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I have an absolute problem with overrated style over substance pieces of media, and nothing falls into that category more than the Given manga. Absent of the soundtrack, wonderful music, and fantastic voice acting of the TV ani and films, this story-only form of Given has nearly nothing going for it except a great early arc, a couple of fantastic pages after that, compelling character profiles and its fantastic art. You have to say, this author can design and draw characters. They are proportional, unique from one another, don't have classic anime face, and are all very attractive. She is a wonderful artist.

I withheld this ... review until the series officially ended, because I was in fact told by many parties that the "real meat" of the story was coming. It was coming! Haruki's development, Ugetsu's postscript, Ritsuka's work/life balance arc, it's all coming! This is one of the great BL of all time, after all.

Yeah. It never came. Big surprise.

Just remember, before you call this one of the best BLs and/or music manga of all time, that after 50 chapters of calling this work "Given," and an entire Hiiragi Mix of drama separating Uenoyama and Mafuyu specifically over the *very fact of Given's debut*, Given's debut...

...was a montage. A single page montage. What happened around it? What did the meetings about it look like, what did the day feel like, what did the characters think and how did it play out? Dunno. Try and read their facial expressions from the one panel that contained a meeting between them and their manager. Some might have had hope that 10th mix or what came afterwards would have plot and be good writing, but that was the point at which I perfectly understood how many effs she still gave about the series. A shame about those who genuinely looked forward to entire character arcs in the sequel.

In the end, this was neither a story about music, about what it means to logistically be a band, nor, after around chapter 42, even a proper romance drama of any kind. Nor was it an especially effective slice of life established relationship fiction, either, as the characters who had gotten together had little to no progression in their relationships. As someone who was in love with the TV anime, and the early arcs of this manga, and many of these characters, I can only express my disappointment that the author simply cannot write plots past thirty or so chapters.

I would never recommend this story to anybody whose emotions I care about. The characters have fantastic personality profiles and endless potential, yet, in the end, almost none of it was fulfilled. Which might be worse than a manga who shows its mediocre hand from the start. If you're reading for the found family or band aspect of the band, "Given," better give up while you're ahead. Unless you're satisfied with a handful of cute panels of the four of them looking up at the sky together or sitting in a break room exchange filler dialogue; which is basically all you'll get after the first twenty or so chapters.

I'm not a person given to much regret in my life. But the one thing I would do if I had a time machine is go back in time and stop myself from investing emotionally in this manga. What a mistake it was. These were all lovely characters with fantastic potential, from Ritsuka, to Haruki, to Ugetsu, and she wasted all three of them, and a couple others, besides. If you care about yourself, and you haven't read this manga yet, don't. It'll lead you to one of the most disappointing denouements and endings you can imagine.

Anyone who's ever passed a drunken night out on a college town or city campus will immediately understand what the f*** is happening in this film, without further explanation. I can’t think of the last time an anime, and an anime so abstract at that, managed to capture a real world experience so perfectly. The plot is wacky, the art certainly doesn’t tend towards the real, yet the actual Feeling of experiencing the movie will smack anyone who’s had a similar experience in the face with brutal nostalgia. Especially for someone old like me, who experienced all of this a long time ago, it was ... kind of beautiful to relive that period of my life. Trying to “run into” the girl or guy you have a crush on. Wandering through drinking contests, in what increasingly feels like battles of will, and ending up sick as a dog at the end of it.

On these kinds of nights you make innumerable connections, and they're fleeting, oftentimes impermanent, but not insubstantial. They affect you and you affect them in some brief, chaotic, entropic way. And every once in a while you stumble into a connection on one of these nights that really lasts. iykyk

Just on that level alone, the movie is valuable.

But at its core, this is a film about what it is to approach life with total open-heartedness. Absolute, unstinting open-heartedness. This is the ultimate film of manifestations. If you approach life with verve, spirit, good cheer, and absolute belief, the world conforms itself to your will. You create your own luck, and the universe will conspire to bring you joy, success, victory, even good health and total immunity from disease; and many, many of the other things you might want. Such as in the much maligned The Alchemist—which nonetheless had a few good concepts in it, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” This is an exact continuation of the theme of The Tatami Galaxy: Life is only a prison if you choose to see it that way. Both posit that the way we approach life *actively changes the things that happen to us in the outside world.* Manifesting.

Despite not being a big fan of manifesting, I’m a huge fan of this film. I really fell for it. It took me back to early adulthood, nights out with friends, the whole thing chaotic and, by the end of the night, visually deformed. It’s an ode to how beautiful life can be when you are *completely* liberated from the 4.5 tatami room. I love, love, love this movie.

