Forum - View topicAnime adaptations better than the original manga
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Since I have a topic discussing adapations that people think did not live up to the original manga, I thought it only fair to have one looking at adaptations that not only met the challenge but exceeded it, which is quite an accomplishment since it is generally thought that whatever came first is almost always superior (and in most cases, I would say that it is).
The first adaptation that I would say is superiour would be Pretear. This is a bit unfair in a way, since the anime and the manga took completely different paths, with very few differences. But overall, I think the story told in the anime is more put together and less rushed than the manga often feels. While the manga I think has better character development for the entire cast (meaning people who aren't Himeno, Hayate, or Sasame...though actually manga!Sasame is not as well developed as anime!Sasame IMO), it just isn't as unified and plot-driven as the anime. The other adaptation I believe to be better than the original manga would be the live-action version of Mars. While I love the manga very much, it certainly has its flaws, the main of which I think is a general lack of unity within the plot, which includes major plot being thrown in suddenly all over the place, including the end of the series. The live-action ends up rectifying this however, as characters and events are shown/alluded to much earlier on in the course of the series. Except for what I think of rather poor handling of the events of vol 3 of the manga, the live-action Mars continually out-does it's original source, telling the same story but in a better way. So, as with the other thread, what anime (or live-action) adaptations of manga do you think are actually better than the original? |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Although one could argue the other way, Fullmetal Alchemist. While the manga took a more typical shounen path (not necessarily a bad thing), the anime was able to go on a more philosophical path, giving itself a more clear identity and distiguishing itself from any typical shounen series. I can't comment on the manga ending (since I don't think it has ended yet), but I thought the anime ending was really well done, putting a whole new twist on the situation.
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GoodLuckSaturday
 Posts: 567 Location: Indiana |
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Maison Ikkoku is one show I feel outshines its manga. The manga is great, but the anime just felt more natural and the pacing within the story progression episodes completely outclassed the manga.
I didn't get much out of the School Rumble manga (only with the English publication), but I love the anime. I think the anime does a lot more than the manga can, in using a lot of visual and sensory exploitation, which works perfectly for the series in animation. I kind of want to say The Prince of Tennis. The anime is one of my favorites, but aside from the first volume or two, I've never felt the manga was able to be as exciting as the anime. Though I don't think I can actually say it, since it was only the first 100 episodes that I was more excited by the anime, since the last 70 were nowhere near on the same level. I know there was a bit of filler, but the quality took a nose dive big time. The new OVA is stellar though, and I'd rather watch The Prince of Tennis than read it (even though I am reading it), so I'll ultimately say it outshines it manga. |
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godakame
 Posts: 112 Location: Disney World |
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Yeah, but in my case it's whichever one I stumble across first (sometimes regretably so). I happen to watch the anime adaptation of Monster (which I have yet to finish) before picking up the manga. You lose much of the emotion and suspense if you already know the whats going to happen; it also dosent help that Monster is a slow thriller, so trudging through the manga wasn't that enjoyable. Anyways on to superior anime adaptations. Mushishi and Elfen Lied come to mind. Short stories tend to work out better in anime translation, and this is the case with mushishi; longer story arcs tends to breed filler episodes, inane additions, or removal of story elements, and thus produce hatred among the masses. Obviously this isn't the case with mushishi. Everything in the mushishi anime was done exceptionally well, but the music is what sealed the deal for me -- it kicked ass and fit the anime so perfectly. As for Elfen Lied, the manga put me to sleep and I hear bad things for the second half of the manga (where the anime ends). I could vomit better art than what was in the elfen lied manga. Okay it wasnt that bad, but far from good. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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I haven't seen to Pretear anime, though I can't imagine it was very hard to outdo the source matterial. I also found Fullmetal Alchemist to be better than the manga. In addition to better pacing and a generally more serious tone, it had great direction to back it up.
