Given (2021)

I am bawling my eyes out

A lot of people told me to don't watch this drama since I would be disappointed. Did I listen? No. I didn't watch the anime so I won't have to worry about comparing both of them. I liked it so much and the song is just Chef's kiss! It left a bruise inside my heart since I could feel Mafuyu's emotions. I have a huge crush on Jin so every time Uenoyama is on the screen I literally scream af because I like him so much. At first, I wondered why the story wasn't focused on Uenoyama and Mafuyu, but then I realized that it was a story focused on Mafuyu's path toward healing. The end was endearing especially when they both kissed hehe. The singing part made me bawl my eyes out. I can feel that he really set himself free at that moment. I am proud of you Mafuyu.

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Not What I Thought...and that's a good thing.

So I'm cleaning up my bookmark list - removing bookmarks on everything I've watched - and, lo and behold...now here's something I completely forgot about. Hey, why not give it a watch. If it's not something you're liking you could just stop at any old time and just move on. And that's how I stepped into the world of Uenoyama and Mafuyu. Now, lemme add, all I knew about "Given" was what the synopsis said on MyDramaList, and nothing more. Well ...I was not expecting what I got.

First off - it is beautiful. Not in a cosmetic, picturesque way, but in an honest true-to-life manner. As with a lot of recent Japanese dramas (and sometimes comedies too) there is an ever present thread of "alone-ness" that runs throughout - whether it's Hira and Kioyi in "Utsukushii Kare" or Aioki in "Kieta Hatsukoi" or even Adachi in "Cherry Magic!", there's always the sense of watching life pass by from the POV of the outsider, always unwilling or unable to just let go and join in. This time, though, we go to some really dark places. Don't let the High School setting that the series opens with fool you (Oh no! Not that again!), "Given" opens up and reaches into your soul. And, I must say, I really liked the journey. From Mafuyu falling asleep in the studio to Kashima (Mafuyu's friend) reacting to him singing at the concert to the first time Mafuyu sings "lalalala" for Uenoyama - nothing is what I expected. Warning: There will be lumps in throats and there will be wet eyes.

"Given" is awesome, the music is perfect and the actors are sooo real that you knida get lost in their world for a moment. The writing is brilliant and the direction is superb. If there is any criticism to be made is that it could've done with either longer (or maybe a couple more) episodes. I really wanted to spend a little more time with these people. Oh, and by the way, even down to Mafuyu's last line is sheer perfection. Highly recommended.

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First of all, I apologize :D

I am not a fans of anime or manga, so I don’t really give a damn about the manga/anime version. For me, this show was fantastic!

In the first episode they did actually drive me crazy to fell in love. I do love the idea, the concept, the acting, the story, the music or even the atmosphere. The one and only thing that I hate of this series was the duration. Why did you give us a short time duration in a single episode in every single week? :((((

I really wish that I could see more of them, especially the side story.

Oh my god! the last 2 series that I just finished were pretty amazing!

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Ce que nous "donne" une adaptation.

Alors il est très difficile de donner un avis sans faire de comparaison sur une adaptation quand on a vu le matériau originel ou une autre adaptation. Pour ma part, j'ai fait la bêtise de voir l'animé (et le film qui y donne une suite) avant de me lancer dans la série live (heureusement, je n'ai pas encore lu le manga !). Du coup, j'ai eu des attentes, je pense, bien trop grandes et la déception fut au rendez-vous...

Donc, pardon à tous et toutes mais je pense que je n'arriverais pas à donner un avis sans prendre en compte l'animé.

Ça commence fort avec les personnages : en effet, j'ai aimé l’interprétation que nous a offert Suzuki Jin du personnage de Ueonoyama Ritsuka mais, là déjà, je lui trouve bien moins de charisme que le personnage animé. Tout comme le personnage de Kasai Ayano (jouée par Nagase Riko) qui est dans le surjeu total, ça m'a vraiment déplu.

Ensuite, la série n'a pas de lumière. Les mises en scènes restent sombres, fades, on se croirait dans une série des années 2000. Heureusement, la production se rattrape un peu lors du concert où la scène s'illumine sous la voix de notre chanteur vedette.

