How Given: The Anime Gave Me Hope for the Future of Shonen Ai Anime
Contains minor spoilers!
By Sneha Patra
Given is a shounen ai anime about how Mafuyu Sato, an introverted and a usually quiet high school teenager, learns to deal with grief and guilt after he joins a music band and makes new friends. Shonen ai is a subgenre of shonen that deals with romantic and/sexual relationships between boys or men. I had previously avoided shonen ai anime because of the unnecessary fetishization and romanticisation that often characterizes it, but watching Given gave me hope for new possibilities in the genre.
The anime begins with Mafuyu walking towards a train station from his house as he prepares to go to school. He appears to be lost in thought as he holds on to his guitar, thinking about a recurrent dream. The scene with the dream feels more like a harrowing flashback, which hints at a tragic event in Mafuyu’s past. As the train he has boarded leaves the station, Mafuyu tries to convince himself that he is not lonely. The scene then cuts to a school building, where we see a boy with black hair — Ritsuka Uenoyama — sleeping with his head on his desk. Uenoyama is another major character in the anime and eventually becomes Mafuyu’s romantic interest. Uenoyama is initially portrayed as a character who is bored and disinterested in everything happening around him, interested primarily in napping during his lunch break. We find out later in the anime that Uenoyama’s general lack of interest in everything is something that concerns his friends and family.. Their first encounter, as Uenoyama himself describes it, is the beginning of Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s journey of self discovery, romance, and their passion for music.
Mafuyu follows Uenoyama to the studio where he practices together with his 3-member band, The Seasons. Through his perseverance, he ultimately persuades Uenoyama to teach him, becoming the fourth member of the band. The anime allows us to learn more about the music industry as Mafuyu familiarizes himself with the world of music, bands and guitars. As a novice to the technicalities of music making, I found this as helpful as it was enjoyable (and I love the anime all the more for it). Through his interactions with Uenoyama, as well as his other bandmates, we gradually find out more about Mafuyu’s grief and the reason he is so insistent about learning to play the guitar (something I will not be discussing any further in the spirit of not giving away major spoilers). Towards the end of the anime, Mafuyu comes to realize that he is no longer lonely, and has, at long last, learnt to move on and enjoy living his life once again. We also learn of the struggles Uenoyama and the other band members — Akihiko Kaji and Haruki Nakayama — face. While that is not the focus of this article, the gradual way in which the plot progresses and reveals the struggles of each character and portrays their development over the course of the anime is, perhaps, what makes it so enticing to watch.
This also allows for Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s relationship to blossom beautifully as they progress from being mere acquaintances to bandmates and friends, to eventually becoming romantically involved with each other. Mafuyu’s upfrontness about being queer was refreshing to see, paired together with how Uenoyama comes to terms with his homosexuality as he eventually realizes his own feelings for Mafuyu. This, together with the other characters’ — especially the other band members’ — supportiveness of the two boys’ budding romance, gave me much hope for good queer representation in anime. One might argue that the romantic aspect of Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s relationship could have been explored more thoroughly, given that we are talking about a Shonen ai anime. While I agree that the anime does not have as many “romantic” moments as one would generally expect there to be in a romance anime, it greatly emphasizes on the emotional bond developing between Mafuyu and Uenoyama, and I find that just as important as showing a purely romantic scene between the two of them. I particularly liked how the plot develops gradually with imperfect and, yet, realistic characters who have their own struggles and accomplishments, and who are, most importantly, individuals consenting of their romantic and/or sexual relationship(s) with each other. Given showed me that Shonen ai anime, too, can become mainstream and can be engaging to watch regardless of whether or not they are familiar with the genre of boys’ love.
All in all, Given is a great anime if one wants to delve into the world of Shonen ai (not to mention that it is also a musical!), and quite possibly a breakthrough in the genre itself. I highly recommend watching Given if you’re on the lookout for a short anime that will have you enraptured from start to finish and leave you yearning for more. And I hope that, if you do decide to watch the anime, it gives you more hope for the future of Shonen ai anime, much like it did to me.
