Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Curlybrace101
There’s no question that Given is *the* BL anime of the modern era. It is the most watched BL on MAL, constantly tops popularity polls, and whenever anyone these days gives BL recommendations, the first thing you hear is Given, Given, Given.
It’s also disappointing.
Here’s the thing: Given is a drama. It takes itself extremely seriously, so I will take it extremely seriously as well, and thus come to the conclusion that it is not as deep and intelligent as it markets itself as.
Now, Given isn’t bad. It’s a competent story and the relationship between the leads, Ritsuka and Mafuyu, is well done. They had good chemistry, their relationship was well developed, and I liked how the top was the awkward and inexperienced one paired up with a more self-assured and experienced bottom. It’s a mo…
Read at the source1l4xis
I can't imagine you would enjoy this show unless you are strongly into Boys love. The plot could of had some potential but failed to develop anything apart from the relationships between the main characters. I was only interested in the musical aspect of the show and was very dissapointed. Mafuyu went from learning basic chords to basically playing like a normal guitarist in the space of one episode (with barely any practice and no time). I was also so dissapointed they only managed to create one song including the whole band and barely spent any time showing them performing it or creating it. I felt as though the show was just about sexual deviance and if you compare it to 'Nana' or 'Beck' (musical animes), it fails to achieve anything of value in any aspect. This is more fit to be a soft…
Read at the sourceMickeyMinaj
Considering BL as a Genre which is MAJORLY just full of Cliche, Cringey and non-consensual harassments, this show was a bliss. An amazing show that deals maturely and delicately with the gay characteristics of seemingly Masculine men, and how that leads to a lot of miscommunications and fabricated feelings at display.
I also liked the way how the characters' emotions were as raw as they can get. The Music aspect of this show is a cherry on top with some amazing tracks, especially Shougo Yano, Mafuyu's VA, did an amazing job. The pain in that voice could be felt, more so in his 'Fuyu no Hanashi' performance. Overall a great show and definitely my top 3 in this Genre.
PS: The Genre information exists for a reason. When you see a BL tag, please know that it's there for obvious reasons and…
Read at the sourceNaya_zeta
So incredibly boring. Don't listen to anyone who tells you that this is a realistic portrayal of a same sex relationship because it is not. The characters are paper-thin and don't deserve to exist in a work that is longer than an episode. The two main characters are tropes and they will never surprise you. The music takes a backseat to the terrible drama. The pacing is tedious. Plot was predictable. Animation was alright but you can't appreciate it when everything else about the show is disappointing. The side characters and their relationship is just almost interesting but falls flat. Don't watch if you're over 12 unless you are not the slightest bit critical about the shows you watch. Overall a poor show that's only saving grace is not fetishizing homosexuality like Japanese media tends…
Read at the sourcelenns
Story is not enough good and so basic not enough deep and so cliche. There is no message to the world they are just gay and that’s all about this anime. If the main characters were not gay the score would be definetely different. Just because of being gay u cant score this anime as great. I expected just a little one meaningful and deep conversation about being gay and expected to tell the world this is not bad or strange thing but no… There is no word about this.
Drawings are so cliche tho. But.. they look ok.
Musics or should i say opening music ? Yes that only one music is great.
Characters are so shallow.
As a result i didnt enjoy watching this anime, waste of time to me.
Read at the sourcefrozenpancake
This was a really sweet and touching anime about the development of a relationship between two guys, one of them overcoming past traumas, while the other is trying to rekindle his passion for music. Both of them need one another (not in the emotional-dependency, unhealthy kind of way), but in a way that makes them both stronger and better people when they're together.
Going into Given, I was a bit hesitant because I knew it was within the shounen-ai genre and since the genre usually has notoriously unhealthy tropes (ex. non-consensual behaviors, rape-y scenes, and emotional manipulation being rampant perpetrators) my expectations for a healthy relationship were pretty low, BUT within the first few episodes of Given, I happily realized that my pre-assumptions were wrong because Given is t…
Read at the sourcecameronrb24
Given was solid in hindsight, but it failed to hook me as I was watching it. The climax, while short, was enjoyable but I felt the pacing of series up to that point was too slow. Most of the runtime was spent patiently developing the relationship of Mafuyu and Uenoyama, which was both a good and a bad thing. Their relationship felt more organic than some other romance anime, but due to only having 11 episodes, it meant no one else really got a chance to shine. I thought only one of the characters was developed decently (Mafuyu). The rest of the main cast was bland or boring. Most of the side characters were forgettable as well.
