1984

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

I don't hate Yuki or Mafuyu's thought processing (I love Mafuyu, in fact), what I dislike is Hiiragi and Shizu constantly going on and on about Yuki and how "Yuki and Mafuyu were meant to be" and how they were surprised that Mafuyu would even choose Ue. There was a part where Shizu straight up went "If you think less about yourself and your pain and devote yourself to him more, you wouldn't be in such a difficult spot." And that all is so unnecessary and straight up Mean Girls vibe. From a realistic standpoint (pretending theyre real people), I get that people say Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, but that's no excuse to unload your unprocessed trauma on someone else and make them carry your burden. From a narrative standpoint, that whole thing (the surprise, the meant to be, etc.) is unnecessary because the lack of it doesn't take away the tension between Mafuyu's withdrawal for fear of abandonment versus Ue's pressing forward because he wanted to connect with Mafuyu. But then again, if Kizu's decision to add these snippets is to show that Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, then I expect some sort of apology from the both of them for unloading their shit on Ue to show their complete development arc.

About Ue appreciation, at least from what I saw on the reddit fandom, no one blamed Ue? Most agreed that Hiiragi is at fault and look forward to a proper conversation. So I'm still here hoping for the best.

And I am sorry but I don’t buy "but they are grieving!" excuse for every damn thing… So their way of grieving is to take out everything from Ue, disregard, disrespect, compare with Yuki to downgrade him, a guy with good intentions who just wants to date Mafuyu and be good to him? That is not grieving, that is being inconsiderate assholes for characters and sloppy writing for Kizu.

There might have been a good storyline for Yuki to dig a bit why he committed su*cide because imo, he was deeply depressed. Now that would be a good reason to keep Yuki in the story but no, Kizu didn’t go there either. Only explanation was that he lived in the extremes like his father. Ok then. What we have is this dead figure looming above every characters head and worshiped and no one can convince me that has nothing to do those Twitter fans who screaming about Yuki and his oh"unending love" for Mafuyu, even if their relationship was pretty problematic, just like Shizu’s understanding of love. Ue and Mafuyu’s love was the most healthy one in the manga and they were good for each other but now all is a mess just because Kizu’s insistence to keep Yuki a center point in the story. I said this all the time that Mafuyu will not allowed to move on until Kizu and fandom does.

I have read the latest volume’s summary and if you (I mean Kizu) feel the need to explain to the reader from another character’s perspective that means you are not doing a good job as a storyteller.

And a question for you, think about all the volumes of Given manga, all the storylines and panels etc and tell me which one is Kizu’s favorite characters in your opinion? For me, the answer is the source of all those problems above.

I guess I'm just hopeful (or naive?) that after this arc we will once and for all stop hearing this endless talk about Yuki. I want to wait and see what Kizu will do with Hiiragi and Shizu's characters after the concert and whether they would apologize/change their minds about how they viewed Ue. If yes, good, if no, then like you said, it's sloppy writing aimed to glorify Yuki Yet Again.

I also wonder if this feeling of 'when will we stop talking about Yuki' also comes from the fact that arc 1 and 3 are separated and thus making it feel like we're going in circles because after an arc things are supposed to be resolved! That's what an arc is for! Arc 2 focuses on a different issue, which hammers in the fact that whatever happened in arc 1 is over, but arc 3 happened and here we are again, talking about Yuki *Again*. But again, I still want to see to the end of arc 3 and a rough idea of arc 4 before saying more.

And yes, fully agreed with your last statement, I just cannot care less about those three and just wish we move on from them already.

"2- What are the origins, like the character settings of the 4 main characters.

It was originally planned to be completed in one volume, similar to many BL works. Initially, the plan was to end with the first live performance.’

For the interview summary: https://twitter.com/mikajihiko/status/1554879388931330048?s=21&t=KGjrDPa9CO7pa8Mr76iH4g

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

I don't hate Yuki or Mafuyu's thought processing (I love Mafuyu, in fact), what I dislike is Hiiragi and Shizu constantly going on and on about Yuki and how "Yuki and Mafuyu were meant to be" and how they were surprised that Mafuyu would even choose Ue. There was a part where Shizu straight up went "If you think less about yourself and your pain and devote yourself to him more, you wouldn't be in such a difficult spot." And that all is so unnecessary and straight up Mean Girls vibe. From a realistic standpoint (pretending theyre real people), I get that people say Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, but that's no excuse to unload your unprocessed trauma on someone else and make them carry your burden. From a narrative standpoint, that whole thing (the surprise, the meant to be, etc.) is unnecessary because the lack of it doesn't take away the tension between Mafuyu's withdrawal for fear of abandonment versus Ue's pressing forward because he wanted to connect with Mafuyu. But then again, if Kizu's decision to add these snippets is to show that Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, then I expect some sort of apology from the both of them for unloading their shit on Ue to show their complete development arc.

