AnimeNfo

[alexeena (#139892)]

 What anime is different from its manga counterpart?

[Stick (#5576)]

Interesting thread OP, but I'm not sure why you made this in the Music section. I moved it over to the general anime forum.

I also took the liberty of editing your title, so that it conveys the second half of your question.

[cranston (#84421)]

There's a lot of examples usually occurred when the anime is realised before the manga is finished. Actually, this is more something which occurred in the past. Nowadays, it seems as if the anime season would end without resolution, and without assurances that there would be a season 2. Or 3 or whatever.

Full Moon o Sagashite - One quarter of the way into the anime, the anime and manga split off on radically different paths.

Karin - Radical split about halfway through.

Princess Lover - The original medium is a visual novel. Radical split about halfway through. Reason for this was that a large part of the last stages of the visual novel was pure erotica with no story substance. This is a rare case where the anime version was better than the original.

Galaxy Angel - Tact Mayers is the main character in both the visual novels and manga, but never appears in the anime. The anime and manga are comedy-parodies whereas the visual novel is a "serious" dating sim space opera. The reason this occurred was that the visual novel, manga and anime were supposed to be all released at the same time. Budgeting problems resulted in the visual novel being delayed so the anime people purportedly had nothing to work with other than the character designs.

Prism Ark - The anime became epic fail in the last 3 eps. Purportedly due to budget problems.

Tsubasa Chronicles - Specifically the 2nd season had a lot of material not found in the anime.

Valkyria Chronicles - The anime made changes to events and characters.

[Shiru (#135861)]

Ga-Rei Zero is a prelude to its manga counterpart. Same characters as the manga with some new characters. Kind of a bummer if you've already read the manga, but I totally recommend it.

[cranston (#84421)]

[Shiru (#135861)]

It's still different. Completely different storyline. OP should have been more specific.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Well, with it being a prequel, I would not put that as being the "counterpart" of the other.

However, I would say that it qualifies if the prequel were to leave things where the events of the Manga were no longer possible following that.

[cranston (#84421)]

[Shiru (#135861)]

@Supraguy and Cranston
Well I wouldn't actually know if the prequel was exactly faithful to the manga, as I mentioned before, I have never read the manga.

My definition of counterpart is much looser than the both of yours. Ga-rei Zero is the only anime version of the manga, which to me, is good enough to qualify as being a counterpart of the manga. No other anime "counterpart" by you two's definition exists for this manga, because no other anime for the manga's storyline exists (as of yet). Since it is intended to be a completely different storyline, but has elements from the manga, it is obviously different, but it is also not omitting information from the manga. Which is why, again, OP should have been more specific. Maybe he or she should reply to our convo and tell us if this is or isn't what he or she wants.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Well, I read the manga for Rosario + Vampire, and thought that it was actually pretty good. Then watched the Anime... Very different. A large divergence in plot, with the maga being vastly superior.

Whereas there was a large divergence in Karin as well, I'd regard that as mostly being different, with a few shortcuts taken for the shorter format of the anime. Some of those weren't great, but they were handled competently. Not so for Rosario + Vampire. At least one change accomplished NOTHING, not even extra ecchi shots (Of which there are WAY more in the anime than there ever were in the manga) and managed to contradict the story in other parts.

And yet, in spite of that, I finished season 1 and have started in on season 2. Well, I've got to say that the OP for season 2 is at the very least very impressive from a technical standpoint, and hey, I'm still a guy after all...

[MauveCloud (#134572)]

If you're looking for animes that are Alternate Continuities from their manga, tvtropes has a list that includes many of them: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlternateContinuity

[cranston (#84421)]

Sure we could look it up, but it wouldn't quite be as fun. But alternate continuity is a cool term. I've thought of another two examples.

Sakura Taisen - Canon are the events which happen within the game, the movie, and the various OVAs. The Sakura Taisen anime series basically rewrote everything which happened in the first game.