D'un autre côté, le drama a su garder le même comique de situation dans les scènes plus légères pour dissiper les tensions trop âpres du scénario et c'est fort bienvenu.

Les thèmes sont toujours présents et la production remporte la gageure de tous les traiter dans ce format très rapide de seulement 6 épisodes de 25 minutes, vraiment bravo ! Le thème sous-jacent qui réunit beaucoup des autres est bien présenté : la parole libératrice. Sanari joue très bien son personnage de Sato Mafuyu dont les émotions sont verrouillées en lui, il est comme en état de choc depuis le drame de son passé. La série a très bien travaillé cette exposition.

Si on parle de parole, abordons la musique. Elle est magnifique c'est indéniable MAIS ( Gomenasai !) elle n'arrive pas à la cheville de celle de l'animé. L'OST du concert m'a soufflé dans l'animé, là où ici j'ai juste beaucoup apprécié.

Concernant la romance principale, je passerai sur le fait qu'il n'y a pas beaucoup de démonstrations puisque on sait à quoi s'attendre avec des dramas BL et japonais de surcroit, de plus, l'animé est pareil. Par contre, autant dans l'animé le rapprochement de nos leads paraissait naturel, autant ici il parait forcé comme "pour les besoin de la prod et pour faire du drame", c'est un peu dommage d'après moi.

D'autre part, les autres romances et relations des personnages plus secondaires sont laissées dans le flou et l’ambiguïté, alors oui, encore une fois, 6 épisodes c'est bien court, mais ça laisse vraiment un goût d'inachevé sur la fin. D'ailleurs, je pense que certaines scènes ou situations pourraient paraitre encore plus floues, voire difficilement compréhensible peut-être, à ceux qui n'ont pas déjà une connaissance de Given (mais ça seule une personne dans ce cas pourrait répondre à ma question).

La fin, parlons-en justement, la série se finit deux épisodes avant la fin de l'animé, là aussi, quel dommage ! J'aurai aimé qu'ils puisse rajouter un épisode ou ne serait-ce qu'un épilogue pour vraiment terminer l'histoire de nos personnages.

En résumé, si vous le pouvez, regardez l'animé APRÈS, avoir vu la série live pour l'apprécier pleinement. Je pense que dans ce sens là elle aura bien d'avantage de saveur. Pour ceux qui sont dans le même cas que le mien, je vous invite tout de même à voir la série car malgré les points négatifs que j'évoque, je n'ai pas boudé mon plaisir et j'ai apprécié de voir tout ceci dans un format aussi court : ils se sont vraiment bien débrouillés.

Maintenant, à vous de vous faire votre avis.

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A live action remake of a popular anime

So my favorite things in the world: BL, Anime, Manga, Japanese Rock. My kids, political Twitter, and BTS might be in there too, but mostly, just those things, so for obvious reasons Given is one of my favorite Anime and Manga stories. When I saw a live action was coming, I was curious but kept my expectations low.

Making an anime come to life is hard, for obvious reasons, Manga characters are not always easily converted into real people. In this case, the casting was not terrible. I thought they cast Uenoyama perfectly, he was also the focus of the LA more than Mafuyu, who got more back story in the Manga and anime. I understood why they cast Mafuyu the way they did, because they wanted to use the actor's voice, but he wasn't quite perfect. Kaji was not well cast, I was so annoyed he was one of my favorite characters. The rest were OK.

The drama follows the manga/anime pretty closely but had to cut out a lot due to being only 6 episodes. So the story goes only up to their first live (episode 9 in the anime, Mafuyu's Song). Because of the compression, Mafuyu doesn't get a lot of back story exposition, there's really not much character development around Haruki and Akihito, it's mostly just Uenoyama and the preparation for the first live.

It's hard for me to judge this as a drama on its own because I already knew the story. I felt like the compression and loss of back story made the final song less dramatic. Also, tbh I just liked the song from the anime better. But overall the drama exceeded my expectations by being well acted and produced and staying pretty true to the story.

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Your past is your best teacher.

