#mporeplies

[magicpotatoobsession]

Hi hello just wanted to say a very very big thank you for the kind words on your reblog tags ❤️ I'm thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to cry happy tears because of you and I'm not even joking in the slightest. Much love.

OMG the very fact that YOU'RE in my inbox makes me wanna cry! 🥹🥹🥹 I'm always supporting you and your art! It's amazing! Please keep doing what you do!

Given-lovers, PLEASE go give @eludesu a follow if you haven't! <3

[magicpotatoobsession]

Hi, how are you?

I’ve came across your blog while I started reading Given and having questions about the manga.

I would like to know about your idea of Uenoyama, I have read your thoughts to all the post pinned, but I have still something unfinished with him.

I do really like his character even though is soo different from me and I will go to the extend to say that is probably one of my favourite.

I feel that his pain hasn’t been talked much, there are moments here and there, also when he says that ‘he will never be him’ (which hurts so bad) but all those chapters were focused on the healing journey of Mafuyu. We really never knew if Uenoyama had overcome those insecurities. He is a teenager who lost interest in anything, meets Mafuyu and falls in love with him (so we have this big new feeling), then he starts playing with enthusiasm again, then somehow not only starts dealing with his feelings but also the ones Mafuyu has for Yuki, and he is dealing with them silently (and let's remember at the beginning of the manga he didn't seem to feel much and all of sudden he's bombarded by all these new emotions which are not only his and he's just a teenager 😭 ). He is dealing with the distance between him and Mafuyu silently too. When he finished the song and the manga ended I felt uncompleted. Will he ever feel completely loved by Mafuyu or he just accept what Mafuyu can give to him? Will he always feel the shadow of Yuki between them? Is he happy with it? Will he ever feel that he ‘needs’ to be like Yuki? Is he still insecure? Is even fair to live with the shadow of the first love of YOUR first love?

Something I noticed is that when the second song came out I thought it was for him but then I realised it was more for UgetsuxAkihikoxHaruki with some similarity between him and Uenoyama, but in the song, there still is a second person, it is not fully a romantic song as I originally thought, there is still this shadow. So I went to check if there was actually any song for him and even though there is, in one part it says ‘with you I can go through another winter’ or something similar and I felt again, this shadow still present. It might be something silly and probably the character of Uenoyama would not think about it or would just accept it, but I felt that even though he was loved, the love he receives has a filter to it, he loves Mafuyu fully but will he ever be just loved? Or he’s going to be always someone who surely helps Mafuyu overcome or deal with his trauma and current boyfriend, but will he ever just be his lover? Can he just be him only (I'm not sure if I explained myself well)? I felt that between Akihiko and Haruki there wasn't the presence of Ugetsu when they got together (even if I still think that Haruki is uncompleted as well). I understand of course the trauma of Mafuyu and that he's paying attention to not make the same mistakes but-

I don't know there are a lot of things about Uenoyama's feelings I don't understand. For some reason when I think about him, my heart aches although he's loved.

I wish the sequel would talk about these more but I'm not sure if it's going to focus on that. Sorry I kinda ended up writing too much

Hello! I'm good thank you!

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll keep my answer short because I feel like a lot of the questions you posed will be answered in this new sequel manga, Given 10th Mix. I have a huge feeling that we will get a lot more about Ritsuka's struggles. I completely feel you, I thought a lot of his feelings and emotions were left unresolved and then when Kizu announced the sequel, I was so relieved! So yeah, basically I agree with everything and now I think all we can do is keep our eyes peeled. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I'll also do a first impressions of the first chapter soon! And I'll touch on many of the things you mentioned! Please look out for that! I hope that you're having a lovely day!

____

My Given Metas

[magicpotatoobsession]

I was so happy to see you grace my tl again - if only for a few posts. I miss your given metas and would LOVE to hear your take on syh's Straight and Parade and any predictions you might have for Umi e!

Thanks for the ask! It has been a while! I was going to do a proper analysis of the songs once I've seen the mix movie but I thought I might share some initial observations for Straight!

EASTER EGGS in SYH's STRAIGHT

Mafuyu's key in C minor, the relative minor key. The song is in Eb major, the relative major key. It's also what I call the sunshine key (Uenoyama's key) ☀️ which is the same key as all the songs on the Given mini-album release.