Rozen Maiden - In the original manga, the story was cut short due to conflicts between the writer and publisher.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Well, in anything based on a visual novel or H-Game, then generally an anime will partly follow through the various routes, and then take one of them to the end, so they tend to follow that way, at least somewhat.

For a manga to anime adaptation though, I suppose that there seem to be a lot of people who want to see the same story take shape, but quite often it'll be a different story with similar characters and settings, which is what I thought that the topic of this thread was.

[cranston (#84421)]

I don't disagree with your interpretation of the nature of this topic. I made the assumption that the original poster is actually asking about differences in anime adaptations from the original source. You see, newbies tend to have a misconception. Which one came first? The manga or the anime? This may have been a valid question in the old days, but the more common answer now is neither. The light novels and visual novels have been adapted into both manga and anime.

As to "people who want to see the same story take shape", put me on the list. I only want a single story, the canon. Characters should behave the same in any medium. Otherwise you might as well give them different names. If it's a good story, there no reason to change anything, right?

[Shiru (#135861)]

[cranston (#84421)]

[Shiru (#135861)]

Well the anime came first according to the storyline, but I was under the impression (from outraged fans) that the manga was created first, but that the maker intentionally created a prequel to get people to read the manga as well. Good marketing, I'd say.

EDIT: Nevermind, my impression was correct. I just looked it up.

Princess Lover is different. I looked back at your post and got the impression that the storyline degenerated to essentially, plotless porn. They not only had to change it because of its lack of a storyline, but also because it's not suited for TV in the first place... unless they wanted the later episodes to go on pay-per-view, or hentai sites. Of course they didn't HAVE to change it, but the point of anime is to make money. Porn is pretty easy to get for free on the net, and, from what I'm getting from your posts, Princess Lover would have been too hardcore for Adult Swim here in the US, or other more mature mainstream channels in other countries, limiting its audience significantly.

I guess these are hard standards to meet. I don't think anyone would intentionally create a bad storyline for a manga and expect to get a better, revamped anime. Since I prefer anime to manga, I just thought it would be nice to find an anime that is meant to be better than the manga and was created specifically for that purpose.

[cranston (#84421)]

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

[blue_scarlet (#41202)]

Rurouni Kenshin - I haven't finished reading the manga yet (it's so long) but my sister tells me the manga and anime went on differently after Shishio's arc. I can't accept that Nobuhiro Watsuki created the fenshui magic stuff story of Rurouni Kenshin.

Ouran High School Host Club, Fruit's Basket, Kare Kano, Skip Beat! (and more) - Are these counted? These are different from the manga because the stories in the manga were not yet done. I think this was also the case of Rurouni Kenshin. The anime staff has to create their own versions to end the series.

[cranston (#84421)]

[blue_scarlet (#41202)]

Oh..in that case, these anime did not really divert from the manga. No MAJOR changes, just some slight made-up story to end the story.

In Ouran, they took highlights from the manga and made it funnier. An animated Tamaki is way way better! The manga hasn't ended yet so the anime was also open ended. Skip Beat, like Ouran High, was also not that different from the manga. Instead of showing a definite end for the story, they rather "strongly implied" a possible ending--

[zitch (#80114)]

You know, most anime adaptations of manga and novels (or vice-versa) are bound to have differences between them due to differences in the media and run-time. What would be more interesting are those adaptations that are very close to the original yet still worked.

The first title that comes to mind for me is Naoki Urasawa's Monster; The source manga almost works like a shot-per-shot storyboard for the anime. Every anime episode lines up exactly with every two manga chapters. On rare occasions, there are very slight differences (And usually, this is a choice in camera angles) that I spotted when I was comparing the first dozen episodes to the manga.

I know this topic more about story and plot differences between adaptations, but I find series to go to the other extreme to be even rarer and pretty related to this topic.

[cranston (#84421)]

@zitch
Doesn't Bleach and Naruto (non-filler eps) run that way? The first two arcs of Kenshin also ran that way. Spice and Wolf did it awesomely. Zero no Tsukaima is also faithful to the light novel but both sucketh bad.