The main highlight of Given in my opinion was the music and animation. The characters designs were clean, backgrounds were always pleasant to look at, and bits of…
Read at the sourceLiaNF
Shounen ai isn't something that most anime fans find comfortable watching. Not that it makes these viewers necessarily homophobic, but considering the genre's abysmal record of featuring BL containing romanticized sexual assault (I'm looking at you Junjou Romantica) to portray romance between men—on top of subpar writing and cringe-worthy dialogues, it's understandable that viewers would rather avoid it.
With regards to Given though, please don't. It made me grateful that I gave shounen ai another chance. I would have to chuckle at the next person who complains that it panders too much to fujoshis considering that Given is a lot more subtle and tamer compared to most series in this genre; and that all characters are gay... Yeah well, duh? It's shounen-ai, expect that most of the character…
Read at the sourceyuruzu
This series has so many major flaws that make this show so insufferably dull and uninteresting.
Story:
The story starts off as pretty normal, which is perfectly fine. What I do have a problem with is how slow and uninteresting the pacing of the entirety of the series is. This show literally moves at the pacing of a turtle due to the insane amount of boring and useless dialogue the series has to offer. The music aspect of the series hardly feels substantial at all as well, I honestly can't tell what kind of direction the show is going for with the way they handle the music aspect, its just so poorly handled.
The romance is even worse , everyone in the series is just gay for like zero reasons at all. It pisses me off especially with how the series handled this aspect. The series literally…
Read at the sourcektulu007
It’s the week of Valentine’s and you all know that means a romance anime review. This year, we have Given a 2019 anime from Lerche. They’re the studio behind the Danganronpa anime adaptations and nothing else I’ve reviewed. It’s based off of an ongoing manga by Kizu Natsuki. Who I’ve never heard of. So, no idea what to expect here.
Story:
Uenoyama Ritsuka is just searching for a spot to nap when he spots a boy, Satou Mafuyu lying down clutching a guitar. Uenoyama notices that the guitar’s in bad shape with rusted strings. He’s berating Satou which leads Satou to the realisation that his guitar’s strings can be fixed. Uenoyama turns out to be weak to sad puppy eyes and not only replaces the strings but, eventually, agrees to teach him how to play. From there, their relationship starts to…
Read at the sourceAngelo_McGee
Given was undoubtedly an anime full of surprises. I found it interesting the Uke (Mafuyu) is apathetic and not ashamed to say what he feels and Seme (Uenoyama) be more inexperienced in relationships than he is. The soundtrack was also excellent... the episode in which the band performed was simply AMAZING! I could feel all the pain that Mafuyu put into his music. However, I noticed some forced comic scenes, some unnecessary episodes for plot development (could better explain Mafuyu's childhood), and what bothered me most is that virtually all characters are gay. This is a criticism that I have been making for a long time; It seems that in the genre Yaoi, there are only gay men. And in Shoujos, Ecchi and Shounen, just heteros. I think it would be interesting to mix these two worlds into jus…
Read at the sourceyellowheartren
I'm having a hard time figuring out what to start this review with, simply because even days after its conclusion I still have so many thoughts and feelings swirling around about it. Perhaps saying "nevermind the genre categories" is a good start. Sure, they give clues as to what to expect, but expectations are dangerous. Many of those words that describe genre have way too many negative connotations, which inevitably influence one's decision to watch or avoid a certain anime. And even without those connotations, I'm sure "shounen ai" is something many people avoid on principle. Well, here's a great reason why you should not. A great reason why you should ignore genres.
And yet, at the same time, I can't help being overjoyed for what given brings to those genres, because it is all of thos…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
Given is 2019’s dark horse. It’s a title that has been slept on for its subject matter instead of appreciated for its prowess. Unlike Bloom Into You which received a major backing over the course of its run, Given seems to have received little fanfare within the community despite the praise most viewers have for it. I wouldn’t call it amazing, but it certainly does resonate, much like a good tune.
The tunes in this show are very solid. There are several fun jam sessions where the main band of the show plays some delicious math rock, and there are several background tracks that also have some guitar in them. The opening, “Kizuato” by Centimilimental is another emotional banger of a rock song, only beaten out by the stellar insert track in the 9th episode. Said track is also one of the bigg…
Read at the sourceCraneface
Yeah once again I'm here and ready to kind of maybe sort of share what I think
To start off with, I'm extremely glad about the Anime adaption and it was done in a most astounding way.