Chorus 0:22 has the same chord progression as the first part of Fuyunohanashi, which can indicate that Hiiragi and Shizu are also trying their best to heal from Yuki. Seriously, try singing the chorus of Fuyunohanashi on top of Straight's first chorus, they literally layer perfectly on top of each other!!!

CHORDS ARE SO INTERESTING HERE

Chord progression diverges from Fuyunohanashi in the second part of the chorus 0:41 to go from VI -> VII -> I, which is the same tiers di picardie chordal progression as Kizuato's (Given OP) ending as well as Yorugaakeru!!! This chord progression finishes in major to show that the boys are healing from Yuki and trauma.

Lyrics in that chord progression are super meaningful here

Kizuato "Whatever you left behind has now become my life".

Also Yoorugaakeru lyrics are "Look this Dawn is about to break that's why it'll be ok"

Straight: "I will keep singing until it reaches you"

Doesn't that sound like Hiiragi/Yuki/Uenoyama talking directly to Mafuyu???!! 🥹😭❤️🙏

Guitar Solo by Uenoyama has a delicious easter egg

1:01 same as the lyrics "Time and Time again" in Given's mini album track stagekara kiminisasagu. Meaning that time and time again he'll be here for Mafuyu ❤️😭

I am almost 100% certain that every other part of that solo is a reference to lyrics in Given songs because all the other bits are so I'll have to have another proper listen.

That's it! Hope this made sense coming from a music nerd's ramblings! ____

My Given Metas

[magicpotatoobsession]

You’re back! It’s not a question at all, but I stumbled upon your blog sometime at the beginning of January after watching Given before I learned it would completely consume and wreck my life. It was so disappointing to see that you hadn’t posted close to a year but I’m very pleased to see you’ve returned for a few reblogs!

Ah yes welcome to the endless abyss that is the pain and beauty of Given! 🔥🔥🔥

Thanks for reading my metas! Im just back for chillz since there has been so much development with the new Mix movie and the follow-up Manga!

Currently hyperfixating in other fandoms but Given always has a special place in my heart! Thanks for stopping by ❤️🥹

[magicpotatoobsession]

Hi! You convey your thoughts so well that I wanted to ask you: what do you think about (chapter 48 summary spoilers because I don’t know if you’ve read it from Keru!!!) Ugetsu trying to help Mafuyu reconnect with Ue/music at syh’s show? At first Ugetsu’s energetic mission to get him there felt out of character for me, but I think it’s going to read differently seeing Ugetsu having moved on and moved forward with his life in growing outside of his own codependent relationship with Kaji.

Hello! Thank you for being patient, I am back! I personally think that mix_18/chapter 48 was done ✨~SUPERBLY~✨. @morievna captures it pretty perfectly in her meta on Mix 18. I believe that Ugetsu was very much in character and he is, as you said, displaying some differences due to his growth as a character.

GIVEN | Ugetsu 1.0 and 2.0 similarities and differences

Remember, Ugetsu and Mafuyu are 🎶MUSICAL MIRRORS 🎶  because they both use music as an outlet to express, understand their own AND other people's emotions. Ugetsu therefore knows that Mafuyu NEEDS to attend the SYH concert in order to know how he is feeling.

Ugetsu and Mafuyu's mentorship is mostly Ugetsu taking the lead to drive Mafuyu to confront music. So Ugetsu has always been quite energetic when it comes to talking to Mafuyu.

Code_16 Ugetsu 1.0

Mix_17/Chapter 47 Ugetsu 2.0 👇

However, the energetic attitude back then was laced with criticism and a bitter pain. His liveliness was lined with a sense of falsehood. We see that in Code_16/Chapter 16, Ugetsu 1.0 who organised the Tchaikovsky tickets for Mafuyu and Akihiko. However Ugetsu liked inspiring by showing Mafuyu how cool he was at the violin concert, he was hoping for Mafuyu to also join the "lonely genius bubble" club, to become like himself, to rely solely on music to process trauma and communicate with others to avoid difficult conversations.

Mafuyu doesn't want to turn out like Ugetsu 1.0. And just like you said, having moved on and moved forward with his life in growing outside of his own codependent relationship with Kaji, Ugetsu 2.0 here realises that this

1. stagnation of feeling he has to choose between Akihiko and music 2. never properly communicated with Akihiko on how the other party was feeling

that led to their toxic relationship. Ugetsu smiles knowing that Mafuyu doesn't quite understand that yet. Then Ugetsu says,

"Either way, there is no going back for me."

and later on

"Didn't you pretty much neglect factoring what the other party thinks about this?

