Review of given

This anime is a breath of fresh air. I struggle to call it a BL anime, because none of the others approach GIVEN in quality of the story and its characters, with very few exceptions. It's quite simply the best the genre has to offer. Its characters' stories seem real, their affections... unaffected, their passions and anxieties well justified. Even outside of the BL label, it's a damn good drama. It's avoiding many of the tropes of the more manipulative drama (consigning everything to miscommunication) as well as BL (dysfunctionally uneven relationships). It's heart-wrenching, heart-warming, and entertaining. What more could we possibly ask for? (Answer: Season 2).