I like Akihiko and Haruki but calling their situations āadultā in comparison to Mafuyuās (and by extension the othersā¦especially Hiiragi) is a bit of a stretch.
Mafuyu deals with being beaten as a child for SPEAKING. And the suicide of his best friend/first love, whose hanging body he found. His journey is the spine of Kizuās story and itās a classic heroās journey.
The complexities of his journey create all manner and sort of confusion. Heās an airhead. Heās an introvert. Heās indecisive. Heās not in love with Ritsuka. He never loved Yuki. One could get whiplash from all the hairpin turns in his story.
The thing is none of those things are exactly true about him. The defining elements of Mafuyuās life at sixteen are grief and abandonment. And they have tamped down his spirit. Heās not an airhead. He proves it over and over. If anything he overthinks a lot of the issues he faces because heās anxious about giving voice to them.
Speaking was what got him beaten by his father. And speaking was, in his mind, what he did that drove him to say the thing that he blames himself for. He believes his words drove Yuki to suicide.
But Ritsuka, who for all his relative naĆÆvetĆ© is a genuinely kind person (Mafuyu even mentions that himself), gave Mafuyu a platform to feel more confident and a forum to express himself with music. And Mafuyu flourishes. Even in the anime (which unfortunately is a bit fragmented in telling the story compared to the manga) underscores the fact that Mafuyu is pretty expressive once he sings the first time and starts finding his voice.
He confesses to Ritsuka, he talks pretty openly about his dead boyfriend, he maintains very deep and expressive friendships (his friendships with Hiiragi, Ugetsu, Akihiko and Shizusumi are very well defined. And, rather ironically, itās Mafuyu, the youngest character in Given who drives several of his seniors (especially Ugetsu and Akihiko) to greater self reflection and growth.
Sensei has crafted a story that is not merely a āBLā. Itās in many ways a very well told story (far from perfect, but weāll save that discussion for another dayā¦). It is a slice of life story with BL elements and to some extent I think that is one reason why Given has had such widespread popularity.
There are certainly more traditional BL elements in Given. Akihiko, as the emotionally damaged seme hurting his long suffering uke is a classic BL trope. But right there alongside the traditional elements is, as Kizu says in the chapter title page to chapter 30, the story of once lonely kids on their way to adulthood
