Given The Movie

SPOILERS BELOW: READ AT YOUR OWN CAUTION

The first couple of minutes bring back the delightful story that I fell in love with when I first watched Given and we are introduced to all the characters before delving into Akihiko's story. Things seemed to be going ok until the first scene that made think...um...Akihiko what the hell?, which was the scene: where Haruki calls up Akihiko only for Akihiko to be having a nice time with a girl in the background to which Haruki hears the girl moan and clearly Akihiko has no feelings for the girl as he's not even looking at her and is just calling his friend instead.

So, at this point, I'm already kind of disturbed by Akihiko's behaviour and he's clearly not the same character that I loved in the beginning but then, yet again, the story turns me away from that mess with some cute Mafuyu x Uenoyama moments UNTIL THAT SCENE happens when Akihiko sexually assaults Haruki. I was kind of confused when I first watched this scene and I had to actually go back and rewatch it to realise that no I didn't just make that scene up and that it actually happened. Now I got worried as the movie only had a bit of time left and I wasn't sure how they could possibly resolve this and I was expecting that maybe if they spend all the time focusing on this relationship between Akihiko x Haruki (like the movie says) everything will be fine......

...It doesn't get better. As instead of focusing on the bigger issue of the sexual assault they sort of pass over it ever happening as Akihiko says, "Oh I don't have anywhere else to stay so I know I just assaulted you and all but can I just crash out at your place- promise I won't try to rape you again." (I'm paraphrasing) but then when Haruki clearly says no he just keeps saying the same thing until Haruki is so traumatized that he leaves HIS house and crashes at a friend's house to which he cuts his hair etc. THEN, like the very next day, Akihiko sees Haruki at band practice and they just sort of makeup??? This may just be my bad memory but I can't remember a moment of resolution between the two characters and, if there was, it clearly wasn't very impactful as to me it felt like they went from the extreme of sexual assault to living together....that's unhealthy and abusive.

And the story then just leaves Akihiko and Haruki's relationship there as if there's nothing else to say and then moves on to resolving Akihiko and Ugetsu's relationship instead. Another part that kind of shocked me was when Mafuyu x Uenoyoma just says, "Oh the drums and bass sound pretty in synch" and like...why would it be?...because they're living together in the same house in an unhealthy relationship?? Or because of something else which hasn't been mentioned in the story yet??

Apart from the absolute mess of Akihiko x Haruki's confession and everything else that happened this was entertaining as the music and Akihiko x Ugetsu's resolving of their relationship and the scenes with Mafuyu and Ugetsu and the scenes with Mafuyu and Uenomoya were really well presented. Of course, there was also the issue with the CGI in some scenes but that was minor compared to the absolute catastrophe of whatever the hell that sex scene was.

So, overall, this movie was "a delightful catastrophe" as despite the absolute mess that happened I still enjoyed the other parts of the story and just tried to ignore whatever the hell happened in the middle XD

Do I recommend you watch this if you've watched Given 1st Season? No, and yes as I feel like if you're a fan of Given you should watch this (not saying you'll enjoy it but you may be able to ignore the mess in the middle) whereas if you're not a fan of Given you should not watch this at all.