Review of given

Given is likely to be the best Shounen Ai anime in a very ~very~ long while. It isn't perfect. Not everyone will like it. But it surely is nicely build as a teen romance between two (or more) guys. The characters have their own personalities and you get caught by all of theirs charms and charismas. The side couple is as effective as the main, but this is not a case where you want to skip the main scenes for the side story. The main characters work. The story, however, unlike the pretension of a teen romance, is very intense and dramatic and could have beenmore maturely explored. You get caught thinking whether Mafuyu had a depression over the loss of someone he loved, but on the flashback scenes, you get to see he has always been like this, mostly due to family trauma - which is not talked about enough.
The explanation over the person he lost is not enough to fully understand the story. This is not a case of whether it should have been over explained, it just isn't at all.
Some characters and plots have the only function of providing more plot to a continuation, that is the case of the side characters love arch and the drummer's roommate (whose appearance in the last episode makes absolutely no difference).
Anyway. Still cute and lovely. Waiting anxiously for the movie.