Anime Which do you prefer: Manga or Anime?

[Okita]

Okay, the title has warning bell written all over it so before I get myself blacklisted by a mod, I'd like to ask people NOT post here if there only going to announce that "manga is better" or "anime is better"

The reason I ask this is because of I pattern I'd like to clarify.

Being a long time fan of anime ever since the age of Doraemon and Saint Seiya, I've being watching anime and reading manga for all my childhood in Asia. Things change when I moved to Australia when I was around 10 and ever since moving to no-anime land, i've being isolated from any decent source for a long while until evangelion was screened on our local free-to-air TV.

I fell in love with the series straight away, and went on to obsessively purchase every anime I could get my hand on (which where very expensive R1 import), then I joined my local Animeclub at Uni (no I wasn't attending Uni yet, just a memeber of the club located at uni) and was introduce to Fansub, I began to download them like crazy and never did stop, by now I believe I have close to 10 terrabyte worth of DVD and burnt CD anime collection that spans 2 bookshelf and a trunk full of CD spindles.

I was latter introduce to manga that are aviailible both as english translation and Chinese (which I'm not very good at anymore but get by) and at first I find that I like them less than anime, but lately i've slowly began to change my mind until suddenly I find myself prefering the manga in most cases over an anime.

The reason for my preference to anime to begin with was simple; it's moving picture, the actions are better and watching a series take less effort that the manga.

But I find lately that the more anime I watch, the more picky I get, and more and more series I now find wanting in one way or another, rewatching as series will have me see flaw that I didn't see before and more often than not I find that the more intricate plotline and more detail story of the manga is better than it's water-down anime cousin.

There are exception to this, such as Bebop and Last Exile, superb anime that shine like beacons, but overall I find manga to be far superior and more satiesfying in the long run.

Alot of my friend agrees with me on this, and I find that all those who do are those that have been watching anime as long as I have (5 yrs + minimum) and that most of those that disagree are those that only recently got into anime. (under 2-3 yers)

So essentially i thought that: anime fan will inventually prefer manga or anime.

I'd like to hear your view on this, mainly to justify a pattern or to see if it's a just group of like minded people that have a lot of thing in common (including rate of change in taste...)

cheers!

[Dagger]

I usually gravitate toward anime. This may be partly due to the fact that I almost always end up disliking lengthy series--and many of the best-loved, most beautifully drawn manga are [i]incredibly[/i] long. When double-dipping (as I began to do with Fruits Basket, Yu Yu Hakusho and Revolutionary Girl Utena), I usually end up enjoying the animated version more... particularly if there are very few differences between them. That obviously doesn't apply to Utena, but I thought the Utena anime had more interesting artwork and a vastly better script.

I find it discouraging to glance at the original version of a series I love (including X-TV and the aforementioned Yu Yu Hakusho) and discover that it's over twenty volumes long and eventually starts to feel dragged out. So most of the time I buy manga which haven't been animated, or simply stick with manwha. I guess it tends to annoy me when my two collections overlap.

Another big reason that I prefer anime is because I go through manga extremely quickly. I'm a fast, highly visual reader--when the images are [i]provided[/i], I can gobble up an entire series so speedily that it almost feels as though my cash was wasted. So manga and manwha have to hook me with something other than the promise of an interesting plot, because I need them to demonstrate a lot of replay value (in a manner of speaking). Anime generally comes in twenty-three to twenty-five minute episodes, which means I'm guaranteed to get a certain amount of viewing time for the money I paid. Whether or not that time is enjoyable depends on my intelligence as a consumer.

Generally speaking, I prefer to avoid directly comparing the two mediums. Each has powerful advantages over the other (manga is, after all, much cheaper), and I'm happy to be a fan of both.

~Dagger~

[Guest milesmori]

It is really hard to choose between the two. Manga has a more indepth viewing of the anime in hand. Where the anime lets you view what is going on in that particular anime. I do wish funamation would stop licensing anime though.. It ruins anime's for al that can only see them on tv. If we would just get fansubs here in USA I would be much happier. Mangas are soo awsome.. There are many manga that you will never be seen on tv or made into an anime seriece do to graphic behavior.. So to go back to the matter at hand.. I am unable to choose between the two. They both have thier ups and thier downs.

