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Crunchyroll to Stream Given Anime Film in 2021
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Crunchyroll announced on Tuesday that it will stream the anime film of Natsuki Kizu's Given manga under the title Given The Movie beginning in 2021. The film will be available in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company began streaming an English-subtitled version of the anime's trailer that debuted in July.
Crunchyroll describes the story:
High school student Ritsuka Uenoyama is shocked when he hears Mafuyu Sato's singing voice. He and his other bandmates, Haruki Nakayama and Akihiko Kaji, then welcome him into their band as a vocalist. After Mafuyu joins, their first live performance is a huge success, and they make their official debut as the band “Given.” In the midst of all this, Ritsuka realizes that he has feelings for Mafuyu and they start seeing each other. Meanwhile, Haruki secretly has had feelings for Akihiko for years, but Akihiko was still in a relationship with his roommate, the violinist Ugetsu Murata. Haruki, Akihiko, and Ugetsu's love clashes on the big screen and starts to move forward.
The film opened in Japan on August 22, after being postponed from its original May 16 opening in order to curb the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The film had sold more than 100,000 tickets within its first month and expanded screenings to more theaters.
Fuji TV's new Blue Lynx boys-love anime label produced the Given film. The television anime focuses on high school students Ritsuka and Mafuyu, but the film focuses on the adults Haruki, Akihiko, and Ugetsu.
The television anime's cast members reprised their roles for the film. Hikaru Yamaguchi (director for Escha Chron, episode director for Mr. Osomatsu, Battle Spirits Double Drive) returned to direct the film at Lerche. Yuniko Ayana (BanG Dream! both seasons, Girls Beyond the Wasteland) returned to write the script, and Mina Ōsawa returned to design the characters. Hiromi Kikuta and MICHIRU returned to handle sound direction and music composition, respectively. The artist centimillimental returned to perform the film's theme song.
The television anime premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block in July 2019. The anime is the "first anime based on a boys-love manga" to air on Noitamina. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired.
Solo rock project centimillimental performed the opening theme song "Kizuato." The in-anime group "Given" performed the ending theme song "Marutsuke," with centimillimental producing.
Sources: Email correspondence, Crunchyroll
