Given Movie 1

"Given the Movie" finally came to Crunchyroll, and I stayed up until 4 AM to watch it as it streamed live. I'll preface this by saying that I'm all caught up with the manga and I've listened to all of the drama CDs, which both means nothing was a surprise, and I also had some media to compare the film to. The film starts off practically right after the anime series ended, but instead of focusing on Mafuyu and Ritsuka, it focuses on Akihiko, Ugetsu, and Haruki, much like how the manga is structured. What stuck out to me first thing was how great it wasto see how Mafuyu has changed after experiencing that catharsis post-Fuyu no Hanashi/episode 9. He's way, way more expressive not just verbally but overall, which Ritsuka helpfully points out in the film (side-note: best boyfriend? Best boyfriend. Mafuyu is LUCKY.) as he tries to cheer Mafuyu up. Seeing the progression of Mafuyu's and Ritsuka's relationship, albeit in a minor way, was nice, too. I feel like I can relate a lot more to the main characters of the film- not to put down Ritsuka or Mafuyu by any means, but they're high schoolers with high schooler issues, feelings and levels of maturity- and I'm a lot older than that. So, having characters like Akihiko, Ugetsu, and Haruki in the spotlight is kind of refreshing considering the problems they're facing are more relatable to myself. They're all well-written characters, even those that ended up in the background this time around, but it was just really nice to see the complexity of especially Ugetsu and Akihiko, not to mention their relationship. The build-up to the mature scene of the film is incredibly solid and though it happens fairly early on in the film, it certainly didn't feel that way (mostly because there are eleven anime episodes preceding the film, of course). The conflicts feel realistic and Akihiko's 'redemption arc' is a tough read and watch, but it's all so, so, worth it in the end. Overall, the only real issue I had was that it was too short of a film and that it felt rushed sometimes. That's only to be expected, though, considering everything they crammed into less than 60 minutes, and when seeing it that way, it's also impressive that it for the most part DIDN'T feel rushed with everything that was covered. They stayed very true to the source material of the manga, and since I absolutely adore the manga, both the anime and the film are great as a result.

Here is the review before spoilers. as a manga reader, its an okay adaptation. the pacing is a HUGE ISSUE and it borerline ruins the film. However if you do like given and Aki/Haruki and dont mind the pace being a HUGE issue, then watch it. Given fans will enjoy it. Go read the manga afterward, its short and alot of stuff was cut out due to the short runtime. the music is outstanding and its worth it to watch just for the music, weither youve read the manga or not. SPOLIER WARNING REVIEW: the pacing is bad. the big assult happens a mer 20minutes in and the breakup happens in a whole 3 minutes with 4 minutes to establish a relationship makeup and confession between haru and aki. some mafuyu and uenoyama stuff was cut but it makes sense with the short cut time. asside from the pacing, its a soild film, the manga is definetly better and id so suggest reading that before this.