[Hikari no Yugi]

ah, that a really tough question. usually i prefer the anime more, because it's usually the thing that gets me in the manga.^^

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I usually prefer manga because I can stare at the art longer, because it tends to be a bit more polished in terms of dialogue, and because it's not marred by poor quality of voice acting/subtitles nearly as often (although the actual DVDs of most animes aren't too bad). Also yes, manga is much cheaper unless you just download fansubs. Noir was expensive and annoyed me because there wasn't an "only Japanese" option.

But really I'd have to look at individual series to say which I prefer.
Love Hina: anime, although manga would be funnier had they animated IT exactly
Full Metal Panic!: anime
Trigun: anime
Cowboy Bebop: anime (Spike looks like crap in the manga)
Oh My Goddess: manga
Neon Genesis Evangelion: manga

Hmm, more anime than manga. But OMG and NGE I prefer to Trigun/CB any day, and FMP and LH I like for the comedy, which manga can't communicate nearly as well. But OMG is my favorite over them all.

[Semjaza]

I don't know if I can say I prefer one over the other... just like I can't say I prefer cartoons over comics here in the US. They're such different mediums, despite the obvious ties between the two.

I guess I'd go with manga, though. To be quite honest, I often cannot bring myself to sit and watch many anime films or series for extended periods of time. With manga, I can go at my own pace. Pay more attention to the things I want to pay attention to. Plus, there's the fact that the characters act and sound like how I imagine, rather than having to be forced to listen to some spotty voice acting.

[densuke]

I used to favor manga. When fewer manga titles were being published it was very easy to find a top-quality title (I never had a problem finding them in bookstores). I would still rather read Takahashi than watch Takahashi...

But I began to realize that manga tend to be... long... and... drawn-out, often for no good reason (except that the publisher wants to ride the title until it drops dead).

And now that everybody and his kid brother is publishing or fanscanning manga it's easier to ignore most of them than to actually wade through them in hopes of finding a couple more good titles... which will then be released in some unsatisfactory (i.e. slow) manner.

I also don't like the dinky paperback-sized manga. The Japanese ones are OK (they cost less too) but the American ones are a hassle to read - to me it's not a good trade-off as far as price vs. format.

Anime adaptations edit parts of the manga they are based on, and the editing often works quite well. It's frankly easier and usually cheaper to get ahold of a series of reasonable length and just watch it. And plenty of straight-to-the-small-screen anime knock my socks off - even if this sort of title is later adapted to manga, the anime will be better.

[Okita]

Many of you have brought up the fact that the two medium really can't be compare, however, when a show is represented in both format, and one has veiw both, it's hard not to draw comparison on the subject when plot are so similiar despite presentation.

For example, while anime represent Love Hina in a far more appealing manner, I prefer the fuller story and plot of the Manga which ran longer and had a more satiefying ending.

The same could be said for most of Takahashi's work, all of whom I would prefer to read than to watch. There are of course series that simply can't be compared, and it is easy for a series you love to be loved in both formate, but I as an indivdual can't help but play favourite in this circumstances.

I love most of Clamps work, and while I like the anime, my favourites are all manga when they are concern.

Other series such as Legend of Basara, Tenjou Tenge etc, all have critical flaw as an anime, whether this be a watered down plot of discotinuation.

That being said, I actually do prefer anime on many occasions as well, anime such as Cowboy Bebop can only ever be portrayed with the same amount of class as an animation, manga simply lack the atmosphere it needs to thrive.

[Wormmon's Tamer]

For me, it all depends on if the Anime does the manga it's based on justice or not. I watched the Shaman King Anime for a while, but eventually gave up on it because it went away from the manga too much. :(

[TOTALIMMORTAL]

I definitely prefer Anime over manga for several reasons. One bacause I'm lazy and flipping pages requires me to move. Another reason is because you get the feel of the storyline much better, the action is better and it's always much better to actually see them move. I do enjoy the occasional manga every once in awhile though.

