Review of given
Given is a first for me. I think my first foray into BL/Yaoi type anime was with Yuri On Ice though I never knew it would turn out the way it did. I thought I was in for a normal sports anime about ice skating. Then came along Banana Fish where all I knew about it was they hinted at some shounen ai themes but never fully went into it. Based off that I assumed it was safe enough for someone of my tastes and interests. Then came along Given. An anime where I fully knew it was a yaoi yet I proceeded to watchit anyway. The premise of a rock band reminded me of Beck (one of my favorites). The trailer for the anime was well done and it was being shown on the Noitamina anime block. A block known for showing high quality anime. With those things in mind, I dove in bracing myself for whatever BL themes they would throw at me. I was fully prepared to drop it at any time. However, I ended up finishing it. These are my thoughts of my first yaoi.
The story for Given starts off rather promising. You have a high school kid who is in a band in need of a singer happens upon a sleepy eyed loner with a past and a golden voice. From there, it’s about getting this prodigy to open up and peel back the layers that have been keeping his voice locked away. Together they use the power of music and love to free him. Now that I think about it that sounds really corny. Trust me though, the show does a great job of portraying it.
As I was watching week by week everything felt to be moving by very slowly. One of the main points of music anime is the music. Getting to listen to the characters perform and sing songs should be a staple among all music anime. During this time waiting for the performance, the anime spent it developing the cast. Specifically their relationships of the same sex. Something I’m not used to seeing but I soldiered on becoming engrossed in their struggles. At the root of it all was our sleepy eyed kid. As the story slowly peeled back the layers, more was revealed about how he came to be before reaching a fever pitch at the penultimate performance that is episode 9. Sometimes there are individual episodes that define an entire show or better yet define the year in general. Episode 9 was absolutely worth the wait. I take back everything I said about the show being slow due to a lack of musical performances. I was blown away. I could feel the weight behind every musical note uttered, behind every cord strummed, behind every high pitched scream. This episode will definitely stick with me for a long time. After episode 9 the anime mellows out again, only now the heavy blanket that had covered our characters has been lifted. Dawn has risen. A new day is upon us.
The music for this show, what can I say. Episode 9s performance is easily worth a 10 on its own. The opening song is also very good and really gets you excited for the episode as it features a show stopping musical performance by our band. The ending song is rather mellow by comparison but still a good one. Art and animation is acceptable. There is a bit of CGI used during the performance which could definitely throw some people off but it’s not enough to completely distract from the raw power and emotion brought forth.
I’m glad I took a chance on this, and I hope you do too.