She decides to sneak in by jumping over the wall, and seeing another tardy student like her from afar, she reaches out a hand. She’s surprised that this boy is a beastfolk. It turns out he’s her new classmate. Tsunagu Hidaka just transferred as a student for a special program.
Beastfolk are a result of experimentation, and they live in a section surrounded by a wall. Their population is surveilled by the government and Hidaka has had to go through a thorough screening before he’s allowed to join this program. Although the beastfolk sometimes cross the wall into the human side, it’s still rare for humans to interact with them because of the heavy prejudice against their race. Mari’s first time being close to a beastman like Hidaka is a brand new experience for her, of course. But as she continues questioning the nature of her feelings, she eventually finds a thumping heart and feverish, flushing cheeks underneath.
Artistically, With You, Our Love Will Make It Through doesn’t tread the untraveled path, but the pages are certainly pleasing to the eye. Mari’s detailed, flowy hair and emotive doe eyes look gorgeous. Her character design is adorable and that cuteness isn’t at the cost of her expressions. The same goes for Hidaka as well. Being a canine beastfolk, his ears, tail and eyes beautifully convey his feelings. Although the volume doesn’t lack scenery or interior backgrounds, the focus of the panels is mostly on faces, the moments where main characters touch, and conveying emotions.
There are a lot of themes, points, and character details in With You, Our Love Will Make It Through that are interesting, but can make or break this series depending on how they are handled.
The first point in With You, Our Love Will Make It Through to consider is segregation. Beastfolk aren’t included in the total population count and are secluded in a part of Saitama by a wall. They don’t have hospitals or doctors, and can only cross over to the human side for major illnesses. Humans are mostly either afraid or downright hateful to the beastfolk, and Hidaka experiences his fair share of bullying or students refusing to refer to him by his name.
He is a driven and smart beastman who refuses to engage with the bullies, however, this attitude comes from him being afraid to be labeled as a “dangerous animal”. He doesn’t allow himself to get mad and is dead set on blending in as a normal person to the best of his abilities. He luckily has Mari and another classmate called Aida who get angry on his behalf and openly correct the insensitive and discriminatory things others say. Though, throughout the volume, except for Mari and Aida, he has to “earn” others’ kindness and basic decency. Also, one of the major reasons why he was picked for this program is that he doesn’t go into heat like the usual beastfolk, so he’s considered “harmless”.
Meanwhile, Mari is immediately interested in this new boy on the block and faces how ignorant she’s been about their race, lives and living conditions. I appreciated that her interest in Hidaka isn’t communicated solely through his otherness. While they are different, Mari, together with Aida, is trying to find out and understand Hidaka better, but the tone isn’t as if Hidaka is an alien, and the two are dissecting this strange life form. She is an adorable young woman who is true to her feelings and even though she’s usually timid, she can take action when the situation calls for it.
Another strong point of this series is its approach to teenage sexuality. I’m glad that this volume doesn’t shy away from desire. The awkwardness, fear and thrill that accompanies the burning feeling. The rating of this work is Teen so there won’t be any explicit scenes, but you can surely expect physical intimacy, lots of panting and intense blushes!
Since this is only the first volume, it’s not possible to firmly come to a final verdict about how beastfolk as a racial minority, Hidaka being deemed “safe” by the government, and the discrimination he faces day-to-day, along with Mari and Aida’s handling of the otherness of their friend will play out throughout With You, Our Love Will Make It Through. Whether it’ll only serve to spice up the story or be a substantial part of the budding romance between Mari and Hidaka and the overall story is something we’ll have to read and see.
I am interested in further exploring how Chihiro Yuzuki will handle the themes they introduced in this volume and eagerly look forward to reading the continuation! The print version of the first volume doesn’t have any color pages but it’s impossible not to fall in love with the soft pastel colors on the cover. I found the small paw print, fluffy tail and the beautiful font used for the title on the cover to be really cute. Considering the title’s length, it must have been a challenge to fit it without covering Mari and Hidaka but it turned out great!
I’d recommend With You, Our Love Will Make It Through to readers who are especially interested in anthropomorphic characters as an analogy to racial difference, who enjoyed reading Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, or who are ready to embark on a sweet adolescent romance with a dash of spice! The second volume will be out on April 22, so there’s plenty of time to get acquainted with Mari, Hidaka, Aida and the world they live in!
With You, Our Love Will Make It Through is available digitally and in print since December 10th, 2024, out from Yen Press.