GIVEN
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
9
RELEASE
March 30, 2023
CHAPTERS
51
DESCRIPTION
Ritsuka Uenoyama is bored with it all—with school, with his basketball club, and even with his one true passion: playing guitar. That is, until the day he finds his favorite hidden napping spot occupied by a strange boy cradling a broken-stringed guitar. At first, Uenoyama is nonplussed by Mafuyu Sato and his slightly odd behavior, but when, on a whim, he asks Mafuyu to sing, the power of that song pierces him to the core.
(Source: SuBLime)
CAST
Mafuyu Satou
Ritsuka Uenoyama
Haruki Nakayama
Akihiko Kaji
Ugetsu Murata
Yuki Yoshida
Hiiragi Kashima
Shizusumi Yagi
Koji Yatake
Itaya Shougo
Yayoi Uenoyama
Ryou Ueki
Ayano Kasai
Waka Kurihara
CHAPTERS
RELATED TO GIVEN
REVIEWS
Idontwantto
53/100Pretty okay, but that's it and nothing else. Given and its problems. Nah, not a masterpieceContinue on AniListI am ready to receive all the slops for this review. I like Given, but to say it is a masterpiece of realistic BL, I don't think so. These are BL standards and the level is so low and weak that compared to others, Given looks like a masterpiece. But let's start from the beginning.
The main couple is fine. Uenoyama is quite okay as a character. I like him, but his boyfriend ... he's such a dull, shallow, and boring character that he's like your typical shounen main character.
I will come back to my beloved Akihiko and Haruka after that.
In typical yaoi, the author also makes such love chemistry that everyone screams that they are a couple and kiss 24/7. In the case of Given, it is somewhat shallow in the sense that it is well between the main couple but they lack some of that love chemistry. But it's good.
The plot cannot be called PWP. We have some common ideas for a music group here. The initial chapters are quite boring, but then the action takes place in a more interesting way. Some chapters are a bit boring, but not bad, it's fun to read. Sometimes there is too much drama, as befits BL.I don't like the design of the characters because they look quite the same. The only character that stands out from the rest is Akihiko. Others look the same; even the hairstyles are similar, let alone the faces. What I don't like.
For characters, I can give 5, max. 6 out of 10. They are not hysterical, with the emotional development of an elementary school student, and behaving as if they grew somewhere away from people and society in some amoral world like the characters Junjou Romantica or Sekaiichi H. But some really lack that personality and depth. Especially Mafuyu. But it is OK.
And now the problem starts because we have Haruka X Akihiko's reports here. And with this relationship, the series shoots itself in the leg, because it has done what can be called a "classic" BL relationship. And I can already see these screams about how Given is different. But criticism of authorities is also important because remember one simple thing. If something is considered good, or even the best in the eyes of the public, it does not mean that its problematic aspects cannot be questioned or criticized. Yes, we're talking about a sexual assault, a scene that looks a thousand times creepy and rapey in the manga. Hell no. No rape devices, please. And they say it is not romanticized in one of the meanings of the term, yes, but it is not, but it may be about normalization. The term romanticization refers to the fact that something is presented as, for example, normal or even romantic while being bad. The thing yaoi manga writers love even more than I do is the bad boy-good boy thread. In the case of Given, part of the talk may be about normalization. Why? Because Akihiko and Haruki end up together after that. So the series says it's okay to meet the person who attacked you. And this matter is swept under the rug, it is not moved as if nothing happened. Given had potential here, but it blew it with a bang. Akihiko was supposedly a bad guy with problems, but then he realized he was acting badly ?? and he has changed, but this is so stupid and unrealistic. Aki for me personally, as he was an asshole and he was (I invite you to check my given movie review). Haruki, so he's Akihiko's boyfriend, he's fine, I just feel sorry for him because he's too light-hearted and a little naive.Overall Given is fine, I can recommend it, but somehow I don't consider it a BL masterpiece.
Kingyaoithethird
100/100Given, and it's way to deal with mourning and more.Continue on AniListGiven is a drama story about a boy-band, their relationship with each other and all the problems that they go through.
