Common Name: Given
Scores: 9/10, 5/5
Length: 11 Episodes
Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy, Musical, Yaoi
Availability: Available Subbed at Crunchyroll
While it is often used as a form of praise, I've started to feel like calling a series a "sleeper hit" also carries a hint of negativity. It implies that a series either wasn't taken seriously or might have even been considered "bad" at the onset. Now, because of that connotation, I find myself a bit ashamed to admit that Given was my "sleeper hit" of the season because saying so admits that I went into this series expecting to be disappointed. Considering how many yuri or yaoi titles air each season that end up either being so tame and inoffensive that they border on pointlessness or so offensive that it becomes a chore to even tolerate them, I don't think that assumption is necessarily unfair. Justified or not, though, Given started off as a series that instantly put those expectations to the test. On the one hand, its edge-tastic opening filled with grief and angst gave the initial impression that the series would swiftly devolve into a melodramatic mess. On the other, the series' more awkward, comedic tone and bright color palate gave me the impression that it would be on the fluffier, consequence-free end of the spectrum. What I actually ended up with, though, was a series that managed to strike a solid balance between those two extremes and carve out its own, unique identity, making it clear within the span of only a couple episodes that this was going to be something special--a true "sleeper hit."
Then again, now that I've had the chance to rewatch the first few episodes, I feel like
I should have recognized this as something special from the very beginning.
To be clear though, the story of Given isn't all that novel or groundbreaking. Like so many series before it, it follows the lives and loves of the four lead characters as they work to build their band into something they won't be ashamed to take on stage. Unlike other shows, though, most of the cast isn't starting from square one. Fore example, the show's primary perspective character, Uenoyama Ritsuka (aka Ue), is already lauded as a child prodigy in his hometown. The series picks up when Uenoyama is in high school, but his bandmates eventually reveal that he'd already been in a number of bands and sold solo albums when he was in middle school before he joined them. Rather than being your typical child genius, though, the series makes it clear that he's not all that special. Like most high school boys, Ue spends most of his time coasting through life, playing pickup games of basketball with his friends, and napping whenever he can find a spare minute or two. Of course, that kind of half-assed attitude applies to his playing guitar as well. Yet, rather than being a point of drama or contention between him and his bandmates, both Nakayama Haruki (bassist) and Kaji Akihiko (drummer) are perfectly fine with Ue doing the bare minimum. After all, his bare minimum is better than most and the goal of turning their shared passion into a profession is little more than a pipe dream. As you'd expect all of that changes, though, once Uenoyama unwittingly scouts the band's fourth member, the quiet but determined Sato Mafuyu, when he gets roped into fixing Mafuyu's poorly-kept Gibson. Yet it isn't Mafuyu's guitar skills that land him a place on the band since he has none to speak of. Rather, it's his hauntingly strained singing voice that sends shivers down Ue's spine, setting off the chain reaction that'll get Mafuyu on the band and create a whole mess of drama besides.
Like I said, not exactly the most novel premise out there.
Overblown or trite as that summary might sound, though, the series actually manages to handle Mafuyu's introduction with a lot more grace and style than you'd expect. Rather than running headlong into the drama, Given takes its time drip-feeding us little bits of the larger dramatic arc through little actions, expressions, or things that go unsaid as the cast tries to get comfortable with their new normal. Even that summary I offered doesn't really do justice to how long it takes for Ue to convince Mafuyu to join the band. In other words, Given is your classic example of a slow but steady burn. Rather than filling every other episode with one big explosion of melodrama after another, we're given a pace that allows the drama to repeatedly build and then cool off for a couple minutes until the series' reaches its pitch and just lets it all out in one massive, cathartic release. While that drama builds, though, the series mainly contents itself with letting the characters act like your average, functionally dysfunctional human beings, lending some validity to why the show's main story takes so long to progress. After all, humans often prefer to avoid drama or back off and take a breath when they start to feel stressed or emotional. However, since making music typically requires other people who are just as passionate as you are to work together, it's functionally impossible for things not to get a little dramatic. Each member of the cast has some amount of pent-up frustration or baggage that they bring to the table but, as I've already said, things only start to get shaken up as they work to make room for the mountain of trauma and drama that Mafuyu quite literally carries on his back.
That's right; Mafuyu's guitar and dedication to music are a near-literal cross he has to bear.
