adjective_boy

I watched the Given anime awhile back, and figured I may as well give the live action a try. I'm not sure WHY they thought they could condense the already short series into something even shorter, but I was quite disappointed with how much nuance of the original story you miss out on by watching this version. I definitely didn't dislike it, but I think the only reason I enjoyed it was because I was thinking about the anime the entire time.

If you're already a fan of the manga or anime, I'd say give this a watch if you want something fun and fast to remind you of it. However, I would advise people looking into watching this to watch the anime instead - it's not much longer, and it's significantly better. The ending of this show was so....nothing. Plus, I think the best part of the story is Mafuyu's backstory, which you get some of, but not nearly enough to truly understand his character. Plus, with such little time, Uenoyama came off as way more rash and jealous in this version. Trying to ALSO tie in Akihiko's storyline felt like they were just adding easter eggs for people that were already fans, because there wasn't enough in this version to put together any cohesive storyline with that. Overall an okay show, but not if you're unfamiliar with the story.