Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Read the manga, then watch the anime?

We've had a few articles on the blog about anime that's based off of manga, as many of the features are.  It seems to be the standard level of progression for a popular manga in Japan.  You know you've really made it as a manga creator if your series gets optioned for an anime adaptation!  Then it's on to even bigger and more popular things, like movies and localizations!

That's jumping the gun a bit though.  I'm looking to talk about both manga and anime due to a situation that I'm having.  If you saw our recent post about the Blue Exorcist manga, you know I'm in a bit of an interesting situation.  I wasn't expecting my girlfriend to go out and pick up the Blue Exorcist manga, and now I have to decide when I should actually read the series.

I had intentions of letting the anime adaptation come out stateside and watching that all the way through.  Then if I liked the series enough, I'd read the manga that it was based off of.  It's always interesting to see how adaptations go when moving from print to animation.  Obviously some things have to be cut and tweaked along the way, but sometimes it's quite surprising to see just how much changed in the process.

Now with Blue Exorcist, I'm questioning what I should do first.  I usually watch the anime and then read the manga if I like the anime enough.  Technically I should be reading the manga and then watching the anime if the manga interested me!  What do you guys do with manga to anime adaptations?  Do you read and then watch, watch and then read, or just do one?

8 comments:

  1. The only series I read then watched would be Hayate the Combat Butler. Other then that exception, I always watch the anime first simply because collecting manga, especially ongoing manga, is more of a commitment then purchasing a single anime series.

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  2. yea, i agree not only being a better commitment time and energy wise, it also can cost way more to read a manga, if you buy them, around 5 bucks a pop, and there can 10+, if not more. thats alot. unless you use the internet, but reading on a screen is not as good.

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  3. I always try to go with the original. So for Neon Genesis Evangelion, I watched the anime, but for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, I prefer the manga.

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  4. In the case of Ao no Exorcist, the anime and the manga are already splitting storyline wise. They made the anime waaaaaaaay too soon, while the manga is still relatively new. So it really doesn't matter which you look at first.

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  5. im reading the manga and watching the anime with Bleach

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  6. Well it depends on what comes first. If the manga came first, then watch the anime. If the anime came first, then read the manga.

    You may be like, what? That doesn't make any sense. Well it does to me. Usually the respected adaption cuts some corners along the way and it's best to see the gypped version because you don't realize it's gypped, then when you see the better version, you will be like wow it's even better.

    It's a win win.

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  7. Read manga online for free at http://www.readmanga.asia/

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  8. read and watch at the same time but the only time i didn't read the manga was because i was to deep into it and forgot/ didn't know there was a manga for it. hahaha and once i did found out i want and read it but it was like i was re-watching it all over again and i dont really like watching then reading. i wait a few months if i watched the anime and forgot to read. like i did for shuro chara. haha

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