I've read the manga, should I watch the anime?

[HazelNutCoffee]

I didn’t like the anime version of Card Captor Sakura at all, but I used to be a big fan of CLAMP and I felt like their art style didn’t translate well to animation. Also the story was all changed, and not for the better.

I thought the anime of Sailor Moon wasn’t bad. In fact in some ways I preferred it to the manga. Action translates better on the screen.

I can’t get through the manga version of Bleach, even though that’s the original. I’ll take the anime version every time.

[Omi_no_Kami]

@storyguide3

This reminds me of another interesting series: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The light novels and manga are currently being published in North America by Yen Press. I think the anime (at least the first series) may be available here as well. So far I think I like the light novels slightly better than the anime, and that a little more than the manga. But they are all fun. Kindsa wish I’d known someone like Haruhi when I was in high school, would have been alot less dull.

I vastly prefer the Haruhi novels to the anime, mainly because some stuff starts to happen later on that is artfully and massively well-implemented in the novel, but I can’t imagine how they would do it in the anime.

To wit: (massive, MASSIVE spoilers follow- reading will completely ruin an awesome plot point)

It slowly, and then much more quickly becomes obvious that Kyon is an extremely unreliable narrator, and that both his own dry, snarky personality and the over-the-top insanity of the other characters compared to him might all be fabrications/misperceptions of his.

[E-Sabbath]

Azumanga Daioh. Very different in animated and 4-panel comics. Watching it is just as good as reading it, though. Doing both is even more fun.

[vdgg81]

@Silver Tyger Girl

I have Pom Poko, although I haven’t watched it yet. They’re not raccoons, they’re tanuki, and they actually do have giant scrotums. And I was raised on Miyazaki, so that’s a given.

I was afraid that Miyazaki was too obvious… I did know they were tanukis, but I figured it was easier just saying “raccoons” than having to explain tanukis.

@Chakra Nadmara

The anime Monster is almost identical to the manga panel for panel and kicks a large amount of ass, coming from someone who doesn’t care for anime.

I’m going to check this out.

@Hodge

I’ve never been able to get into manga for one simple reason: I just can’t get used to reading right to left. It’s an embarrassing psychological roadblock (…)
Therefore, I’m going to ignore the OP and just make a recommendation:
Try Black Lagoon. If you loved CB, you’ll love BL.(…)

Many manga are translated left to right. Lone Wolf and Cub and MW both are done that way in the US. I’m going to look for Black Lagoon, thanks.

@Tengu

I love Ito, but nothing he’s written has ever creeped me out, save Tomie. Uzumaki and Gyo were interesting reads, but not scary or creepy at all.

Really? The damn thing nearly gave me nightmares and I usually am not too affected by this sort of stuff. How could you not find disturbing the scene where we see the boy’s father, all twisted inside a wooden enclosure or the boy’s mother going crazy in the hospital and stabbing herself in the ear or the snail-boy or…

[Kamino_Neko]

@vdgg81

Really? The damn thing nearly gave me nightmares and I usually am not too affected by this sort of stuff. How could you not find disturbing the scene where we see the boy’s father, all twisted inside a wooden enclosure or the boy’s mother going crazy in the hospital and stabbing herself in the ear or the snail-boy or…

Because it was more comical than creepy. The mother’s paranoia was the closest to creepy in the whole thing…the rest made me laugh, not shudder.

[cckerberos]

@Sage_Rat

For manga series that aren’t all that impressive to begin or where the anime uses the manga as a veritable storyboard (Ruroni Kenshin, One Piece, and other Jump Comic offerings), you may as well just watch the anime. However, in the case of Ruroni Kenshin the two OAV series that the director did outside the style of the comic are amazing. (At least the first one is, I still haven’t seen the second.)

Absolutely have to disagree with you here. The Rurouni Kenshin anime probably holds the record for awful filler episodes (30+, including the entire last season) and doesn’t include the last third of the manga (which is pretty good). The manga is hands down better the better choice. The first OVA is great, though.

[Carmady]

I always come into these threads to recommend Future Boy Conan, my favorite animated series of all time.

I’d also recommend trying out the (unrelated) Detective Conan, especially if you ever liked things like Encyclopedia Brown when you were a kid.