#EVERYONE GOT AN ARC AND DEVELOPMENT EXCEPT RITSUKA YOU KNOW YOUR MAIN CHARACTER

[pixiesnooze]

the streets (official announcement) are saying next given chapter is the last

[morievna]

Mafuyu, rings and leadership

Time for another round of speculation :D

On mix_1 cover there certain interesting detail – both Mafuyu and Hiiragi are wearing rings. What is more interesting is that they are wearing them on this same finger (index finger) though different hands (left for Mafuyu and right for Hiiragi). Of course, it could be simply token of friendship, but since I am person who likes digging into symbolism and stuff like that I had to check it XD

And you know? It fits quite good:

The index finger is closely associated with confidence and ability to lead a group. It makes sense that it's the pointer finger, because it indicates the ability to point out truths, succinctly share ideas and communicate with others. Wear a ring on your dominant hand's index finger when you're working with a team, and your leadership abilities will funnel out to everyone in the group. When you're having a tough time speaking up, wear a ring on your non-dominant hand's index finger to open yourself to the idea that you, too, can be a leader.

[source]

While Hiiragi is literally leader of his band, Mafuyu is driving force for Given too. Without him Given would be just good instrumental band, but with vocalist they became popular for real. The way his songs resonated not only with audience but with bandmates too – during practices of his songs, we see that all of them were being motivated and inspired by him. That too caused change in Mafuyu – thanks to being among people who support him no matter what, he started to learn how to express himself and look out for others. Gradually we see how he stops being passive and starts to take actions. He tries his best in relationship with Ritsuka and works on communication. While at beginning he is more clueless about others, we see how he is becoming more observant - he is no longer only focused on his pain, but begins to notice that others have similar experiences and that he is not alone in this. While he doubted his skills at first, he slowly becomes more confident and has clear vision what feelings he want to convey with his second song. After all his second song is not only about him accepting Yuki’s death and founding new love, but also wanting to help others who are lost like he was. And by all of this he is pulling others alongside him to grow up and move forward.

Of course, I don’t mean it the way that he will become literal leader – rather spiritual one. Think of it as the way where his character development is leading. All traits he is evolving are matched with those associated with leadership:

Right now Given as a band is in interesting position – all members except for Mafuyu are simultaneously working on another projects (supporting other bands like Ritsuka and Haruki, playing violin like Akihiko). I think Mafuyu will have central role and will be the one to keep others at balance. While he is having currently second thoughts about music, I think that losing CAC will only strengthen his dedication to music.

Like I mentioned in my first meta I believe that Given will have 3-act structure. Quoting Wikipedia again:

The third act features the resolution of the story and its subplots. The climax is the scene or sequence in which the main tensions of the story are brought to their most intense point and the dramatic question answered, leaving the protagonist and other characters with a new sense of who they really are.

In stories usually we have all characters meeting and working towards common goal at the end. My theory is that we will see some sort of collaboration between Given and Hiiragi’s band with Mafuyu at the center. This would bring all characters together and could result in interesting interactions and clash between personalities like we already got with Hiiragi and Ritsuka.

I think we will see callbacks to first volumes too – after all there is certain violinist, who is in similar position as Mafuyu at beginning of story – lonely and disconnected from outside world. I think that knowing similarities between them Mafuyu will try to help Ugetsu the same way it helped him - by making him going out of his hideout and playing music together with other people as band. On my wishlist is seeing them singing in a duet XD I think Ugetsu’s arc will end similar to Mafuyu’s that he will be more open and honest about his feelings with others and will get love back in his life. And all of this would cause for Mafuyu to look at his beginning from different  perspective and appreciate even more help that got from others.

Honestly I also always wanted to see reverse scene between Akihiko and Mafuyu from chapter 8– it was rich coming from Akihiko to tell some else to make peace with past, while he is so entangled in it himself. It’s not like I think of him as hypocrite, but while rereading this scene I had O RLY moment, so I want him to be call out on this XD After all it is quite peculiar that after chapter 17 there is almost no interaction between them, so I think Natsuki-sensei is saving something meaty for later.

Finally, Mafuyu working on Yuki’s song together with all people he cares about would be great to fulfill this wish in different way. I think it would cause him making peace with past – this apply to Hiiragi as well. Both of them want to be forgiven and need to forgive themselves. Performing Yuki’s song together at festival would feel like catharsis – even more powerful than first live performance.

I think that it would be great for final act of story, don’t you think? Of course it is just my speculation, but I think it would work great. And by the way narrative structure, where first part mirrors final one is called often ring composition ;)

As always thanks for reading.