At first, I was really confused of what is happening and what will be the story flow. As the story goes, it really showed how our sad past haunt us everyday, like how our decision we make can make a huge impact either it will become good or bad. We often sometimes regret our decision because it causes us a lot of pain and suffering, but somehow it is okay... it only teaches us a lesson that could make us grow in the long run.

They say, communication is important in every aspect of life. We always tend to misunderstood actions because sometimes words can deceive us. We often neglect to say what we truly meant or what we truly feel towards a judgment. We are always afraid of words because it can create a million possibilities of answers and feelings after that.

It really pains to see Mafuyu still holds on his past lover but how beautiful it is because your truly love that person no matter what. He still hold on his memories like the person is still there for him. It is somehow a good thing that he met Uenoyoma which help thim to open up and let go all the regrets he made from his past lover. He somehow embrace the truth and choose now to move on while cherishing his memories without any regret and continue what his past lover left for him.

I just felt bad to Uenoyoma that he was somehow rejected by Mafuyu but it's part of life. I still admire him that despite he gave his best to be seen by Mafuyu, he still respect Mafuyu's decision after half-confessing his feelings towards him. I can see that he will support and will be there for Mafuyu from now on.

The story was short but gave me a lot of emotions in a span of 6 episodes. Their story gave me hope to not give up on what we truly want, that we can't force someone to do things for us, that we can be a good support to anyone who is in need, and that we can love freely without asking for anything in return.

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A captivatingly beautiful BL with a pensive quality

Given is a highly underrated, visually beautiful Japanese BL centred around a high school student learning to play the guitar from a fellow schoolmate.

Music becomes a key focal point in which relationships are set into motion. For Uenoyama and Mafuyu, it is through the language of music that they discover new vocabulary for speaking to others and each other.

After Uenoyama listened to Mafuyu's voice, something in him was stirred and he knew that his life would never be the same again – composing a song was his way of immortalising that moment. For Mafuyu, the same song bridges his past and future. As he verbalises the lyrics, he engages in a process of healing from a traumatic past, but also acknowledges that he has found someone whom he wishes to co-create music with in the future.

As a relatively short series with only 6 episodes of around 25 minutes each, the pacing is surprisingly slow. However, because every scene is so deliberate and purposeful, some concentration is required to fully appreciate the storytelling.

Read my full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/01/02/given-2021/

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QUITE FAITHFUL TO THE ANIME BUT….

Since I’ve watched the anime version before this one, I can’t help but compare the two, of course.

This live action version is okay it’s faithful to the anime. The memorable lines were also retained.

BUT…

1 The irritating twitching of Uenoyama’s face is clearly meant to approximate or imitate the anime character. Why??? These are REAL people now, so why try to be an anime character?

2 THE CASTING: Akihiko and Haruki in the anime are hunky, lovable characters. Here, they’re not. To think that the next focus of the manga (and the anime MOVIE) are those two! The casting here was a big mistake.

Also Yuki’s actor. Can’t they get a better looking actor? This one has no appeal AT ALL! Makes it hard to believe that Mafuyu could’ve fallen for him.

I’m also not sure if Mafuyu’s actor was the right one. He has this facial expression that is clueless or, sorry fo the word, dumb.

3. The character of Ugetsu appeared from nowhere. He just popped up without any background. We don’t even know that he is a famous violinist.

4. Mafuyu’s background is lacking. Like there’s no mention of his dad beating him up – or what happened to his dad.

5 The concert number has lots of dead air – both at the start and the end of their set. Lots of awkward silence there.

6 That SUPER DRY kiss! That’s one of the WORST kisses I’ve seen in a BL series. Can you even call that a kiss? And they shot it closeup!!

7 The song in the anime is a lot more moving that this one.

8 In the anime, it was clear in the end that Mafuyu has developed feelings for Uenoyama and in the end is hopeful for their relationship. Here, it wasn’t even evident that Mafuyu has feelings for Uenoyama.

9 The ending: Why did it end with Mafuyu and a supporting character? What happened to Uenoyama? That’s the reason why folks who didn’t watch the anime feel that this is incomplete.

I give the anime 10/10, I give this live action 8/10.

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The melancholic, cinematography vibe is actually what makes the story more accurate.