About Ue appreciation, at least from what I saw on the reddit fandom, no one blamed Ue? Most agreed that Hiiragi is at fault and look forward to a proper conversation. So I'm still here hoping for the best.

And I am sorry but I don’t buy "but they are grieving!" excuse for every damn thing… So their way of grieving is to take out everything from Ue, disregard, disrespect, compare with Yuki to downgrade him, a guy with good intentions who just wants to date Mafuyu and be good to him? That is not grieving, that is being inconsiderate assholes for characters and sloppy writing for Kizu.

There might have been a good storyline for Yuki to dig a bit why he committed su*cide because imo, he was deeply depressed. Now that would be a good reason to keep Yuki in the story but no, Kizu didn’t go there either. Only explanation was that he lived in the extremes like his father. Ok then. What we have is this dead figure looming above every characters head and worshiped and no one can convince me that has nothing to do those Twitter fans who screaming about Yuki and his oh"unending love" for Mafuyu, even if their relationship was pretty problematic, just like Shizu’s understanding of love. Ue and Mafuyu’s love was the most healthy one in the manga and they were good for each other but now all is a mess just because Kizu’s insistence to keep Yuki a center point in the story. I said this all the time that Mafuyu will not allowed to move on until Kizu and fandom does.

I have read the latest volume’s summary and if you (I mean Kizu) feel the need to explain to the reader from another character’s perspective that means you are not doing a good job as a storyteller.

And a question for you, think about all the volumes of Given manga, all the storylines and panels etc and tell me which one is Kizu’s favorite characters in your opinion? For me, the answer is the source of all those problems above.

I guess I'm just hopeful (or naive?) that after this arc we will once and for all stop hearing this endless talk about Yuki. I want to wait and see what Kizu will do with Hiiragi and Shizu's characters after the concert and whether they would apologize/change their minds about how they viewed Ue. If yes, good, if no, then like you said, it's sloppy writing aimed to glorify Yuki Yet Again.

I also wonder if this feeling of 'when will we stop talking about Yuki' also comes from the fact that arc 1 and 3 are separated and thus making it feel like we're going in circles because after an arc things are supposed to be resolved! That's what an arc is for! Arc 2 focuses on a different issue, which hammers in the fact that whatever happened in arc 1 is over, but arc 3 happened and here we are again, talking about Yuki *Again*. But again, I still want to see to the end of arc 3 and a rough idea of arc 4 before saying more.

And yes, fully agreed with your last statement, I just cannot care less about those three and just wish we move on from them already.

So it can be both, if Yuki was only her favorite, then as you pointed out, why wrap up the story in first volume and turn back again? Sometimes we forgot that this is Kizu’s art but also her product to sell. If she has an impression that Yuki keeps the reader then why not to continue? It just means she didn’t have a long plan how the story will continue so she just get along with it.

I am sure that you know Jujutsu Kaisen, it’s creator Gege Akutami locked the most popular caracter of the manga down. Gojo is not in the manga more than 3 years? And Gojo is super duper popular but creator hasn’t given up and give Gojo back just because fans want him. So as a reader, i am okay with it because I believe that they have a plan for that character. There is a reason that he is absent for that long. But I don’t have the same feelings for Given and Kizu. Either she distorted the storyline to insert Yuki as much as possible or she didn’t have a long term plan for the story and doing what becomes popular…I just can’t explain why else to go back to the same story.

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

I don't hate Yuki or Mafuyu's thought processing (I love Mafuyu, in fact), what I dislike is Hiiragi and Shizu constantly going on and on about Yuki and how "Yuki and Mafuyu were meant to be" and how they were surprised that Mafuyu would even choose Ue. There was a part where Shizu straight up went "If you think less about yourself and your pain and devote yourself to him more, you wouldn't be in such a difficult spot." And that all is so unnecessary and straight up Mean Girls vibe. From a realistic standpoint (pretending theyre real people), I get that people say Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, but that's no excuse to unload your unprocessed trauma on someone else and make them carry your burden. From a narrative standpoint, that whole thing (the surprise, the meant to be, etc.) is unnecessary because the lack of it doesn't take away the tension between Mafuyu's withdrawal for fear of abandonment versus Ue's pressing forward because he wanted to connect with Mafuyu. But then again, if Kizu's decision to add these snippets is to show that Hiiragi and Shizu haven't processed their grief, then I expect some sort of apology from the both of them for unloading their shit on Ue to show their complete development arc.

