Given
ギヴン
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A band, a boy who cannot sing his grief, and the guitarist who falls for him.
Ritsuka Uenoyama is a high-school guitarist who has stopped feeling much when he plays. When his quiet classmate Mafuyu Sato turns up with a broken-stringed guitar, Ritsuka restrings it, and Mafuyu asks to be taught. Ritsuka gives in and brings him to his band's rehearsals with two university students, the bassist Haruki Nakayama and the drummer Akihiko Kaji. Hearing Mafuyu sing a melody of his own, Ritsuka asks him to be their singer.
The guitar belonged to Yuki Yoshida, Mafuyu's childhood friend and boyfriend, who took his own life after a falling-out between them in middle school. Mafuyu believes his words caused it and cannot put what he feels into language. When he says he wants the band's song to be about someone he loved, Ritsuka realises, jealous, he has fallen for him. Hiiragi and Shizusumi, Mafuyu's childhood friends and Yuki's bandmates, carry their own grief.
On the night of the band's first show Mafuyu still has no lyrics. At the last moment he sings what he feels about losing Yuki, the show is a success, and afterwards he and Ritsuka kiss. The band names itself Given, after the guitar Yuki's mother gave Mafuyu. Mafuyu tells Ritsuka he loves him, their bandmates take it in their stride, and the series ends with Mafuyu wanting a new song and Haruki admitting to himself he wants more from Akihiko than silent devotion.
The 2020 film turns to the older pair as Given competes in a year-end festival's amateur contest. Akihiko, a violin student, still lives and sleeps with his ex-boyfriend, the celebrated violinist Ugetsu Murata. After a row with Ugetsu he turns up at Haruki's flat and sexually assaults him. Haruki cuts off his long hair; Akihiko apologises and, with nowhere to go, stays. At the audition Mafuyu sings lyrics shaped by Ugetsu's confession, Akihiko remembers he loves music, and afterwards he leaves Ugetsu for good. Given narrowly fails. In spring, after a violin competition, Akihiko tells Haruki he changed to be worthy of him, and Haruki says yes.
Two 2024 films close the story. In Hiiragi Mix, Hiiragi and Shizusumi's band, winner of the contest, is set to debut with Ritsuka as stand-in guitarist; Given is offered a debut too, and Mafuyu cannot answer. Hearing Ritsuka's demo of a song Yuki left unfinished, Hiiragi understands he loves Shizusumi as Yuki loved Mafuyu, and they become a couple, while Mafuyu, afraid of being left alone again, realises he has stopped singing. In To the Sea, encouraged by Ugetsu, he goes to hear Ritsuka play Yuki's finished song, finds Yuki in it, and chooses to go on making music with him. Its closing performance is Given's, the two singing together.
Starring
Shogo Yanoas Mafuyu Sato
A quiet high-school student with an extraordinary untrained voice, still carrying the suicide of his boyfriend, Yuki.
Mafuyu Sato’s story
Mafuyu, abused by his father as a small child, grew up leaning on his friend Yuki; in middle school they were together, and after a quarrel Yuki took his own life. Mafuyu believes his words caused it and carries Yuki's broken-stringed guitar, unable to say what he feels. Ritsuka restrings it, and Mafuyu becomes his band's singer. At the first show, with no lyrics written, he sings his grief for Yuki; afterwards he and Ritsuka become a couple. In the film he sings an answer to the painful love Ugetsu confided to him. When a major label calls, he cannot answer and, afraid of being left alone again, stops singing. Pushed by Ugetsu, he goes to hear Ritsuka play the song Yuki left unfinished, finds Yuki in it, and chooses to go on making music with Ritsuka.
Yuma Uchidaas Ritsuka Uenoyama
A gifted, blunt teenage guitarist who had lost his love of music until Mafuyu's voice brings it back, and falls for him.
Ritsuka Uenoyama’s story
Ritsuka is a gifted guitarist who has stopped feeling anything when he plays. Restringing Mafuyu's guitar and hearing him sing brings it back, and he pulls Mafuyu into his band. Jealous of the dead boyfriend Mafuyu still carries, he realises he is in love, kisses him after the first show and tells the older members, who take it in their stride. When a major label approaches Given, Ritsuka is also standing in as guitarist for syh, Hiiragi's band, which asks him to finish a song Yuki left unfinished; he does it despite himself. Unable to reach Mafuyu, who has turned away from music, he decides to answer him from the stage. Mafuyu comes to the show, hears Yuki in the song, and the story ends with the two of them singing together.
Masatomo Nakazawaas Haruki Nakayama
The band's bassist and easygoing leader, a graduate student who has quietly loved Akihiko for years.
Haruki Nakayama’s story
Haruki, a graduate student and the band's bassist, keeps Given together and has loved Akihiko in silence for years, while Akihiko goes on living and sleeping with his ex, Ugetsu. Watching Mafuyu's gift open up, he feels he is the only ordinary one in the band. One night Akihiko, after a row with Ugetsu, turns up at his flat and sexually assaults him. Haruki cries, has his long hair cut off, and, when Akihiko says he has nowhere to go, lets him stay. He tells Mafuyu that he no longer feels that way, while it hurts him that Akihiko does not want him. In spring he watches Akihiko's violin competition and leaves early; Akihiko finds him by the river and tells him he changed to be worthy of him. Haruki says yes.
Takuya Eguchias Akihiko Kaji
The drummer, a violin student who still lives with his ex-boyfriend Ugetsu and cannot decide what he wants.
Akihiko Kaji’s story
Akihiko, a violin student and Given's drummer, has been with Ugetsu since high school and still lives in his house and sleeps with him after the break-up. Beside Ugetsu's genius he has stopped believing in his own violin. After a row with Ugetsu he turns up at the flat of Haruki, who has loved him for years, and sexually assaults him. He apologises and, with nowhere else to go, stays, cooking for Haruki. At the contest audition, hearing Mafuyu sing, he remembers that he loves music; afterwards he runs after Ugetsu, apologises for hurting him, thanks him and leaves him for good. He moves out of Haruki's flat and takes his violin seriously, and in spring, after a competition, he tells Haruki he changed to be worthy of him and asks him to go out with him.
Shintaro Asanumaas Ugetsu Murata
A world-famous violinist, Akihiko's ex-boyfriend and flatmate, bound to him in a relationship that neither can end.
Why it matters
Given is about grief that has no words yet, and about the young men who help one another find them. At its centre is a suicide, and a boy who believes his own words caused it, and the series treats that guilt with patience: Mafuyu is not rescued by a new love, he is given time and a stage on which to sing his way through the old one. Its queer relationships are neither a secret waiting to be exposed nor a spectacle; when two members of the band fall in love, the others carry on rehearsing. In 2019 it became the first boys' love series to air in Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina slot, and its first film topped Japan's mini-theatre chart for five weeks running. What it leaves open is whether loving someone new is a betrayal of the dead, or the only way of keeping faith with them.