My first experience with Given was watching the anime, I quickly became a fan of the characters and the story, so I decided to buy some volumes of the manga because i was pretty much interested. And God what knows how it was a good choice. Given offers such a good representation of mourning, the confusion about your own feelings, the issues within a toxic relationship, the feeling that you're not enough, the feeling of loneliness. All of this and more are gathered into this one and only piece of work called Given presented in an amazing way with characters you start to sympathize the deeper and deeper you get into the story.
Story: 10.
As I just mentioned, the plot involves so many delicated topics with mastery, in a way that actually can make you feel, or at least barely understand what the characters are going through.writing: 9.
I liked the choice of words in many times. Mainly the parts that include poetic ways to express a feeling, those are the best, making analogies and metaphors with music, voice, heart, turning the moment even more intense.Characters: 10.
there are very good characters, not talking about my feelings for them, but their construction as a whole. Their background and personality is built and developed so well, and even though there might be some kind of "cliche" personality, they're still well written, deep and human. Their story share everything about them, everything they go through, all of their feelings, why they're like this, why they're like that, it's all so good and i'm so invested in all of them even if it's a character i'm not a huge fan. Mainly the main characters of course, as expected, they have much more development than the others, and even if they do are more deepened, some secondary characters have their moment, and it makes everything better because it doesn't turn into a shallow piece of work that we only get to know about the main characters, it shows us about the other ones that are part of the story, that are not there just because, and it just makes Given even more better.Art: 10.
i love it. It's so beautiful. The artstyle of the author is simply divine. Of course this is my personal opinion. More broadly speaking, the panels know very well to express characters emotions, the scenes are well put in the dialogues, the background is also well done and it's not very confusing.Overall: 10.
Do i even have much more to say? I was clear about how much i find Given a masterpiece and I simply love everything about it, the characters, the story, the dialogues, the sad moments, the happy moments, the funny moments, the only art moments, everything!The manga is sensational and great for those who enjoy a drama, a romance and poetry.
Thanks for reading!minsuni
90/100The emotions that Given expressesContinue on AniList__Given __ | My review/opinion on it I started reading this manga cause I had watched the anime and I absolutely loved it. The music was beautiful, I loved how the characters’ stories were told, the way they grew in such a short amount of time, but what really hooked me into the story was the emotions that the anime conveyed. Their grief, their sadness, their angriness, it was all layed out so perfectly that you almost felt their emotions with them. When it comes to the anime and the manga part that was adapted (until vol 3) I honestly prefered the anime. The music plays such a part in the story, with the way Mafuyu tells his emotions through his lyrics, that you just don’t get in the manga. Don’t get me wrong, this part of the manga was beautiful and damn did I cry at some parts, but the anime just goes that extra step. But anyways I digress!!! Enough about the anime and let’s talk about the manga.
Plot
Man I don’t even know where to start, the whole story of this manga is just beautiful. It has such a nice blend of music and them being in a band, romance, friendships and all their emotions that affect the story.
One thing I really appreciate about this manga is that, even though it is a BL and there’s a lot of drama between characters about their relationships, the story is focused a lot on music and the characters’ growth. We have 4 people who are in a band together and throughout the manga they’re trying to grow as a band, write and compose music, try to get more recognition and figure out what they want to do in the future as a band. While that’s happening, the characters are going through stuff in their own lives that then affects the main aspect of the plot aka music. It was also so interesting to see that, whenever someone had something going on in their lives, it reflected in the way they played their instruments and the other characters could also tell right away something was wrong or changed (I really liked how Mafuyu was always so aware of this).
While we are shown Mafuyu and Uenoyama and the development of their romance and obviously we’re rooting for them throughout the manga, it’s so interesting how big of an impact Yuki has on the story. I’m not even talking about what happened to Yuki, and obviously if that didn’t happen then this story wouldn’t exist, it’s more the way that they talk about Yuki and Yuki and Mafuyu’s relationship, that it kinda makes you root for them, even though it’s impossible. They talk about him in such a kind and emotional way, that it almost feels like he’s there with them and he’s changing the story with them. I literally couldn’t help myself but cry everytime they mentioned and showed Yuki.
Characters
The way characters are written and portrayed has a huge impact on how I feel about a story, so I decided to highlight each one.
