Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Manga vs Anime

Which did you enjoy more if you had the chance to read the Manga and watch the anime of the same series?

I have always wondered about this, but never really talked about it online. I guess this would be similar to reading your comic books and then seeing the movie based on the character(s).

  • Did it keep with the comic book character(s) style and costume?
  • DId they make changes to the character(s) that did not make any sense?
  • Did they do something so outlandish that you just want to punch the director/writer in the face?

Now I have to say that so far, this has not been the case for me. I watched the anime of Air Gear and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TTGL) before the Manga. I know that the Manga series for TTGL came out well after the anime series and Air Gear has been out for a while. I am not talking about the wonderful side stores or additional information at the end that helps to explain (which is cool). I am more in reference to how the brought it together. Kind of similar to the questions above.

I will start with Gurren Lagann as this will be the easiest for me. If you can't tell, I AM A HUGE FAN of this series. It really got to me and even locked my son into the series. I loved the character buildups and the whole storyline. I think, outside the Ghost in the Shell family, this is one of my fav animes. (I should talk about the GitS Manga vs Anime, but it was so long ago that I had watched it). I picked up the Manga series as I wanted to see what they would change.
I was happy to see that they didn't change anything, but added in more of the story background. I liked how they expanded on the girls that captured the team pretending to be hostages. Here we see another thrown out girl (like Nia) that is now an old lady. She is grooming the females to be a good slave to the Spiral King. They really developed this more than the movie did and was a nice addition to the series.

Now Air Gear anime stopped and that really pissed me off. I was really getting into and then it stopped with no further info - argh! I was able to finally pick up the Manga series at Borders when they were closing. I got all the issues up to volume 18 and it was a great read.

Now this manga series did give more info that than the anime did. You really got some good background and some funny tales added in. It was nice to see the manga artist (Oh! Great) give you some humorous character drawings at times. Just give them balloon bodies and such when they were being silly.

The anime ended in volume 11 of the Manga series. If they had to end the anime, I think they picked the best spot. This really did show a difference between the two when Ikki had to battle Trident. In the anime, everyone that was on the class trip to the Kansai District, was laying down for him to jump over. In the manga, it was just Ringo that was laying down at the end of the jump.

As far as I can tell, the manga has gone up to volume 22 so far for the pre-orders. The whole storyline really changed during the middle of volume 11 though. Talk about taking a fork in the road - it really threw me for a loop this new direction they are on. I am still enjoying it however and look forward to the coming volumes.

Overall, I am glad I picked up both Manga series. If not only to re-enjoy the anime series, but to get more in depth with it. I think either way, if you enjoyed the series, you should do both. I am glad I picked up the Manga for both series.

How do you feel about this 'Manga vs Anime' stuff?

7 comments:

  1. Definitely the manga! That's how I feel when I watch/read Bleach. The feelings are just on different level. Furthermore, manga doesn't have fillers ;)

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  2. @Kluxorious ~ I have to agree about the fillers and you usually get more skin also

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  3. mmm well i guess you both are right about what you just said, but i actually think this answer might be unattainable in somme instances, because whether you watch one anime or the other, you WILL be influenced by one. For example, those who have read books to certain movies almost ALWAYS agree the books are much better. and many who watch the movies feel like the movies are great. i know that isn't such a great analogy, but with manga....idk i can really appreciate the art, but I'm not entirely sure if i can equivocally answer this question

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  4. I'm a visual guy so I prefer anime over manga. The thing is that most anime were on manga and anime kind of ends half way to induce me to follow up with manga.

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  5. @FaS ~ I think you explained it quite well as it is a difference of personal likes

    @Dennis aka Katsuden ~ I would tend to agree and have found that out with Air Gear. It really depends however on personal tastes.

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  6. Personally I love anime compared to manga maybe because anime was first introduced to me instead of the manga maybe if I lived in japan maybe manga would be my first love...

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  7. @Haven ~ I was into anime way before manga myself and now have a love of each.

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