So, as they all chafe to acknowledge and work around Mafuyu's problems, extra little bits of information are shaken loose from everyone else's baggage as well, giving us all the more reason to like them as characters once we've already gotten to know them as people. One of the best examples of this actually comes from the pair of scenes I already shared on the Facebook Page that feature Uenoyama and Akihiko chatting as they try to plan out their next song--the first one Mafuyu will be a part of. By this point, the show's drama is already a little over halfway to the big explosion. Ue is struggling to come to terms with his feelings for Mafuyu and, what's more, someone has slipped him details about Mafuyu's previous love life, forcing him to contend with some ugly emotions on top of everything else. So, as Akihiko makes a passing comment about how chilling Mafuyu's voice and, by extension, he is, Uenoyama takes that opportunity to lean on his senior and ask for help parsing out his feelings. All that Ue's description of those feelings does, though, is trigger a flashback for Akihiko, reminding him of the struggles he had with his own first love and causing him to let out the most tired, depressed laugh I've ever heard in response. Yet, rather than continuing to bemoan or outright tell the story of his troubled past, Akihiko just gets right back to business, dodging the question entirely and leaving Uenoyama to sort out those feelings on his own like he had to. Brief as this exchange is, a lot happens without much actually being said. For starters, we get a little fragment of information that fleshes out Akihiko's character a little more, leaving us to draw conclusions the same way anyone else would if they wanted to read into his hollow laugh. What's more important, though, is that Ue's little outburst and Akihiko's dodge cause the plot's drama to amp up just a little bit more since Ue it forces to just sit and stew, adding yet more pressure to the pent-up emotions he's agonizing over.
Though, obviously, he's not the only one agonizing over some complex, heavy emotions.
Through dozens of little moments like these that work to both build the characters and the drama, Given steadily builds up to a conclusion that feels earned. But, to be clear, the overall drama of the series isn't the only thing that's handled well. Rather, everything from the development of the series' main romantic pairing to the comedy that can be found in most of the series is given the time and attention to detail needed to make it all work. For instance, while Uenoyama and Mafuyu's budding relationship can be defined as your basic uke/seme dynamic, Given makes it abundantly more clear that their relationship is far more complex than that. Ue, for all his lazy stoicism and aggressive passion for music, frequently finds himself at a loss for words when it comes to dealing with Mafuyu. This is because, quite frankly, despite his quiet and submissive attitude, Mafuyu is far more mature than his counterpart. He might be more inclined to just go with the flow and let people make decisions for him but the fact of the matter is that Mafuyu has experienced and suffered much more, making it easier for him to talk or act on feelings that Uenoyama doesn't have the experience to even name yet. This dynamic, then, offers just as many comedic moments as it does dramatic ones as they both try to dance around each other until they're either comfortable or frustrated enough to act on those feelings.
Their actual confession scene is a thing of absurd but justified comedic genius.
As much as I love the nuance and delicacy of Given's romantic arc, though, one of the aspects I love most about it is how nonchalantly it acknowledges that its characters are gay, bisexual, or even demisexual. Dramatic as is all is, there's very little shock or awe when it comes to that acknowledgement. At no point does it try to pull the kind of trite melodrama commonly seen in yuri or yaoi titles where the characters act like they've never seen or heard of homosexuality despite it being a very vocal issue in Japan right now. The closest we ever get to that in Given is one scene in which Ue outright asks if his feelings for Mafuyu are weird or unnatural but that comes from a place of sheer romantic ignorance since he's never been attracted to someone before. Yet, ignorant and dumb as his question is, Akihiko flatly responds to the question with an objective, "No. Why would it be?" because, unbeknownst to Ue, his senior has dated lots of guys and girls over the years. What's more, when it eventually comes out that Mafuyu had been in a serious relationship before meeting Ue, no one--not even the girl who tells Ue this in a jealous attempt to sabotage his feelings for Mafuyu--agonizes over the fact that he dated another guy so much as the fact that his former love committed suicide. So, while it may be true that the cast is predominantly homosexual, Given makes it clear that that's merely for narrative convenience. Once we get to the movie which seems more focused on Akihiko and Haruki's steadily developing relationship, it's seems likely that we'll get to get an even more nuanced take on how normalized these kinds of relationships can and, at least in my opinion, should be.
Fight me.
In other words, I think this might actually be the best-handled homoromantic drama I've ever seen--better even than Yuri!!! on Ice--though that's a very strong "might." From its drip-fed, down-to-earth drama to its hilariously human cast of characters and its overall representation of a community that almost never gets taken seriously in the anime world, there is nothing I don't love about Given. Even if its drama reads like something melodramatic, the fact that the series takes its time fleshing out the characters enough to justify their actions or inaction makes it all feel that much more real. Even if that drama ultimately only results in us getting a single song out of this music anime, the build-up to that song made it and the emotions it elicited feel that much more cathartic. There aren't too many shows I can think of that spend a good 25% of an episode wordlessly following a character around town, showcasing just how lonely they feel, only to show a clipped version of that same walk again a couple episodes later, after we've been given the context of why that specific route is so important. I can't think of any other, though, that could do that and manage to make it just as emotionally impactful. Given is, without a doubt, a personal favorite of mine and also, embarrassingly enough, my "sleeper hit" of the season simply because it managed to slowly and quietly exceed my expectations. Considering how well it managed to blow me away when all was said and done, though, I feel the need to reclassify it as something a little more corny like "hidden masterpiece." Regardless of what I call it at the end of the day, I can tell this is definitely one of those titles I'll be recommending to people years after the fact. So, if you haven't already done so, please give Given a look. I'd love to know what you think of it.
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