Back to belle_desu's Profile belle_desu's Profile

Given is probably one of the best adaptations of a Boys Love manga out there. I can say this with confidence despite the fact that I have only seen the first 4 episodes. (WARNING: may contain spoilers). Also, this is a review from the perspective of a huge Given manga fan.

Story -
It's mostly about love, loss and then slowly learning to move on and let go. I have to say, it's one of the most engaging, realistic and emotionally resonant young love stories I've come across so far. Not much has happened in the anime yet - but I think it was done with purpose. ... You can really see the effort and thought they put into setting up the tone of the series and laying down the foundation for what's to come. They even added a lot of additional scenes (not present in the manga) that truly help in fleshing out the characters and making them feel more alive, as well as connecting story beats in the manga to make the story more cohesive and flow a lot better.

Art -
They are doing a really good job at translating the story from book to screen. The direction, shot compositions and the lighting are so noticeably good, it's honestly so impressive. It's not just "animated" manga panels - they really put a lot of thought into the pacing and flow of the scenes. The character animation is also pretty good (which is usually notoriously bad when it comes to BL anime). This is a music anime too, so I was a little worried about the performance scenes, but (holy crap) the instruments' look (and sound!) were rendered so well and the CG for the performances were actually impressive! Not to mention, even the background art for scenes are very detailed and beautifully done too. I for one love the character designs. They managed to keep the same feel/personality of the characters from the manga, while also adding their personal take on them.

Sound -
The sound design for this anime is so damn impressive (I can't believe how blessed we are) especially for scenes with instruments in them. The strumming of an unplugged electric guitar by a complete newbie... the sound effects of the amps and other equipment... it is incorporated so well, you can believe that the sounds truly come from those moving pictures. And I'm not even talking about the band's actual performance scenes yet! That being said, the actual musical performance on episode 1 is SO good - it truly fit the image I had of the band while reading the manga. The background music is also really nice and makes use of band instruments so I thought that was really cool. Plus the OP and ED are really good. The ED reminds me how perfect Shougo-san is for the role of Mafuyu - both in speaking and singing. This is a truly blessed anime adaptation.

Characters -
The best thing about this anime is probably that it contains actual (explicitly) gay couples. The development between our main couple is gradual, but very, very obvious and more importantly, extremely believable - you really can't help but ship those cuties together. They have a really great relationship dynamic - it is honestly really refreshing to not be subjected to problematic BL tropes in this actual BL anime. The characters themselves are all interesting and complicated and lovable, but their voice actors really add so much life into them. Their speech is more realistic rather than the usual "anime-style" of speaking, so it really adds to the realism and seriousness of this drama (though, I have to say this anime is also pretty funny). This is a music anime, so I also have to say the voice actor for Mafuyu is such a perfect choice - the speaking and singing voices really feel like they come from the same person (as sometimes an actor's singing voice is very different from their singing voice) and he really has Mafuyu's personality down to a tea.

Enjoyment - As you can probably already tell, I enjoy this anime a lot. It is one of the anime I most look forward to watch every single week. The story is interesting, dramatic, emotional and the characters are relatable, complicated, and loveable. I am fully invested in the story and all the characters, so I see that as an absolute success. I truly hope we get more adaptations of queer stories like this that are treated/adapted with the respect and love they deserve.

Overall - Really high quality work overall in terms of art, animation, voice acting, writing, directing and MUSIC. Very easy recommendation to absolutely anyone who likes good romance/drama/highschool/music anime.

Okay. Firstly, I completely understand people who write off this anime as trash because it is basically just a 3 minute episodic short series with a bonus 20+ mins. of interviews with the director and seiyuu regarding the process of making their episode.

That being said, I actually enjoyed watching this show (currently still on episode 4) for 2 main reasons:

1. On it's own, I think the shorts are pretty hilarious and I immediately related with and empathized with Ekoda-chan as a character. (I think that may be in part because of the strength of the source material) Even though I am nothing like her, ... and disagree with her decisions, I can understand why she does what she does. She feels realistic, almost? (and like not to mention it's just so refreshing to see women portrayed like this in anime - confident and unapologetic but also sensitive and vulnerable - basically, human). And honestly I loved all the absurd little scenes and jokes and imagery. I love the fact that she's naked all the time! Like it's just this fun, absurd anime about a smart and eccentric but also flawed woman. I get that it's a bit off-putting because every episode has a whole different tone and feel and art style and everything can feel very disjointed and just not cohesive? But if you just take every episode and enjoy it for what it is, there's a lot that you can appreciate. Of course some episodes are going to be better adaptations of the manga - not all of them will be good. But I think it's worth it to see the really good ones (my favorites so far are episodes 2 and 4) that work really well and feel like a complete story in just 3 short minutes.

2. I personally find it interesting to hear about a director's process and vision when going about a particular episode and then watching their vision be realized. So, yeah I actually enjoyed the 20+ min. interview portion! We also get to hear from the voice actresses how they go about voicing their version of Ekoda-chan and I think it's really interesting to re-watch the final product with all these insights in mind. Although I will say it's disappointing that there are no women directors so far... I'm starting to lose hope that we'll see ever see a woman directing an episode. Which is really too bad, as I think Ekoda-chan is very... female perspective specific? like it's interesting to see how a man interprets this very female story and perspective... but I would have liked to see actual women (who can either relate to Ekoda-chan or not) make some episodes and also like bond with the voice actresses over shared experiences or something like that lol.

Tl;dr - I would recommend this series to anyone interested in the anime industry and behind the scenes stuff that goes into making anime OR if you like stories with a very unique, eccentric, but still really human main character + absurd humor + unique art + mature reflections on the nature of humanity(?) (pro tip: you dont have to watch the interview part if you don't wanna). The episodes are a little hit and miss (of course, since it's all done by different teams with different visions), but the episodes that do hit, are imo really good.