Given

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Japanese: ギヴン

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Apr 30, 2013 to ?

Genres: Drama, Romance, Yaoi

Authors: Kizu, Natsuki (Story & Art)

Serialization: Cheri+

Statistics

Score: 8.56¹ (scored by 7,184 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: N/A²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #494

Members: 19,627

Favorites: 1,687

8.56

Ranked N/APopularity #494Members 19,627

MangaCheri+Kizu, Natsuki (Story & Art)

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Synopsis

There is a tune stuck in Mafuyu Satou's head. As he clutches the guitar in his hands, this melody swirls around and around, screaming words of regret, longing, and loss. But with his careless expression that always seems to be up in the clouds, no one knows his true feelings. However, a chance encounter with classmate Ritsuka Uenoyama may finally give Mafuyu the push to let his voice be heard.

Uenoyama is the guitarist of a band, whose fellow members include the kindhearted bassist Haruki Nakayama and rough-looking drummer Akihiko Kaji. Even without a vocalist, their ragtag group has done well as an instrumental-only band. However, their chance to reach even greater heights may have arrived when Uenoyama hears Mafuyu's voice—Uenoyama is enchanted, inviting the reluctant Mafuyu to join.

Working in a band is a difficult task; often, emotions threaten to break it apart, but they can also bring its members closer together. With Uenoyama's help, Mafuyu may finally be able to express the feelings that fight to break free from within his heart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Given, Given Movie

More characters
Characters

Satou, Mafuyu

Main

Uenoyama, Ritsuka

Main

Nakayama, Haruki

Supporting

Kaji, Akihiko

Supporting

Murata, Ugetsu

Supporting

Yoshida, Yuki

Supporting

Kashima, Hiiragi

Supporting

Yagi, Shizusumi

Supporting

Uenoyama, Yayoi

Supporting

Yatake, Kouji

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Oct 21, 2016

8 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Gazettu (All reviews)

147 people found this review helpful

If you read the sinopsis, you'll probably think that you have read something like this like 213123 times before and that it's another cliché yaoi story.
Yep, I also thought that... But let me say this: it isn't.
First of all, the "yaoi" etiquete is wrong. This isn't yaoi; this is a very sweet and realistic shounen-ai. This story is about finding the true meaning of feelings, about how music can reach people, and connect them.
The art style is beautiful, charaters' design and dramatic scenes are very well-done.
Characters can seem typical but they hide feelings you don't expect and a dramatic past.
Although read more

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Aug 16, 2019

27 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Bop_It (All reviews)

26 people found this review helpful

Given is a truly amazing story that features great art, a compelling plot, and plenty of emotional moments. All of the protagonists have an amazing amount of depth and complexity that complements the mature themes present in the plot, drawing the reader in and presenting a narrative that feels real and heartfelt. This manga will play your heartstrings like a fiddle (Or perhaps a Gibson hollow body) and take you on an emotional rollercoaster as you follow the ever-shifting feelings of love, pain, desperation, and soul-searching that plague the cast. As a sub-theme to the plot of personal connection and growth, the power of music read more

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Mar 10, 2020

30 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

KillyChides (All reviews)

13 people found this review helpful

As someone who excessively reads shonen-ai/yaoi manga, I didn't expect much, as I often don't. It only took this manga five chapters to completely blow me away with its brilliance. 'Given' is a totally believable story of how a successful band came to be, of how a strong bond was formed between four men at an integral part of their lives, and how hope can be found as long as you try hard enough to look for it.

Pros.

- The characterization. It's absolutely top-notch, not just for a shounen-ai manga, but for a story in general. Each one of the main characters has something to offer, they each have individual voices and unique personalities, and they bounce off each other well. The manga makes an effort to show them spend quality time together, but also shows them living their own lives, and this gives them a depth that lots of stories fail to pull off. Basically, the characters aren't emotionally deprived, friendless virgins waiting for rescue, they feel like real human beings.

- The uniqueness of the storytelling. The story itself isn't that groundbreaking, but there's a great balance between it being plot-driven and character-driven. The four main characters have their own lives, relationships, and affairs, which develop separately from the plot. However, it's still a story about how this band came together and began to perform as a unit.

- The brilliant portrayal of mental illness, particularly in regards to the character of Mafuyu. His depression and sadness are integral to the story, but they don't define him as a person. Through him, you're able to see that a character can be strong in different ways, and his strength was genuinely inspiring. His mental illness is depicted so well, in fact, that hearing him say "I'm no longer scared of the dawn" actually brought me to tears.

- The realistic depiction of romantic relationships. Readers don't usually like seeing a character they root for facing serious competition for their love interest, but Given is pretty gutsy when it comes to that. Mafuyu's previous boyfriend was the love of Mafuyu's life who will always be important to him, but he's a character I do not hesitate to like, even if I'm rooting for Uenoyama. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Akihiko, who's stuck in a toxic relationship that he knows he should escape. Even when he (and we as readers) know that Haruki is the best thing that could ever happen to him, he doesn't overcome the attachment he has for his first love easily, and those parts of the manga hit differently.

- Everything about the character of Akihiko. He's just so self-destructive, so self-loathing and sometimes harmful toward the people around him, yet he's still a good person. He made me feel so many things towards him, from disappointment, to hate, to admiration, that I can't help but say that he's absolutely my favorite part of this manga.

Cons.

- Since Yuki was such a likable and dynamic character, I would've loved to see more depth and backstory from Ugetsu because as a romantic rival, he was just insufferable. I didn't find any redeeming qualities about him and I never understood the reason Akihiko fell in love with him. He was by far the most bland in a story filled with multi-dimensional characters.

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