Kaji is a piece of crap. Sure the story ends well... be he straight up ran from everything in his life and messed up everyone else's. He also raped Haruki. WTF. WHY IS THAT OKAY to people?! Why does Haruki say he consented? He didn't. Kaji... you are trash. If you read through the manga he is an even worse piece of crap. I don't care if someone tries to turn their life around, that doesn't mean it makes everything they did okay. There are SO many other animes that have better stories, with romance, that is about music. I liked the original anime somuch better. This movie ruined it. I originally wanted a season 2 to see what became of the band and the romance, but I don't care anymore. Any future season 2 can go burn.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Given was a pleasant surprise to me. The first of the series was a wonderful story about friendship, trauma, and putting pieces of yourself back together that you'd thought impossible. They throw some pretty dense issues at us but I found the topics handled with care. We had time to go into character's hurts, pains, and insecurities and watched the beautiful story of them building upwards into better versions of themselves. And then... The movie happened. Firstly, I was already wary when I logged onto Crunchyroll and saw that the movie was only ONE. HOUR. LONG. This was a bit troubling to me as I knewI'd heard from other fans who've read the manga that this movie was supposed to cover a decent chunk of the series, so thought we were looking into an hour and a half at least. And I was right to be wary. What we were...Given...was an incredibly rushed tale rife with issues that couldn't possibly be solved within the limit they gave us...at least, not properly. So I'll start with the worst of it. That scene. Potentially triggering content incoming! ALSO! SPOILERS! FINAL WARNING! First, to find out that Akihiko was aware of Haruki's love the entire time already put me in a bad mood. Then he assaults Haruki as the man weeps below him and Haruki, compromised as he was, took note of Akihiko's pained expression more than the egregious act being committed against him, and immediately went to acceptance, forgiveness, and understanding. Absolutely not. Absolutely the eff not. Akihiko eventually comes to his senses, apologizes, and then proceeds TO STAY IN THE HOME OF THE MAN HE ABUSED EVEN AFTER SAID MAN ASKED HIM TO LEAVE??????? Gtfo, asshole! Sleep on the streets! Sorry for the language but I'm appalled. I couldn't find his abundant apologies comforting the morning after because not only did he violate Haruki, he proceeded to overstay his welcome with the knowledge that Haruki was in love with him and would eventually allow it. It was grossly manipulative. His toxic relationship with Ugetsu is not enough. His sally sob story about his parents is not enough. None of that was enough to excuse his abhorrent behavior and what was once a cute but sad tale of unrequited love turned to something tainted and manipulative and I wish it'd never happened. Where is the respect? Not just because he's in love with you. He is also your bandmate, and your friend. Tf is that. Then, after what was probably one of the worst nights of Haruki's life, he runs to his friend and cuts off his hair. If that's not a trauma response I don't know what is. I don't know if they intended for that moment to be seen as him moving on but...literally...too soon. It was a tragedy imo, to see Given go down the unfortunate BL trope of rampant sexual assault with little to no consequences. How annoying. And I'm hearing that scene is worse in the manga? How delightful. :) After we witness that disaster, we watch a fumbling attempt to redeem Akihiko's character while we also watch the sad mess that is his relationship with Ugetsu. Now. I don't have issues with the fact that they had issues. I found them scrambling to cling to something doomed to fail heartbreakingly real and rather well done. My problem, though, was that we spent more time working through their inevitable breakup than we did with consequences for the assault and the rebuilding of his and Akihiko's relationship. Because of that, I felt stronger feelings towards the moment when Ugetsu sobs while fighting the urge to turn around and run back to Akihiko than I did when Akihiko fumbled that messy and random as hell confession to Haruki at the end. LOL. That confession????? After what, three hastily drawn scenes of us watching Akihiko "coming into his own"? That's what we get? And then it's over???????? I think what this movie truly needed was...time. It should have been a second season. You cannot throw a sexual assault between two members of the same band, which is a central focus of the series as a whole, and tie everything together in an hour. There are going to be problems. The band will inevitably suffer. People have to atone. Others have to heal. Trust must be regained. You cannot throw a years long toxic relationship and drawn out breakup and again, tie everything together in an hour. Feelings must be sorted through. Again, healing must take place. It isn't believable, and even if we suspended our disbelief, plot wise, it just doesn't flow. It comes across as rushed, sloppy, and poorly written. Part of Given's charm was the time and care taken to hash out our character's struggles, so by the end when it all came together, the audience reveled in a sense of triumph. We hurt with them, cried with them, healed with them, and soared with them. Most of that charm was lost in this continuation and I'm left...disappointed and even a little sad. I still plan to give the manga a read to try and get a better experience of the story, and hopefully it comes together better than this. Thankfully, not all was bad. Mafuyu remains a delight. It's so lovely to see him grow, mentally and musically. What a sweetheart. While it's clear Mafuyu and Uenoyama's relationship wasn't the focus, the few scenes we got together with them were adorable. I also didn't mind the glimpses we got into Ugetsu. And of course, the songs. If nothing else, the songs truly delivered and I added a few to my playlist. Mafuyu's emotions come across so strongly and I truly feel the band's music. That's all for now. I just can't help to wish that we were...Given...more.

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