With You, Our Love Will Make it Through – Episode 1

What’s it about? When Mari, a high school girl, bumps into a fellow tardy student, she’s shocked to see he’s a Beastfolk. While not rare, it’s uncommon to see them in daily life due to strict human prejudice against them; but soon, Mari finds herself drawn to him in mind, soul, and body…

Episode 1 begins with Mari running through the streets to school. On her way, she encounters Beastfolk, humanoid animal people who, while not rare, are also separate in this version of society. Born from experiments, all beastfolk reside in Saitama Prefecture, walled in from the rest of human-born humanity. We can travel into their homes, but they need special passes to enter ours, revealing the tip of the prejudiced iceberg in a society where human supremacy exists and skepticism about their created fellow humanoids persist.

But when Mari and transfer student Tsunagu‘s worlds collide, Mari doesn’t feel afraid: instead, she feels titillated, her curiosity rising to the surface as their relationship. Thankfully, they find themselves in the same class, and—GASP!—seated next to each other.

What follows is the start of an examination of an interspecies relationship: for now, an acquaintanceship though this premiere, and Mari’s growing interest in her deskmate, hints at so much more…

Yo, I’m gonna be real, I’m ten toes down for the horny beastfolk anime. I think this is what I’ve always wanted from a romance anime. This is soooooooo up my alley as someone invested in examining humanity from all angles, but it’s also not without criticism of the world With You, Our Love Will Make It Through exists in, despite the very upbeat opening and bright colors.

It’s immediately clear that this is a world where the prejudice of beastfolk exists alongside our human prejudices, and while I’m not sure if the beastfolk will be a racial stand-in akin to how I perceive, say, Legoshi in Beastars being coded as Black; what is immediately clear is that despite having a Japanese name, Tsunagu is closer to the burakumin in terms of social standing. Even then, his steel blue fur and animal traits still place him outside of Human humanity, rendering him an outcast that even Mari’s mother worries about despite Mari’s minimal reservations.

And in fact, one thing of interest is seeing this world outside of Mari’s perspective. Her classmates are filled with prejudice: they take their breaks at Tsunagu’s classroom, snapping pictures of him like he’s a wolf in the zoo. Students openly compare him to a dog, indicating a feelings of supremacy at being sapient and not solely sentient despite Tsunagu never having seen one and being capable of attending high school at the same level as his human students. When he does encounter a dog, it’s a sweet scene, demonstrating that he’s Mari’s classmate more than he ever could be a dog. It peels back the layers of prejudice, though it doesn’t erase students calling Tsunagu a monster or other animal-adjacent slurs.

It’s my sincerest hope that this anime becomes two things: an in-depth look at Mari and Tsunagu as friends, people, and eventual romantic interests and pure shoujo longing. It has all the trappings of everything with a layer of teenage horniness that makes With You, Our Love Will Make It Through so goddamn engaging alongside its examination of Tsunagu as a simple teenage boy. I certainly hope that as we get to see Tsunagu grow and, for the time, endure being in a human school, this examination of Mari and her fellow human’s prejudice continues to smartly breakdown a society where Tsunagu’s only sin was being born as he is.

Consider me locked in for this all season: I’m so into this premise, enough that I’m begging Yen Press or just someone to send me the manga so I can devour it over and over again. It’s gonna be hard waiting for next Tuesday, but readers, someone on the team’s gotta do it, and it’ll joyfully be me! Make sure this shoujo drama romance is on your list: you don’t want to miss out!