Review of given - on the other hand

When the Given Movie was released, I lamented that the producers made to decision to cut quite a bit from the manga to fit the movie into an hour. In doing so they made the decision to concentrate on the secondary couple which left manga protagonists Mafuyu and especially Ritsuka with very little to do. Ritsuka in particular was hardly more than a cameo. The OVA redresses that completely, concentrating on the manga chapters missing from the movie and turning them into a dense mini movie that comes in at just over 20 minutes. It’s an absolute must for Given fans. Once again, superbvoice work from Shogo Yano and Yuuma Uchida. Solid if unspectacular animation but ultimately it is more of what made the series so successful, good storytelling and great characters.