given The Movie: Hiiragi Mix

映画ギヴン柊mix (Given Movie 2: Hiiragi Mix)

8.1(14,874)

MAL Score

Ranked #629

Popularity #3594

Boys Love
Drama
Music

Episodes: 1
Duration: 1 hr 10 min
Aired: Jan 27, 2024
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Hiiragi Kashima and Shizusumi “Shizu” Yagi are on the verge of making their debut with their band, syh—until their support guitarist suddenly quits. With time running short, Hiiragi turns to Ritsuka Uenoyama, the confident guitarist dating Hiiragi’s childhood friend, Mafuyu Satou. Their personalities clash almost immediately, but Hiiragi pushes past the tension and brings Uenoyama in as a temporary member.

As syh juggles songwriting, recording, and a music video shoot, Hiiragi’s respect for Uenoyama’s skill grows, leading him to ask for help finishing an unfinished song once left behind by Mafuyu’s former boyfriend, Yuki Yoshida. At the same time, Hiiragi grapples with his feelings for the reserved Shizu and searches for a way to express them honestly. Elsewhere, given—Uenoyama, Mafuyu, Haruki Nakayama, and Akihiko Kaji—also receives a debut offer, but while the others are eager to move forward, Mafuyu hesitates, unsure what it means to pursue music professionally as the future begins to shift around him.

Otaku Consensus

Hiiragi Mix lands as a strong franchise entry because it shifts Given’s emotional center without losing the series’ careful attention to band chemistry, queer intimacy, and grief-adjacent creative expression. Fans have rewarded it with an 8.07 MAL score and a 79/100 AniList score, with the Hiiragi and Shizu material standing out as the film’s most distinctive arc; the recurring criticism is that the one-film format compresses too many professional and emotional turning points into a tight runtime.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Hiiragi Mix if you want boys-love drama where romance is inseparable from rehearsal rooms, unfinished songs, recording pressure, and the awkward politics of joining someone else’s band. It scratches the same music-as-emotional-survival itch as Nana or Beck, but with Given’s quieter focus on young men trying to communicate before they fully understand what they feel. The appeal is not idol spectacle or backstage glamour; it is the friction between technical musicianship and unresolved personal history. Viewers who liked the earlier Given entries for Mafuyu and Uenoyama get a broader view of the scene around them, while fans drawn to prickly, emotionally guarded couples will find Hiiragi and Shizu’s dynamic the film’s sharpest hook.

Key Characters

H
Hiiragi Kashima
Hiiragi is compelling because his confidence reads less like coolness than momentum, turning him into the kind of band leader who can irritate people and still pull better performances out of them.
S
Shizusumi Yagi
Shizu’s appeal lies in restraint: fans respond to how much emotional weight he carries through silence, timing, and the way he orbits Hiiragi without overexplaining himself.
R
Ritsuka Uenoyama
Uenoyama remains one of Given’s most satisfying musicians to watch because his blunt personality is matched by credibility as a guitarist, making his presence feel practical rather than ornamental.
M
Mafuyu Satou
Mafuyu is interesting here because the film treats his relationship to music as an evolving question, not a solved trauma beat from earlier entries.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The film changes the franchise’s center of gravity by giving syh major dramatic weight, making Hiiragi and Shizu more than background figures in Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s story.
2
Lerche’s adaptation keeps the presentation grounded in rock-band labor rather than performance fantasy, emphasizing songwriting, recording, and music-video production as pressures that shape character behavior.
3
Its AniList tag profile is unusually concentrated for a music romance: Boys' Love at 92%, Band at 84%, Primarily Male Cast at 83%, and LGBTQ+ Themes at 81%, which accurately signals a genre blend rather than a token subplot.
4
The movie format makes the professionalization of music feel immediate: both syh and given are pushed toward debut-level decisions, giving the drama a sharper industry-facing edge than a school-club band story.
5
The film’s reception is stronger with dedicated viewers than with broad casual reach, reflected by a solid MAL score of 8.07 and rank of #629 alongside a much lower popularity placement of #3594.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Hiiragi Mix premiered in Japan on January 27, 2024 as a single theatrical anime entry rather than a TV season, which explains its concentrated structure.
Fun fact 2: The anime is based on the work of original creator Natsuki Kizu, whose Given franchise is known for tying queer romance directly to musicianship rather than treating music as decorative background.
Fun fact 3: Noriko Hashimoto directed the film, with Mina Oosawa credited for character design, keeping the production’s visual identity centered on expressive restraint rather than exaggerated theatricality.
Fun fact 4: The art design credit is shared by Nobuhito Sue, Risa Iraha, and Wanting Qi, while Hiroaki Kaguchi handled color design and Sena Nakagawa served as director of photography.
Fun fact 5: Its technical staff list also includes Rie Itou for editing and Tomoya Mizuno as CG director, a useful detail for viewers tracking how the film balances intimate character scenes with performance and production elements.