Character Essays– category –

Tsurune has a rival character unlike most you will find in sports anime. Shu Fujiwara is undefeated in kyudo. He was raised in a world of privilege — with access to instruction that most people could never come close to. By every measure, he exists in a completely different world from the students of Kazemai High School. And yet, the most important thing about Shu is not his strength. It is the moment he missed. Because in that single moment — the one time Shu's arrow did ...

There is a particular kind of pain that does not come from failure alone. It comes from failing at something you loved. Something you gave yourself to completely. Something that once felt like the most natural thing in the world. When that breaks — when the thing you trusted most becomes the thing you fear most — it changes you in ways that are difficult to explain. That is where Minato Narumiya begins. Not as someone who lost a competition. But as someone who lost trust i...

This manga series is a must-read for any fan of the genre! Grab a copy and dive into the story. This article contains spoilers through Given: Hiragi Mix (2024). Some characters take up space loudly. Shizusumi Yagi does the opposite. He is quiet. Unobtrusive. Easy to overlook. For a long time in Given, he exists mostly as the person standing next to Hiiragi — present, but not quite visible. And then Hiragi Mix arrives. And everything you assumed about him tur...

This manga series is a must-read for any fan of the genre! Grab a copy and dive into the story. This article contains spoilers through Given: Hiragi Mix (2024). Hiiragi Kashima is easy to misread. He's Yuki's childhood friend. He's close to Mafuyu. He carries himself with a kind of loose confidence that makes him hard to pin down. For a long time, he reads as a secondary character. Someone who exists at the edges of the main story, showing up when the plot needs him. Then&...

This manga series is a must-read for any fan of the genre! Grab a copy and dive into the story. This article contains spoilers through Given: The Movie (2020). Some people move through the world putting others first. Not because they have no feelings of their own. Not because they don't know what they want. But because receiving other people's feelings before their own has simply become the way they exist. Haruki Nakayama is that person. And watching him finally be receive...