The one title that really comes to mind is Mushi-shi. I was a bit reluctant to watch it at first, as I'm not too keen on adaptations, but I've found it to exceed the source matterial, which is quite impressive considering how good the manga is. The ambiance of the show is just perfect, with an almost Ugetsu-like (a classic live-action film) approach to the treatment of the supernatural elements. The careful pacing and subtle storytelling do the original manga justice in ways I'd never expect. Really phenominal all around. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Yes, that certainly happens to me as well, though it's not always the case (for example, I saw the anime of Paradise Kiss first and liked it, but then I started reading the manga and vastly prefer it). I think this happens more when the difference between the quality of the anime and the manga is more subjective perhaps (to use an example from the North American...well, British really...comic book world, it's like prefering the graphic novel or the movie of V for Vendetta...I found that I liked the movie much more, which I did see first, but because of the number of differences between the two versions, it really is more a matter of personal preference than being able to say one is clearly better). |
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Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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 I guess the movie is better if you like things that go "BOOM," or like you said it all depends on what version you see first. I don't think the V movie was nessisarily bad, but I really don't think it captured what the graphic novel was really about: I think the true meat of the story lies not in V's struggle but in the side character's lives and how they live under within that particular society. Of course, you can't expect to make a superhero movie about that, so I would say the film is a solid action picture, just not the brilliant masterpiece that fanboys claim it is. I still think V is behind Moore's best stuff, but I do have a soft spot for the comic.
But I do agree with the idea that most of the time people will like the version they saw first the best unless there are some obvious disparities in terms of quality. I can't tell you how many Lord of the Rings fans dislike the visual aspects of the films, even if they admit that they are very well made. When I finally got around to reading JAWS I didn't care for it, partly because of the writers style and soap operaish qualities, but mostly because I had Spielberg's vision in my mind the whole time I was reading it. In the same way, I kind of have some apprehensions about the upcoming Black and White movie. While I can't imagine a team better suited for the story than Studio 4°C, I'm still going to go into the film having read the manga, which is one of my all-time favorites, and that's probobly going to weigh against it. I usually subscribe to the view that adaptations should be unique works of art, not mearly carbon copies of what they're based on, and I'm sure the movie is going to be diffrent from the original. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I haven't read all of the manga, but from what I've read, I felt the Elfen Lied anime was better than the manga. The art for the manga wasn't particularly good and I've heard various things about the later events in the manga that I'm iffy on. The anime had a somewhat ambiguous ending, but in this case, I thought that it worked well.
And while the anime and manga are both still ongoing, I think the Ouran High School Host Club anime surpasses the manga most of the time. Of course, since both are still ongoing, this could very well change. |
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Ginrai1984
 Posts: 120 Location: getting kittens out of bonsai-trees |
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one of the animes that surpassed it manga imo are:
kannazuki no miko the manga feeled way too rushed and thus the anime had more steady pace of progressing and the drama-factor in the anime was a lot higher tha in the manga and i found it a good thing!  rhe series had a sad ending though
bokusatsu tenshi dokuro chan: simply put the manga isn't as crazy as the anime and the manga comes over as one big canon-project and apperently the manga is the original! |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Another live-action adaptation that I think is better (at least from what I've read) than the manga (and anime adaptation) would be live-action Sailor Moon. It actually is a very good show, mainly because it doesn't take itself too seriously (because if it did that, things just wouldn't work)...mainly it's just really fun, though they have a great plot at work as well. But the thing that makes it better than the manga for me is the pacing: I find the Sailor Moon manga is just far too rushed, things just keep happening so fast you have no time to get to know the characters or really care about them. On the other end of the spectrum, the anime goes too slow, with so much filler that you sometimes want to go Monty Python on them and start screaming that they "get on with it!"
And once again, crow-kun, reasons are you friends. |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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Cardcaptor Sakura: I liked how the anime showed more of how Sakura got her powers instead of the manga where they just showed a brief flashback of it. I also liked how the anime showed how Tomoyo found out about Sakura's magical powers which was never shown in the manga. The filler-in episodes of the anime actually made the series more enjoyable because they helped flesh out the characters more and I liked the inclusion of Meiling. She helped make the Sakura, Syaoran, and Yukito love triangle much more interesting to me. I also thought the Final Judgement and Sakura's final battle against Eriol were much more exciting in the anime than the manga. Action scenes in general tend to work better in an animated format, but I also liked how the anime didn't drag the pacing down with a spoiler[random explanation from Mizuki-sensei during the middle of the Final Judgement about the Clow Cards. I thought that random explanation ruined part of the intensity of the fight in the manga] and I preferred how they switched the locations of the Final Judgement taking place at Tokyo Tower instead of the shrine. It just looks visually more appealing to me. I also liked the anime version's ending much better than the manga's. The manga's ending felt too easy and happily ever afterish to me. I liked how there was more conflict for Sakura to confess her feelings in the second movie and I thought the cliffhanger ending worked better than showing Sakura living happily ever after with the one she loved and everything being perfect.
