Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
- Anime Title: given
- Episodes: 11 episodes, 1 movie, 1 special episode
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Fuji Creative Corporation
- Title: given
- Author: Natsuki Kizu
- Genre: BL, Drama
- Volumes: 8
- Run: April 30, 2013 to March 30, 2023
I found this anime by accident. I do not remember what I was doing at the time. I could be studying, which was a high possibility. But I found this one night and stayed up for hours to actually finish the anime. And I have rewatched this anime many times since then.
The anime has two major arcs – Ritsuka and Mafuyu arc, and Akihiko and Haruki arc. The manga has three arcs – the first two being the same as the anime and the third being the Hiiragi and Shizusumi arc.
The first arc focused on the Ritsuka and Mafuyu relationship. From the moment they met on the stairs of the gym to their first live performance. Ritsuka was the genius lead guitarist, and Mafuyu was the shy musical genius vocalist. I enjoyed seeing Ritsuka’s journey in coming to terms with his feelings for Mafuyu and his music. It was young love and I was there for it. There was also the journey of the band itself and how it grew. A watcher could leave it as that. Enjoy the ride of young love and great music. But this was also a story about grief and moving on. About opening your heart to new love. It was amazing. All the things that needed to be said to a past lover all wrapped into one song. Did it pull at my heartstrings? Yes. And I cried every single time that song played.
The second arc focused on the relationship between Akihiko and Haruki. Akihiko was the playboy drummer, and Haruki was the leader of the band and bassist. Now, this was a story of unrequited love. It was so relatable that it was difficult to watch. It was too real. We have all been there. Admiring someone from afar. Deeping those feelings for someone as time goes on. Being heartbroken because for some reason or another, that other person just does not see you the same way. It was hard. Seeing these characters in pain because they were hurting each other or just the pain in the situation they were in, let’s just say that my heart broke for the people in this arc.
The third arc focused on Hiiragi and Shizusumi’s relationship. These two were Mafuyu’s childhood friends and also Yuki’s bandmates. Another young love. But more focused on Hiiragi coming to terms with his feelings for Shizusumi and Shizusumi’s unrequited love for Hiiragi. It was a whole misunderstanding trope and all that. This was pretty good as well. Shizusumi stayed by Hiiragi’s side this whole time while watching Hiiragi put Yuki on such a pedestal. Hiiragi trying to make Shizusumi understand that he was never in love with Yuki, to begin with. Ugh. Such angst.
So the first arc for anime was a serialized anime with 11 episodes. The second arc was a one-hour movie. And the third arc was manga only. The manga has 8 volumes although volume 8 is not available in English yet, which I am patiently waiting for. (Per Amazon, the title will be released on Oct 10, 2023.)
I say give it a try. My hun did. He liked it enough. I loved it. I think I said before that this was not a 5-star for me. But you know what, after rewatching the anime this week, I don’t understand why I even said that it wasn’t. I mean sure I can find faults in it if I really try, but honestly, I don’t want to. That’s how much I love this story. And the soundtrack? I would even rewatch this anime just for the music alone. It’s that good.
- Anime Title: Sasaki and Miyano
- Episodes: 13
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
Ah the story of young love. You know how it is. Your first love. I mean the feeling of yearning, being scared that the person you love will run away once you confess your feelings, the excitement when you see that person walking the corridors, the butterflies in your stomach when that person just even smiles at you. Yeah, all that packaged in this nice BL/Yaoi anime.
I picked this up because it’s BL, which is my romance preference. But I got so much more from it. From the moment that they met, until they got together, it was such a ride. I mean, my experiences were nothing like this but it did give me a sense of nostalgia as I think about that moment I saw him during P.E. class back in high school. Anyway, we will not rehash my ill fated first “love” here. We are going to talk about this anime.
One thing that stood out for me was the character development and internal struggles. Both the main characters – Sasaki and Miyano – have good character arcs. From Sasaki’s struggle with hiding his true feelings for Miyano just to not scare him away. To Miyano’s struggle with his sexuality. The anime was really good in depicting these emotions. (Ask my boyfriend, if you do not believe me)
The sweet moments were such gems. I still remember Sasaki’s reaction when Miyano gave him a gift for White Day. It still makes me smile. That reaction was too precious and basically lives in my head rent free.
The supporting characters, their friends, were also such good ones. You cannot find better friends than these boys. I mean, seriously, they are so supportive that it hurts when I think that not all friends are like these guys in real life. Such treasures.
Voice acting were done beautifully. I watched the anime both in dubbed and subbed versions. The actors were superb! I did prefer the dubbed version more, which does not happen often when I watch anime. I have rewatched this anime so many times in the dubbed version because the voice actors just did great.
I have watched a fair share of yaoi anime, and this for sure does not follow the regular trope that I am used to. This is such a slow burn romance that leads to that one moment in episode 12. I loved every minute of anticipation, every minute of the journey these two characters took to get together.
This post does not give the anime any justice whatsoever. It was so much more. My hun gave this anime a 10/10, a person whose preference does not fall in this category. But he enjoyed it a lot. And I am glad that I shared this with him.