Given

## Given **Given** (ギヴン) is an 11-episode 2019 anime television series produced by Lerche, adapted from Natsuki Kizu's manga. It is one of the most critically celebrated romance anime of its era — celebrated for the authenticity and restraint of its emotional storytelling, the quality of its original music, and its careful handling of grief as an underpinning for both art and connection. The series broke through to a wide audience and helped establish music-themed romance anime as a distinct and beloved subgenre. Ritsuka Uenoyama is a high school guitarist who is falling out of love with playing — until he encounters Mafuyu Sato sleeping in a corner of the school, clutching a broken guitar. Ritsuka impulsively repairs the guitar and, hearing Mafuyu hum, realizes the boy has an extraordinary natural voice. Reluctantly, he agrees to teach Mafuyu to play, drawing him into the band he plays in with two older friends. As Mafuyu gradually opens up, it becomes clear he carries an enormous, unresolved grief — connected to his former boyfriend's death — that has found its only outlet in music. The series is about how music becomes a vessel for what we cannot say directly, and about two people whose feelings for each other become clear only through the melodies they make together.