About Ue appreciation, at least from what I saw on the reddit fandom, no one blamed Ue? Most agreed that Hiiragi is at fault and look forward to a proper conversation. So I'm still here hoping for the best.

And I am sorry but I don’t buy "but they are grieving!" excuse for every damn thing… So their way of grieving is to take out everything from Ue, disregard, disrespect, compare with Yuki to downgrade him, a guy with good intentions who just wants to date Mafuyu and be good to him? That is not grieving, that is being inconsiderate assholes for characters and sloppy writing for Kizu.

There might have been a good storyline for Yuki to dig a bit why he committed su*cide because imo, he was deeply depressed. Now that would be a good reason to keep Yuki in the story but no, Kizu didn’t go there either. Only explanation was that he lived in the extremes like his father. Ok then. What we have is this dead figure looming above every characters head and worshiped and no one can convince me that has nothing to do those Twitter fans who screaming about Yuki and his oh"unending love" for Mafuyu, even if their relationship was pretty problematic, just like Shizu’s understanding of love. Ue and Mafuyu’s love was the most healthy one in the manga and they were good for each other but now all is a mess just because Kizu’s insistence to keep Yuki a center point in the story. I said this all the time that Mafuyu will not allowed to move on until Kizu and fandom does.

I have read the latest volume’s summary and if you (I mean Kizu) feel the need to explain to the reader from another character’s perspective that means you are not doing a good job as a storyteller.

And a question for you, think about all the volumes of Given manga, all the storylines and panels etc and tell me which one is Kizu’s favorite characters in your opinion? For me, the answer is the source of all those problems above.

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

I haven’t paid attention to the manga more than one year so I am curious if anything has changed?

Like…

-Have Mafuyu and Uenoyama talked each other?

-Has Mafuyu acknowledged his issues?

-Have we seen more Aki and Haruki even as passing by?

-Is Hirragi "the selfish brat" develop a tiiinnny bittty self awareness?

-Have even one character has acknowledged that Uenoyama is doing his best and deserves better (mangaka, fandom, friends, bf etc)?

-Have Kizu stopped thirsting for Yuki?

No? Not even one of them above have happed in one whole year?

And as someone that criticize recent storylines in manga, I will explain my stance in this for the last time:

Personally, my problem was never Mafuyu’s grief or Yuki’s importance in his life. The first volumes of the manga are still my favorite and it is all about Mafuyu’s grief. But we were following Mafuyu. Mafuyu used to have a character focus and development. My criticism is, Kizu Natsuki and the fandom have focused on Yuki and his glorification so much that the story totally shifted from its axis and the backbone of the story, hence: Mafuyu and Ritsuka, then Haruki and Aki. Four guys coming together, tries to make music and found their ways in life. But at one point it just turn into who will love, glorify and NOT forget Yuki more, we are just listening him from different characters and how attached he was to Mafuyu (And I don’t forget you, Yuki’s mother, how you put the blame on Mafuyu like you weren’t Yuki’s MOTHER! You know, supposedly the responsible ADULT!!) For a while, the story is mostly about his another wonderful/perfect/glorious side that we would see for each chapter. Pay attention on the shining and sparkling Yuki panels each chapter, if not with words, we are told with visual storytelling how wonderful he was, only him, just him only. It is a must now. That is my main criticism about the manga.

The manga completely lost its focus on Mafuyu. I cannot get angry at him about anything because I have no idea how he is doing, thinking etc. Ritsuka is also a mess. We literally left their character developments at the end of first periods. Thank god, we could see a glimpse of Haruki and Aki in last chapter. Where are their character developments of these four so far? Struggles? Thoughts? Relationships between them? Mafuyu and Ritsuka about to graduate and what we see from that so far? Their daily life? Their relationship (umm they are supposed to date, you know? Yeah I remember time to time even if manga completely forgot that)

And here we are, all we think about Yuki’s song!!! Then what? What will we expect from Mafuyu now? Breaks down and cry how much he misses Yuki and couldn’t get over him so fandom could cry with him? Just like he kind of did at the beginning, after his first stage? Then what have we done in between all those years? What was the story so far? What was the development? There were/are a lot of wonderful characters with potential and we are going round and round, around the same thing and it.was.such.a.waste… is what I am saying.

I said this before, Mafuyu isn’t allowed to move on and continue with his life because Kizu and fandom haven’t. This story is not about his healing anymore, it is about his unending misery.