“ Given” is more realistic in its themes and deliberate in its character development, making the story surrounding them easy to engage with and become invested in. Typically, the emotional aspect to both the story itself and between the characters in BLs are superficial or forced at best, and there’s no room to address real issues or vulnerability, rather quickly devolving into… well, porn. This stirring narrative is what makes “ Given” so good, but what makes it downright beautiful are the unique ways the story breaks away from typically stigmatizing or overly sexualized themes which are usually present in the Japanese BL, or “Boys’ Love” genre.
Post-performance, Mafuyu is also able to acknowledge his mutual, budding feelings for Uenoyama, and the show’s conclusion episodes are spent following the two of them as they get permission from their bandmates to officially date and spend time together. The genuine, raw emotion in this scene is overwhelming and one of the main factors to making this story so impactful overall. Through the song, Mafuyu is finally able to express his grief and openly cry for the first time. The song itself is a soul-wrenchingly beautiful ode to Yuki, accompanied by a simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming montage of the time Mafuyu spent with him. With support from his bandmates and particularly strong motivation from Uenoyama, Mafuyu is able to work through the trauma of the past through writing a song titled “ Fuyunohanashi”, or “ Winter Story”, which the band performs for a live audience in Episode 9. This jarring revelation shocks Uenoyama and their other bandmates as much as it does the audience. It is only through other characters who return from Mafuyu’s past and very small moments of reflection from himself that the audience learns Mafuyu’s childhood friend and long-term boyfriend, Yuki, had committed suicide earlier that year. Uenoyama quickly finds himself falling for Mafuyu however, Mafuyu himself is still seemingly trapped in a past he won’t speak of.
Mafuyu carries around a high-end model guitar, but is unable to play it, capturing Uenoyama’s curiosity and prompting him to teach Mafuyu how to play, as well as eventually getting him to join his band as the lead vocalist. It follows the main character, Uenoyama, as he meets a quiet, seemingly air-headed boy named Mafuyu. With only 11 episodes, each 20 minutes long, it’s an easy breeze through a beautifully crafted, LGBTQ+ love story surrounding grief and new beginnings. That this explicit, multi-layered LGBTQ+ love story was aired on a mainstream anime program is a huge milestone for the community, and goes to show just how undeniably good this show is.īefore we go any further, it’s worth saying that if, at this point, you have any interest whatsoever, you should really take the time to watch this show and experience it the way you’re meant to.
This in itself is a feat, as while the amount of gay romance in anime is anything but lacking, in general, it tends to stay as a separate, subcultural portion of the more mainstream force of modern animes, most stories remaining as mangas and never getting the chance to be animated in the first place.
The animated adaptation became the first explicitly gay series to air on Noitamina, a programming block of Fuji TV reserved exclusively for anime. Now, it’s only fitting to start this series with the show that inspired it: the soul-wrenching, eleven episode phenomenon known as “ Given.” Absolutely falling into the “ beautiful” column of categorization, the original manga written and illustrated by Natsuki Kizu began publishing in 2013, and received an anime adaptation in 2019. This series hopes to give a proper platform to those unique productions that take LGBTQ+ representation out of the comfortable shadows of connotation or fetishization it typically resides in and present themselves as unapologetically, beautifully gay. The last few years in particular have yielded some of the most refreshing and positive instances of representation within the genre. Some may think they don’t overlap, but in fact, there is a rich division of anime known for and characterized by its LGBTQ+ themes. Graphic Illustration by Chrys Marr (She/They)