Ugetsu is hoping that Mafuyu will learn in his own time that being in shutdown and avoid the other party will ultimately make Mafuyu end up like him. So it's not too late for Mafuyu and Uenoyama!

What Ugetsu 2.0 does differently is rather than showing off or critiquing, he tells Mafuyu:

how he is not great and still working on building his human relationships and taking care of himself

how he has no idea what the future holds, maybe he'll be in NY longterm, he doesn't know

shows vulnerability but is being a realist that he can't go back in time to change things with Akihiko.

What he demonstrates here is the imperfect humanness of being a professional musician. Professional musicians don't have certainty and don't have it all together. He is telling Mafuyu that uncertainty about life is perfectly normal. Ugetsu also knows that Mafuyu, just like himself, connect with others best through music. So if Mafuyu wants to figure his feelings and connect with Ue, he NEEDS to go to the concert. But Mafuyu is putting too much pressure on this event to give him complete clarity. Pre-debut and post-debut is still full on uncertainty. So why not just "learn more about it?" Why not just listen?

I find it so funny that Mafuyu says "did you even hear me" because Ugetsu has been the best listener and actively doing something to help him. Ugetsu is still musically driving Mafuyu to confront music like before. However, he doesn't place himself on a pedestal for Mafuyu, or let Mafuyu process music on his own (like in CODE 17)

or feed into the unhealthy mindset of the "lonely genius".

He holds Mafuyu's hand to face the music together.

Just a sidenote but I LOVE that even though Ugetsu is running and leading Mafuyu, look at how gently he holds Mafuyu's wrist. 🥺 It's like he is holding a new violin bow, understanding how delicate Mafuyu's temperament is right now 😭😭😭

Also observe how tenderly and genuinely Ugetsu smiles now compared to before. It's now grounded in wisdom and self-reflection. Kudos Ugetsu 2.0 also being able to listen to Mafuyu talk about his issues while before, he tended to emotionally dump on Mafuyu about his own issues.

Of course what I love is that the crowd then separates the two and and Mafuyu is pushed further to the front. Ugetsu reassures Mafuyu that he is strong enough as an individual to face Uenoyama, paralleling the "It's okay" in Code_27 where Mafuyu first said to him that he is strong enough as an individual to face a life without Akihiko.

To summarise, Ugetsu in my opinion was very much in character and displayed tremendous growth. We can all learn from Ugetsu:

Face changes in life with vigour and keep facing it despite feeling scared, uncertain and unclear. Change is just a fact of life. Avoidance, rumination and stagnation makes things worse.

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If you like what you read, all I post is basically Given analysis content!

Masterlist of my Given Metas

[magicpotatoobsession]

Hello! I hope your having a nice day. I was thinking abt this and I thought that you could give me some insight. What do you think Yuki's and Shizu's relationship was like? We know that him and Hiragi got along very well. As Hiragi admired him. But it seems to me that in that chapter (I don't remember the # sorry!) Were Mafuyu asks Shizu advice for music and his relationship abt Ritsuka. That when Shizu gets WAY of topic and says that the group was super Yuki-centered and how that was irritating. It seems to me that maybe he didn't like how much everyone revolved around him and admired him? As if it irritates him? Idk we don't really have much insight from him what his relationship with Yuki was like. So we might not be ae to tell for sure.

Hello friend! Thank you! Hope you are having a good one too! I'd like to point you towards this meta of mine, Discovering the true intention behind Shizu’s actions in Mix_8 completely changed how I saw the Shizuragi ship! This meta, although it doesn't address your question directly, I think it clears a lot of things up so PLEASE READ before proceeding.

Shizu and Yuki's relationship explained

In my opinion, Kizu never fully goes into the details of the dynamics between Shizu and Yuki but out of everyone, Shizu felt least close to Yuki compared to Mafuyu and Hiiragi. Shizu feels like

Yuki adopted the abandoned Pomeranian and calico cat and he's just tagging along. But Shizu feels like he doesn't belong to the squad/isn't as close to Yuki is his own doing due to:

his own abandonment issues resultant from being a LITERAL foster child

him joining the childhood squad later than the rest of the three

thinking that his three friends as being better than him from birth.

