-This review will contain spoilers.
-Trigger warning for sexual assault talk!!!

Back when Given first aired, it was praised for its healthy representation of a gay couple. In a genre that is saturated (at least in anime) by shows like Junjou Romantica, Super Lovers, Love Stage, and similar stuff, it is no surprise that Given was a success and that it had a good reception by the community. It was a show in the Boy's Love genre where there was not only a central plot, but where the characters had motivations of their own, and also personalities. While the production of the anime was average at best, it was still an enjoyable and emotional ride. After the TV anime ended, and the movie was announced, I am sure many people expected the quality to stay and for the main message of the show to deliver once again. It is a shame that it did neither. I knew going into this that I was not going to be a fan. As someone who used to be an avid reader of the manga at one point, I knew the arc the movie was going to focus on was not what I liked. Most of my issues were how the relationship between Akihiko and Haruki was treated, and also about how a show that was praised for a good representation of a relationship between two people ended up becoming yet another bad trope in Shounen ai anime. Whatever the first season of the anime tried to build, the movie just spat on.

The pacing of the whole movie feels fast, yet slow. Many transitions feel out of place and overall it is just very hard to follow up with what's happening. The production takes many shortcuts. Many. Plenty of shots are way too close and don't help establish the position of the characters in the scene, which makes the direction of the movie seem stilted and it lacks the personality that the first season had. This is very easy to spot in the first five minutes of the movie. We begin with Ugetsu's (Akihiko's on and off boyfriend) concerto and while I did expect the anime to add in CGI, it was still a huge disappointment. I don't mind the CGI model, whatever, but the main point of that scene was to let us in on the music world of Ugetsu. Let us see just what music he plays and what effect it has on people. The anime makes this a completely boring scene by failing to add to the atmosphere. It felt like a watered-down version of what happened in the manga, and this says a lot since the manga is not only in black and white but has no music or sound effects. It is also easy to notice that the violin playing sounds no different than if you looked up a violin piece on Youtube. In the first season, the sound when the band was playing at the concert venue, clearly sounded as if you were there hearing a band. Attention to detail is important and the movie doesn't seem to have it. Since the concerto scene has no impact, it is very hard to take Mafuyu seriously when he says that Ugetsu's music made feelings resonate within him. To make things even worse, many of the scenes where characters are playing music, are drawn from the chest up, meaning you won't see them actually play the guitar or whatever instrument they have. This probably meant to save time and/or money, but it is worth mentioning that it decreases the quality of the movie, since the first season had a jam session where every character was seen playing their instrument of choice.

It is time to address my biggest problem with the show and it is Akihiko and Haruki's relationship and the way it was handled. While the anime watered down some parts and/or removed some content (which I'm grateful for cuz the scene on the couch was heartbreaking and just pissed me off), it is important to know that the couple the movie focuses on is not, and will probably never be, on the same level as Mafuyu and Ritsuka's relationship back in season 1. Akihiko is honest to god a jerk in the beginning, and despite what the show tries to say, I can't ever see this man in a good light nor care about whatever good deed he does in the future. He has many problems, and while this does make him seem human, I just find him completely dislikable. Taking advantage of someone who you know has a soft spot for you and/or is in love with you, is an asshole move. Excuse my profanity but that is just the best way to describe it. Akihiko has no issue taking out his frustrations on Haruki. He hides a lot of things about himself but also expects others to tell him everything about them and what they are thinking. This is hypocritical behavior. He clearly has known for some time that Haruki had a crush on him, yet he didn't stop to think about his feelings and just used him when he needed to. It is funny how he tells Haruki that he is running away when it is clearly Akihiko who is running away and he even says so himself at some point. It is not Haruki's fault that Akihiko has problems with Ugetsu, yet he still ends up being dragged into their mess. Akihiko knows Haruki is in love with him, yet that didn't stop him from sexually assaulting him even though he asked him to stop and was crying. While the anime made this scene seem less horrendous than it was in the manga, it is still terrible. Even when Haruki says it was "consensual", I beg to differ since he only let him do what he wanted after he saw Akihiko was crying. After this, Akihiko apologizes and Haruki says he hopes he leaves by morning. To nobody's surprise, Akihiko seems to lack self-awareness and doesn't leave the apartment. Riveting. Even after what he did, he still has the nerve to ask Haruki to please help him since he has nowhere to stay. Haruki ended up cutting his hair after what happened, and it seemed as if there was an indication that he may give up on Akihiko and look for something else, but that is false hope since, spoiler, they will end up together just like you knew they would. I love how Akihiko literally assaulting Haruki, in Haruki's own apartment, is just glossed over as some dumb plot device.

At one point in the movie, Haruki is feeling bad since both Ritsuka and Mafuyu seem to be playing music fine, and Akihiko offers him some words of encouragement and this helps him feel better. I am sorry but this man assaulted you a day ago, and you're not only taking advice from him but feeling happy about it? this is not how things work. Haruki has self-esteem issues, and to me it is heartbreaking to see someone who clearly deserves better, end up with someone who I would rate lower than garbage. Like the book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower says, "We accept the love we think we deserve." . The rest of the movie continues showing Haruki and Akihiko growing "closer" and I say this in quotes because it just doesn't work for me. I need more than still shots gliding across the screen while some dialogue plays. Nearing the end of the movie, it is heavily implied that Akihiko fell in love with Haruki. Even in season 1, there wasn't much context to believe this. It only seemed like Akihiko liked teasing him and to me, it never felt like he was falling in love with him but whatever. The only thing I am going to mention about Ugetsu is that the movie tried painting him like a villain, and at the same time it made him lose whatever personality he had in the manga. I didn't enjoy the way his character was handled, and it seemed like he was the bad guy of the story, even though both he and Akihiko were to blame for how their relationship became and ended.

To end this review, which is kind of my hate letter to what Given became, the part where Akihiko and Ugetsu break up is not done properly, causing it to once again lose whatever emotion was supposed to be there. The show feels hollow and I find it incredibly sad since the first season did a great job in that department. Plenty of scenes between Mafuyu and Ritsuka were removed and this again makes the song they sing in the movie suffer. It is not a bad song by any means, but at least for me it had no emotional value and it is not better nor on the same level as the song they sang in the first concert. The theme song that plays in the end, however, has way more emotion and seemed to fit better the relationship between Akihiko and Ugetsu, as well as the one Mafuyu had with Yuki. It is disappointing to see a show that was something special go this bad. Not only did it feel like the studio didn't put the same love into it, but most of the issues in the movie were going to be the same since the story is following the manga. It is not a terrible movie, but it is not a good movie either. It is merely an hour long so it doesn't feel like wasted time, but it left me feeling empty and besides the ending theme, I didn't enjoy the majority of its run. If you do like the couple of Akihiko and Haruki maybe you will enjoy this or were even looking forward to the movie but at least in what refers to me, I once again remembered why I dislike Akihiko Kaji.