Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai

Yuuri Kariya is an airhead who falls head-over-heels in love with Ryuuhei Aono after their very first meeting. Yuuri's happiness knows no bounds when Aono surprisingly ends up agreeing to go out with her, and thus she starts to enjoy her perfect relationship with her perfect boyfriend. Alas, misfortune strikes when only two weeks into their relationship, Aono tragically dies in an accident. But is something as simple as death really enough to keep the two lovers apart?

Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai follows the daily lives of these sweethearts, telling a heartwarming love story of two souls going beyond life and death.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai has been digitally published in English as I Want to Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die by Kodansha Comics USA since October 24, 2017.

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Characters

Kariya, Yuuri

Main

Aono, Ryuuhei

Main

Horie, Mio

Supporting

Fujimoto, Masayoshi

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 27, 2025

bireaucracy

Recommended

Preliminary (69/? eps)

Wanted to wait til the manga was over to give it a final review but I think it deserves a recommendation now, because it is currently one of the best ongoing manga full stop.

Aono-kun starts as a mix between horror and romantic comedy, in a pretty lowkey way. From the beginning, I was really impressed at the mangaka's mastery of tonal shift--one moment it's a very funny story about awkward teenage sexuality, the other it is sending chills down your spine, the next it is warming your heart--and all of it feels natural and well balanced.

The reality is, "I want to hold Aono-kun so ... badly I could die" is a tragedy. It is phenomenally constructed. You get strongly attached to Yuri and Aono as characters, and then you grow to understand that what brought them together wasn't chance but long turning cycles of family abuse and violence. The hauntings in Aono-kun are horrific and terrifying, but they grow only more horrific as you realize that they're really the reflection of past and present cycles of abuse that are kept quiet and normalized by the entire community. So then you keep hoping Aono and Yuri will break the cycle somehow. That knowing what they do, loving each other as strongly and as naturally as they do (and can I say--they are such realistic and human depictions of genuine teenage love between two broken people), it will end up well. But you know it won't. It never could, really. After all, the premise of the manga itself posits that Aono is dead and Yuri is alive. This story was doomed from the start. It just was doomed for more reasons than mortality.

There are a few flaws in the story. The haunting mechanics being explained by powerpoint chapters are a bit of a snooze. The art is simplistic. But the art also does its job, and the author's use of paneling, expression work and shadows is exquisite. I still give it a ten because I genuinely believe this to be one of the best horror mangas ever made, if not one of the finest works of horror of the 21st century. It is horror not just because of the genuinely terrifying moments, but because of the emotions of despair and agony it invokes in you. Its tragedy is that much better because it isn't built on one horrible thing happening after another, but a slow building realization that this was never going to end any other way.

I want to recommend Aono-kun to absolutely everyone, and I also am very aware that it is not for the faint of heart despite the cute first few chapters. I think it needs to be experienced at least once, and preferably reread with the context of previous chapters. I cannot recommend this enough.

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Jun 21, 2023

dxdnelion

Recommended

Preliminary (49/? eps)

"𝙄𝙛 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙮 𝘼𝙤𝙣𝙤-𝙠𝙪𝙣'𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚, 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚"

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬: 𝐎𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝟒𝟗.𝟒 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫)

How long have you been waiting for a good horror romance manga? Me: A LONG LONG time. There's plenty of horror romance out there, but only few are able to be well balanced between the genres. This is one of them.

This manga is so SO GOOD, its a well done story blend with dark twisted, folklore/myth, disturbing stuff, angst, mystery, horror & romance. The story begins when Yuri falls in love with Aono the first boy who's ever nice to her. Unfortunately 2 weeks dating, Aono got into an accident ...

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Apr 16, 2023

_le_

Recommended

Preliminary (49/? eps)

This makes you feel like youre in an unfamilar room but youre not afraid,

youre completely in the dark but youre so giddy over the little scenes that youre fine.
its crazy and i was stuck in a daze for about 6 hours reading this.

everything is perfect, theres no misogyny either, its just immersive and extremely easy to dive into.

its basically all a unique spin on physiological manga with romance teasing, mis-communication is non exsistent, only when its physically impossible to not communicate.

end of review
...

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Poll: Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai Chapter 70 Discussion KM_31 - Mar 4	0 replies	by KM_31 »» Mar 4, 11:57 AM
Poll: Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai Chapter 69 Discussion KM_31 - Mar 3	0 replies	by KM_31 »» Mar 3, 1:45 PM
Poll: Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai Chapter 68 Discussion KM_31 - Feb 24	0 replies	by KM_31 »» Feb 24, 12:56 PM
Poll: Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai Chapter 67 Discussion KM_31 - Feb 10	0 replies	by KM_31 »» Feb 10, 8:14 PM
Poll: Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai Chapter 66 Discussion KM_31 - Jan 27	0 replies	by KM_31 »» Jan 27, 6:34 PM

Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai
I Want to Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die
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Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai
I Want to Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die
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