given The Movie: To the Sea
映画 ギヴン 海へ (Given Movie 3: Umi e)
- Boys Love
- Drama
- Music
- Episodes
- 1
- Duration
- 1 hr 20 min
- Aired
- Sep 20, 2024
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
*given The Movie: To the Sea* continues the story begun in *Given Movie: Hiiragi Mix*, serving as its second installment.
Set against the band’s evolving relationships and the music that binds them, the film carries forward the same blend of boys’ love, drama, and performance-driven emotion.
Otaku Consensus
To the Sea earns its high 8.47 MAL score and 84/100 AniList reception by behaving like a precise continuation rather than a reset: Noriko Hashimoto’s direction, Rie Itou’s editing, and Lerche’s controlled visual tone keep the film intimate, musical, and emotionally legible after Hiiragi Mix. Its strongest material is the performance-driven relationship work, while the most legitimate criticism is that the one-film format offers little onboarding or extra space for viewers not already invested in Given’s ensemble.
Why You Should Watch
Watch To the Sea if you want boys’ love drama where music is not decoration but the emotional grammar of the characters. It is best suited to viewers who already value Given for restraint, unresolved feeling, and band-room tension rather than big romantic declarations or genre fanservice. If Nana scratches your itch for music as a relationship pressure cooker, and Kids on the Slope appeals for the way performance reveals what dialogue cannot, this film sits in a quieter, more explicitly queer lane. Lerche’s production keeps the focus on faces, pauses, rehearsal energy, and stage catharsis, making the theatrical runtime feel concentrated rather than ornamental. It is not the ideal entry point; it is the reward for staying with the series’ emotional aftershocks.
Key Characters
- MMafuyu Sato(VA: Shogo Yano)
Mafuyu remains the series’ emotional tuning fork, a character fans follow for the way his silence, singing, and hesitant honesty carry equal weight.
- RRitsuka Uenoyama(VA: Yuma Uchida)
Ritsuka is compelling because his musicianship and romantic uncertainty often collide, making him one of Given’s most recognizably restless young artists.
- HHiiragi Kashima(VA: Fumiya Imai)
Hiiragi brings sharper social energy to the cast, and his presence keeps the band drama from becoming purely introspective.
- SShizusumi Yagi(VA: Taito Ban)
Shizusumi stands out through restraint, the kind of reserved character whose loyalty and composure make small shifts feel significant.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The film is structured as the second theatrical installment after Given Movie: Hiiragi Mix, not as a standalone recap or alternate version, which makes its emotional payoff dependent on continuity rather than exposition.
- 2
Lerche handles the production, with director Noriko Hashimoto and editor Rie Itou shaping a single-episode theatrical entry whose pacing is built around concentrated dramatic beats instead of television-style chapter breaks.
- 3
The visual identity is anchored by character designer Mina Oosawa, with Hiroyuki Betsuyaku and Cuc Nguyen credited as art directors, giving the film a production profile more specific than the average database listing suggests.
- 4
Its database tagging is unusually clear about identity: AniList marks Boys’ Love at 96% and LGBTQ+ Themes at 79%, while Rock Music and Band both sit at 60%, reflecting a film received as both queer romance and band drama rather than one merely using the other as flavor.
- 5
Despite a modest MAL popularity placement of #4770, the film holds a strong #167 rank with an 8.47 score from 7,812 votes, indicating a smaller but highly committed audience rather than broad casual reach.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- To the Sea aired in Japan on September 20, 2024 as a single finished theatrical entry, making it a compact continuation rather than a full television cour.
- Fun fact 2
- Natsuki Kizu is credited as the original creator, so the film remains tied to the authorial source behind Given rather than functioning as an anime-original spin-off.
- Fun fact 3
- The production credits separate color design, photography, CG, editing, and sound direction: Hiroaki Kaguchi handled color design, Sena Nakagawa directed photography, Tomoya Mizuno served as CG director, Rie Itou edited, and Hiromi Kikuta directed sound.
- Fun fact 4
- AniList records 398 favourites for the film, a useful signal of dedicated fan attachment given its comparatively niche MAL popularity ranking.
- Fun fact 5
- The title Umi e is rendered in English as To the Sea, distinguishing this third Given movie entry from Hiiragi Mix while preserving the Japanese directional phrase in its common listing.
Studios
- Lerche
