Both of the movies were originally released in 2024.
To celebrate this Pride Month, Crunchyroll has announced that the two most recent anime movies from the “Given” franchise are now available to stream on their platform in English. Previously, “Given the Movie: Hiragi Mix” and “Given the Movie: To the Sea”, were only available in its original Japanese version. The inclusion of the English-dub will reach a larger audience.
Given
Manga creator: Natsuki Kizu
Animation studio: Lerche
Streaming service: Crunchyroll
What is Given the Movie: Hiragi Mix about?
Given the Movie: Hiragi Mix is an anime film, which is a sequel to the original Given anime, and its 2020 sequel movie. Hiragi Mix is the first part of a film duology, and came out on 27 January, 2024.
The English dub cast for the anime include:
- Brandon McInnis as Mafuyu Sato
- Jessie James Grelle as Ritsuka Uenoyama
- Y. Chang as Haruki Nakayama
- Jonah Scott as Akihiki Kaji
Crunchyroll streams the movie and describes the story as:
Ritsuka Uenoyama met Mafuyu Sato and Ritsuka's passion towards music was reignited. Mafuyu's singing and Ritsuka's guitar playing... That's what finally moved the band ""given"" forward. But Mafuyu's past and his feelings towards Ritsuka intersect yet again and the distance between them starts to change.
What is Given the Movie: To the Sea about?
The second part of the duology, To the Sea was released on 20 September, 2024. It’s a direct sequel to Hiragi Mix.
Crunchyroll streams the movie and describes the story as:
After a chance encounter with the singer Mafuyu Sato, Ritsuka Uenoyama’s passion for music was reignited. Their band, Given, is on the path to greatness just as Mafuyu begins to question if he should be the group’s singer. After declining Ritsuka’s invitation to a concert in Shibuya, Mafuyu runs into an old friend. Could this be the sign Mafuyu needs to step up to the microphone once more?
What is Given about?
The Given anime series is based on Natsuki Kizu’s manga series, which was serialised in Shinshokan’s magazine Chéri+ from 2013 to 2023. It was first adapted into an anime by studio Lerche in 2019. An anime movie came out in 2020, adapting the second arc of the manga. This film was followed by the Hiragi Mix and To the Sea movie duology in 2024.
SuBLime, a joint imprint between Viz Media and Animate, publishes the Given manga volumes in English and describes the story as:
Ritsuka Uenoyama is bored with it all—with school, with his basketball club, and even with his one true passion: playing guitar. That is, until the day he finds his favorite hidden napping spot occupied by a strange boy cradling a broken-stringed guitar. At first, Uenoyama is nonplussed by Mafuyu Sato and his slightly odd behavior, but when, on a whim, he asks Mafuyu to sing, the power of that song pierces him to the core.