Hmm... I just passed by through comments and reviews and it seems a lot of casual BL watchers here shared their personal disappointments, and someone even rated a 2.0 stars over this drama, which for me I found it very ridiculous as it seems. But in the end, we do not share the vibes and I generally respect on people who shared their sentiments regarding the drama. If you're a casual BL watcher, then I suggest to read the manga or watching the anime one if you are looking for something more detailed plot/story.

I'll try my best to look into the detailed review cause I'm not a casual critique in criticizing dramas/live actions.

For me, I personally found the vibe in this drama MORE ACCURATE than what it was in anime, since the original story as shown in the manga has always been realistic since the beginning. The cinematographic, melancholy touch is just what I really needed for this drama to be. The storyline/plot on the other hand, generally lacks of important details as what people also talking about in the comments. There's nothing else you can expect much on this six episode drama because this generally focuses more on RitsuMafu's love story that you can almost tell that Shizusumi is almost non-existent in the drama. There's been lot of cut in details on some important scenarios, considering the length is only 25 mins per episode, compared to 45 minute-ish each episode in the anime version. Mafuyu (Sanari) almost lacks of screentime since they pointed too much on Ritsuka (Suzuki Jin) w/ the other members in the band. Even when the time Hiiragi debunked the side-story of Mafuyu's relationship with Yuki, it certainly wasn't enough for 25-min lengthy drama. Their version of Mafuyu's song, titled "Melody Lane" is actually good, but the emotions never been as strong as "Fuyu No Hanashi" (A Winter's Story) used in the anime one. The ending on the other hand, just suddenly ended abruptly for no reason at all which I did not get the point of ending of it. The actors on the other hand were acted completely natural, and I don't personally found it really overreacting since it might just ruin the feels in this drama. So yeah, it was really an roller-coaster emotional experience for me, and I really enjoyed playing with feelings and emotions while watching this drama. I was expected to be 10 or 12 EPs in total so we can totally see in details more, and probably we're able to see the stills of AkiHaru.

Perhaps, for a casual BL watcher who have higher standards in criticism would probably disappointed for this drama. I would recommend the anime one instead if you want a bit uplifting that this one, and if you want to be more something detailed, try to read the manga as well. If you want a BL that is something emotional, then I would recommend it.

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A different kind of given (worth watching)

So I'm like a hardcore Given fan and I still liked this adaptation for 3 reasons:
1. The song that replaced fuyu no hanashi was so fitting for the drama! i understand why people don't want another song, but fuyu no hanashi makes sense for the anime because the story was told like the manga. the drama took a different approach to the story, so the new song made more sense and fit it better. neither song is better or worse than the other, they just make sense for their adaptions. the ost in general was really nice.
2. The acting was great for almost everyone (i have a thing against mafuyu's actor's acting because it's just too monotone for me, but some people enjoyed so i won't say nun about it) but i LOVED uenoyama's actor! he was so expressive and i could feel the emotions through screen. i really liked the rest of the cast, you could feel their energy and it was just enjoyable to watch because of them. also, yuki and hiirage's actors were PHENOMENAL like my heart broke even more from watching the added romance scenes between yuki and mafuyu and hiirage's pain.
3. boi support good bl adaptations so we can get more! i want a ten count or hitorijime my hero adaptation jdkshfsdjkhdj

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FINALLY ...

Finally, a modern BL drama!!! with true characters who don't look like magazine models, with true music instead of the light pop tricking with good feelings and sung by a gauzy voice...
The drama is very short, only six episodes but they are dense enough to keep the story alive. Mafuyu is a troubled young man who has difficulties to go over a former tragic love story. His voice reflects exactly the pain and Uenoyama feels it immediately. He is struck by Mafuyu’s voice as soon as he hears it and is intrigued by the mystery that envelops Mafuyu. Mafuyu is the opposite of a hero, he is not a radiant, glamorous young man. This is what is interesting in this drama: it’s not based on the same keys than the typical BL dramas. Uenoyama is the first one who associates this voice with his band music and he will be the first one who will win again Mafuyu’s heart. It’s a beautiful concept and a beautiful story. Japanese are so good at that.

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