Review of given

Given is one of those shows I didn't have huge expectations for. I mean, it is my first BL show, but the examples I had gotten before this were a little ridiculous and kinda bad, so while this was my first one, I didn't have high expectations. But slowly and surely I started loving this series more and mire to the point that it surpassed Dr Stone and Vinland for me and making it my AOTS. The characters are the easy standouts of this show. The show somehow gets so much personality out of these characters without even trying and I love it. My favoriteby the end had to be Akihiko, who I thought would be this emotionless, no-nonsense character, but he ends up being so much more then that. All the characters, even the supporting ones like Yayoi and Hiiragi, who easily could've been window dressing, but they end up being these characters I genuinely liked.

Another part that made this so fucking good was the music. From the title references to the soundtrack to the actual performances in the show, the show has so much passion in there. Whoever voiced Sato... just fucking killed it. The soundtrack is something that I want to listen too over and over again.

That's the big thing that I loved about this anime: the passion is all over the place. The directing, the animation, the VAs, the music, it's everywhere and that's what this awesome. It could've just been a regular run-of the mill seasonal anime, but it's so much more then that. I love it.

There is the off-kilter issues here and there. The production clearly wasn't the highest (I mean, Lerche did have another show to work on this season), so there are some shortcomings here and there. But those are easily outshined. I implore anyone who hasn't watched this anime to at least give it a chance. It's truly more then it's synopsis says it is.