Mafuyu Satou
In one word: adorable. He’s a lovable character who grows soooo much throughout the story. He’s the typical quiet kid who is always in his own world and doesn’t say much. But that’s the thing, he may not say much, but he has so much to say, which he says through his music, and I found that so beautiful. He does get more comfortable with this feelings throughout the story, and learns how to properly express himself, and I loved how much he relies on his friends and just gets more comfortable with them.Ritsuka Uenoyama
It’s kinda interesting how, even though he’s basically the main character and one of the first characters we’re introduced to, he didn’t have a huge impact on me. Nonetheless, I did really enjoy seeing his personality and how much he cares about the people around him, specially Mafuyu. I also loved the transition between the first few chapters, where he and Mafuyu are the main focus of the story and we see them get closer, to latter chapters, where we see Uenoyama as an individual and we find out more about what he truly wants to do in his live and with his music.Haruki Nakayama
My beloved Haruki. When watching the anime, he was the character that grabbed all my attention, and he always made me laugh, and reading the manga and learning more about his character just made me love him even more. At the beginning of the story, he feels a lot like a supportive character for the main characters. We don’t know much about him, we see him mostly help the other characters and encourage them to grow, and we see him suffer from how much he loves Akihiko while not being able to do anything about it. But throughout the manga we see him evolve as a character, and he goes from being there for others, to him being his own person and showing his own pain.Akihiko Kaji
I had such high hopes for him, and he disappointed me a little, but I also understand his pain. He’s the cool guy who seems very intimidating at first but, when you get to know him, he’s just a chill guy who does whatever he wants and lives his life according to his own wants and needs, which sometimes can go wrong. For most of the story, he’s dealing with the pain of having his heart broken and that’s all he cares about. He tries to get his mind off of this pain by doing regretful things that, in the process, hurt him, the person that loves him and even the person who broke his heart.With that said, I do think that the assault scene with Hikaru was very unnecessary, and it really changed the way I see him. I liked the consequences of this scene, we got to see Akihiko’s pain and kinda see his true self, while also seeing his regret and him changing because of it. I loveddd how Haruki didn’t forgive him right away and was really pissed at him, for obvious reasons, and while he still continued to love him, the way he viewed Akihiko changed completely. Then again, even though I did like what happened after that scene, it could have been done differently.
He does redeem himself and grows from his mistakes, but it still doesn’t forgive the pain he caused others and I feel like he just got things easy.
Hiiragi Kashima and Shizusumi Yagi
When I started reading the manga and we were introduced to Hiiragi and Shizusumi, I thought they were just going to be supporting characters to Mafuyu. We get to know their relationship to Mafuyu and Yuki, their backstories and how they became friends, and even how they help Mafuyu with his grief. But I’m so glad they dove deeper into their stories and we got to know each of their personalities and how they feel about each other. Shizusumi reminds me a lot of Akihiko, in the sense that he doesn’t really show a lot of emotions and he mainly shows his love through actions (he also does some weird things that remind me of Akihiko but anyways) and while he may not say it, everything that he does has a meaning behind it, he just doesn’t know how to properly express it. Hiiragi was a character that I got more fond of the more I read the manga. He has a very similar personality to Uenoyama, so it was always funny to see them together and their personalities just crash.
Art style
The artstyle of this manga was beautiful. The characters are such drawn in a way that each one of them is so unique and my favorite panels were always the ones where they were playing music cause, even though you obviously can’t listen to what they’re playing, you can feel how much passion there is in what they’re doing. And those panels were just very visually appealing lmao.
After reading the manga I finally understood why it's so loved and, while it focuses a lot on the bl and music aspect of it, it also talks about so much more and even deeper feelings like grief (not only about death, but also losing things in your life to focus on others), finding yourself and thinking about your future. Even with it's flaws, overall it really is a beautiful manga.
SIMILAR MANGAS YOU MAY LIKE
- MANGA DramaShimanami Tasogare
- MANGA DramaNibiiro Musica
- MANGA DramaUmibe no Étranger
- MANGA DramaHere U Are
- MANGA DramaKimi ni Nare
- MANGA ActionBanana Fish
- MANGA DramaAo no Flag
- MANGA ComedyCaramel Honey
- MANGA MusicHello, Melancholic!
SCORE
- (4.15/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inMarch 30, 2023
Favorited by 2,377 Users