[Orcus]

[quote name='TOTALIMMORTAL']I definitely prefer Anime over manga for several reasons. One bacause I'm lazy and flipping pages requires me to move. Another reason is because you get the feel of the storyline much better, the action is better and it's always much better to actually see them move. I do enjoy the occasional manga every once in awhile though.[/quote]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=Blue]I don't totaly agree with TOTALIMMORTAL.Take Rave Master for instance. The Rave Master manga is better than the anime in my opinion for 2 reasons. The first is because the anime starts off from the second issue of Rave Master and the second is because the anime strays to far away from the manga.

Than again..the digimon series is better than the manga. The ending half of the second season of digimon is only one issue or something like that. I guess it varies from manga to manga.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Kawaii Seth]

I guess that my choice is a bit double-sided. There are many pros and cons to anime and manga. For instance, to read an action manga, such as Naruto, it would be a little harder to follow the moving action then it would be to watch it in a moving picture.

Then again, manga at often times gives out MUCH more information then most anime shows. Take Hellsing for example, in the anime, you never actually find out who sent Incongnito after Alucard and Integra... all you know is that Incognito is the bad guy. But in the manga of Hellsing, it explain the whole story. More bad guys, more storyline, and you actually find out who the MAIN bad guy is.

Most anime shows are dubbed horendously and if you can't understand Japanese, then the subtitles are sometimes hard to read because they appear and disappear on the screen twice as fast. I prefer to get the anime in Japanese dialogue though.

Manga also has some downsides as well... such as the way some publishers like to "flip-flop" the manga so you can read it the way Americans read their books in the traditional way. But once they "flip-flop" it, then some of the best parts aren't right. Like... if a character has something written on their shirt and the manga is "flip-flopped" then the words are totally backwards and look a little dumb.

I would have to go with Manga though... because Manga seems to give out much more of the storyline then the anime series itself. Because they cut so much out of the anime serires.

Excuse all of my typos... I'm really really tired. x.x

[Solo Tremaine]

[quote name='Kawaii Seth']Then again, manga at often times gives out MUCH more information then most anime shows. Take Hellsing for example, in the anime, you never actually find out who sent Incongnito after Alucard and Integra... all you know is that Incognito is the bad guy. But in the manga of Hellsing, it explain the whole story. More bad guys, more storyline, and you actually find out who the MAIN bad guy is.[/quote][color=#503f86]It depends when the anime is produced in relation to the manga. Sometimes an anime can be produced before the manga's even finished, which means an ending has to be cobbled together from rough elements due ot be in the rest of the manga. That's what happened with Trigun- while the two storylines contain similarities both are quite different in terms of how the events unfold. But with details of character histories they're pretty much the same. It's down to the writer's discretion as to what they think would make a better show.

And you have to remember the difference in communication between the two. Although both use drawings, manga is primarily written, and you can fit more expositionary detail and character emotion monologue into a written medium than an animated one.

But with the Digimon Zero Two manga, the story was drastically abridged- there was far more in the actual series than the manga. Although that's probably due to the manga being made after the anime, but it's not always the case that manga has more than anime. I'd have loved for the manga to have shown bits of the series we never saw (specifically bits with Cody and Armadillomon), but all it really abled me to do was look at very nice black-and-white drawings of scenes I'd already seen.

[QUOTE]Most anime shows are dubbed horendously and if you can't understand Japanese, then the subtitles are sometimes hard to read because they appear and disappear on the screen twice as fast. I prefer to get the anime in Japanese dialogue though.[/QUOTE]I'd disagree with this too, if only because I get frustrated with the huge amount of people who bash English dubs. Granted there are some really poor ones, and ones aimed at kids tend to come off worse. But I like all of the English dubs I've seen with the exception of two: Final Fantasy Unlimited and the new Castle In The Sky. Otherwise I'll happily watch English or Japanese dubs.