In fact, most times, the anime mirrors the original medium in, at least, the beginning eps until they pass the manga. It's economical that way because you don't have to think of a brand new story. However, it's gotten extremely bad these days in that it seems anime series rarely end conclusively. At least, that's the way it seems to me. Nowadays, it's no longer "happily ever after". Instead, it's "and so the story continues...".

Excuse me while I go somewhere and rail against commercialism which refuses to let a good story end so that it can be milked for more than it's worth.

[Shiru (#135861)]

[Stick (#5576)]

[cranston (#84421)]

Still, this is an interesting topic.

[foryouranime (#144986)]

Kuroshitsuji is different from the manga. So is the first Hellsing series... Oh, and Blade of the Immortal is also different.

[cranston (#84421)]

So I've been thinking, how many examples are there of the anime adaptation being better than the original source?

I've mentioned Princess Lover and Rozen Maiden and the reasons above. Does anyone else care to share an opinion?

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

I haven't read enough manga to make any fair comparisons, so I'm also interested. (I've been considering Rozen Maiden simply because you mention it in this context.)

I'm starting to read more manga, but still I don't read a lot of it.

[blue_scarlet (#41202)]

[Shiru (#135861)]

[Ryuuzaki (#154669)]

well, I would say the welcome to the nhk anime is really different to the manga.
first certain events were changed, didn't even occure.
second the anime focuses more on satou. you only know what problem the others have so at the end.
and the end is totally different. unfortunally i don't want to spoil.

I can't think of anything else now except for the one you guys already mentioned x.x

[cranston (#84421)]

I had a thought. In almost all cases, anime adaptations are inferior to their original forms, whether manga or novel or game.

I'd say there are 3 primary reasons for this. The first being that non-anime versions are better able to provide depth. In a non-anime, authors are better able to describe situations, the background of the world, what characters are thinking, etc. The same effect could be achieved in an anime via internal monologue and commentator narrations, but it is restrictive.

2nd reason is that written mediums can get away with less because readers tend to fill in the gaps with their imagination. Not so in an anime where every single scene occurs on-screen.

3rd reason is that anime episode length and total number of episodes is restrictive, resulting in some badly chopped up adaptations.


Edit:
I've also thought of another example of an anime which is better than the visual novel. Koukaku no Regios. Admittedly, the anime ended on a non-ending, but in comparison to the visual novel was better focused and descriptive. The visual novel also suffered through jumping from one viewpoint to another, especially in the later books, resulting in a disjointed story.

Edit2:
Next year, there is an anime adaptation of the Supernatural TV series. The American live-action one about 2 brothers. Undoubtedly, this will be "different".

[sakurafice (#142452)]

well, it's also alot harder for anime adaptions to live up to their origins because of social queues....

like in anime, you have to get timing right when it comes to dialogue (especially if it's a comedic scene), where as in manga, it's much easier to just draw it, and the timing is inferred, or imagined by the audience

also, alot of what happens in manga/non animated forms are left to the imagination, (so i guess alot easier to enjoy?) where as in anime, everything is there. if you don't like the execution by the director, too bad.

hope this makes sense...
*crawls to the kitchen to eat breakfast*

[Shiru (#135861)]

I have another suggestion for this thread that my brother told me about: Code Geass.

This is one of those rare animes that is better than the manga, but that's because the original series was in anime format. The original series is already so good that the manga was definitely going to pale in comparison. As a result, the makers changed the storyline of the manga, and now most fans hate the manga version.

Ofc, this is all what my bro tells me, so correct him if this is wrong. xD I am defo watching this series one day tho.

I would now say that in general, the original is almost always better than any counterpart that follows. This general rule makes sense because
1) Don't fix/change what ain't broke/the formula that works.
2) The original creates expectations from your imagination that the counterpart often fails to achieve.

[sakurafice (#142452)]