In mix_9, Kizu's placement of Yuki, Mafuyu and Hiiragi on stage is literally so telling of how Shizu felt. Of course he could choose to be on that stage as well, but he needs help to make he feel like he is worthy of being on stage.

Hiiragi is amazing, because Hiiragi noticed that Shizu needed help, Hiiragi had always been leading Shizu ever since he was a little kid. Hiiragi is absolutely that kid who is annoying but makes everyone feel included. And Shizu, is so happy and appreciative of that

to the point of feeling possessive over Hiiragi.

Sometimes, people with abandonment wounds feel possessive and jealous easily. This is because they are always scared that everything good can disappear at any moment. It may result in a person feeling super clingy emotionally. In Shizu's case, he is outwardly nonchalant but inwardly super clingy. Shizu, at some point in his childhood started to romantically idolise Hiiragi.

SO, Shizu's felt irritated towards Yuki because Hiiragi idolised Yuki.

BUT, Shizu's own abandonment wounds clouded his judgement because he mistook Hiiragi's idolisation of Yuki as a romantic one instead of a paternal one. Shizu mistook Hiiragi as being in love with Yuki when Hiiragi actually put Yuki on a pedestal like a child admiring a fatherly figure.

Yuki I think for the most part didn't do anything objectively irritating to make Shizu dislike him. Neither did the squad, they were always hanging out together. Shizu's inferiority complex and attachment towards Hiiragi made him look for someone contrasting his own circumstances to blame, which was Yuki.

Yuki - most panels depict him as the popular kid

Shizu - the literal foster child

Yuki - has both Mafuyu and Hiiragi's attention

Shizu - feels like he has none, but in truth Hiiragi is quite observant of Shizu's hesitation in participating fun things to make an effort to include him.

It's basically like the song Heather by Conan Gray.

Because Shizu also saw Yuki as being better than him in the literal sense, this actually didn't allow Shizu to really understand Yuki as a multi-faceted person. I think Shizu for the most part just accepted Yuki as someone with better circumstances than him, even beyond death. BUT AGAIN, that doesn't make Shizu a bad person. It makes him a human one. On top of that, Shizu's abandonment wounds were exacerbated when Hiiragi continued to emotionally dump on him whenever he wanted to but look towards Yuki for motivation and inspiration. And those are pretty VALID feelings which needed to be communicated and addressed for healthy healing, which they were in mix_4 to Mafuyu and mix_8 to Hiiragi. As you pointed out, Shizu gets off topic with Mafuyu, this is a great thing because for once, he is acknowledging his own feelings outwardly rather than keeping them inside. This then led him to realise that he needed to clarify things with Hiiragi rather than let these feelings of abandonment brew longer.

Currently, I personally think he is no longer irritated at Yuki. Please remember that Shizu also lost Yuki. Grief for him could have also manifested as irritation. It’s all very complicated when you lose someone right? I think Shizu’s probably found the new song “To the Sea” just as healing as Hiiragi and Mafuyu, he’s just not really the outwardly expressive type. But Kizu Natsuki did put in some tender faces in the recent chapters.

Again, please read Discovering the true intention behind Shizu’s actions in Mix_8 completely changed how I saw the Shizuragi ship! (sorry for pasting again, it's just so important, I go into Shizu's insight so much more here).

As for Yuki, we never really get to have an insight into how Yuki feels about anyone, because he's passed away. We are only ever receiving second hand accounts of Yuki. But Kizu wrote it that way to highlight the fact that life is precious and if you're alive,

there is hope for you to tell your story and communicate clearly.

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If you like what you read, all I post is basically Given analysis content!

Masterlist of my Given Metas

[magicpotatoobsession]

your metas are so gooooood, i binged the various given animes this week and i can't stop thinking about them!! i read through a bunch of your posts last night and they were so satisfying. especially the way you talk about mafuyu (experiencing music as something simultaneously traumatizing and healing UGHADLFJDASLFJ) It makes me want to read the manga but it seems like the last release was a cliffhanger of despair and i'm scared!!

That is so nice thank you so much <3 I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN, that's why I took such a huge hiatus from Given because I didn't think I could take the angst but it's so worth it. And the latest chapter is beautiful!

[magicpotatoobsession]

Hello! I'm starting my own blog for analysis on anime, and I was wondering if I could use your blog as a reference for some of them! (with credits of course) I won't be copying and will rephrase everything

of course you can <3 The joy of Given is to be shared with everyone!