Generally I'll watch an anime first, and if the manga interests me I'll take that out too to see if it differs any. Sometimes I've heard that mangas offer far more information about characters or continue the storyline of the series and will buy them accordingly to see if my favourite characters have any more to them than I already know. It's also interesting to see how the story of the anime could have been subtley different and comparing the two to gain a better insight into characters' motivations and histories.[/color]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=Solo Tremaine][color=#503f86]I'd disagree with this too, if only because I get frustrated with the huge amount of people who bash English dubs. Granted there are some really poor ones, and ones aimed at kids tend to come off worse. But I like all of the English dubs I've seen with the exception of two: Final Fantasy Unlimited and the new Castle In The Sky. Otherwise I'll happily watch English or Japanese dubs.

Generally I'll watch an anime first, and if the manga interests me I'll take that out too to see if it differs any. Sometimes I've heard that mangas offer far more information about characters or continue the storyline of the series and will buy them accordingly to see if my favourite characters have any more to them than I already know. It's also interesting to see how the story of the anime could have been subtley different and comparing the two to gain a better insight into characters' motivations and histories.[/color][/QUOTE]

It's great to have a fellow defender of dubs. ;)

What I find interesting is that my anime and manga collections look very different. The anime I own covers a huge range of genres--everything from sugary children's shows to mind-boggling mecha series. However, my manga is predominantly shounen-ai, with one or two regular shoujo series in the mix. I've never finished collecting a straightforward shounen manga, even those which inspired some of my favorite anime. This has happened in part because I find action sequences to be a whole lot more engaging when they're, well, animated.

The best thing about manga is that it's more specialized than anime--the fact that I haven't yet run out of shounen-ai titles to buy, even just picking from those available stateswide, really speaks to this. With manga, I've been able to find a [i]lot[/i] of entertaining series that appeal to my specific tastes. However, ultimately I look for different qualities in anime than in manga.

~Dagger~

[EVA Unit 100]

There are pros and cons for both mediums. With manga, since you don't have to worry about animation budgets and stuff, the graphics can be more detailed and more consistant. However, in anime you are able to get a better sense of pacing and direction, and a lot of very good animes direction can mean a lot. Overall I tend to get mangas of unlicensed animes and get the animes once they're licensed.

[Retribution]

I like both anime and manga. If the anime is terrible, I'll go to the manga for a second look at it, and it usually is really good. If the manga is terrible (rarely the case), I'll try to check out the anime. It's all a matter of circumstance for me, because some animes are good, and some are horrendous -- the same goes for mangas.

Overall, I tend to go for animes, because the movements aren't divided up into frames. I'll vote anime.

Subs vs Dubs is also a circumstantial argument for me, because if a sub is low quality and inaccurate, I won't like it. If a dub is off sync, it'll be really bad. But 7 out of 10, I'll go for a sub.

[fanfaf]

Well anime is just cooler but manga includes more than anime dose expetialy on background plot

[COLOR=#503F86][SIZE=1][b]Please try and add more detail to your posts in future, fanfaf. This is almost spam, and with posts as short as this please take extra care to make sure your spelling's all right. -Solo[/COLOR][/SIZE][/b]

[Guest Yoruyonaka]

I like manga much better than anime. The animation is often better, and the plot often is better. I often find filler episodes and such to be non-essential to the storyline, and a mere waste of time. In manga, the plot doesn't sway from the original ideals, the characters are more detailed (and usually, have more of a backstory to them). And, there are other things...like I prefer reading to watching...

...and the interviews at the back of some mangas are cool...

[Twilight_Kioku]

it kinda depends on which ive seen/read first. ill go watch the anime, think it great, read the manga, and think it greater. turn it around though, in the case of azumanga daioh, its got the funny quirks in it, but you know whats coming. theres a lot of pauses in it and parts where theyre just sitting their staring at each other, or petting the dog for 45 seconds, or walking in the sunset for 2 minutes. fillers, basicly. it ruins it. in most cases, the two run allong each other, but they have differences in it, say, a different person does this line, or a person wasnt even there in that scene where he should have been. i like the manga better because it IS longer, and you can go back a few pages to clarify something if needed. occassionally, youll get the anime that is more elaborate than the manga is, for instance, Evangelion, and you'll like the anime better(like i did). it seems i just go for the stuff that has more detail in it. one exception to the trend ive found is Chobits. it takes about 15 episodes to get to the end of hte first book, and there really wasnt anything missing from either side. but i dont remember in the manga is the scene where their trying to teach Chii to bathe and Sumono/Plum starts hopping up and down yelling 'hot hot hot hot!'
i think i deffinetly like the manga better than the anime, because you dont have to worry about when it comes on, or the crappy voiceovers, or rewinding to the part you missed or didnt get. theyre cheaper, too +. i read pretty fast, but i can usually get an hour out of each book, so they'll last a while for most readers out there. they tend to be more revealing than the anime is, so check the age ratings on the books, if any. i reccomend azumanga daioh, GTO, chobits, and love hina.

