Manga Review: Given, Volume 1, by Natsuki Kizu

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: SuBLime (VIZ Media)

Release Date: February 2020

Volumes: 6+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

 

Love of music unites the four members of the band Given: hotheaded guitarist Uenoyama, playboy drummer Akihiko, gentle bassist Haruki, and Mafuyu, a singer gifted with great talent and burdened by past tragedy. Their struggles and conflicts may drive them apart, but their bond to the music—and to each other—always brings them back together again.

Ritsuka Uenoyama is bored with it all—with school, with his basketball club, and even with his one true passion: playing guitar. That is, until the day he finds his favorite hidden napping spot occupied by a strange boy cradling a broken-stringed guitar. At first, Uenoyama is nonplussed by Mafuyu Sato and his slightly odd behavior, but when, on a whim, he asks Mafuyu to sing, the power of that song pierces him to the core.

 

Review:

 

I've heard so much about this series, I was actually wary of not liking it. My fears were in vain, because I was hooked almost immediately.

Uenoyama likes to nap during breaks in school, and when he goes to the stairway one day, he finds Mafuyu. Mafuyu is also sleeping, only he's holding a guitar with a broken string. When he tells Mafuyu that the guitar isn't ruined and can be fixed it sets off a tidal wave of changes for them both.

Mafuyu is a precious boy, and I only ever want good things to come to him from now on.

Anyway. I hadn't watched the anime when I read this volume, and have since finished the anime. The pacing is quite a bit different—we're given a lot more of an idea of what Mafuyu is going through here, whereas it took a lot longer in the anime. We also haven't been given as much information about their bandmates at this point. It hits a little differently, but it's still intense and it's still the same story.

I feel so strongly for Mafuyu, and I really just want good things for him. I understand why Uenoyama has a hard time saying no to him. And I feel for the fact that Mafuyu clearly has so much to say and is going through so many things, and yet doesn't know how to express any of it.

I feel very strongly for these characters, already, and I just badly need more.