Which of the Two Do You Think is the Best BL: YOI or Given?
| So I know these two shows are considered the 'best' BLs. For that reason I wanted to conduct a poll. These are just my thoughts and opinions so feel free to disagree. I'm not here to debate anyone, but I want to see what everyone's thoughts are. When I first watched YOI, not gonna lie, I hated a lot aspects about it, but after rethinking about it, despite being queerbaity, it does many things well including portraying anxiety, proper LGBTQ+ romance, and great skating animation despite reusing certain sequences. I do consider the excessive fanservice (I dislike fanservice across almost every anime regardless of gender) and the comedy to be flaws. As for Given, while Mafuyu falls into a male dandere/bakadere, Ritsuka is an oranyan/male tsundere, and Akihiko lacked enough backstory, it has a really good first half with proper BL romance, no queerbait, and my favorite character from the series, Haruki. But I actually found the second half to be very poorly executed due to Mafuyu's backstory and the resolution to the fallout of their band. If need be, I will edit my post and explain my issue with the second half. Originally, I thought Given was miles better than YOI, but after letting my thoughts sit for a while and just revisiting what each anime does well and does poorly at, I have actually swapped sides. I think YOI is better than Given simply because Yuri!! On Ice does not fall into the typical josei pitfalls that Given falls into: romance solves your mental health problems. Again, this is my opinion, so feel free to disagree. I don't want to have a debate. I'm just curious what MAL thinks beyond just the score. |
Space_BoyfriendApr 23, 2021 1:03 PM
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| I don't think Given ever said romance solves your mental health problems. Also not sure if I would say Given is even about mental health at all. Mafuyu struggled with his emotions and grasping with how to live on after the love of his life died. It takes nearly the entire first season for him to finally come to terms, and even then the answer is more "I miss you and always will but I need to move on". It wasn't like Given snapped its fingers and Mafuyu was all better... He was able to finally accept what happened and move on. He was keeping himself from loving another person and clinging to the past so by moving on he was able to accept his feelings for Ritsuka. Also, I didn't think any of the characters were tsundere? Someone being a bit off putting or closed off doesn't mean they're a tsundere. I haven't watched Yuri on Ice. Doesn't appeal to me. |
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| Mafuyu has no mental health problems he is trying to move on from the death of his past lover. That being said, both are decent anime's but in terms of 'Best BL'......Given is more 'Bl' focused than YOI. I mean, YOI is a sports anime after all haha...So I'm with Given on this one |
| @KyleRiley @misprout Okay, so you both have the right to your opinions and all, but I just want to let you guys know that I strongly believe Mafuyu has chronic depression. The argument that he suppressed his emotions is valid, but I consider it an issue how it was never really subtly hinted before the backstory was revealed. My problem is that by the end of the series, Mafuyu appears to have completely moved on. That is simply not realistic to me as someone who has experienced trauma and still do today. I will be honest and say that the ending half actually offended me. That doesn't invalidate your viewing experiences obviously, but it made mine a lot worse. Again, you can say your thoughts, I just want to have a discussion and not a debate. I don't hate Given, but I just wish it didn't go that direction. Juonithz said: Yuri on Ice is a Shonen Ai and Given is a BL. Two different categories, no way you can compare. Um...can you be more specifc? A BL is 'boy love' if I understand correctly and is a more general term embracing both yaoi, gay H anime, and shounen ai. Shounen Ai is solely the romantic aspect of male on male relationships. Feel free to correct me, but that's how I've understood it for a couple months by now |
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JakeTheFake7 said: KyleRiley said: why are you here thenI haven't watched Yuri on Ice. Doesn't appeal to me. Because I saw Given in the title, read the post, and replied based on my knowledge of Given? Why do I have to have watched YoI to be in this thread? I never said Given was better btw. |
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| bloom into you is better than both |
 # of bans: 4@NoLiferSoul is an S+ tier MAL Staff member @anime-prime and @AlexPaulLEWZ are S tier Rest are mid |
Juonithz said: A Shonen Ai has romance between same sex couples, but it's not the focus. Yuri on Ice is a Shonen Ai because the focus on the show is Yuri making it to the Grand Prix Finale, and his romance with Victor isn't shined on, it's an afterthought. Given is a BL "Boys Love" because the focus is on how Uenoyama-kun is handling his feelings for Mafuyu and perusing that relationship. The focus of the storys are different. That's valid. I would like to point out that half the focus in Given is also on the music aspect. Yuri!! On Ice was clearly a sports anime, but it has enough BL for me to consider it to be a major part of the anime. There are certain scenes like the I do understand what you mean though. Sk8 isn't quite there because it was too subtle to be considered an important part of the show. My distinction is mainly the direct implication vs. indirect implication. @deafnote I agree with you. That's how I've seen it once I learned there was a distinction between yaoi and shounen ai lol |
Space_BoyfriendApr 23, 2021 2:52 PM
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| Last time I checked, BL is the literal translation of shounen ai. It only differs from yaoi, which is like comparing shounen to seinen. That's the best way I can put it. On topic, I felt both were pretty average, with Given being the worst offender for me. With that being said, I wouldn't argue against Given being the more authentic of the two, but Yuri on Ice was more enjoyable for me on a purely aesthetic level. |
| Haven't seen either in a while, but IMHO, Given is LEAGUES better. Some reasons... 1. Given is a music anime so no wonder it has an absolutely amazing soundtrack. In particular, Fuyunohanashi is the ONLY song to ever even get me close to crying. The amount of emotion that way conveyed in Mafuyu's song was just shocking (especially his scream, but for more plot-related reasons). OP is great, ED is great, songs you would listen to outside of the anime. For lack of a better word, it's beautiful. 2. The story. Now, I think YOI has an (at least) decent story but Given's was just way more memorable for me. That isn't to say 'Given is sad so it's better', but because of the characters and the interactions that drive the plot forward, it was just more appealing to me. 3. The BL. YOI is more of a light shounen-ai (AKA Boy's Love as subplot), while Given is full-on BL. One version of BL isn't better than the other, but it's the way that it's presented that makes Given superior in this aspect for me. With YOI, It's very ambiguous. IIRC, Yuri and Victor never had a genuinely romantic moment outside of skating or their relationship as coach and skater. There is the kiss scene, but even that was obscured by Victor's arm. There were people saying that YOI isn't gay because of this ambiguity. It still is a very iconic scene that people are still talking about 5 years later (e.g. every tweet about the renga hug from episode 12 of SK8) but Given was very upfront about it. Like 'This is BL, these boys are in love, here's a kiss and confession scene'. Now, I have no problem with ambiguity or 'Queer-baiting.' There are many shows I like that I will gladly admit are 'Queer-baiting' the audience. But for me, YOI didn't feel like queer-baiting (because you can totally tell when something is queer-bait). It felt like YOI WANTED to give you this cute, realistic, canon gay relationship but didn't go all the way. That's kind of all my thoughts, I do have some more reasons, but they're more personal (for example, I like music anime). So here are just some of my thoughts on why Given is better than YOI. |
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| I've watched Yuri on ice but I don't even remember Victor and Yuri even having a romantic interest.... But I'm damn sure Yuri on ice is queer baiting so Given automatically wins.I mean,what was the point in censoring the kiss when so many same sex couple have kissed in an anime in the past? |
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| YoI isn't BL, it's a sport anime with a romance. Given is BL, being an adaptation of a BL manga. Given is also extremely generic, the only reason it's so famous it's because the average anime watcher is stuck in 2005 for these things and they think it's somehow revolutionary. |
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| Yuri On Ice is better than any BL show. |
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