Given

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It was definitely the right decision to finish the manga after the anime. But it was necessary to finish the anime and the three movies at the same time, because I realized that I was getting lost in the subject until I waited for the other movies. Anyway, there is such a difference between reading Given as a manga and watching it as an anime.. Even if I didn't read the manga, I would definitely watch the anime and the movies. (suggestion)

Reading given actually made me enjoy the art style more. The character and environment drawings were quite beautiful, Akihiko's drawings were the best!! (I ... read it over and over again). In fact, the anime was no different than a movie for me, the animations were so impressive that I could understand the character's feelings with split-second facial expressions that we might not notice. But I also felt the characters' feelings better in the manga, the feelings touched my heart more with the black and white drawings.
And I can definitely say that reading Given only as a manga is a very painful experience. I read it after watching the anime, during the concert scenes in the manga, I felt like a deaf person who could never listen to the songs where people were crying, laughing, and filling their feelings.(really) My ears were buzzing during the music scenes, I kept saying, "I want to hear it, I want to listen!" I am very grateful for the anime and the songs..

I want to touch on the homosexual relationships, which are the main event of this series according to 'some people'. While reading the manga, we witnessed eight men's different love languages, the three main couples had relationships that were complicated at first but deserved a happy ending. But after finishing it, I realized only one thing, I didn't care at all. Reading the love of two men, reading their past wounds was no different than reading a "heterosexual love". I will never understand why people make such a big deal about this.I don't have much to do with bl content but I thought about this: What kind of difference is there between my love for a man and Mafuyu's love for Yuki or Uenoyama? (Any example) maybe his is much stronger. So if you're going to look at this manga with a very simple logic like it has bl content, don't read it at all, this manga is more than these simple thoughts.It tells about past experiences, pain, human relationships, being able to listen and understand the other person and feel their emotions.

Mafuyu and Uenoyama, although Mafuyu's attachment or longing for Yuki in some scenes sometimes made me uneasy (because I felt sorry for Ue), I can't understand it because I've never been in such a situation, so my judgment could be unreasonable. (I thought about how terrible it is to lose the only person you have in your life, especially when your last moments are so painful and full of regret..) But I saw, Mafuyu slowly came out of his shell, I even thought if Ue had never helped him, would Mafuyu have experienced a similar terrible scenario? And they are young people, how much experience do they have in life? That's why I think we shouldn't judge them too much or spew hatred. Mafuyu will never forget Yuki, as Yuki said, he will remain an unclosable hole in his heart but as long as a person lives, they can embark on new loves with that hole. Ue will slowly heal him, their love for each other will increase. It's actually quite nice that Ue respects his past, yes, he could sometimes have distorted thoughts because at first it seemed like Mafuyu's wound would never heal, maybe Uenoyama was afraid of not being able to heal his wound on his own. But time is the cure for everything...

Akihiko and Haruki, the best thing to understand them is to watch the first movie. Their relationship is too complicated in my opinion, I don't understand.(because Ugetsu) But their relationship became so healthy. Yes, Akihiko hurt Haruki, he said words that even hurt my heart but in the end, realizing his mistakes and changing for the man he loved, trying was valuable, it was proof of his love...

Hiiragi and Shizusumi, I didn't have much of an opinion towards this couple. Some of Shizusumi's scenes made me laugh for a long time, while Hiiragi's energy was great.. he in the scene really shone. This couple is completely connected their all life, there is no other explanation.

And all the other characters, especially Yuki and Ugetsu, all had valuable stories in themselves. I am happy to have witnessed all of them. Although most of the time the characters' thoughts and the dead ends they get into seem like a huge mess to me (because I have never had such feelings or experience) their stories still warmed my heart..

An ambitious story that leaves you wanting more

I read given trying to feel a little bit of what i felt for the first time, when i was 14 and i watched the new BL anime of the season, but i couldnt find anything.

Given is one of my favorite anime of all time. I can tell that the mangaka wanted to go beyond a story that revolved around love as the only motivation, she wanted to create a more ambitious project, and i honestly believe she did, and i hope
this set a milestone for others BL. Given is amazing, the story has ... the ability of making you feel brutally connected with each one of the characters, i could feel in each moment what Mayufu and Uenoyama were feeling, my heart would move according what was going on, that particular connetion is what i felt as a 14-year-old teenager watching the anime for the first time and what i felt last week when i re-watched, reasonably is what i expected to feel reading the manga, and even tho my heart was moving as i was reading, my brain wasnt satisfied with the story.