[Solo Tremaine]

[quote name='Yoruyonaka']I like manga much better than anime. The animation is often better, and the plot often is better. I often find filler episodes and such to be non-essential to the storyline, and a mere waste of time. In manga, the plot doesn't sway from the original ideals, the characters are more detailed (and usually, have more of a backstory to them).[/quote][color=#503f86]Look at it this way: how long would it take for all of the dialogue in your typical manga 'volume' to be read out loud? If all anime series were just as if they were in the manga, the average anime would only be about six episodes long because the episodes would be so drastically condensed. But if the animated episodes moved that quickly people'd get frustrated because some of the better moments would be lost for the sake of moving the plot along.

And filler episodes do still appear: in the Trigun Maximum mangas there are plenty of 'filler' chapters which have little bearing on the shifting on the main storyline other than they involve the characters. And they still tend to frustrate me, because I wonder where this has relevence to any other part of the story.

I wouldn't personally call the manga artwork (*sees Dagger's post* ^_^; ) 'better' than anime animation, because 'better' is too wide a term. Black and white is effective, but there've been times reading mangas where I've had no clue what the characters are atually doing because the movement isn't clear. Granted, that's mostly with the action scenes, but trying to focus on a tiny (perhaps necessarry) detail in the background is much harder when the pictures are so small.

In any case, you either have characters [i]or[/i] background in manga- you don't see everything in its proper context.[/color]

[Dagger]

[quote name='Yoruyonaka']I like manga much better than anime. The animation is often better...[/quote]

Manga, by its very definition, does not contain animation. I think the word you're looking for is "artwork."

~Dagger~

[QuincyArcher]

In almost all of the cases where i have both read the manga and watched the anime. i tend to like the manga much better just because the story is much richer and the characters are usually much better developed because they're not limited to 30 minute episodes to squeeze everything in. some good examples of this are Love Hina, Chobits, FLCL, Bleach and Neon Genesis Evangelion. but occasionally i do find that the anime is much better as well. For instance i think that the Azumanga Daioh anime is stellar, it's one of my favorites. but the manga is kinda lackluster i think mainly because the manga is broken up into 4-block chapters which makes it a bit hard to follow at times or just not enough substance there.

[EVA Unit 100]

[quote name='QuincyArcher']but the manga is kinda lackluster i think mainly because the manga is broken up into 4-block chapters which makes it a bit hard to follow at times or just not enough substance there.[/quote]

They aren't really chapters. They could only really be considered chapters if a 3-panel Garfield or a 4-panel Dilbert strip can be considered "chapters".

[ice-kitsune]

it all really depends on how the characters look. some would look better in the manga. while others look better in the anime. though i prefer manga. (that's only cause i get the ones with the good looking characters) i like the manga cause then i can draw them right off the bat, unlike animes which you don't have it there with you any time. Besides you've got all those pictures to drool over. anime is fun too but you can't really draw from just casting one look at the characters.

[VP-Master]

For me, I usually watch the anime for a series first just to see how it is and whether it's something I would like. After finding an anime i really like, I tend to go back to read the manga from the beginning and see any plot I missed, some of the content that wasn't included in the anime and the likes. I like going through a series in both anime and manga form because they're two different approaches to the series and it's fun to see the differences and similarities between the two.
I also go to the manga when the anime doesn't go in major arcs of the manga story. For example with Kenshin, I had to go read the Jinchu Arc of the manga after I found out it didn't come out for the anime. Shame it was never animated but I'm happy it was available in the manga format. So yeah, both anime and manga are good stuff!