The impression the Anime gave me,
The whole adaption managed to capture some of the most touching, funny and cute moments, and that as well, was overall astounding. Most of us here have all watched a lot of Shounen-ai (At least I'm pretty sure most of us have) And this one gets my number one spot as well as my "Favourite Anime of the year"
As the Anime aired, I always chose to watch the episodes on friday evenings. That goes for all the airing anime series that I have dedicated everything to. It felt so good being back into this whole "looking forward" thing. It always takes over and I feel like I live…
Read at the sourcejd2001z
“Everything that you left behind became my everything.”
These words from the opening song hold true for Mafuyu Sato (CV: Shougo Yano), one of the main protagonists of the series. He seems like an ordinary person, but at the very first episode, you can already see that he has been through a lot, and this has turned him who is today: an expressionless, gloomy guy who doesn’t really communicate. The only thing he seems to care about is a guitar he holds throughout the first episode, which he doesn’t even know how to play. Bring in Ritsuka Uenoyama (CV: Yuuma Uchida), a regular guy who’s interested in music and basketball. After going through his hobbies everyday in his life, he started to grow bored of them. But because of those feelings, he was able to meet Sato, and after fixing Sato’s bro…
Read at the sourceAnimeBW
A soft, dappled light pools in the corner of a stairway, warm and nostalgic like a home you never realized you were missing. A boy sleeps in that light, a guitar clutched to his chest. From a glance, he seems adrift, like a lost rowboat bobbing on a dark, cloudy ocean. For a moment, all is silent and still. It might as well be a framed photograph.
Then, the silence is broken by the arrival of a grumpy, sarcastic basketball player who’s none too happy at seeing his favorite napping spot taken by someone else.
So begins Given, a show that achieves its humble intentions better than most other anime achieve their outsized ones. It’s a story of bands and a story of boys, a story of love and a story of loss. More than anything else, though, it’s a story of hope, one that’s sure to stick with y…
Read at the sourceKisaChan94
Now that I've finished the series I have to say Given is perhaps one of my favorite Shonen-ai anime adaptions of all time, it was just perfect right down to the music which was absolutely breathtaking, not many Shonen-ai or Yaoi shows can do that.
The Characters are easily likeable and the animation was really good as well, especially during that performance which was amazing and just seeing the romance blooming made me want to come back and see more.
It was just perfect, if I had to recommend any Shonen-ai shows to anyone I would recommend this, it was just an amazing experience that I'll miss but not for long with the Movie coming in 2020, but until then I can still re-watch this entire series again to enjoy the music and romance.
Read at the sourceaxel360
“It all started with that chord I played. I had no idea that I was strumming hard on his heartstrings with my own fingers.”
Uenoyama stumbles upon Satou, a sleepy stranger with a broken guitar on the stairs of their high school. Recognizing it just needs the strings replaced, and also seeing how bummed Satou was, he begrudgingly flies into action. One strum on the newly-fixed guitar, and well, you read the opening quote.
This first, chance meeting not only does a terrific job at introducing us to these characters and their personalities, but it also encapsulates so much of what I loved about this show, specifically its symbolism. In a way, guitar strings are not unlike a person’s heart. Yes, they can break often. But they can also be fixed, although sometimes you need a helping hand. An…
Read at the sourceConsumedAM
Given strikes the rare balance of being openly gay - none of that maybe he is, maybe he isn’t crap - while not indulging in over the top eroticism to pander to a niche viewership. This is a vanilla, realistic, down to earth romance that can be watched by anyone open minded to love that exceeds conventional desire.
It is fairly unconventional for a single cour romance to have convincing characterization...yet Given makes this a strong point. Each of the band mates are given practical goals, motivations and fleshed out backstories that are sprinkled into the narrative as the episodes progress rather than forcefully crammed in a short span of time. This methodical progression helps the episodes flow smoothly, as it rarely feels as though there is a dominant character focus for any particula…
Read at the sourceKANLen09
As Crunchyroll states it: "Why You Should Rock Out With Given, The Best Summer Anime You're NOT Watching" AND YOU SHOULD WATCH IT, regardless if you're a fan of Shounen Ai (or as we otakus like to call it BL) or not. Heck, it's not even about if you're a straight male or female casually watching BL. It's just SIMPLY PHENOMENAL in every degree.
Many will tend to call out Shounen or Shoujo Ai (or as we know it, Lesbian and BL) as those kind of taboo subjects that are made even worse when described into a medium (e.g. anime), and more often than not, the mediums triumph and/or silence the naysayers to an insane degree, that it's worth watching them to understand more about their world and how these people perceive same-sex love (a.k.a LGBT). Heck, look at Japan and their recent history with…
Read at the source