As i said, i liked the ambitous side of the story, but its the same reason why i ended up not liking it. Long story short, very few chapters for too many things going on. On and off, I forgot whose story I was reading. I needed to know more about Mafuyu and Ritsuka, i need to know more about Yuki, i need to know more about them and their musical journey. but they constantly abandoned the story to tell someone else's. It starts with a bang, but fizzles out before you even get a chance to fully grasp it.

I liked it anyway, I won't lie, but I was left wanting more. The anime is better, the anime is thrilling and and I dare say only the first season.

Many works seem to believe that just mentioning suicide automatically makes the script better. It does not. Especially when it’s not really elaborated upon, just thrown in the mix for some free drama. Unfortunately, some readers will fall for this bait, and proclaim the story deep and dramatic and whatever.

So, what is Given actually about? The thing is, I struggle to summarize it. Not because it’s complex, but because what I consider its biggest flaw – it doesn’t have a point. With most of fiction, you can usually grasp what the author is going for. Sometimes it’s to explore deeps though. Sometimes the main point ... is just see some cool mecha action or cute girls doing cute things, and that is okay too (when it actually delivers the premise, of course). Given simply feels lacklustre. Now of course, you could make a counterpoint that the point of Given is just to be a BL. You could even paraphrase my previous point and say it’s supposed to be “cute boys doing cute things”. But as lot of yaoi, it can’t help but attempt to seem like it’s more than that.

The central theme is of course boys being gay. But there is also the storyline about them being in band, which isn’t exactly engaging, and is easily topped by works actually focusing on the band aspect, like Beck or Sakamichi no Apollon. There’s the aforementioned suicide, but as mentioned that theme is exploited rather than explored. There is, I guess, some attempt of high school romance drama. Instead of doing good at one point, it attempts many and success at none of these. At least in my experience, this makes Given a confusing read, because I feel like the “goal” is constantly changing with focus all over the place. And not in a good way like some more experimental works, but in a way of unexperienced writer. And of course, it falls in the usual BL trope of “Well wouldn’t you know, pretty much every male character is gay or bi, what are the chances, huh”. I would have liked to say the relationships are realistic and feel natural, but you know how it is. Similar to shippers, the writing of Given just needs two supposedly likeable characters to be around each other to make them into pairing.

The story goes from a start about music to some smutty relationship content – which only dons the appearance of being there for the story, but it’s really just the usual “uwu boys together”, even with the attempts at making it “deep” as mentioned above. It then circles back to the music towards the end, as if remembering that it was supposed to be about music. Some sort of idea of pitting the music and the relationships against each other was appearing, but I wouldn’t consider it well executed. I was going to say the ending was alright, or at least not bad – despite my enjoyment negatively impacted by the fact that the work couldn’t make me care about any of the characters (more about that further down), and that it felt all ultimately meaningless. But the very final page really killed the vibe, what a distasteful and tone-deaf way to end it, huh.

Going back to shipping, I’ve read that Given started as Haikyuu doujinshi. While I haven’t been able to confirm this, it would make sense – a fanfiction doesn’t need to create personalities, it takes them from the original work. But turn the fanfiction into an original work itself and now you can’t just reuse the personalities, for obvious reason. So you’re left with a bunch of characters of little personalities, personalities that readers imagination used to fill with the personalities of the original characters they are based one. It would certainly check out.

The characters are… uninteresting. I can’t actually remember a name of single cast member and I've literally just finished reading the manga. Design-wise Haruki is the only one that stands out, and even that is mostly thanks to his hairstyles. Rest is just Generic Bishounen A, Generic Bishounen B etc. Yes, I still did have to look up his name.

The art is easy the best part of Given. It shines with double page spreads and I especially loved the colored drawings at the start of each volume. Unfortunately, “best part” doesn’t necessarily mean the whole manga is great. In this case, it just means that it’s the only aspect I would call good.

Ultimately, this is definitely among the better BL manga. But as a manga in general, it’s at best slightly over average. So as usual, if you're a fujoshi you'll likely have a grand time, but readers of regular manga will likely be disappointed.