First Impression: With You, Our Love Will Make It Through

Mari Asaka is your typical high school girl engaging in that timeless high school girl pastime: being late to school. The only thing missing is the toast in her mouth. Of course baby girl is late on this special day. As it turns out, a new transfer student is enrolling in her class. Exposition-Sensei explains that the beastfolk, a rare experimental species of about three thousand creatures living outside the city walls, will have some of their students attend the human school. And, what a coinkydink! Mari happens to run into one of these transfer students just outside the school gates: Tsunagu, a tall blue canine. Tsunagu is a quiet guy who goes out of his way not to stand out, avoids conflict, and focuses on his studies so that he can eventually become a doctor for his kind. Naturally, though, our boy draws unwanted attention from stereotypical high school bullies, who, after a dominant showing on the basketball court, lock him and Mari in the PE Closet. However, their forced closeness triggers a primal instinct in Tsunagu, causing him to pounce on her and lick her neck. Not the best way to get to know your classmates. Cue the Shenanigans!

Studio Millepensee? I’m gonna need you to step to the front, please. We need to talk. You know that awesome Winter 2025 show you put out, Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl? Yeah, why couldn’t you have done more of that? Why did you have to give us…this mess?! Who asked for this?! …You know what? Don’t answer that. I think I know who asked for this.

In any case, we already had Beastars, and that was so much better than this foolishness. Putting aside the whole beast thing, this is yet another story that tries to offer up a commentary on love finding a way despite cultural or societal norms. Heck, replace the animals with humans, and you have a watered-down version of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. This premiere episode feels like the start to somebody’s middle school fanfic…and in hindsight, that’s an insult to middle school fanfiction writers, as they probably would’ve done a better job than this. Our male lead Tsunagu is…well… he’s there for eyecandy. He’s the lone wolf with a dark side but a heart of gold that makes female leads get the doki-dokis. And as for our female lead? I would literally rather watch wet cardboard with a picture of Sakura Haruno painted on it. Mari is just yet another dewey-eyed dope who falls for the lone wolf character. There is NOTHING special about this dingbat. If we’re continuing with the Beastars comparisons, Mari wishes she were 1/1000th as interesting as Haru. She’s just there to be the love interest and not a character in her own right. I know we’re only one episode in, but there still should be at least a little something interesting there.

And let’s address the elephant in the room. That locker room closet scene when Tsunagu pounces on our hapless female lead, sniffs her, and then LICKS her neck…all against her will, mind you. Umm…if you’re trying to convince us that this guy is someone who we’re supposed to be cheering for in the hopes that the relationship works out, it’s probably not a good idea to have him force himself on our female lead! Just a thought! And what was the point of that scene in the first place?! We’ve already spent most of the episode hyping up this guy to be a quiet, yet good guy at heart, and now all that goodwill is shattered in a frankly disturbing moment that seems to be as pointless as heck! Let’s be real, this feels like a riff of the last few minutes of Beastars‘ premiere episode when Legoshi pounces on Haru, except instead of being a genuinely scary moment where we worry if Legoshi is going to devour Kari—sorry—Haru, we get this REALLY uncomfortable moment that comes off as…well…you can probably fill in the blanks there. Yes, the last shot shows him with his mouth agape, looking like he’s about to attack, but the scene immediately before that suggests something even more sinister is going on. And THIS is how you wanna kick off your new series? Really?

I will give this show one thing, though. The animation is top-tier. As I mentioned earlier, this was done by the same studio that did Okitsura, which was a feast for the eyes. This one looks just as great. Especially with regards to the OP, with the song “Kusuguttai” performed by CHICO with HoneyWorks. However, once again, this show can’t get out of its own way. To wit: DID WE NEED THE LINGERING SHOT OF HIDAKA’S RIPPED ABS?! DID WE NEED TO SEE HIM IN THE SHOWER!? I mean, come on! I get that this show is trying to appeal to…well…people who enjoy furry folk, and no shade. I don’t hate, I respect and appreciate. But this is taking it to an extreme that’s just beyond silly. How do those abs even WORK with fur?! How do you have such defined abs AND fur at the same time?! Also, why is he BLUE when everyone around him (more or less) has normal color fur? And don’t get me started with those weirdly human fingers! I don’t…I can’t even…

So where does that leave us with With You, Our Love Will Make It Through? Nope. Uh-Uh. Absolutely not. NO WAY. I can’t recommend this foolishness. Even if you rip away the Beastfolk gimmick, this show is just your typical anime high school romcom that we’ve seen time and again…and done better. And this is coming from a guy who sat through and enjoyed an Omegaverse anime, so I’m more than open to any off-the-beaten-trail concepts. However, the fact that this anime proceeds in such a stereotypical manner and then takes such a disturbing hard right turn makes this a show that you should avoid. If you wanna get your furry fix, Beastars is literally sitting right there. Just watch that and let this sleeping dog of an anime lie. I know there might be fans of this show, and as always, I don’t judge if you are. But your Uncle Josh just wants you to know that you can do SO MUCH BETTER than this.

With You, Our Love Will Make It Through is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Josh
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