Given

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Japanese: ギヴン

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 9

Chapters: 58

Status: Finished

Published: Apr 30, 2013 to Mar 30, 2023

Genres: Boys Love, Drama

Themes: Music, School

Serialization: Cheri+

Authors: Kizu, Natsuki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.50¹ (scored by 25,345 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #146²

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

Popularity: #257

Members: 65,117

Favorites: 4,488

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8.50

Ranked #146Popularity #257Members 65,117

MangaCheri+Kizu, Natsuki (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /9

Chapters: /58

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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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Background

Given has been published in English by SuBLime imprint from February 11, 2020 to August 13, 2024. It has also been released in Polish by Kotori since April 20, 2018; in Spanish by Milky Way Ediciones since June 19, 2019; and in Brazilian Portuguese by NewPOP Editora since May 29, 2020.

The series was adapted into a Japanese live-action drama that was released on the streaming platform FOD from July 17, 2021, to August 21, 2021.

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Characters

Satou, Mafuyu

Main

Uenoyama, Ritsuka

Main

Nakayama, Haruki

Main

Kaji, Akihiko

Main

Murata, Ugetsu

Supporting

Yoshida, Yuki

Supporting

Kashima, Hiiragi

Supporting

Yagi, Shizusumi

Supporting

Yatake, Kouji

Supporting

Uenoyama, Yayoi

Supporting

Reviews

Jul 24, 2024

Bee-ku

Recommended

The story is beautiful and also makes you begin to appreciate the music more and more. I love the detail of the author for having researched about music facts, details, instruments, even real places to make the story a little more real. You get attached to the characters, some of them or most of them, but there are a few (huge) things you can't forgive, although it also depends on one's perspective, like Akihiko and Ugetsu situation or the moment that you can see Haruki's heart break in a lot of pieces because of Akihiko. I only forgave Akihiko because he changed, but I won't ...

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Aug 9, 2024

sakshiagain17

Mixed Feelings

An ambitious story that leaves you wanting more

I read given trying to feel a little bit of what i felt for the first time, when i was 14 and i watched the new BL anime of the season, but i couldnt find anything.

Given is one of my favorite anime of all time. I can tell that the mangaka wanted to go beyond a story that revolved around love as the only motivation, she wanted to create a more ambitious project, and i honestly believe she did, and i hope
this set a milestone for others BL. Given is amazing, the story has ...

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Jan 26, 2024

abystoma2

Not Recommended

Well-written

Many works seem to believe that just mentioning suicide automatically makes the script better. It does not. Especially when it’s not really elaborated upon, just thrown in the mix for some free drama. Unfortunately, some readers will fall for this bait, and proclaim the story deep and dramatic and whatever.

So, what is Given actually about? The thing is, I struggle to summarize it. Not because it’s complex, but because what I consider its biggest flaw – it doesn’t have a point. With most of fiction, you can usually grasp what the author is going for. Sometimes it’s to explore deeps though. Sometimes the main point ... is just see some cool mecha action or cute girls doing cute things, and that is okay too (when it actually delivers the premise, of course). Given simply feels lacklustre. Now of course, you could make a counterpoint that the point of Given is just to be a BL. You could even paraphrase my previous point and say it’s supposed to be “cute boys doing cute things”. But as lot of yaoi, it can’t help but attempt to seem like it’s more than that.

The central theme is of course boys being gay. But there is also the storyline about them being in band, which isn’t exactly engaging, and is easily topped by works actually focusing on the band aspect, like Beck or Sakamichi no Apollon. There’s the aforementioned suicide, but as mentioned that theme is exploited rather than explored. There is, I guess, some attempt of high school romance drama. Instead of doing good at one point, it attempts many and success at none of these. At least in my experience, this makes Given a confusing read, because I feel like the “goal” is constantly changing with focus all over the place. And not in a good way like some more experimental works, but in a way of unexperienced writer. And of course, it falls in the usual BL trope of “Well wouldn’t you know, pretty much every male character is gay or bi, what are the chances, huh”. I would have liked to say the relationships are realistic and feel natural, but you know how it is. Similar to shippers, the writing of Given just needs two supposedly likeable characters to be around each other to make them into pairing.

The story goes from a start about music to some smutty relationship content – which only dons the appearance of being there for the story, but it’s really just the usual “uwu boys together”, even with the attempts at making it “deep” as mentioned above. It then circles back to the music towards the end, as if remembering that it was supposed to be about music. Some sort of idea of pitting the music and the relationships against each other was appearing, but I wouldn’t consider it well executed. I was going to say the ending was alright, or at least not bad – despite my enjoyment negatively impacted by the fact that the work couldn’t make me care about any of the characters (more about that further down), and that it felt all ultimately meaningless. But the very final page really killed the vibe, what a distasteful and tone-deaf way to end it, huh.

Going back to shipping, I’ve read that Given started as Haikyuu doujinshi. While I haven’t been able to confirm this, it would make sense – a fanfiction doesn’t need to create personalities, it takes them from the original work. But turn the fanfiction into an original work itself and now you can’t just reuse the personalities, for obvious reason. So you’re left with a bunch of characters of little personalities, personalities that readers imagination used to fill with the personalities of the original characters they are based one. It would certainly check out.

The characters are… uninteresting. I can’t actually remember a name of single cast member and I've literally just finished reading the manga. Design-wise Haruki is the only one that stands out, and even that is mostly thanks to his hairstyles. Rest is just Generic Bishounen A, Generic Bishounen B etc. Yes, I still did have to look up his name.

The art is easy the best part of Given. It shines with double page spreads and I especially loved the colored drawings at the start of each volume. Unfortunately, “best part” doesn’t necessarily mean the whole manga is great. In this case, it just means that it’s the only aspect I would call good.

Ultimately, this is definitely among the better BL manga. But as a manga in general, it’s at best slightly over average. So as usual, if you're a fujoshi you'll likely have a grand time, but readers of regular manga will likely be disappointed.

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Poll: Given Chapter 27 Discussion Danae - Aug 19, 2019	5 replies	by puckisha »» Sep 19, 4:14 PM
Poll: Given Chapter 21 Discussion Shu0chan - Feb 13, 2019	4 replies	by puckisha »» Sep 19, 2:04 PM
Poll: Given Chapter 20 Discussion Danae - Aug 18, 2019	3 replies	by puckisha »» Sep 19, 1:29 PM
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Poll: Given Chapter 11 Discussion SkyFullOfStars - Jul 12, 2019	2 replies	by puckisha »» Sep 19, 7:51 AM

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