This series came out and was equally raved about at the same time as Frieren, which disappointed me so massively with its poor storytelling and intrinsic emptiness that I was leery of this title as well, from the start. It took two tries, but after the furor around both titles had eased off, I gave this another shot, and found it splendidly fun, filled with incredibly vibrant characters, and thoroughly enjoyable. Is it the most groundbreaking anime ever written? No, surely not. It is not revolutionary or transmutative in any particular aspect: reinvention; subversion; refinement of the genre; but as a piece of entertainment, it ... more than succeeds.

It's true that Maomao spends a lot of time giving what feels like contextualizing or expository commentary, but it isn’t a hindrance, and I don’t believe that it’s a crutch, either. It is, after all, the Apothecary's *Soliloquy.* One can get enjoyment out of Maomao's narration in the same way that one can enjoy reading another's diary. The monologues are not meant solely to give exposition. They're character development; the narrations are meant to say something *about Maomao,* it is not *using* Maomao, as poor exposition would, solely to give viewers information about the world.

This show is filled to the brim with warm, lovable, idiosyncratic characters who make the world of KnH feel enjoyable to spend time in. The babies are properly cute. The bishies are hot and beautiful at the same time. The ladies of the court are properly resplendent, charming, and lovely, each in their own way. And while I acknowledge Maomao's self insert protagonist qualities, I'm very much in the cult of Maomao. She's fantastic. Like Jinshi (and Ah Duo)’s appearance, Maomao's personality is perfectly androgynous. Despite it being a bit overdone at times how easily everyone becomes enamoured with her, one can understand the appeal. Her slightly masculine aspect appeals to the women of her canon, her feminine aspects make her appeal to men of her canon, and the combination of both makes her appealing to the ultimate prize of the canon, the former Crown Prince (I’m sure someone’s made a joke already about him being a frog prince). The show does a wonderful job with androgyny, not just in the way of appearances but in the way of personalities. In a time period where gender roles and stereotypes were entrenched in societal discourse, KnH is filled with characters who have both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine aspects to them, and they use these unique combinations of traits to get by in the world. With Maomao being the most 50/50 balance of them all. That is, I think, her charm, both in canon and amongst viewers.

I didn’t find Season 2 boring as some seemed/seem to. One of the best characters in the series, and their story, debuts in the second season. For shows like this where the characters are the shining aspect, I’m okay when/if the plot drags a little.

The amount of terribly placed exposition, hand holding, and flashbacks in Frieren should be studied as a what not to do in the animated medium. For those who want a bland, unbothersome, soothing experience of anime style medievalcore, Frieren isn't a bad way to soothe away an afternoon. However, it is the worst example of storytelling in the top 50? 100? of MAL anime. It has some of the worst storytelling I've seen in any anime, ever. I have watched tropey anime. I have watched trite anime. I have watched anime that felt like an AI compilation of all the older, successful anime in its ... genre that came before it. Yet all of those presented their story more subtly, effectively, and cleverly than Sousou no Frieren did. Perhaps Frieren wanted to capture something of the LoGH OVA style of telling history through narration; if so, it shouldn't have pretended to be about a single character's internal change and journey.

It's hard to understand how an anime that is primarily exposition, tell not show, montage, and flashback could ever be successful as a piece of media; all the more baffling that it has been *this* successful. Perhaps, like certain political movements, it caught a certain zeitgeist at just the right time. It's difficult to explain otherwise.

The best test of how good a series is is how the characters speak to one another. Are they communicating with each other or with us, beyond the fourth wall? The characters in Frieren almost *never* communicate with one another. They are all, near unequivocally, communicating with the viewer. They are there to explain a plot point. They are there to provide worldbuilding, exposition. They are there to force feed us some convoluted yet astonishingly banal piece of life advice. This is a show that says nothing, yearns for nothing, and offers nothing. At best it is visually enjoyable and aurally comforting.

Art was beautiful; contributed plenty to the atmosphere and mood of coldness. It's easy to feel that the protagonist's endeavours with the various men who exist and pop up in her life would end in tragedy, a sense of foreboding, and the creeping feeling that the world she inhabits is an inherently lurid place.

Ultimately this was a story about the violence and freedom of being a woman. It's short in length, but it felt visceral, had impact, and was executed in a fresh enough way that the plot didn't feel trite, despite the core story about abuse and retaliation being an oft trodden tale. Would ... recommend, especially for women who want to feel some violence and freedom in their own lives.