Angelic Layer: The manga was just terrible beyond words and this is coming from a big fan of Clamp. The anime fleshed out the characters more and gave them some actual personality. I liked the anime's explanation for why Misaki's mother left her better than the manga's. The manga's explanation was just too cheesy even for me and I think the anime's explanation is more believable and not quite so far-fetched. I thought the anime's added love triangle was very cute and the manga just didn't feel like a Clamp manga without the love triangle and I hated how Clamp spoiler[randomly paired Tamayo up with Ohjiro without any explanation at all when they never even interacted with each other at all in the manga.] The anime's ending in general was a lot better than the manga's which I felt contradicted Clamp's message that little people can be just as strong as tall people by having spoiler[Misaki lose the fight against her mother which completely defeats the message Misaki is trying to convey and just felt too sudden and out of place to me]. The one thing I liked about the manga better was that the scenes with Ichijiro were funnier in the manga but the anime still surprasses the manga on a whole and really improves what was otherwise a dissappointing series. |
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Mylene
 Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
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The first anime that immediately comes to mind as better than the manga is Revolutionary Girl Utena. There are many RGU fans (not me) who seem to utterly despise the manga because it was too "simplistic" the characters weren't as developed, etc. Personally, I liked the manga very well, but must admit it doesn't hold a candle to the depth of the anime.
The manga was the basic story of Utena without the deeper intrigue, the beautifully done symbolism, the darker and deeper feelings of deception. Of course, I still prefer the manga-version of the movie, but it came out after the movie. |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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I second Fullmetal Alchemist. I read the manga first and liked it, but the anime just seems to be more....alive. I care more about the characters because they all seem more human. I especially like the way the homunculi all had individual backgrounds. In the manga they were just sort of there, showing up to try to get people to kill each other for some reason. spoiler[Bradley!Wrath] also seemed really wrong to me after I watched more of the anime and saw spoiler[what a cute little thing Wrath!Wrath is. He's probably my favorite character in the entire series, and I greatly prefer him to his manga counterpart. Also, the thing with Sloth being the creation of Ed and Al when they attempted to bring their mother back was a great twist.] The anime plot just seemed to be so much more intricate, and it felt like you got more out of watching it than reading the manga. The manga is entertaining, yes, but the anime takes that entertainment a step further by making you ask questions.
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hanachan01
 Posts: 504 |
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While I do prefer the way the Homunculi were created in the anime, as well as the homunculi themselves spoiler[(except for Ling!Greed)], I prefer the backstory of the Ishbalan War, and of Mustang, Hawkeye, Scar, etc. from the manga. It wasn't as "exposed" in the aniem as it was in the manga, and spoiler[the fact that Mustang's teacher is Hawkeye's dad is a really interesting plot twist. Hawkeye's tattoo is also interesting.].[/spoiler]
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hanachan01
Posts: 504 |
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Sorry to double post(it's a few hours later, so I think it's okay, correct me if I'm wrong), but look at how timelt this is-Ask John provided his answer to this question, which can be seen here- http://animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1343
I agree with him on but Excel Saga. The Excel Saga anime was laugh out loud funny...but the manga was kind of slow, and the jokes weren't as frantic. Those were my favorite parts of the EX anime, so to read the manga was dissapointing. AzuDai is another show I agree with. While the manga is hilarious, some jokes get across better in the anime, such as the Osaka with her recorder thing, since you could actuallt hear the music. Also, it is a really well animated series, and I like the music as well(Soramimi Cake is a favorite song to sing with my friends!). |
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