Given: Uragawa no Sonzai

When the Given Movie was released, I lamented that the producers made to decision to cut quite a bit from the manga to fit the movie into an hour. In doing so they made the decision to concentrate on the secondary couple which left manga protagonists Mafuyu and especially Ritsuka with very little to do. Ritsuka in particular was hardly more than a cameo. The OVA redresses that completely, concentrating on the manga chapters missing from the movie and turning them into a dense mini movie that comes in at just over 20 minutes. It’s an absolute must for Given fans. Once again, superb ... voice work from Shogo Yano and Yuuma Uchida. Solid if unspectacular animation but ultimately it is more of what made the series so successful, good storytelling and great characters.

I was afraid that they were not going to animate Uenoyama being jealous after the movie was released but this was more perfect than I could imagine. Doing the movie seperate showed us a clear image of the story between Akihiko-Haruki-Ugetsu and this OVA made sure we also felt how the song made UeMa feel.

I love how Mafuyu wrote it after being inspired by Ugetsu and also his OWN loss. It was just...PERFECTION.

I ALSO LOVED HOW THEY REDREW ALREADY DRAWN SCENES FROM THE MOVIE!!!

fave cute scenes:
- mafuyu kisses uenoyama first
- mafuyu in yukata

... fave emotional moments:
- the classroom scene
- the clock scene
- mafuyu singing yorugaakeru acapella and the scenes they show during it

fave funny moments:
- UENOYAMA GAY PANIC (YUKATA AND THE CLOCK SCENE AND BASICALLY EVERYTIME HE SEES MAFUYU)
- UENOYAMA YELLING "I DISAPPROVE!!!!" WHILE AKIHIKO IS KNEELING AHAHAHAHAHA

OVERALL. UENOYAMA BEST BOYFRIEND. PERIOD.

First off, let me start by saying that I enjoy Given. I like it enough to read the manga every time there's a new release. I liked the first season and the movie, but this OVA, I felt was lacking in a lot of aspects.

I knew what to expect of the story from the OVA and it is indeed a faithful adaptation of the manga.
My criticisms are mostly technical. Some scenes felt very awkward. They could've been executed better with background music where and when required. I wish they'd use proper angled shots when the characters are conversing. Even a trivial scene can ... feel impactful if it's properly paired with music, dialogue delivery, and cutscenes or the character's movements and expressions. Here, many significant moments, due to the lack of these factors failed to deliver the impact that they should have. Also, I am upset that they didn't show us even a glimpse of Hiiragi and Shizu's performance.

The art is consistent and decent. There's not much to the characters and their relationships in this OVA. But this isn't a problem of the OVA, it's the story itself. Mafuyu and Ritsuka's relationship develops in the shadows so I can't empathize with them. You know, how in a fictional show, when you can just feel the love between the characters, understand their circumstances and empathize with them? This doesn't happen in their case. Even Haruki and Akihiko got better relationship development than the supposed main pair.

Summing up, I was quite disappointed with the OVA. I hope the plot is executed in a much better way in the upcoming season(s).